My buddies know better... I'm an over meticulous control freak with a system for doing everything, and a pet peeve of anyone getting in my way or in my space.

Used to be different long ago. The guys I learned from were all hard workers, no one drank, and either knew their stuff and were good at teaching younger ones, or they were the younger ones (like me almost 30 years ago) and knew enough to know where they could help and when they needed to learn. Sometimes four or five of us would meet at someones garage and knock out a bug project to get someones car back on the road or ready for a show. I miss those days sometimes, but I haven't come across people like that in a long time. Most people now either think they know everything, don't want to help others, or don't know anything and just throw money at their car instead of elbow grease and knowledge.

The ones I used to hang with... We got older and more responsibilities, went separate ways and the cars and car people just weren't as important as they were there for a while.

I think they cars themselves got less exciting too, compared to the rapid increases in horsepower that even less "muscular" cars started coming with from the factory. These old muscle cars used to be kings of the streets, now just about anything with a six speed and turbocharger can keep up off the showroom floor.

Damn...getting a little misty eyed so I'll shut up now.