Auburn!

(Website for the museum HERE, if you want factual detail on where I was this weekend.)

Two years ago, the husbeast and his father took a weekend and bopped off to Auburn, Indiana, to visit a classic car festival. It centers around the cars that were manufactured there between 1900 and 1937, Auburns, Cords, and Deusenbergs. This left me mildly to greatly enraged, because I'd grown up on Duesenbergs with my dad, and I really wanted to see where they'd been made. Apparently I made enough of a scene that the hub and his dad planned another trip, almost entirely centered around showing me the festival.

That's what we did. We dropped the Goob with my MIL, and the husbeast and my FIL and I all took off for Indiana in the husbeast's new Cadillac.

It may seem strange for me to be interested in cars (though I'm fascinated by mechanics and technology, so maybe not). But, really, I explain it like this: It's Art Deco on wheels.

Even the building is Deco - it's the original show room they had attached to the factory.

I got earrings based on the detailing on the light fixtures.

Inspiration abounded. Because really, as knitters, when you see this, what do you think?

Doesn't this say "twisted stitch pattern" to you? I've got something in mind for Christmas, I think.

All the owners do a parade sort of thing, the local marching band marches, they drive, it's fun. The ones who put on period costume I really appreciated. Toward the end of the parade, there was a couple in costume, driving a car covered in wonderfully hand made signs saying "GET OUT AND VOTE", managing to be timely and stay in spirit at the same time. On the back of there car was another sign, "TEDDY ROOSEVELT FOR PRESIDENT". Another had a pro-Herbert Hoover sign on his. (Was anyone really ever pro Hoover, back in the day? I thought he was one of the most hated presidents in history. Maybe it was meant as a joke to the five people there who knew enough about history to get it?) Sadly, by the time the 'get out and vote' car showed up, my phone battery was dead from taking pictures. But I did yell "BULL MOOSE PARTY!" and the driver laughed, so that's something.

Another fun thing, especially from the art/design and history perspective, was a truck they had at the museum for the weekend:

Back in the fifties, General Motors built twelve of these. They are very specialized trucks. They were taken on a tour of the country, doing a presentation called "The World of Tomorrow". (For the geeks of the world, I'm 110% sure this is what the Stark Expo of comic and movie fame was based on.) The trucks are enormous, and had stalks of lights that rose out of the roof for night time visitors. The sides opened up and they discussed technology and progress and how awesome General Motors was. Being me, though? What really blew my mind? The styling. See the really obvious Art Deco detail, with the silver band around the bottom, the solid cream color, the rounded edges? SORTA LIKE THIS?

IT WAS RETRO WHEN IT WAS BUILT. Meant to hark back to the roaring twenties, after the war, remind people of the fun of peace time. Retro. Seventy years ago. Seventy. Years. Old. Retro. (Oh, and incidentally? One of those trucks sold at auction a couple years ago for four million smackeroos.)

After that, we headed out to a car auction, where they were selling cool cars of all ages and nationalities. We wandered around, ate chocolate ice cream, and saw all sorts of things we said we should mortgage my FIL's house to buy.

Look! It's Mister The King!

(200 Geek Bonus Points if you get the joke.)

Then we went to a bar for a drink.

Even the regular buildings are cool in Auburn.

Now I'm home, and my feet hurt, and the cat's mad at me.

Best thing of the whole weekend? I toured two - TWO - museums and didn't have to say "QUIT TOUCHING THAT!" once.