Wa-wa, little GTO

Well, the Pontiac is no more. At 84, the plug was pulled on October 31st, when GM’s deals with Pontiac dealers died. Nary a whisper about death panels, but there you have it.

We were a Ford family, so other than listening to Ronnie and the Daytonas and their nasally tune, Little GTO, which celebrated the classic 1960’s Pontiac muscle car, I know nothing about the line.  Still it’s another reminder that the world we live in is not your father’s Oldsmobile.

The NY Times wrote the obituary. You can see it here.

The best line in it came from Tim Dye, a fellow in Oklahoma:

…who owns 21 Pontiacs from various eras and a huge collection of Pontiac memorabilia — started with a bottle of GTO cologne from his uncle — that he had assembled over more than 30 years.

Dye’s collection fills his home, and two other buildings on his property.  He’s winding down his collection, and blowing it out to a museum in Pontiac, Illinois.  It doesn’t mention the museum by name, but how many museums can there be in Pontiac, Illinois? So I’m guessing it’s the Route 66 Association Hall of Fame and Museum.

Tim Dye must think so, too. As he uttered in my favorite in the article:

“I can’t think of anything better to do than just visit with people about Pontiac every day,” he said.

Well, chacun à son goût, and all that, but  why not get your kicks on Route 66?

And it did get me thinking about how much simpler life would be if we all had a special thing that we couldn’t think of anything better to do than. And, of course, if we were actually able to go ahead and do it.

Obviously, mine wouldn’t be visiting with people about Pontiac every day. But just what might my “can’t think of anything better” be?

Hard to pick just one, but I can honestly say that not a darned one of them involves work. 

Mostly they’re about a) hanging out with family and friends, talking about things other than Pontiacs which, as far as I can recall, have never once cup up in conversation; b) being in Paris or Ireland; c) reading a good book (extra points for reading it while a blizzard is raging  just outside the window).  And, oh yeah, d) writing my daily Pink Slip post.

Gonna turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO. (Wa-wa, little GTO…)