Ah, Springtime, Easter Eggs and taxes! Now that all of that is over it is time for a whole bunch of car shows. With in just a few miles of home we could have gone to an event in Saint Cloud that would be held across from the Methodist Church for Elmer’s Meal Kitchen that coincides with a centennial celebration. A Chrysler dealership in Kissimmee even had an open car show. We could have headed up North to Gators Dockside and the event put together by Don & Tara or head South and join the hundreds of cars at Plant City. Instead Linda and I would head toward our “Home Town”, oh wait, we always do that. Anyway, Lee was at the gate to greet everyone, Dave was signing us all in between the “Clock” and “Trophy Row”. “Big John” was in his spot with a great Corvette, the “Looney Bin” was sufficiently Looney.

Emil, KJ4GNH already had his “High School Flame” parked and would drop the Block 4 side of the gate for us. Charlie wouldn’t be out today, he is recuperating from surgery but I am sure we’ll see him in a few weeks Tom & Bunny along with Terry would arrive in their ’66 Malibu and take a spot in our lineup.

Bill & Doris along with Stan the “Pacerman” would stop by after Linda & I made our first trip to the top of “Trophy Row”. On that trip we would visit with all that were in “Town”. Larry would have his ‘65 Falcon just down from the “Looney Bin”, Nick & Fran would be across from him in their ‘32 Ford, Bob would be next to them in his ‘68 SS396 Chevelle and Mark would have the “Beast” nearby. Karen and the Kids would be behind the stairs and most of the “Redline Rodders” would be in place. Pablo & Nilda would have their VW next to the stage and Lynn would be out in her ‘49 Ford pickup. Darrell would have his LTD just up from the bleachers on the West side. Morris would have ”My 2nd 50” on a spot in the top of Block 1 and Bill would have his "Showtime” pickup along the fence.

Roberta, the “Beer Lady” would be set up and doing a fine business by now. Dave would bring out his ‘55 T-Bird, Jeff would be in his ‘59 Edsel and take a place behind the General Store. Gary was busy zipping around on the golf kart watching over the arrivals of the Cruise and the MR2 show behind the Entertainment Shop on “Victory Way”. The spectator crowd was starting to build and Graham, G4HFG from Oldham, England would check in over the radio as would Laura, NO4OO who was on her way to work.

It would be just Linda, Emil and Me that would head to Flippers for dinner. Dave D would have his “Mint Julep” ’57 Chevy parked in it’s spot and Rich would be in his ‘67 El Camino in Joe’s spot. Doc & Tara would arrive as we crossed over the West lane of Deac Hundley Avenue. Tom & Bunny were just leaving as we arrived. Trish would take good care of us as usual. The cars kept coming in as we dinned on the patio as did all of the other early regulars. On the way back to the cars we would visit with more of the Cruisers, Warren would have his Eldorado in it’s place of honor and T Rod, KT4ROD, would stop by for a few minutes to pick up his newsletter and chat for a few minutes. “Red Racer” Ted, KE4TTE would stop out just after he left. The cars were now wrapping around the corner, Mike & Linda would take a spot for their SS454 Malibu across from Gary & Wanda who brought out their “Remember When” ‘55 Chevy. Tom & Chris would be out in the Corvette. Roger and Larry would be nearby them. As the night went on we would have Cruisers that tried to take in more than one show today start to arrive. Steve & Donna would bring out the ‘68 GTX after going to 3 others on a road test of the newly rebuilt transmission. I guess they had to make up for the week that the car was down. Bill would be out in his Vega, Neil & Elaine had out the ‘62 Rolls Royce and I even spotted Rodger in his ‘53 MG.

The rest of the evening was spent as usual, the legends and even a few myths about these cars we all love could be heard while walking on “Trophy Row”. The extremely large crowd of visitors were not disappointed in what was on display. I would like to thank all of them for making this day just right.


The next thing I knew it was nearly time for the Cruise up the bricks of Deac Hundley Avenue and Esther was stopping with the "Flag Winners" just after 8:20. The Cruise Staff would start to direct the Cruisers out of their parking spots into the line up starting with The April 2009 "Cruiser of the Month" Warren Wubker's '57 ElDorado from it's place of honor was led by Dave & Mesha  followed by the rest of the cars from the top 3 Blocks to block 4 that becomes the "Staging Area" for Old Town's signature event. Allan who had been at the controls of the "Blue Room", playing a mix of nostalgic music and radio "Jingles", gave the safety announcements, played the National Anthem, "Wolfman Jack" proclaimed, "It's the Saturday Nite Cruise", for this the 983rd running of this tradition. The Cruisers made their way to the "Bricks" of "Deac Hundley Avenue", Mike announced the Flag Winners as the rest of the 284 cars in parade formation cruised past, delighting an extremely large crowd of cheering spectators along both sides of the Avenue. "Rain or Shine" every Saturday night of the year, there is nothing quite like it for the "Cruisers" and it is always a treat for those watching it from the sidewalks and boulevards.

Thank you Old Town for letting us, the curators of this "Rolling Display of Automotive History", the cars that are the "Stars", to be their guests this evening. Thank you to the Old Town Merchants Association and the Sponsors of this event, "Valvoline", the "General Store", the "A&W", "Out of this World Embroidery", "Wound 'N Around", Pepsi, Roberts Brothers, the Pearl Factory, the Gold Hut, the "Tropical Breeze" & "Flippers" just to name a few. Thank you to Allan, Ron, Gary,  Lee, Dave, Esther, Vic, Nikki, CJ, Mesha, Chrisanne, Deputy Asa and the entire Cruise Staff and fellow Cruisers for making our 334th consecutive Saturday a fun and safe one.

Get well Joe Rodhouse, we all miss you!

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See you all "Out There"