Hot Rods and the Men Who Love Them

Going to car shows is, for me, like a fun and colorful trip down Memory Lane. And I’m sure the same held true for the (mostly) men (and some women) who attended the 46th annual Tucson Street Rod Association show on a warm Saturday in April.

For the last 4 years this show has been held in conjunction with the Pima Community College Center for Excellence in Applied Technology as a means to promote that new school. Most of the attendees, however, were long past college age. Maybe their children or grandchildren will attend the Applied Tech school.

Giving this show a distinctly non-Californian twist, there were antique farm vehicles and unrestored trucks as well as the usual colorful old cars I remember from earlier in my life. All car shows I’ve been to before have been in California, so that’s the standard for me. Unrestored vehicles of any kind are a no-go in California. And I can’t ever remember seeing farm trucks and tractors.

Okay…on to photos and captions.

The first thing I encountered when I entered the show from the back is this antique farm vehicle on a trailer. I realize now I should have stopped to ask questions of the owner in overalls because while this is clearly a utility vehicle it doesn’t look like there is a place for a rider/driver. And those thin metal wheels?? Maybe the engine was used to power something else and the wheels allowed the owner to move it from place to place. Well, at the least I can appreciate it for its aesthetics and antiquity. Aesthetics have a lot to do with which pix I take.

One of several really old Fords: this one a 1920 Farm truck built on a Model P body. Click through to see the crank starter! And a lot of admirers.

What a monster truck! Not in great condition but it must have had a commercial/industrial use — maybe in one of the mining operations in Southern Arizona? Definitely not street legal, so I wonder how the owner got it here. I like the wood plank running board.

Showing its age unashamedly! And the engine compartment is not filled with shiny chrome things. It wasn’t one of a kind: there were several old trucks in this condition.

Another old Ford with a history — the 1977 Edsel! For those of you unfamiliar with this car, it was developed by Ford and named after an early Ford scion. It totally bombed in the market and the assembly line for this car closed in 1978 after 2 years of production.

Cars seemed to be arranged in color groups. Reds together. Yellow and black together. And then there was the green and multi-colored group.

And a few of the men I saw admiring these cars…

Now I’m getting to the Memory Lane photos. My parents owned one of these 1940 Ford Coupes and I remember riding in the tiny back seat where the upholstery felt prickly. But it sure was not pink with flame art on the fenders. It was an old black used car when my Dad bought it.

The moment I saw this Nash Ambassador I remembered that the first car I had was a cute little Nash Metropolitan. Just checked the current price of my old Metropolitan: $15,000 and up. I don’t remember how much it cost back in 1964; my husband bought it for me. He was driving a Jag in those days. I got a cute “girl car”.

About that yellow truck with long horns and lariat at the top of this post: It’s apparently been a commercial truck for decades–at least as far back as the 1970s because in the front window is a bumper sticker that reads: Nixon Now More Than Ever. Nixon won that election but fled the White House ahead of impeachment in 1974. So a decade after driving around Seattle in my cute Metropolitan found me in San Francisco marching against the war in Viet Nam and against Nixon.

Car shows are definitely good for Memory Lane.

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Every plant that wasn’t in bloom in Tucson last week is in bloom now. Allergy season! The TV weather lady tells us to expect rain this afternoon and tomorrow. Maybe that will clear the allergens out of the air.