History is full of revolutionary and innovative engineering projects, from the world’s most powerful locomotives to a little SUV that became a global sensation. Many of these vehicles and projects eventually end up erased.
David wrote about how the original administrative building at American Bantam burned to the ground, taking tons of history with it. It’s just one part of Jeep history that’s fading away. Max Headbolts gives us a sad dose of reality for the first COTD win:
One person’s priceless is another person’s garbage. While I understand the sentiment, we as a society would go mad if we tried to save EVERYTHING.
I’m currently struggling with this on a personal level. I have a decade of drawings, clippings and schoolwork for my two kids. How much of that is just trash that needs to be returned to the earth, and how much should I keep as precious? I’m still struggling to sort that and for now, they hide in boxes in a closet. I’m not ready to archive that stuff just yet.
ChefCJ has a great outlook:
The past gives way to the future. Old buildings that once housed great things become the caskets of those ideas and passions. As sad as it is, this is simply the way of the world
I say this as someone who just cleaned out my uncle’s disgusting and dilapidated house after his passing and found paintings and drawings my aunt created that haven’t seen the light of day in more than 30 years. I’m taking these things and trying to give her a second life, to keep her from being forgotten, but I also know that time is undefeated in it’s erasure of precious things. It’s terrible that so much is lost and thrown away and forgotten, but forward progress forces so many of us to forget the past so we can keep moving, and it’s usually only when it’s too late that we realize its importance.
Finally, on Friday, Matt wrote a Members Only Tales From The Slack about my patent-pending insanity. Kevin Rhodes made me smile:
If you go fast enough, what’s behind you no longer matters, right?
Mercedes is a treasure. Though I feel she is merely mid-pack of the inmates running this particular asylum.
See also, Grey alien in a beige sedan:
I, for one, adore Mercedes (the person).
She helps the site maintain an entirely appropriate level of bonkers… above and beyond Torch’s own oddball proclivities.
Have a great evening, everyone!
Top graphic: Library of Congress
The post You Can’t Save All Of Transportation History: COTD appeared first on The Autopian.
