57

I saw it today, a 1957 Thunderbird. It has always seemed to me that 1957 was the best year ever for car design. I can remember thinking in the early 70’s, that car designs had gotten generic. I can also remember thinking that maybe the newness of recent years just wasn’t there for me anymore. I was wrong in that; the designs had gotten redundant and boring. The years blended together after the 70’s, almost entirely; a bulge of the recognizable in the late 60’s, maybe another one in the mid 80’s, but I couldn’t tell you which year a car was during most any other period. Barely discernable are the decades, much less the year.
I can still see a 1957 Chevy acrossed a parkling lot, and a 1958. Its all the clamour for attention, so many champs you can’t tell one from the other; so many competitors that none stand out.
But today I saw it; despite all the brilliant sunsets reflected in the mud puddles, in spite of all the sprinklers running in the rain – a 57 T-Bird, reflecting portents for the future that maybe aren’t so drab after all.