June 19, 2023

‘DAYTRIPPER, YEAH’! SWEET RIDES AT GRAVENHURST CHAMBER CAR SHOW SATURDAY

GRAVENHURST — How do you tell if an old car is authentic — and not the sum of its bionic bumpers and headlamps?

It has the original white walls. That was the running joke Saturday at the Gravenhurst Chamber of Commerce Car Show. An auto erotic delight for dads on Father’s Day weekend.

I arrived in style for the show with good friends Brian Kendall and Bob Pomerantz — old newspaper buddies who can spot a fake from a fact.

Kendall picked us up at our homes in his 1989 Caprice, which belonged to his dad, Jack, and that he still has on the road. And chauffeured us up Bay Street shore to shore from Lake Muskoka to Gull Lake.

I left my 2019 “Silver Bullet” Malibu at home — though I did several other Malibu Barbies throughout the morning.

“For the record,” says Kendall, “my car is a 1989 Chevrolet Caprice, with a V8 engine, that purrs like an asthmatic kitten.”

I have to agree.

**This VW ‘Daytripper’ was one of the sweetest rides in the park Saturday, with enough room to live and let live inside.**

Kendall, editor of the Gravenhurst News’ Sandpiper summer paper in the 1970s, is a globe-trotting golf writer. Pomerantz produces PR videos. Both were magazine and newspaper writers in the city before being lured up the road to Muskoka by the cottage life of Clear Lake and Muskoka Lake respectively.

Among the first cohort of baby boomers they know their fin tales from their duck tails.

We didn’t actually “enter the show” — only foot; instead we opted to park in the YIG parking lot where the Caprice stood out in more pedestrian parking lot.

**If you were looking for great RPMs, you’d have found it on the hood of this green car, er a non-EV.**

Rotary Park was a field of dreams crammed in every corner between Gull Lake and Bethune Drive.

Hundreds of cars and trucks from every vintage, era and maker — and lots more than last year thanks to no Bracebridge car show on their main street Sunday.

Car enthusiasts and observers, like Brian Ferguson and Curtis Humber perched on the sidelines, called it one of their best in years as they watched them drive in in a steady stream until past noon.

Kids not yet born when even the two of the most modern “million-dollar models” were parked at third base were snapping Koda-chrome photos with smart-looking digital cameras.

From Model As and Ts to Rolls’ and Caddies, Ford Falcons, Volvos and a very interesting van-tastic VW ‘Daytripper’ had lovers looking every which way and still missing many makes and models.

And it wasn’t just dads — but moms and kids — who were admiring and dreaming of behind the wheels of these cool cars and fine rides.

Many of them — I’m happy to report — that had white walls.

The only thing missing was an electric car. Hopefully next year.