THE END OF THE GASOLINE AUTOMOBILE

According to what I've been seeing on TV and reading in newspapers, we have a situation where the folks in Washington are pushing as hard as they can for the end of the gasoline-powered automobile.

Things are changing so fast and so much taxpayer money is being thrown at making such changes, that it may not be too long before gas stations are a thing of the past. (I used to think that my Exxon-Mobile stock was my nest egg, but now I worry that it might be worthless very soon.)

They will probably send all of us and our gas-guzzling jalopies to Radiator Springs (the fictional town that the Interstate bypassed in the CARS cartoon movie). When we get there, we wil park our '32 Fords and '55 Chevys and Hemi 'Cudas forever and just sit around talking about how things used to be in the "good old days" when gas stations existed.

The strange thing is that, if all this comes through, we may find the collector prices rising on some of the very old cars that people rarely exhibit at car shows these days. So hold on to that Milburn Electric and that Stanley Steamer. If Washington has its way, non-gas-powered cars may be the only collectible cars still around. (Of course, we'll have to figure how to make a mileage tax meter work properly in a Doble steamer.)