NorCal Cars > 2012 Car Shows > 2012 Anti-Football New Year Day Drive

21st annual Anti-Football Drive

The 21st annual Anti-Football Drive--under increasing criticism from self-righteous environmentalists and busy-bodies--will depart January lst for its customary back roads drive, determined to present a green, sustainable and environmentally-conscious face (if not facts) to the public.

Some one hundred “interesting” cars at least twenty-five years old and their drivers (very much over twenty-five years of age) will assemble at Poggio restaurant on Bridgeway Street in Sausalito about 8:00 AM on January l, 2012. There the group will lament those who will spend the day watching obscure college football games on TV, then the Anti-Football aficionados will take to the open road starting at 9:00 AM. Their route will wend its way north on Highway l to Stinson Beach, Olema, Point Reyes Station and Petaluma for a cheese break and tour at the Petaluma Creamery. The drive will return by way of Nicasio and Lucas Valley Road arriving at Poggio about noon for lunch.

Stung by those who see the drive as a self-indulgent, noisy, environmentallydisgraceful, unconscionable act, organizer Martin Swig has gathered facts to demonstrate the contrary. “Talk about sustainability, I’ll be driving my 87-year-old Lancia that has sustained itself-- with a little help from my mechanic --since l925.

“Man-made pollution is a myth,” says Swig. Man has driven cars on this earth for over a century and note that life expectancy in l900 was 3l years. Today, it’s over 67 years. We insist that emissions from our cars have held the negative side of nature in check and contributed to this enviable longevity. People would do well to recall what my personal mentor, Benjamin Franklin, said, “With wine there is wisdom, with beer there is freedom, with water there is bacteria.’ And that goes for air, as well. “

Supporting the economy? “Economists know that small business is at the heart of our nation’s healing,” says Swig. ”I can guarantee that we’ll drink as much coffee from small merchants as we can, buy gas from family service stations, employ good, sound working folks to maintain our cars and stimulate business everywhere we go. That’s real infrastructure-building, not that other bridge-fixing, Washington, D.C. stuff.”

Showing his softer side, Swig believes that the Anti-Football Drive contributes to a more handsome America. “Just as women everywhere carefully choose their finest clothing to celebrate the new year, our drivers may spend weeks selecting, tuning and polishing their historic vehicles for our Anti-Football Drive---the better to bring beauty to the road and, of course, one-up their fellow drivers.”