I’m not sure why I wanted to go to the car show yesterday. Maybe it was the location, along Tampa’s riverwalk, with the water taxi readily available. And all the good food we might choose to eat at Armature Works. There was a nice crowd, lots of families, but it was the older cars that interested me. There seemed to be a lot more interest in the ‘muscle cars’, and much reviving of engines too, but they all looked alike to me. And those motorcycles in the feature image weren’t cars, but they looked good sitting side by side.
None of the muscle cars winked at us.I chatted with the British owner of this car. He was more interested in talking about how he found that model car at an antique shop and haggled the price down to $20. And, of course it was that display that caught my eye.Are we marbleizing our cars these days?This isn’t what I imagine a Rolls should look like. And no hood ornament.The hubcaps were sexy though.How do you go over a curb in these cars? So many of the cars, new and old, were low like this. I can’t imagine what the point is, or why you need a running board at all?I didn’t quite nail the head-on view of this hood ornament did I?Not so many hood ornaments to photograph at this show, but there was this.And this license plate is a mystery to me.My uncle wanted to give me his old caddy to drive into Boston to school every day. It was pink, and finned, a bit like this one. I would have had to find two parking spaces for it.The same uncle borrowed my father’s car and it got stolen, so he loaned us his VW bus. I’ve loved them ever since. If they ever start selling the latest VW camper van in this country I might get in line to get one.This was the star of the show for me, a ’56 Chevy Bel Air. I learned to drive on this car, no power steering, the thing was a tank. You could start from a stop in any gear, and it was three colors after a fender replacement straight out of the junk yard. I took my drivers test on it, after my mother duct taped the holes in the seats first. I couldn’t manage the three point turn, so I stopped, took a deep breath, and finished my five point turn. He gave me my license because I didn’t fall apart and cry, said the instructor.I ‘get’ this license plate.The show was from 8 to 11 AM. By 11 most all the cars had left, which might explain why I didn’t notice this car until there was no one parked beside it.
We are well into September but the heat and humidity are still with us. A couple of hours of that will wear you down, but I’m glad we went.
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2 thoughts on “Cars by the river…”
Fun way to spend a couple of hours! Love the tale of your experience with the 56 Chevy Belair. Great memories!
I was driving over the Perkins Street bridge, taking my father to work, when the hood popped up and of course I couldn’t see a thing. And lived to tell the tale.
A Snowbird's Life Through the Lens 
Fun way to spend a couple of hours! Love the tale of your experience with the 56 Chevy Belair. Great memories!
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I was driving over the Perkins Street bridge, taking my father to work, when the hood popped up and of course I couldn’t see a thing. And lived to tell the tale.
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