May is a great month because it brings us Mother's Day, Memorial Day and the emergence of those grand old motorcars of days gone by.

That's because May brings warm weather.Garages are opened and out come the works of art that once graced America's highways.Yes, if there's one thing I like just as much as 1880s bicycles, it's lead sleds from great days of automotive design.How can anyone not enjoy those magnificent cars of our youth?Let's face it, today's cars all look the same.Most are oval-shaped. Basically, we're driving steel eggs. That's no yolk.A few models look like wedges of cheese. But they're all basically the same.Cars lost character about 40 years ago.I remember how it happened.Gas was rationed in the 1970s.Automotive designers and engineers adopted a new approach. They felt all body styles must be streamlined.It had something to do with wind tunnel tests, coefficient of drag, total weight and gas mileage.Throw in profitability and suddenly chrome bumpers turned to plastic and we acquired a recipe for blandness.Sadly, the industry giants conceded defeat and gave up on their recipes of style and, instead, substituted eggs.I never imagined a day would come when a Cadillac looked like every other car on the street. But that's where we're at.Right now there are two basic types of vehicles.People own either a passenger car or an SUV. SUVs are large, plain boxes. But after years of looking at eggs, we recognize that any kind of box is better than another egg.Ironically, many SUVs are gas guzzlers. But people buy them, in part, because they're utilitarian and family-friendly.I give Chrysler credit for breaking the mold 15 years ago by producing the retro PT Cruiser.It sent other automakers scurrying back to their drafting tables.As a result, it led to a Chevy SSR model that was sort of a car, a convertible and a pickup all in one. Then came a Mini Cooper, another retro model loaded with character.All along, pickups managed to maintain a sense of styling. They're not part of the egg scene and they offer the ride, feel and amenities of cars.Of course, chrome is still a thing of the past and dramatic styling has largely disappeared.I chuckle when I see today's automotive advertising trying to convince us of "bold, new styling," which turns out to be nothing more than another egg.The best examples of styling are found at May car shows. Just look at anything produced in the 1950s.Or look for the classic and antique cars in your upcoming Memorial Day parade.There was an era when cars were distinctive. They were floating works of art with recognizable design trademarks. A Buick looked like a Buick.Many of us boomers were fortunate to grow up during those days.It was a time when car models had a strong fan following, even among the most hard-boiled of us.Streets were filled with imaginative designs proudly displayed above whitewall tires.As for eggs, they were typically found in the kitchen, not the driveway.It's time for auto designers to come out of their shell.