Last Friday, I drove from Lake Geneva to Saint Charles. I didn’t drive there to measure the chocolate nature of the river there, or to admire the cute downtown. I drove there to fulfill a most American brand of desire; I drove there to shop. But this was window shopping of sorts, as the aisles and aisles of polished cars of all makes and vintage parked under tents at the Mecum auction were not technically on my shopping list, even if they were all over my radar. A few hours spent at an event like that and someone like me who lacks the means to actually purchase a collectible car does, for a moment or two, contemplate such a purchase even if it would likely result in financial ruin.
Speaking of financial ruin, this weekend Mecum will be at it again, brandishing their wares at the Abbey Resort as part of the three day International Antique and Classic Boat Show. The boat show will run Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Abbey Harbor, with the Mecum boat auction taking place Sunday morning at 10 am. I imagine this auction has something to do with the fine tastes of Mr. Mecum, who proves his discernment by owning a vacation home here. If the auction is anything like the car auction from last week, expect some of the 100 boats for sale to sell for eye popping prices, and others to sell so cheap that you’ll wish you had paid the $100 to register as a bidder before hand. I’ll be there, and I don’t plan on registering before hand, which should preemptively eliminate most of the risk of me blacking out and waking up sometime towards mid afternoon on Sunday with a bidder’s number around my neck and an unpayable invoice on my lap. But that’s me, and I’m just a Realtor, and you’re you, which means bidding might be a very good and very noble idea. I’ll be there to prod you along, assuming that the boat purchase won’t break the bank and further delay that vacation home purchase we keep talking about.
But the show this weekend is about more than the auction on Sunday, it’s about boats and blue water and crisp weather. It’s about varnished idols resting in slips, and the intoxicating smell of marine fuel mixed with grilled brats. It’s less a show and more a festival of all things wooden boat, and if you’re never been, this is the weekend to do so. And if you have been in the past, and the show hasn’t met your expectations, this one will, because it’s the international show and they’re promising at least 130 of the top classic boats from both the US and Canada. No word as to whether or not the Canadian boats will have any visible chips on their shoulders. USA, USA!
My father’s boat, the one pictured above, will not be at the show. It will be resting in the slip where it always rests, and it will be silent. In that picture up there, you’ll notice my dad driving it, with some of his cousins who are also his age sitting in the back seat. His cousins and I have something in common in that none of us are allowed to drive that boat. I remain, aged 33 and 4 long months, unable to drive that boat. I dread the day that my father dies, it will be the worst day of my life. But the day after he dies I will mourn from the wheel of that Chris Craft, this is a very morbid promise.
The secret about boat shows is similar to the secret about golf course real estate. You don’t have to play golf to enjoy living on a golf course, because who hates looking at beautifully manicured grass that isn’t yours to mow? In the same vein, who can hate looking at beautiful scenery painted mahogany and varnished to a mirror? Communists, that’s who. And since we are capitalists, we should go to the show and soak in the glory that is American wood powered by American muscle. Bring the kids, bring your parents, bring anyone who might enjoy such an event, which is to say everyone except the communists. I’ll be there, happy, sitting in the corner under some bleacher somewhere, sweating, mumbling, trying my hardest to keep my hands down during the bidding of the ’56 Continental scheduled to hit the block Sunday morning.