Parking Lot of Gold!

I drove a 1976 Pontiac Trans-Am to South High in the mid-80s. It was the last of the muscle cars, a varity of which at that time lined the Titan parking lot. It seemed everywhere you looked back in the ’80s, everyone had a late ’60s or early ’70s hot rod.

Most were rusted out. If we’d known they would pull some of the dollars they are these days, we probably would have locked them in the garage and never driven them. The parking lot was full of gold. We didn’t realize the value of the ’69 Chevelle or the ’67 GTO or even the early-70s Cuda.

What we did know was a graphic artist named Eric Leschuk who could make a pretty cool license plate in design class. That year, I asked my dad for $10 and bought one of Leschuk’s plates that read "South High Car Club."

We weren’t really a club – not if you don’t consider grouping together in a parking lot on south Seneca or a side street off Douglas a club. We weren’t even close friends or guys that hung out together at school. But we did each have the license plate that tied us together.

Walking around school everyday, guys in the club would see each other and communicate using “cool code” in place of words. You’d give a head nod in the hallway or a thumbs up when you saw them out cruisin’ around. We had a bond that was nothing more than a piece of plastic on the front of our cars, but that plastic gave a sense of pride and respect to a group of guys who maybe didn’t get it otherwise.   

Today some of those same guys still own their old muscle cars and display them for the public on a more professional level. No longer kids, these men now call their hot rods “Classics”.

I’ve long since lost my car club license plate and any of the friendships that were developed because of it. In fact, these days I’m a sellout, as I drive a Lincoln LS – a far cry from a ’76 TA with a 400 engine and a mega-shifter.

Somehow that car I bought for just over a thousand bucks back then is today worth about twice as much as I paid for my newer Lincoln. How did this happen?

For the record, to this day I'm on the lookout for an old Pontiac Firebird – or something I can rebuild and park in the garage and only drive to shows. I’d probably lose it if the car came with one of the license plates.