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I agree wholeheartedly. I don't view it as an easy choice. I don't think the Street Rodders owe it to the universe to endure Bad Bunny blaring from trunk mounted subwoofers to keep the show going a few more years, but the way I felt extinction coming, walking around that show looking at the visceral consequences of the choices made brought that to the front of my mind.
On the flip side, look at professional sports. Obviously my generation doesn't care as much about Mantle and Dimaggio and Berra, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada and Andy Pettite were the Yankees of my youth. But because the Yankees and MLB and older fans at the Yankees Fan Club maintained that continuity and tradition, while also respecting the new players, and passed down the stories, Mantle and Dimaggio and Berra mean a lot to me, and signed photos of all three hang over my bar in my basement. Across sports you see the same thing: football fans of historic English clubs or NBA fans or NFL fans they all love to count up championships won before they were alive and brag about their team. If you continue to bring in the new generation and teach them the tradition, there is a path toward respecting the past while continuing to incorporate the new and grow.
I'm not sure which is the right choice and which the wrong one. Whether it's better to burn out or to fade away. But the choice feels so visceral.
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