As a car-crazy lad born and raised in Chicago, the old Chicago auto show was something very special to me.
But I'd be the first to admit that today's Chicago show is quite different than the one of my youth. That show was my first real taste of cars, and there was nothing quite like it. There still isn't.
There was no McCormick Place back then. The show was held at the International Amphitheatre adjacent to the famous Union Stock Yards, a place where they kept cattle penned up until the very last minute. It was hot, and it smelled, but it really didn't matter. It was filled with cars -- new cars, show cars and special cars only available in your imagination.
I would drag my parents down to the stockyards and enjoy every minute that I was there. About the only thing that got me out of there was the sheer weight of all the brochures I would be lugging around. They were filled with great descriptions of some of the most magnificent vehicles in the world.
If you were smart, you could get three or four copies of those brochures and trade with your friends to get ones you might have missed. Brochures were spread out over our living room floor, and it wasn't long before you had memorized all the specs for every car in the show and particularly the new models and show cars.
It is no wonder that the car companies are thinking about dropping printed brochures. I must have accumulated 30 pounds of wonderful sales information that I felt compelled to commit to memory, statistics that I probably know even today.
They had lovely ladies next to all the cars at the show, and truth be told, you didn't notice the ladies. You did pester them with questions about the new models -- information that they didn't have.
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