Walking through Old Car City an International Harvester pickup sat thinking of glorious days long past...and I thought of shifting my first gears at the age of 7 or so...

See we once had a 1970 Scout, made by IH. It was the fancy model with dual gas tanks and a four speed manual transmssion. It ran on anything according to my Dad. It was pretty smooth going to school down Poverty Lane (yes there is such a road in West Lebanon, N.H.) It was so smooth in fact that my Dad could drink his coffee in an open cup while changing gears!

I know you are now asking how do you drink coffee nicely when you are driving a stick shift? Well that is of course easy when you deploy your optional automatic child transmission to shift on command. I think my Dad was WAY ahead of his time. I mean this transmission was voice activated! "Second! Third! Fourth!...slowing down now Four, Three, Two.......stop...First!" Google car eat your heart out!

I was the proudest second grader on the planet when I got to school. Not only was my Dad the ONLY Army officer in the state, the only one to understand how to build a Army standard bunker...but I was the ONLY child shifting gears of an automobile!

-ehw

P.S. As for the image this is my first image in the Fall Collection. After reading the HDR Book by RC (www.aboutRC.com) I went back to work on several older photos. Using new ideas, tools and skills many images found themselves re-invented...and much improved. That is the beauty of digital and art...it can grow with you if you challenge yourself from time to time to not live on your laurels. This will be available for purchase on 12x12 metallic floating mount for $115 by the end of the week. Larger sizes available on request...I promise you will not be disappointed..Why later? I am awaiting the proof copy right now to make sure it is just the way I want it!