Old car show memories
Saturday, August 4, 2012 at 4:35PM During the still dark hours early Friday morning, I drove my daughter Nora down to Philadelphia International Airport to put her on a plane to start her college education in Guadalajara, Mexico. While her sister Noble and two close friends slept in the back seat of our 2007 Volvo station wagon, Nora and I distracted ourselves from getting nervous (Nora) or morose (me) by reminiscing about fun times we spent together when she and her siblings were younger. One of the sets of memories that we all love is about the old car shows I used to take them to, which included one of the world's grandest antique car events, the Antique Automobile Club of America Fall Eastern Meet, better known as the Hershey Car Show, held early in October every year in nearby Hershey, Pennsylvania.
A fanatic for getting there ahead of the crowds, (not to mention my fanatical obsession with these automotive remnants that connected me to my own childhood), I'd roust the kids out of bed in what felt to them like the middle of the night, put them into the back of our 1955 Chrysler New Yorker station wagon, in which I'd prepared a comfortable bed with a thin futon mattress and a pile of blankets, (much like my parents did when we took our annual trip to visit relatives in Ohio), and they'd sleep for the hour and a half drive from New Holland to Hershey. Arriving in the dark, we'd park the car and wander our way thorugh the chilly fall air among the hundreds of mostly still tarp covered booths filled with antique automobile parts and memorabilia and dark old hulks, until we got to the breakfast tent, where I treated them to pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and hot chocolate served off a buffet line. By the time we finished, everyone was awake and ready to be towed around by their dad, infected with my childlike excitement and delight over most everything I saw. We'd stand on the pedestrian overpass watching cars cruise below us on their way to the show field, and I'd exclaim when I saw cars whose model and year I could identify, and the children still young enough to want to mimic my enthusiasm, would exclaim along with me just a half beat behind. "Wow!" "Cool!!" We'd pretend that we could each buy one car, and pondered our choices throughout the morning as we pinballed around the show field and car corral, until they'd had enough and it was time to head home.
The last time we went was in 2006, by which time they were too big to sleep in the back, but still willing to go on a family old car outing. In recent years, the kids were less interested, and other events conflicted with Fall Hershey, notably the Richmond Pipe Show, an obsession which my family has been less keen about. But this year, whether I attend the pipe show or not, the two events are not on the same weekend, so I think I'll be heading up to Hershey again. The girls won't be here, but Gabe and perhaps even my wife will be cajoled into being dragged up there under the pretext of a fun family outing, with the full knowledge that in some measure, they'll be indulging me and one of my eccentric interests. And maybe some day, after everyone is finished with college, they'll all come home and join me again as a family for one more autumn day looking at antique automobiles at Hershey.
Gabe, Nora, Noble and Tina with a classic Packard at the last show we attended together in October, 2006
Noble getting an eyeful of the cockpit of an exotic 1966 Bizzarrini sports car
views of a 1931 Ford truck from my solo visit to the show in 2008
Reader Comments (3)
Scott,
You are awesome.
Rad
Well Rad, that's using the term very loosely, but thanks!
coooooooooooooooooooool