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May 30, 2008
If you want to be happy, collect something.
I was reminded of this during a visit the other day to Ray Chevalier who lives in Glocester. Photographer Steve Szydlowski and I went to interview him about his two outstanding Ford Falcons.
Mr. Chevalier has a blue 1963-1/2 Ford Falcon Futura Hardtop and a red 1965 Ford Falcon Ranchero which is truly a champion, having won a number of awards from the prestigious Antique Automobile Club of America.
But the Ranchero is a recent addition. He has had the Futura, which used to belong to his mother-in-law, for years, and the rear wall of his garage is lined with trophies he has won with the car - more than he can count, although he said his granddaughter claims there are 250. The award for the Ranchero were in the house.
Point is, Mr. Chevalier seems a happy man. “It’s what I do,” he said of his hobby. “Others play golf, I do this.”
It reminded me of the Rhode Island Hot Wheels Club expo that I wrote about last year. My interest in the assignment was spurred when I discovered during my research that a Hot Wheels purple VW bus with a yellow plastic surfboard – the Beach Bomb – had sold at auction for $72,000.
And when I got to the show, I was really impressed by everyone's enthusiasm. Grown men collecting toy cars? Yes, and happy men too.
It got me to thinking that many a psychotherapist’s couch could be vacated by patients who instead get out of themselves by taking up a hobby like collecting. Collecting anything. I write about people who collect cars, big and small, old and new, expensive and cheap. And they are for the most part very happy people.
Indeed, I am often asked about the best cars on the market for this-and-that budget, and while I have some knowledge of the car business, I often reply by saying that my knowledge is limited because I don’t so much write about cars as I write about the people who own them.
In short, I write love stories.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth 
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