Tuesday, November 29, 2005

I've been distracted


From October 25 until last week I was in New Jersey, alone, and away from my family. I got a lot accomplished at the cottage, and I got to spend time with some key authors and potential authors in New York and in Philadelphia. I spent two nights with my old friends Charlie & Judy in Montclair, the highlight of which was a luau/auction at the Unitarian Church where Charlie is pastor. On Saturday morning I drove back across northern Pennsylvania and Ohio to spend an evening in Detroit with Detroit Gail and her hubby, George. We sat in front of a roaring fire in their 1920s Tudor mansion, and I learned a lot about how the auto industry is beginning to employ the concept of personas into the early stages of automotive design. (Relevant beyond belief, because Personas is the subject of a book I've just signed.)

On Monday I drove down from Detroit to join my family in Indianapolis for Thanksgiving. That day was my birthday and I decided to treat myself to a visit to the Auburn/Cord/Dusenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana. (Don't judge the museum from its lame website.)

That stop was probably one of the most restorative things I could've done. It put me back in touch with all kinds of things: my Hoosier roots, my love of cars, my love of design and my infatuation with how the world might have been...

The museum totally captivated me; I could've spent two or three days there, especially if I they would've let me behind the wheels of those exquisite cars. It was a design moment. I was struck by the imaginative use of color on these automobiles. I was also reminded once again by how my home state is routinely dismissed by the coastal elites. Here they were, making the most advanced an elegant cars in the world in rural Indiana.

Do you doubt me? If so, take a look at the white Cord sedan presented in the late 30s at the New York Auto Show. Who else made white cars in the 1930s?

2 Comments:

At 1:44 PM, Blogger DetroitGirl said...

And don't forget the Avanti--Southbend--home of the most advanced styling in the world...Studebaker!

 
At 8:23 PM, Blogger Michael Nolan said...

You're right of course. The Studebakers were the best of all, becuase they were mainstream unlike the Cords & Deusenbergs. If anybody else is reading this, there's a wonderful Studebaker Museum in South Bend. In fact, my cousin Patti Doyle is consulting for them.

 

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