School Gatherings
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Tuesday Talks
- Tim Annick '12
- Vanessa Lizarraga '12 & Nader Batal '12
- Cody Hamilton '12
- Jose Esqueda '12
- Lela Puckett '12
- Kel Mitchel '12
- Avery Schwartz '12
- Taylor Chatman '12
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- Sarah Cohen '12 & Emma Birrell '12
- Lisa Huang '12 & Megan Cunnane
- Miles Barney '12
- Daniel Mock '12
- Alissa Jared '12
- Adam Werksman '12
- Catherine Thornber '12
- Sierra Trees '12 & Emily Nguyen '12
- Ian Keneally '12
- Annie Weis '12 & Erin Griffin '12
- Charlotte Bowles '12
- Scott Sinclair '12
- Faith Donaldson '12 & Sarah Griffin '12
- Jacob Winnikoff '12
- Michael Warren '12
- Fernando Hurtado '12
- Stephanie Flores '12 & Stephanie Duong '12
- Pom Bunsermvicha '12
- Taylor Erling '12
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Tuesday Talk
September 6, 2011
Tim Annick '12
To listen to Tim's Tuesday Talk - click the play button...
If you were to mug me on any given day, you would most likely be severely disappointed with what you would find; today, my pockets contain a piece of lint, a stick of chap stick, and two toy cars. The first is my staple, 1957 Cadillac Eldorado. I find it to be one of the most beautiful cars ever made, a relic of the Atomic Age. I also have added a 1955 Lincoln Futura for today, because public speaking makes me nervous. It is a recent addition to my collection, courtesy of an irresistible deal on eBay. This Lincoln was later modified to become the original 1966 Batmobile. With these cars, my pocket is my personal garage.
In case you weren’t aware, I love cars, everything from the Ford Model T to the Smart car concept announced this weekend. They are my passion. I have somewhere around 400 Hot Wheels, around 40 car books, and I read four car blogs daily. Since I can’t collect full-size cars, I collect Hot Wheels. I carry at least one toy car that reflects my mood in my pocket at all times.
Rewind twelve years to the start of Kindergarten. I was the only kid who could tell you what a Duesenberg was. Even before I could read, I could identify every car I saw on the road. The only movies I really watched were my four-volume set of VHS tapes that chronicled the entire history of the automobile from the 1886 Benz Patent Motorwagen all the way up to what was then the modern day. Every day after school, I would dig out little roads in the dirt to drive my cars through before it got dark and dinner was ready. As I grew up, it became increasingly less socially acceptable to bring my toy cars along with me.
Now, I’m a teenager, and, frankly, it doesn’t feel cool to be 17 and still love toy cars. In fact, I feel slightly humiliated when I show someone what car has made my pocket into a garage that day. As you can imagine, I rarely talk about this side of myself.
But when you love something enough, it’s always a surprise to see how influential it will end up being in your life. For me, it happened this past summer. I pursued an internship at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Some people have their used record stores, some have their sports stadiums, and some have their favorite department store; I have the Petersen.
For those of you who don’t know what that is, the Petersen Automotive Museum was founded by Robert E. Petersen, the publishing magnate responsible for magazines like Guns & Ammo, Tiger Beat, and Motor Trend. Mr. Petersen was a car guy, and his museum is full of car people! For the first time in my life, I wasn’t the biggest car geek in the room. Mr. Kendall, the curator, can identify and discuss in great detail every single car you can think of. Brian, the exhibit designer, could tell you what was wrong with a car’s engine just by listening to it. The museum’s director even owns an old Ferrari. The entire office was just covered in pictures, models, and paintings of cars. Their collection has everything. Even the car Elvis Presley shot four times when it wouldn’t start is on display. For the first time in my life, I was in a place where I could discuss the merits of different cars, and receive full understanding, instead of the usual blank stare and disinterested “Uh huh.” It was a revelation that there were people whose car knowledge made me look like a J.K. Rowling fan that had never heard of A Very Potter Musical. I got to spend every day researching, writing, and reading about my favorite thing in the world—if that’s not a dream job, I don’t know what is!
Before this summer, I thought that cars were just some idiosyncratic fascination I had. As it turns out, it really isn’t quite as peculiar as I had thought—there are tons and tons of other people who love cars just as much as I do. Before this summer, I would have just told you cars were a hobby, something I loved to read about when I got the opportunity. Everybody has one of these peculiar hobbies. It’s human nature to be obsessive about something. Today, I am telling you that I live and breath everything automotive. I used to think that it was immature and kooky that I carried a toy car around with me, but I love cars. They’re awesome. I am so glad that I didn’t let anybody tell me any differently. If your passion is jamming to Taylor Swift on your guitar, watching ‘80s vampire movies, playing video games, or cinematography, pursue it!
We all have our inner geek—I’m a car guy. So I’m curious… Who is yours?