Chiaroscuro Cars

 

chiaroscuro - noun - use of strong contrasts between light and dark in fine art (Google).

On December 12th, I'll turn 63, a number that entitles me to reflect back on the past and compare it to the present every now and then. Call it a nostalgic impulse, if you need to; but sometimes I, like many of my generation, stand back and notice the small things that have changed over the years. I can't help myself. Cars are in that category. Yes, automobiles. As a child, I possessed the rare talent of being able to identify the make and model of every car in the parking lot sans the ability to read the insignias, most likely because there was a degree of uniqueness to each, unlike today. To me, all of the autos, mainly SUVs, look almost exactly alike. And it doesn't help that most of their manufacturers indulge in chiaroscuro coloration when spray painting their creations' bodies either. Most are painted black, white, or some muted tone that lacks personality or fun. 

Last Saturday, my daughter and I returned to a ski shop on Route 1 and 9 to purchase new ski boots for an upcoming jaunt out to Vail. Three years prior, my daughter had bought skis from the same shop and knew that if we returned and found boots, the management would adjust the bindings at no cost. Oddly enough, I remembered waiting out in front of the shop for my daughter who was completing the transaction, just watching the cars pass by on the highway, noticing their repetitive drabness. Fast forwarding to last weekend, the deja vu hit me when I figured out I was standing in the same spot, doing the same thing, and coming to the same conclusion: all cars–and perhaps the people in them–are group conformists.  

When it comes to autos and even pick-up trucks, gone is the romance that was once so divine. Not only do I miss all of the bodily configurations, I miss the colors: canary yellow, like my dad's petite Chevy Vega from the late seventies; fern green, like his sleek Buick Skylark from the same decade; azure blue, topaz, purple, vermillion, orange, and yes, even pink. All of the colors of the rainbow that had once undulated at 60 mph down the Garden State Parkway and thoroughfares like it in the heat of summer are now, for the most part, no longer present. 

What happened to these steel moving colors? Why are they now a rarity on the roadways of the U.S.? Is it because we are starting to lose our own uniqueness, our own individual color, that they have gone the way of the Oldsmobile and Pontiac? Are we conforming to the status quo because it just takes too much effort to stand out in a crowd? Or are we just complacent, fearful of making waves? If the answer to the final three of these questions is yes, no wonder the car manufacturers don't give us much of a choice in terms of models and colors. Why should they when we might not even care?

I don't know about you, but I'm hoping when we are all forced to buy electric cars someday soon, they will be available in magenta, crimson, midnight blue, etc., as well as the chiaroscuro white and black. If so, then finally we will be free from the dull drums if only on the roads that take us where we want to go. 

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