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Tail Lights: The Constant Search Publisher: The Crittenden Automotive Library Byline: Bill Crittenden Date: 8 April 2023 |
 My 2017 Kia Soul, base model. The best affordable basic transportation on the market, it's the car I usually use in my search for automobile history. |
Sometimes the right thing just finds its way into my hands at the right time.
Most of the month of March has been spent trying to find a new normal after the loss of John. And part of that involves starting to clear out his basement.
There aren't a whole lot of people who hang on to compact car brochures and those free car classified papers from the gas station. It's not like collecting baseball cards...although John had a huge collection of NASCAR cards, too.
But it's not like more popular hobbies where there are enough people in a small enough geographic area to have meetings. Collectors of books & magazines & literature tend to hang around the margins of other automotive hobby gatherings. I've found a few book vendors at real car swap meets & car shows, some folks selling old magazines at model car swap meets, but the majority of my books have come from library book sales, used bookstore clearance sections, and thrift shops where "car guys" aren't their usual customer.
I suppose most folks would rather collect real cars if they had the money. Of course the guys with real cars tend to have a full bookshelf or two, Jay Leno has an impressive collection of literature, and most professional museums have a library of some sort. But overall it's still a sideshow to the main hobby.
John had a few real ones in his lifetime. In his later years when I knew him, he had a baby blue 1976 Oldsmobile Delta 88 convertible that he drove in the 4th of July parade, and then an Intimidator Edition Monte Carlo that he sold at a Mecum auction where I had a press pass. That was a memorable night.
At the end of this month of upheaval, I found myself taking the minivan to Ikea, which also meant a trip to an out-of-the-way Half Price Books on the way home.
After checking the clearance section, while waiting out a storm, I found a copy of the 1982 book The Constant Search: Collecting Motoring and Motorcycling Books by Charles Mortimer. It features a man, presumably the author, in a very early 80s room with dark wood bookcases and some kind of brown liquor on a table, with very 1980s clothes and hair, reading a book. A flip through the pages shows an index of automotive publishing history with color images of covers.
This book had to come home with me. Aside from being useful in building the new Bibliography pages, I think Mr. Mortimer would appreciate where it ended up.
So far I haven't had the time to do more than flip through it a little, but the title fits perfectly. I do find random odd bits of things to collect because I'm always looking, and even if they have zero financial value then maybe someday they'll have some value to historians or casual browsers of vintage ephemera.
At a trip to the hospital I've picked up a brochure about retraining people for driving again after an injury. I promised myself I wasn't going to make a trip to a hockey game into a trip about cars, but I found a Tesla charger's installation instructions blowing across a parking lot. Every trip out of town that takes me past a Half Price Books I haven't been to recently involves a check of the clearance section if I have the time. Library book sales are a good excuse to go for a ride on a sunny Saturday morning.
I even grabbed a copy of Illinois Auto & RV from the stand at the restaurant as we were leaving John's celebration of life.
Yeah, I suppose I could find most of the books on Amazon or eBay, but that's not only really expensive for a guy whose day job still describes his position as "entry level," but it takes most of the fun out of it. I have books I never would have guessed existed had I not stumbled across them, I've acquired some very expensive books very cheaply, and it's given me reasons to go for a drive.
Sure, those Saturday morning drives would be more fun in a 1968 Pontiac Firebird, but even if I could afford one I don't have a place to park it. I do have a really big basement, though. And my base model Kia Soul is comfortable, reliable, and has Bluetooth.
And the book was a timely reminder that even though we are few, we are important. Archives from the car hobby end up overlapping with labor history (the UAW), military history (WWII production), business history (Tucker), and art history (Raymond Leowy). Documentation can ensure the accuracy of Hollywood productions when the director cares to reference the material (Disney/Pixar's Cars), and point out the inaccuracies when they don't (Ford v Ferrari).
Again the news of the day reminds me that maybe there was a more important part of history I should have been preserving, but I have a feeling that I'd spend most of my time doing that last thing, pointing out inaccuracies to people who don't care to reference the past before repeating it. Plus, I really enjoy this topic and I wouldn't know what to do with John's extensive collection if I weren't already in the same hobby. Everybody has their niche and this is the one I'm most comfortable and useful in.
Still, it would be nice to have a more fun car to do book sale runs in. The Kia Soul is great basic transportation, it's just...not exciting to drive. And it doesn't have a sunroof.
But the search goes on...
629.2
The Dewey Decimal System's designation for automobiles falls within the 629.2 range. This section is about Library Owner Bill Crittenden's personal collection of books, magazines, and miscellaneous papers, much of which is available for reference if it's not directly available on CarsAndRacingStuff.com.
As mentioned in the main topic, I've inherited a bit of John Walczak's collection of books and magazines and cards and brochures. There have been so many new addictions to the Offline Physical Collection not only from John's collection but from other bookstore trips brought about by a sense of urgency about enjoying the time I have left in this world. My sights are set on 1,000 books, and once that's achieved 1,000 different books.
I say that because if a hardcover is $1-2, I'll get a duplicate. I'm not yet sure what I'll do with it, but I don't want to regret not having them if I ever come across a reason to need them.
Plus all the hardcovers lined up look really cool!
In my little flip through The Constant Search, the book also has what looks like lists of books published as well as images of covers. This will help expand my barely-started Bibliography project. There's one test page and one short official page online, so I'm not quite ready to show that off. Maybe in a few months.
History Beyond the Bumpers
The Crittenden Automotive Library includes information from all aspects of automotive transportation and competition. This section highlights interesting topics related to automobiles other than vehicles themselves.
Well, I can't really top today's main topic for this segment. It doesn't get more meta than a book, about constantly searching for & collecting car books, being added to a collection of car books after finding it in a used bookstore because I stop in a Half Price Books almost every time I pass one.
I guess that's where our contributions to automotive history will end up: in the metadata.
Well, I have my name on The Crittenden Automotive Library, but for those who contribute without running their own website by posting to The Internet Archive or Wikipedia or Flickr, their names are in the metadata.
But photographers and authors and collectors are still so important to the preservation of history. That's why I've been dedicated to giving every one of them that has a picture or article in the Library their own Topic Page on the People Index so that they can be found and appreciated.
Maybe only someone who shares the same last name will browse into their page out of curiosity, but that's all it takes to make creating the page worthwhile. Because I'd like to be remembered, too, so I'm trying to set a new standard. Y'know, in case I never get around to writing a book about collecting car books.
Mile Markers
Online Collection: Another 0.07% increase for the articles and a dozen images is literally all I had time to get online in the month of March. It was one of my busiest months ever for Library work, but almost nothing was at my desk on the computer.
Offline Physical Collection: Again programs has the biggest boost with 44.68% increase to 68 total, which is still low enough that every contribution counts for a lot. Books had an 8.13% increase to 931 total. Closing in on that first thousand!
Offline Digital Collection: Nothing was added to the Offline Digital Collection in March. Sorry.
About The Crittenden Automotive Library
The Crittenden Automotive Library @ CarsAndRacingStuff.com, based in Woodstock, Illinois, is an online collection of information relating to not only cars, trucks, and motorcycles, but also the roads they drive on, the races they compete in, cultural works based on them, government regulation of them, and the people who design, build, and drive them. We are dedicated to the preservation and free distribution of information relating to all types of cars and road-going vehicles for those seeking the greater understanding of these very important elements of modern society, how automobiles have affected how people live around the world, or for the general study of automotive history and anthropology. In addition to the historical knowledge, we preserve current events for future generations.
The Library currently consists of over 868,000 pages of books, periodicals, and documents, over 54,700 individual articles, more than 18 days of video & 24 days of audio, more than 36,100 photographs & other images, and offline reference materials including 930 book volumes, over 1,200 magazines, and thousands of advertising brochures & documents.