Weekly Roundup: Grand-Dad's Eldorado Edition

This week I wrote briefly about my grandfather and his 1979 Eldorado Biarritz. The photo above is of a car sold by Charles Schmitt a while ago and it differs from the car of my childhood only in being a diesel instead of the fuel-injected 350 Olds fitted to my grandfather's Eldo.

The last time I saw him alive was in May of 2013. I was in Sebring to prepare for my trip to Malaysia but the young lady I was with agreed to go with me to Clearwater to check up the grandparents. We had a lovely afternoon. I don't think I appreciated it because I had my mind focused on the trip and the race to come. It didn't occur to me that I wouldn't have another chance to see my grandfather.

After the jump we have an old Bill Withers song that he wrote about his grandmother. The brilliance of it is that he focuses on her hands. As a small child you don't get much overall sense of the adults around you. It's the small things you notice, the aspects of their bodies and voices that filter down to your vantage place four feet above the ground. I think about my grandfather's skin: tanned, leathery, drawn loosely over veins and joints. By the time I was in my twenties, I started to recognize that skin on my father. Now there are times when I see it on myself. I'm about a decade younger than Granddad was when he bought his first Eldorado. If I believe that I will live as long as he did then I can truly say that I'm just middle-aged now.

I couldn't tell you what I had for dinner two nights ago but I can tell you exactly what it was like to ride to Clearwater Beach in that blue Eldorado. There are times that I like to sit and think about those years gone by. It's an addiction no less dangerous than any other. The obligations of the future won't forgive you for spending too much time in the past. Townes was right. It don't pay to think too much / on things you leave behind.

At R&T I discussed crossover nostalgia and the curious lack of ambition in the new VW Arteon.

For TTAC I considered used Cadillac purchases, took a look at what happens when you leave your van in San Francisco, and asked the readers about the best-managed heritage brand.

Brother Bark took you on a tour of disturbing practices in auto lending.

Do we have time for a few more shots of that Eldorado? Of course we do. Have a great weekend, everybody!