You have no memory of it yourself, but you’ve heard Mom and Dad tell the story a hundred times: How baby Johnny, just a year old, would stand against the back of the sofa and monitor the traffic from the living room window of their small upper flat on Milwaukee’s South Side: “Blue car!…Red car!…Green car!…Hudson Car!” For a while, I imagine, Dad and (more likely) your uncles thought you were headed for a career as a mechanic, or maybe a race car guy. But by now, I’m sure they realize that what really fascinated you about the cars was the way they looked, and how you could tell them apart by the way they were…designed. Even now, and you’re still pretty young, you just love the way things are designed, especially when they are designed well. And you will carry that love with you into the future. Oh, you won’t be designing any cars, mind you. Because to do that you still need to understand some of that razzmatazz that one finds under the hood, and—believe me—you are never going to understand that stuff! But bringing beauty to the world will be important to you. And often you’ll get the chance to do just that.

I know you often wonder what the cars of the future will be like. And from time to time  you’ll see someone’s vision of what that might be—something in a magazine say, or on a television show. Well, I hate to disappoint you, but these folks haven’t a clue.

The cars of the distant future will be miracles of engineering. They will be smaller than the cars of the Fifties, but strangely the insides will be more comfortable and the trunks will hold more stuff. The seats will all have seat belts, just like in airplanes, and it will be against the law not to wear them. They will go much further on a tank of gas, and some won’t use gas at all! Along with rear view mirrors many cars will also have small television cameras showing what’s behind you or off to the side. Most will also have a television screen on the dash-board that displays a map showing you where you are and giving you directions—right out loud in a human-like voice—to wherever it is you’re going!

Every car in the future is air-conditioned and most have sound systems better than the very best Hi-Fi sets of the Fifties. Plus, nobody uses window cranks anymore to open and close their windows. That’s done with the simple push of a button. There’s more I could tell you here, but you get the picture.

You might have notice that I haven’t said anything about the way the cars of the future will look: the way they will be…designed. Well I have good news and bad news about that. Which do you want first? Well, let’s start with the good. The cars of the future are very aerodynamic compared to the cars of the Fifties. Aerodynamic? Hmmm…that means “streamlined.” The cars look like they no longer have bumpers, but that’s because the bumpers are hidden behind elaborately sculptured pieces of molded plastic that blend in with the rest of the body. See what I mean? “Streamlined.” In fact, everything on the car will be streamlined in ways you can’t imagine: headlights, tail lights, door handles, side mirrors. Name it.

But here’s the thing (and this is the bad news), the cars of the future are SO streamlined that they all look pretty much the same. For some reason cars in the future come only in, like, five colors: black, white, red, blue and silver. And about seven of every ten are silver. There are no two-tone cars anymore, no whitewall tires, and no more station wagons with wood paneling on the side. There are no Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, Plymouths, Mercurys, Studebakers, or Ramblers in the future. There are no Hudson cars. Instead there are Hondas, and Toyotas, and Nissans, and Infinities, and Audis, and Volvos, and Teslas, and so many more it will be hard to keep track of them all.

So forget about the future when it comes to cars. The real golden age of auto design is the one you’re living in right now, in the 1950s. Trust me they’ll never be that beautiful or expressive again. So love that snazzy Buick that Grandpa Van Ert drives, or that ’57 Chevy of Uncle Bill’s. Love that dumpy old Plymouth Dad drives. And love that gorgeous black and white Nash  you once saw in the alley behind Grandpa’s house, the one built right here in Wisconsin, with the covered spare on the back and the tail light that swung open to reveal the gas cap. Take my word for it. I happen to know you’ll never stop loving that one.

“The Touch of Tomorrow”    1991    John T. McCarthy, Jr.     8-color silkscreen

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