Thanks to syndicated reruns in the 1980s, I must have watched every episode of ‘Happy Days‘ at least 5 times. There were better written shows like ‘M*A*S*H‘ that never jumped the shark, but ‘Happy Days‘ provided the groundwork a gearhead needed for a lifelong love of cars, especially mid-century American cars like the ones on display at Motorama 2025.
As a suburban teenager, my family wasn’t much different than the Cunningham’s. My mom stayed home and raised me and my sister, while pops ran a local business. We didn’t have an archetypal Fonzie around, but we did know that owning a car was the first step on the road to being cool.
The first taste of freedom was behind the wheel of dad’s car. While Richie, Ralph, and Potsie cruised in Mr. Cunningham’s DeSoto station wagon, my dad had a Subaru, which was a little better. But a station wagon just isn’t cool.
To be cool, you needed your own wheels. And as a broke teenager, that meant an old jalopy you could hop-up into a proper street machine. Sure, it was going to be 20+ years old (like Ralph’s T-bucket) with no modern amenities. But swap in a bigger motor, and the car automatically got some street cred.
Considering the fast that many of the cars that appeared in ‘Happy Days’ are 75 years old today, it’s amazing how many were on display at Motorama. Clearly, I wasn’t the only person who learned about cool cars from that TV show.
~ Chris #16 Demaras ~
