- By Bill C.
AUGUST 14, 2004 – Collierville, TN – This show serves as a fund raiser for Special Olympics and is presented by the Collierville Police Dept. and Bill Heard Chevrolet. It is an “open” show, with leanings toward American made cars. However, it has been expanded further the last few years to include European and Asian brands. This year, there were over 400 (I heard 409) show vehicles.
Things were falling into place where I could go. Then, the weather turned cool and dry and I KNEW that I had to go. My new, custom-built Bug-Hauler was not quite ready, so I decided to just drive Lightnin’.
Once I got everything set on the engine, I knew it was going to be a great day.
With so many cars, these folks had the system down pat to get folks cars registered, photographed and parked. I ended up in a non-VW class; “Modified: Non-GM, Ford or Chrysler.” I also ended up in the “west 40;” couldn’t get any further from the main tents, bathrooms, etc. But at least I had plenty of room to spread out… and my very own (6’ tall) shade tree! Whoo hoo!
I was still polishing things up, when the lady from Southern Rides asked to take our picture. Even though I have a way of messing up an otherwise good car picture, I went ahead and struck a cigar store Indian pose. Click-Snap… didn’t hurt a bit. I figured that we would end up on the “editing room floor,” with so many fine rides there. But a friend brought the good news, last week, that she saw us in the latest edition. Where can I get a copy? Ha!
Since folks had to walk a little bit to check out duh Bug, I would always suspect that I had some Lightnin’ admirers coming, each time a small mob of folks would head over our way. Many of them would giggle at my little bug, all hopped up on steroids; just trying to run with the big boys. I got to talk cars with friends from work, other club members, friends that I hadn’t seen in years; all amazed that I was a “bug guy.” And, of course, I had questions from others on bugs in general and I got a chance to promote our club to them.
I admired how the Policemen made good use of the trophy plaques. They were all blank (place) with an empty spot for a picture. Each time they called out a winner, a worker would place the proper sticker on it for the ranking. After the winner received it, they directed you to a table on the side. Give them your name and they would pull your car’s picture from the card file, organized by entry number (your picture included the entry number which was on a flip chart sort of thing in the picture). How did we do? Our club did pretty darn good. Sgt. Charlie Smith took 1st place in the VW class, John Paul Gates took 2nd, and I took 1st place in the Modified: Non-GM, Ford, or Chrysler class. All this on top of a great day with fine cars and fellow gear heads.
