By Michael F. Carmichael
Feb. 2, 2012
Most of the time when U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visits Detroit it has something to do with pointing out that Washington’s investment in the automotive industry has paid off handsomely. Or, to promote inter-city high-speed rail or more local forms of light rail.
This past week LaHood came to nearby Dearborn, Mich. to celebrate the automotive industry and what it’s meant to Americans over the past hundred-plus years. He, along with William Clay Ford Jr., executive chairman of his great-grandfather’s company, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and some 600 guests (who paid $200 apiece for the privilege) attended the gala opening of a reinterpretation of the role of automobiles in our lives.
Why is that important?
There are about a quarter-billion cars around the country today. That’s almost one for each of us – including our youngest, and oldest, residents.
While it seems sometimes that most of them are in front of you and going about 10 miles under the speed limit with their left turn indicators flashing continuously, that’s only because you want to get from where you were to where you want to be – and for some reason you’re late.
In reality, most of those other cars are late as well, or lost or on their way to school or a soccer game – or parked somewhere.
Whatever they’re doing, wherever they are, cars, and their owners, have stories to tell.
That brings us to a storehouse of cars, and their stories.
The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, are collectively known as TheHenryFord – with the Museum built more than 70 years ago and the Village accumulated over time as Mr. Ford (everyone called him that and knew which “Mr. Ford” they were talking about) gathered homes of the famous and other historic buildings from their original locations across the country and placed them in one convenient spot in Dearborn.
The Museum featured collections of things that represented the way life was lived in America from early pioneer days until relatively recently. Because it was Mr. Ford who built it, there were a lot of cars in one area of the huge building with a bunch of them all lined up in what was called a ‘timeline’ – except that the timeline extended the wrong way. It started with 21st century cars.