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Does this happen to you?

aeronca65t

Great Pumpkin
Offline
Last week we had several couples from church over for dinner. Since it was raining I had them leave through the garage (shorter walk to car).
One of the ladies saw my Super 7 and said it reminded her of her Dad's MG-TD. At which point she told me she learnt to drive in her Dad's ALFA. She drove a number of her father's other British cars too. We had a fun chat. My wife and my mother-in-law have known this lady for ages, but never knew she was a "car person".

The previous week, Linda had the local woman's club meeting at our house for a meeting. One of the gals saw our MGB and commented that an old boyfriend taught her to drive a stickshift in an MGB.

Today I spent some time in our local hospital operating room to have a large cyst removed from my neck (I'm sore but fine).
The prep nurse, who was approximately my age, saw my rough hands and asked if I work with my hands. I told her I spend a fair amount of time working on old cars. She ask,"What kind of cars?" I say, "Old British cars." Turns out she also learned to drive in her Dad's ALFA and went on to buy an Austin-Healey 3000. She'd also been to Watkins Glen (including the heyday of The Bog) as well as Lime Rock. Later, in the 70s she bought her own ALFA GTV. She and her husband ran autocrosses and road rallies in it. Her brother still has it.
Linda was sitting next to me, laughing and said "Whenever people talk to you, the topic *always* seems to turn to British sports cars!"

Last year, my foot doctor got chatting with me and asked what I did in the summer? This lead into conversation about my vintage racing. At which point he told me he had always wanted a real sports car (but didn't want to "be like all the other doctors" and buy a Porsche). Since he's Italian, I told him he should buy a nice, vintage ALFA Spider. I even suggested a few places for him to look. And he didn't waste any time....on my next visit, he had bought one!

Funny to run into car people in unexpected places.
 
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Nice story's Nial, I enjoy those kind of reflections on the past. :encouragement: PJ
 
I have had similar - though slightly more mundane (ie. not as much racing and more american iron) - I suspect it is partly car people - and a lot being the kind of person that is interested in others and easier to talk to. In other words, it likely says more about you than them - (and that is a nice thing)
 
- I suspect it is partly car people - and a lot being the kind of person that is interested in others and easier to talk to. In other words, it likely says more about you than them - (and that is a nice thing)


Agreed, it's him; I personally hate doing that and those conversations for me are very short. Believe it or not, that's the absolute last thing I want to talk about.
 
I always allow extra time for a journey for those car conversations that happen anywhere you stop in a "real" car. Once I stopped at a petrol station to get some fuel I was approached by a man who asked about the model of the car. I thought "ah a fan" until he said "I once was driven from Norfolk to Devon in the back of one of those, it was ****."
 
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