# Fucking car shows! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 11, 2003, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712 "2003-07-11T14:12:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/1 "2003-07-11T14:12:37Z")
As some of you have surmised by now, I live in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, home of the U.S. Army War College, Dickinson College, and places where it can be proven George Washington slept. It’s a nice, small town in the middle of farmland and an all-around decent place to live. Carlisle is also famous for car shows, and during the summer, there’s one roughly every other weekend. They do bring a lot of money into the borough and surrounding areas, but they also bring a lot of hassles. First of all, the traffic. Carlisle is the county seat, so there’s already some problem with rush hour traffic twice a day. However, on show weekends, it can be nigh well impossible to negotiate the streets for the cars and trailers with cars. This seems to be concentrated in the area of the fairground, but therein lies the rub. We live near the fairground, and the streets near the fairground are how we get from place to place. Listening to the car junkies revving their engines, operating the hydraulics on their low-rider trucks, and having to wait forty-five minutes to go about three miles is a headache-inducing experience, let me tell you. Second, some of these people are, well, less than savory. I don’t mean to impugn their hygiene (although some of them could stand to take a bath) but their behavior could use some improvement. Not long ago, during the aforementioned low-rider truck show, some idiot decided that it would be acceptable to make a few remarks about my sex appeal for the amusement of his friends. I knew this was the case at the time, and it didn’t bother me, but at the same time, those remarks are the hallmark of an ill-bred and ill-mannered person. Third, their manners are rather, well, lacking. The aforementioned idiot is Exhibit A. I’ve been cut off in traffic, almost run over, cut off in line at local restaurants, seen these people litter the streets with their trash. I’ve also had to wait fifteen minutes to be able to turn out of a parking lot because none of these people would let me out. The three seconds it would’ve taken them to let me in were three seconds away from their precious car show. Basically, my complaint to them is this: When you’re visiting someone else’s home, please show some fucking manners! We live here, you don’t. Please don’t throw your shit onto our streets, it costs _us_ money to clean up after you. Please don’t be assholes and refuse to let people into traffic. Please don’t be assholes in general and obey the rules of the road as you were taught in driver’s ed class. This means that cutting people off is rude. Please keep your postadolescent male yap shut while you’re at it. No, I don’t want to get in your car and have sex with you. No, I don’t care if you think I’m Moby Dick’s twin sister. Christ, when did common courtesy die? Robin ---
**Author:** ![Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo_Boo_Foo)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/2 "2003-07-11T14:44:01Z")
Start a guerilla movement. Nothing does a car nut’s head in more than finding fine specks of paint on their beloved vehicle. Buy some fire rockets. Do some research. Work out a way to include a fine paint delivery warhead over the fairground with a super fine aerosol dispersion pattern. Get the kiddies involved. Work out the trajectory patterns of your rockets so that you’ve got a spraying field of just a 10 yard diameter if you want. Lots of fun to be had. Setup some fire rockets on your roof. Get really good at your aim so that you can lie up on your roof in camouflage gear waiting to fire on particularly loud and odious examples of the genre. So much fun to be had if you perfect your technique. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/3 "2003-07-11T14:59:07Z")
I love you, **Boo Boo Foo**. 🙂 Robin ---
**Author:** ![Tony\_Montana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@Tony\_Montana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tony_Montana)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/4 "2003-07-11T15:21:18Z")
I only skimmed the OP. (off to work) One car show every other weekend? Sounds like heaven… ::sigh:: **Boo Boo Foo** That sounds **illegal** ::shakes finger:: tsk tsk… ---
**Author:** ![NTChrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e274bd/32.png) [@NTChrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NTChrist)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/5 "2003-07-11T20:09:56Z")
**Boo Boo Foo** That sounds like a good way to get **killed**. ☹ I am an avid domestic car nut myself, and I know hyper-aggressive car-nuts that have paralyzed (literally) other men for less. I don’t know what I’d do if my car (compare my love for this automobile, to your [maybe?] love for american freedom. Quite similar in meaning and personal importance) was sprayed with paint by somebody who was angry that I was proud of it. Toronto is in pretty rough shape after the gay pride parade. Drinking, drugs (things I do without shame, for the record), are common-ish, along with most of the things the OP complained about. As a male, I have suffered more than one lewd comment from other males. Does this mean that I should start attacking gays, and spraying them with paint?? Again, for the record, I am a tolerant, hetero male trying to make a comparison. Please don’t tell me I’m comparing a lifestyle with a hobby. If you knew me first hand, you would understand that it is a lifestyle. You’re going to have to take my word about it. On another note, questions about my Firebird are welcome!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/6 "2003-07-11T20:16:06Z")
Well, y’know, I don’t have a thing against homos, but I suspect that after being shabbily treated by legions of them, almost run over, cut off, and having them make comments about my ass or whatever… that I might _develop_ a grudge. Particularly if this went on for years. ---
**Author:** ![NTChrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e274bd/32.png) [@NTChrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NTChrist)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/7 "2003-07-11T20:19:59Z")
Umm, I don’t know if that above comment was directed at my post, but just in case, I have no grudge with “homos”. ---
**Author:** ![Necros](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/necros/32/11086_2.png) [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/8 "2003-07-11T20:34:34Z")
People, when congregated together, seem to lose, collectively, the good behavior they would have as individuals. It blows, but it’s not unusual, or relegated to auto enthusiasts. I suspect if the fairground hosted beauty pagaents instead of car shows, you’d have the same problem (except for the car part). That does not, of course, make it less rude or unpleasant. Just one more annoying thing about people when they group together. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/9 "2003-07-11T20:43:29Z")
Particularly when one must put up with them again and again over a long period of time. Oddly enough, I didn’t have a thing against Baptists, until I lived next to a church. And even then, they didn’t bother me. Except when one of them died. When that happened, they held a funeral, and you couldn’t get a parking space for a mile. On several occasions, I went out to run errands, only to return and discover that I could not park within a four-block radius of my own home. You develop an attitude over time. At least, I did. ---
**Author:** ![NTChrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e274bd/32.png) [@NTChrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NTChrist)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/10 "2003-07-11T20:56:28Z")
I could get on board with the baptist thing. They probably sing obnoxiously loud early on a sunday morning. Or is that just Southern Baptists? At any rate, OP, don’t forget all of the additional revenue brought to Carlisle. The shows are legendary, and I’m sure more than a few car people (especially the Corvette/Exotics gatherings) spend some $$ in your fine city. BTW, I know a couple guys that went to the most recent show in Carlisle. Were you, by chance, automotively molested by a hood-less, turbo’d, blue Camaro running low 10’s in the quarter mile? ---
**Author:** ![Necros](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/necros/32/11086_2.png) [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/11 "2003-07-11T21:02:41Z")
Isn’t everyone these days? I swear, I’m tired of being molested by HLTBCRTITQMs. Every day, to and from work. On the weekends. Geesh. Get a hood on that thing. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo_Boo_Foo)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/12 "2003-07-12T00:11:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NTChrist \* > \*\ ***Boo Boo Foo** That sounds like a good way to get **killed**. ☹ > > I am an avid domestic car nut myself, and I know hyper-aggressive car-nuts that have paralyzed (literally) other men for less. > > I don’t know what I’d do if my car (compare my love for this automobile, to your [maybe?] love for american freedom. Quite similar in meaning and personal importance) was sprayed with paint by somebody who was angry that I was proud of it. > > \*\* My friend, my earlier post was in jest… it was merely offered as a spiritual “pick me up” for Robyn’s sake. P.S. I’m an Aussie, so my love for American Freedom’s kinda ambivalent, but I sure do love my Aussie Freedom! ---
**Author:** ![Ashkicker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@Ashkicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashkicker)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/13 "2003-07-12T00:27:23Z")
I feel your pain **MsRobyn**. I work in a major tourist hub that has a car show about every other weekend or at least it seems that way. The traffic congestion in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg is a nightmare, if you don’t know the back roads. And when there are car shows in town, that traffic congestion triples. It is totally unbelievable. If I didn’t know the back roads there is no way in hell I would ever work in Sevier county. ---
**Author:** ![NTChrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e274bd/32.png) [@NTChrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NTChrist)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/14 "2003-07-12T00:53:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Boo Boo Foo \* > \*\*P.S. I’m an Aussie, so my love for American Freedom’s kinda ambivalent, but I sure do love my Aussie Freedom! \*\* You aussies build and race some pretty awesome muscle cars. 🆒 **Ashkicker** , indeed, I’ve _actually heard_ of the legendary traffic in… Pigeon… Forge…? Triples you say?! So… 3 cars then? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/15 "2003-07-12T05:25:11Z")
Damn, too bad I can’t be there to see all of the MOPARs this weekend! I’d love to burn a stripe in front of your pad Robyn! 😉 Honestly, if you don’t like it, I’d think you would have moved…the car shows aren’t going anywhere, so you’ll most likely have to put up with it until you do in fact leave. P.S.- All the carlisle-goers I know of are pretty respectful, and though not all of them are, I can’t speak for the assholes. Sam ---
**Author:** ![Mercury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e95f7d/32.png) [@Mercury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mercury)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2003, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/16 "2003-07-12T16:36:31Z")
Carlisle is great! I went there for the first time last summer. I didn’t make a mess, didn’t cut anyone off, and was very nice to people (except for complaining about the heat). This week is Arts Fest in my town. Traffic (both auto and pedestrian), slow-moving people (in cars and on foot), drunkards everywhere, $5 orders of french-fries, insanely long waits at the diner…I feel your pain. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fucking-car-shows/187712/17 "2003-09-28T15:45:40Z")
The local paper had an update on the status of the Custom Compact Show. This was the show that I was complaining about in the OP. This show is leaving Carlisle and moving to the Harrisburg Farm Show Complex, where they’re better equipped to deal with the crowds this show draws. No other shows are leaving, and the only revenue the borough saw from the CC show was the tickets some of these assholes got. Robin