Finding out about this, this morning via PM from another member was very disheartening, to say the least. This, to my knowledge, has never happened in the registry. Accidents, yes, but not a total loss like this. Hearing this stopped me in my tracks all day today.
Like many of those that I see here, I may not have connected a direct friendship with Jay, but I DO see the names and avitars, and the content of the words, and I DO feel like this is a group of family members. Certainly, more conversation has "gone under the bridge" here than with my own cousins.
What strikes me personally, is although I didn't know Jay all that well, he got his GT/CS at 18, and had it for a very long time--and that it was Maroon. All of the very same parallels as the ownership of my (maroon) GT/CS. I think of all the good times in my car, the dates, the taunting for a race at the light, the long drives home in the rain, and yet; here is someone with a parallel experience--that is now gone. The irony and sympathy is almost unbearable to feel.
I think it's fair to say that we all thought: that could have been me. Same car, same situations, same love for what we hold dear to ourselves. For a moment, it makes us stop and think about our own fragility on the road, and how this (almost) 40 year old vehicle can show it's collective "safety age"--as compared to today's cars with air bags, ABS, etc. Driving any Mustang pre-1975, in today's traffic, is like roughing it in a vintage WWII fighter. People in luxury, and/or safety-enhanced vehicles drive with that (false sense of) "confidence", and will go faster, and brake later than we would in our vehicles. The realities (and stastistics) of the road are not good. We like to bask in the glory of the heritage, but, at times we could use the four-point harness, the gas shield, roll bar, and four-dics ABS, just to survive out there. I dread at the thought of what could have happened to me in all those 450,000 miles of driving. Like the night in 1992, while on 101 in Hollywood, an "crazy old Bonneville" was weaving through traffic at 95 mph, and missed my rear by literally one inch...
What I feel is not unlike how Firemen, Police, or Military comrades feel when they lose someone they may not know all that well in the same unit. It's disheartening, because we are so CLOSE to the same elements that they were in.
I will miss Jay, and it will give me a little more appreciation of just what we all have here together. My part has been the collective conversation with owners for over 30 years, including this site. I feel like I lost a family member. I, at least have been seeing folks as a name, an avitar, and their words and smileys. I will see everyone from now on as a little bit closer, and view this appreciation of this type of Mustang a lot more than I have--because it has MORE to do with people than it has to do with sheet metal, iron and fiberglass.
My heart goes out to Jay's wife and family, and to those that knew him.
He will be remembered in the book.
Paul M. Newitt
GT/CS Registrar
