Saying Goodbye to Daddy’s Cadillac
Daddy drove a ’59 Cadillac and it was the first of many he was to buy brand new, that nowadays classic with the CBS taillights. White over yellow, it was huge and powerful, grand and slightly ridiculous by today’s standards, but it represented General Motors at their Zenith.
At one time the world’s largest corporation, I guess my first dose of culture-shock came when I read that Google was worth more than GM. Google? A web search engine existing in cyberspace, worth more than an international corporation with hundreds of bricks-and-mortar plants, millions of cars rolling off those production lines and a presence in most countries of the world? Was this possible? Didn’t I just see a special-edition armored Cadillac limousine carrying our president to his inauguration? Surely I did and surely this national bragging right between Cadillac and Lincoln can’t seriously be at risk.
Charlie Wilson’s famous statement “What’s good for the country is good for General Motors, and vice versa” was…