At one point in history buying a car meant something.

In some areas a whole block of people would pool their resources to buy a single car, there was no trucks available, and they would do maintenance and repairs themselves. Once or twice a week runs would be made with the car to purchase whatever was needed by the block. Occasionally it was used for appointments or special events but since fuel/petrol was very expensive and hard to come buy not so much.

There was also ...friction... between nations so buying anything not made in that nation was almost, but not quite, illegal. Most times it was made much more locally than that.

When you look at cars, especially old cars that have survived, there is a history to each one.

As the years progressed more and cheaper cars became available. So instead of one car per block there might be three cars. Petrol/fuel was more and more common. Cars started to be used daily and people moved out of the neighboorhood for purchases and whatnot.

By the 1930's there was almost a car per house, almost. People would drive longer distances for purchases and use car for work. Trucks were available and used by businesses now.

A businessman's coupe became available for door to door salesmen and other higher profile people.

War broke out. Amids bombings and destruction, inovations caused made vehicles designs alter to suit needs of people at the time.

By 1950 there was a car and half per household on a city block. Not many people had new cars but they had at least one good working car. Some had two. People also started to really get into the pleasure boating craze.

At the start of 1960 it was almost expected that everyone would have a car to use everyday to go to and from work. Used cars started to lay around and gather dust, pests, and other debris before becoming junk or forgotten.

The 60's was a big time for cars. Lots were sold and regular trucks became available for everyone to use. The dodge power wagon, which was a civilian equivalent of the wwII fourwheel drive was still being sold and used quite a bit. The civilian jeep also became available(cj). While there was trucks available in the 50's not a lot of people, except farmers, bought them.

Up until the 1970s people drove cars for the simple pleasure of driving around and seeing new things, stopping to camp or look around, or just drive period.

The 1970s introduced new regulations on cars and there was a fuel shortage that put many, even new low milage cars, into fields parked left to rust and rot away. Mass transit, which had been slowly dying, if not removed completely, became popular again.

More and more regulations, and buying of cheaper cars from oversea's, continued into the 1990s. Suddenly those cheap oversea cars became expensive. People, for whatever reason, believed that made them valuble and would only drive a car for a few years before selling it to get another one. Some places have multiple cars being used. Plus they take mass transit.

Today there is video stories available where you can see people had, at one point, built garages for their cars. The garage was quite well built but over time the cars and the garage was forgotten and overgrowth almost hid them from view.

It is sad really to see that most people just take their cars for granted and drive whatever the heck is available. They don't really care what they buy or where its made. "well car magazine says..." yeah whatever, that is one persons opinion.

In my area, for example, dodge cars and trucks probably outnumber the other manufacturers on the road. Other provinces it is, so im told, almost hard to find a dodge truck. Which is kinda funny really when dodge trucks were some of the first available for consumers that were good. Note dodge brothers at the time, ford model t was produced but it was not actually a truck. The box was built by consumer making them one.

I see all these old cars that tell their stories, I see people blindly buying new vehicles that pretty much send money outside of canada in large amounts.

These same people then complain about how poor we are, and I look at them all and just shake my head.

I drive my 1985 car, while it doesn't have heated seats or fancy electronic computer gizmo's, it gets good gas mileage, I can repair it myself, and it gives me dam good heat in winter while keeping me cool in summer.

Really what more do I need? I care for my car and yes sometimes just drive it because I enjoy doing so. There is "ruins" of places that used to be back when people cared about cars and I can see evidence of what used to be.

There is towns that just died out over the years. Some that are dying. And some that time has erased completely. A friend showed me where his hometown once stood. About five hundred people with stores, gas stations, houses and stuff used to be there. There is only a church now. Another friend told me how this one small town used to have thousands of people, with multiple hotels, stores, stations, railway station.

All that history gone in my lifetime with no records. Just memories of people, some of which are dead or dying right now.

People want to travel to see sights in different countries, provinces, states. I am partway through my fourties and I still find new, and interesting things, in my small province of Manitoba. Be it cars, ships, boats, trains, or places and people. Every year there is something new. I may not live to see all of it.

Next time you are bored or think you have seen everything, look again. Just in your neighboorhood you can find or imagine what it used to be like back in those old days.