History The runs/shows that stand out from all the others

Hunnert Car Pileup was always super cool. Frog Follies is good. Newport Hillclimb is a great place to see old iron in action, rather than just sitting.

 

One of the first runs in Pigeon Forge after the run left Gatlinburg is memorable,I had just pieced together a 1939 Ford standard coupe.

We got the car to fire off with just a few hours before we left home, I had a bench seat, and a windshilds and back glass, no window glass, no carpet,no interior, and no exterior trim just holes all down the side of the body and no windshield wipers.

Remember when the show was in October at that time so when we left home on Friday it was sunny but cool, it got cooler when we got to the mountains and Saturday was sunny but cool, Sunday morning we woke up to snow flurries and we darn near froze to death, but our fellow club members Roger & Spence were in T buckets and as bad as it was for Brenda & I those guys suffered coming home.

We decided to take I-40 on our of the way and not cross the mountains, we all were wearing everything we owned, bought coats & gloves and Brenda bought a Quilt at one of the shops we had over our legs, we made a lot of stops on the way home, to thaw out,drink coffee but we made it.

That trip triggered something in Brenda's mind and regardless of the season she will pack a sweat shirt an a coat, even in the summer. HRP

 

For me all shows are compared to the old Paso Robles show. I still attend the Cruising Nationals in Santa Maria and it still brings out the cream of the crop as far as Kustoms go, but boy do I miss Paso.

 

For me Frog Follies and PunkinRun . There are many others but these are really a great time .

 

Don’t get me wrong I love going to larger events, but for me it’s the local events here in Washington State that I enjoy going to. If you’ve seen my picture threads on this forum you understand. I’ve been to NSRA Bakersfield, Sacramento, Spokane and Salem( Oregon that is) . But in some cases it was tough to relax, so that’s why I like the local events better.


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I enjoy the smaller laid back event's, you actually have time to socialize with the other participants, like many of the large shows we attend, we have made a lot of friends from around the country that we see once a year and enjoy sitting around at the motel every night during the show. HRP

 

My personal favorite was the NSRA show in Columbus, Ohio. Danny had a 1940 ford sedan and a mullins trailer, we loaded up out girls and made a week long adventure along with three other couples and two other children.
When the show was over out adventure continued on to the Henry Ford Museum, if you have never been there is so much more than the cars.

 

It’s hard to beat the Lone Star RoundUp in Austin,Texas. I only live 100 miles away and have attended the last 15 out of 18? Or so held. I tell all my friends: Don’t die or get married cause I won’t be there; I’ll be at the RoundUp! Great cars,great music, super swap meet, usually great weather in early April—-all for the walk-in price of $15 for 2 long days—-PRICELESS!

 

So COOL! I remember that car with the $2 bill on the hood. We were just talking about that the other day! At the 5:41 mark is a tangerene 32 5w coupe. That belongs to a guy from my town. Still has it. It's black now. i just rode to a show with him Saturday!

 

Williamsburg was great! We went every year for a long time. Still have a sticker in my car. 83 I think

 

SF Golden Gate sunset

Hello,

By this part of the 60s timeline, we had been making several road trips to the SF Bay area for vacations, car shows and just hanging around the whole scene that was going on at the time. It was an eye opener, but, it wasn’t as if we just rolled in from the Midwest. We had been accustomed to the area with me going to college in San Jose, a short drive down the Bayshore Freeway and those cool drives up the coast, taking in the freedom to cruise where and when we wanted. Ahhh, the freedom of 20 something years…
The Haight
Those early car shows were different than those in So Cal. For some reason, the styles were a little “out there” while the So Cal customs were the usual frenched headlights, lowered, swoopy taillights and lots of chrome on the motors. Speaking of chrome, it was one of those northern California shows that we were “treated” to something we had never seen before: a fully chrome engine and suspension. That was something.
There were plenty of SF foggy days.
Maybe not so practical for daily driving, but a lot of the custom cars were not daily drivers. A lot of them rolled into or came out of trailers. Some, just fired up only to come into the auditorium concrete or exit when the show is/was over. But, as we continued to come up North for just hanging around and seeing the sights, the more shows we went to, it was becoming a common sight in custom “show” cars.

We noticed that the times were changing fast. The people seemed like they were floating around without a care in the world. The city was bustling, but in a different way. We were not the “wearing suits” kind of people, so it looked different and felt like it was going to be a good time in the SF Bay Area, including the car shows in the Cow Palace and across the bay in Oakland.

Jnaki

Mementos of a ton of great road trips to the SF Bay area for all kinds of fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rw1_FNdy-Y Incense and Peppermints
"Good sense, innocence, cripplin' mankind
Dead kings, many things I can't define
Occasions, persuasions clutter your mind
Incense and peppermints, the color of time

Who cares what games we choose?
Little to win but nothin' to lose

Incense and peppermints, meaningless nouns
Turn on, tune in, turn your eyes around

Look at yourself, look at yourself, yeah, yeah
Look at yourself, look at yourself, yeah, yeah, yeah!"

35mm Ektachrome color slide film shot on a timer with a 50 mm 1.2 fast lens.

Concerts took over the So Cal scene and we saw plenty of them. But, to be a little different, we incorporated concerts in the S.F. Bay Area as part of our itinerary. The odd thing was, the car shows took on a different look and seemed like it was not the center of our adventures, anymore. There were still people that liked car shows, but the scene was less “things”, more conscious-aware topics and way of life. The innocence was slowly drifting away.

“By the second half of the '60s, psychedelics and subcultures had opened the floodgates for all sorts of new art forms, only a few of which acknowledged some stimulus from visionaries Von Dutch and Ed Roth. What soon resulted in the show car arena was an anything-goes, more-is-better explosion of new custom paint styles and graphics, ranging from ribbons and cobwebs to freak dots, acetylene smoke, and airbrushed murals-coupled with the near death of hot rodding as we knew it. Let's just say the brief period we're showing here was when custom paint got really cool before it got totally crazy.”

“Unlike at Oakland shows of the last couple of decades, there were no traditional custom cars to be seen and hardly any '50s-vintage vehicles of any type. Likewise, there were only a handful of dragsters or other drag machines. There were several ski boats with big hot rod engines, and for some reason the '67 show had a bunch of custom motorcycles (choppers) while the '66 one only had a few.”

So, what has this gathering of young people in the Bay Area have to do with the car shows?

“Many custom car owners and builders seized some of the glamour or psychedelic vibe. One definition of the word, psychedelic, acutally hits home in the custom car world. It reads, ‘denoting or having an intense, vivid color or a swirling abstract pattern. Synonyms: colorful, chromatic, multicolored, vivid, abstract.’ Paint jobs on hot rods and vans became more psychedelic with wild graphics, including murals and outrageous colors. Suddenly, custom painters had a new palette of ideas from which to draw inspiration.”

 

Brad54's monthly swap meet in Commerce, GA has been growing steadily over the past few years and typically averages 300+ vendors and 1000-1500 spectators.

It is a fast show (the spectators descend like locusts at about 8:30/9am and leave with all kinds of goodies by Noon), but there are folks coming from TN, FL, NC, SC, PA, etc to sell and to buy, and there's always good deals to be had!

 

When I was younger, I enjoyed going to the Turkey Rod Run and the indoor car show's in L.A. and Phoenix but now I much prefer the smaller, laid back events such as the "StrayKat 500", Lead Ain't Dead" and the "Hot Rod Hill Climb". I also like the H.a.m.b. Drags, I just wish that it was held in a cooler month!

 

Hotrod hill climb in Central City, CO. Friday reliability run is my favorite part of it.

 

...in the mid-west, you can't beat the Glory Days drag event at Byron, Illinois (formerly the Meltdown Drags)

 

One of our favorites is the pre 49 only Frog Follies in Evansville Indiana.We go in a large group (6-8 cars) and also get to catch up with many others as well as having a HAMB meet and greet. It’s a laid back family event with a large swapmeet,car corral, and plenty of venders. Lots of games for the kids including valve cover racing.
Lots of shade, inexpensive food, cruising loop and campground for those who wish.Check out the E’ville Iron Street Rods,Ltd. web site for more info.
Next year’s dates are August 27-29, 3500-4000 cars expected.

 

The 2019 Hot Rod Hill climb was a great weekend full of nice weather, awesome cars, and even better people.


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We used to have this weekly car cruise called the Wexford Starlite Car Cruise. It was at the same place were the old Starlite drive-in was.. A thousand cars was considered a small turn out, one Fourth of July weekend, Ford-427-8-9, had everything, race cars from the 30s, steam, factory race cars, DOHC 427 Fords, 429 hemi Mustangs. 427 Chevelle's, 421-389 Pontiacs, 302-427 Chevy Two, Camaro's, Chevelle's-Impalas-Bel-Airs- Biscayne's, 392 and 426 Hemi's and Dodges.

 

NSRA Street rod Nationals and Back to the 50"S.