Of Mice and Motors…at Lum and Abner Car Show

Hey you. Yeah you. The person with the classic car or truck in the garage. The one sitting there that looks like a million bees tried to pollinate it. You should wash that classic and enter it in the Lum and Abner Car Show on June 8th.

I’m going to go into a small rant here. There are a lot of you. A LOT who own classic cars and trucks here in Polk County and you keep your ride all to yourself. Sure you take it out for a drive when the weather is just right so that not a drop of water has a chance to touch the paint or undercarriage, but why don’t you get that car out more often?! What good is it doing sitting in the garage? Wash it. Show it!

As mentioned, Mena and the surrounding area have lots of classic cars and trucks. A few years back an article online about trucks named Mena as a classic Chevy Truck Mecca. There are probably more classic cars and trucks for an area our size than anywhere else in the country.  But we hardly see them. Some classics are in decent condition and they sit in garages doing nothing but getting flat spots on the tires and becoming a cozy home for family of mice. Some are restored classics with tens of thousands of dollars invested, kept in a climate controlled garage with a fresh wax on the immaculate paint, and yet are hardly ever seen by the public.

This is the time for that to change. It doesn’t matter if your ride is a fully restored Super Sport Camaro or a truck that has seen better days, but your working on making it better, this is the time to get it out and let people see it!

Times have changed. Rough cars are welcomed at shows now. Survivors, barn finds, daily drivers that are classics. A few dents, some rust. It doesn’t matter. Every car or truck has a story to tell. A background that makes it interesting. This is the new part of classic car ownership that makes it even more interesting and fun. My truck is a 1971 Chevy C10. There is nothing special about it. It was used on a soybean farm near Stuttgart for over 20 years until the owner sold it to his grandson in the early 90’s. He puttered around the farm in it for the next 20 years until I came along. I’m now the 3rd owner. It’s nowhere near great shape. It has rust, unreliable wiring, no carpet, holes in the seat and it looks like it was painted by Stevie Wonder. But, I’ll still bring the truck out to the Lum and Abner Car Show. I’ll bring it out to show the public my faded green beauty and to support the festival. Let’s not forget that supporting the festival and Lions Club is important as well.

The Lum and Abner Car Show could be called our show for locals. Sure locals enter the Rod Run too, but that show has loads of entrants from out of the area. Lum and Abner as a car show is smaller and it’s our chance to get together and talk shop with like-minded locals. So make plans. Get your car wash soap and chamois ready and get that classic out of the garage and to the Lum and Abner Car Show on Saturday, June 8th at Janssen Park. If you don’t, I hope the mice have babies.

By Jamie Hammack, a somewhat reformed Hot Rodder and publisher of The Polk County Pulse.

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Jeri Pearson

Jeri is the News Director for Pulse Multi-Media and Editor of The Polk County Pulse. She has 10 years of experience in community focused journalism and has won multiple press association awards.

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