The Automobile and American Life: Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Ray and Pat Brown Award, St. Louis, April 2

OK, far from the greatest photo! Last Friday I received the Ray and Pat Brown Award for the best book reference/primary source. What I heard in St. Louis was most encouraging in terms of doing future work in the field of automobile history. The chair of the awards committee came up to me after the ceremony concluded and told me how the committee had uniformly ranked my book as #1, and that they were blown away by the material and the flawless writing (take that, freshman English teacher!). I later signed a number of books, and must say Good Friday was a very good day for me personally.
What I take away from all of this is the following. First, never give up. Even though life can be very discouraging, and in a field like history, the setbacks take place all the time, you must believe in your self and keep going forward, despite the rejections, adversities, disappointments, and people who are constantly trying to spoil your party. Secondly, you must find your passion and follow it despite the critics and those around you, including family, who do not see the gift and the purpose inside of you. But then you must take that passion and share it with the world, in a way that others enjoy and can learn from it as much as you have. It took me to age 50 to find my passion, so if you don't recognize it right away, keep plowing the field until it comes and looks you right in the face.
More on auto history will surely be found on these pages!