There will be dancing in the streets, crafts galore and more
cars than you can shake a dipstick at this weekend on Main Street
during the seventh annual Autumn Daze Car Show.
The weekend of events will kick off Saturday night with a
pre-show Dancin’ in the Street Saturday at Veterans Square. The
dance – with a DJ – starts at 6 p.m.
The theme of the entire weekend is “Ain’t That America,” a
tribute to the United States four years to the day after the 9/11
bombings.
Gary Hoy, one of the organizers with the Street Dreams Car Club,
said there will also be Jake’s hot dogs and beverages available at
the dance.
Hoy added there will be a couple members of the Pace Car Club of
America at the dance. Members of this club buy cars that were used
to lead laps at the Daytona 500.
The fun will continue on Sunday with the car show.
Registration will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the show
will run from 1 to 4 p.m.
Hoy explained the show will be red, white and blue – a “total
patriotic show.”
The first 250 cars registered will receive flags to put on their
antennas, Hoy said. The first few hundred cars will also get dash
plaques with last year’s winner on it.
All of the decorations will be red, white and blue, too.
“We went all out on this,” he said. “It should be fantastic … if
you don’t have goosebumps, you’ll have tears.”
Organizers will also light an eternal flame that will stay lit
throughout the entire show.
“I hope spectators other than car show people come down,” Hoy
said. “Bring a lawn chair … it shouldn’t be missed.”
Each year, organizers try to pick a theme, such as “Taking Care
of Business and “The Way We Were.”
“We always have a theme around it,” Hoy said.
Hoy said that the year of the terrorist attack, they had planned
the theme to be a spin-off of the Laugh-in Show. Then, in four
days, they changed the theme to patriotism.
“After Christa Scheler sings “The Way We Were,” we go back to
pretty much the way we were,” Hoy said, adding two-thirds of the
show will be patriotic and the other third will have old-type rock
and roll songs.
There will be Karaoke music and live singing by performers –
Scheler, Keven Abbott, Elizabeth Fesenmyer, Tubby Colella, Jack
Ellis and Ray Preiss. The show will also include a Blues Brothers
act and Kathy O’Mara will play songs on the organ.
Trophies will be awarded at 4 p.m.
A craft show will coincide with the car show, Main Street
Manager Diane DeWalt said.
DeWalt said that 20 vendors will be located in the new parking
area behind National City Bank.
She said there will be handouts about the stores and restaurants
open.
“There will be a pretty good selection of things,” she said,
adding the patriotic theme will run throughout the food court area
on Chambers Street.
Hoy said even the gasoline crisis in the country could affect
the show.
“Every show is a little smaller than the previous year. It’s
certainly a concern.”
But according to pre-registration, the show could be larger than
last year – as much as 350 cars.
“In my mind, we are guaranteed 200. That’s a nice car show.
Anything over that is a gift.”
There will also be a Lil’ Miss Street Dreams contest. The winner
will be crowned at the show, with a 1940s-style police car bringing
the winner’s name to the stage, accompanied by “Barbie,” Bradford
City Police Sgt. Mike Close and Don Thierman, owner of the police
car.
The new Lil’ Miss Street Dreams attends various functions and
parades. All proceeds from the contest are donated to the
Make-A-Wish Foundation.
