Cars were Cars, but so much more.

When you walk down an urban side street today, and take a look at the parked cars, for the most part what one sees is a dreary sameness. Japanese, Korean, American German...almost all look similar, with no lines that stir the soul or accents that catch the eye. They are McDonald's cars purchased at a drive through window.

But the cars at the Newport Classic show screamed individuality. They said it was not only all right, but imperative to be your own person. Most of the exhibitors were from an era that remembers a time when we were not numbers in a computer, not spied upon by local, state and federal governments, but were allowed to have our own thoughts, speak them, and not have them braodcast across the internet to people that were not meant to hear them, judge them, and convict people in the court of public opinion.

Besides, they were fun. Set up in an era of drive-ins and not drive-throughs, drive-in movies to escape the family living room, and drag races on old country roads; the muscle car era was sheer screaming poetry.

Sure they ate gas. Sure they emitted carbons. Some were unsafe at any speed. But you could have one if you were low to upper middle class, and the exceptional auto haven was not just for the rich as it is today.

Today, Americans are fat and lazy. They are afraid to talk truly, and settle for political correctness above all else. Their cars are also politically correct, and compared to Goats and Bonnies and 442s they are fat, and lazy, too.

Cars were once the equalizers. Now, except for the outrageously expensive,  they are symbols of defeat for the human spirit.

When some of the cars were revving up their engines that Sunday in August,, the noise was deafening. And welcome.