Summer is a thing to be cherished in Minnesota. This past weekend, after mowing the lawn, playing with the waverunner, and peacefully enjoying the beautiful weather, I went to watch street rods with my dad.

Here’s the pretext: the annual Street Rod Gathering is taking place at the Minnesota State Fair grounds this weekend. Participants in the Gathering enjoy cruising in their cars up and down Snelling Avenue in Roseville. Since most of the cars at the show, and thus most of the cars cruising, are meticulously detailed street rods, muscle cars, and classic cars, people enjoy sitting along Snelling, watching the cars go by.

No, this is not some Minnesotan version of ‘Bashing,’ the Hautian pastime. There are several key differences: Here, nobody is sitting on couches in pickup beds. Here, there is far, far less booze involved. Here, the cars being watched are some of the finest specimens in the country. Here, the cars are almost all American marques. The only foreign cars are classic British sports cars and exotic European supercars.

Anyhow, we sat and watched the cars go by, one after another. Although I couldn’t identify many of the cars, my dad seemed to know them all. It makes sense, really: he grew up when GTOs ruled the roads, a time when gas was cheap and horsepower king. Granted, today’s engines get better fuel economy and make more torque and horsepower with a smaller displacement, but there’s a certain mystique about engines that were designed in the absence of computers.

I hope that people continue to collect and cherish classic cars, street rods, and other bits of automobilia so that future generations can see examples of fine engineering and artistic prowess.