THE AUCTIONS IN SCOTTSDALE ARE OVER FOR ANOTHER YEAR

With over $100 million dollars spent on just the Russo-Steele and Barrett-Jackson. With wall-to-wall tv coverage on the Speed Channel. With traffic jams and full restaurants and hotels.

I've never been to the auction just three miles away, much to the chagrin of my brother, an Illinoisan who relishes Dusenbergs and Model A's and any old time car, restored or not. He would find beauty in one not restored to perfection. He once told me how many different cars he had owned in his lifetime and it numbered in the hundreds.

His little brother, me, has had much, much fewer cars. And have probably felt fond of only a few.

But I watched part of the auction. I watched two guys bid on a prototype Corvette that went for $1.6 million. Wow! And that didn't touch the one that went for $5.5 million last year. This years sales at BJ alone were $88 million, down from $120 million last year. Blame it on President Bush, I guess.

I didn't see the Beverly Hillbilly's car that was auctioned. I hope somebody in my 'hood bought it. I'd like to see it being driven down the street. But I don't think that happens. They go to heated, cooled, climate controlled garages suited for such royalty. I didn't see the old coke truck pictured here, either, but that would be cool to see, too.

So in another 360 days or so, we'll see another automobile auction. We won't quite have a new President though he/she will have been voted in. With all the promises I'm hearing in the debates, I'm sure we'll have a much better auction that more can participate in as spectators and as bidders. It's our right, you know. And if free enterprise won't allow it, our government will assist.