September 17, 2016:
One time on the freeway he apologized for his car. Some friend pulled into the lane to his left, and they chatted with windows down. "No power!", he said, laughing, throwing both hands up, as though being seen with this particular car embarrassed him to the point of humiliation.
Later the family story was that he'd been terribly picked on by schoolfellows in Wisconsin for having no father. In a period of rural American history when bastardry still carried serious juice. I surmise that his competitiveness and his quickness to insult others follow from those childhood humiliations.
I write this not to insult him, but from confusion. It makes no sense to me to concern oneself with cars as status. That was one more perplexing datum of adulthood which I chose early to ignore.