So Pete's Mustang is coming to Britain. It's already had some work done on it. Nothing that amounts to 'doing it up' in readiness for concours. Just simple stuff, like a new 'tranny' or gearbox as we'd correctly say...allowing simple things like being able to reverse. And a bit of welding, so you can see less of the passing road. And now, 3 tyres match, but all have air. It's a 'runner', shall we say. Pete's kind of been in the market for a 'Stang' for a while. He's not overly discussed it.
Some of us knew, you know, that special man instinct that girls mistake for mind reading. We're not mind readers, but we know stuff that doesn't need discussing. Anyway, that interest bubbled over a few years back, and kind of spilled out into conscious thought and into the public arena in the form of visiting the American Classic Car Show at Tatton Park. We went along, all casual, not appearing too interested. There's plenty of people who are really interested. Perhaps overly so.
So Pete got talking to a few owners, asking questions. After a couple of hours of this, he comes up to me and announces that it's all over. There's a look on his face of a man scared. We need to leave, he says, walking off not looking back. Later, it seems, he had a premonition that one day, if he got a Stang, or indeed any other interest like this, he'd end up like them! It reminded me of this. There's moment and look on Paul Whitehouse's face when you know it's over. And with that, Pete said no more about it.
Until one day I got the first photo here, no words, just an understanding of what he'd done. Now able to talk about it, Pete's vowed one day we'll go back to Tatton with the Stang, having done nothing to it, sit on the bonnet with our hot cups of tea on the roof and field questions with absolute indifference and effective disinterest to any relevant details or useful knowledge about his car. Why? Not because we are arses or enjoy being obtuse and deliberately evasive.
But to protect those like us and not ruin or kill their inner passion from people who like to bang on about what floats their boat with just a little too much obsessive detail that rapidly breaches a threshold where my interest turns round and does a runner. I was reminded of this again today. Another classic car show. Again, you could smell the passion. Many were locked in articulated discussion, others just silent. I like my cars, but rarely discuss it. Same with my running.
If asked about my trainers, I'm more likely to reply 'red ones' than give you the full spec. The fact is, I probably don't know the full spec. And the last thing I want to do is bore someone with trivial details about something I get and something they probably don't. Pete gets it. And occasionally you meet someone else who gets it. A bond. And even then, it still doesn't need to be discussed and dissected. It's just something you get. Nothing else to add....he says writing yet another post vaguely about running, though mostly not!
