July 5, 2021

HOT RODDERS DRIVEN BY DREAMS OF CANADIAN GRAFFITI

GRAVENHURST — Hot rodders hangin’ out on main street.

Bet you haven’t seen that since … well — the ’50s.

If you were alive then — or maybe on TV or in the movies.

Certainly not streaming.

But here it was — back again — Saturday night on Muskoka Road.

Dave Samler, Steven Benson, Jason Fick, just three Gravenhurst guys and some car buff groupies gathered under cover of moonlight.

In a bank parking lot where decades ago once there was an old car lot.

If this was the 1950s and ’60s that would have meant a row of new cars and gas pumps.

Or a decade later a forgettable chicken shack.

**Dave Samler stands in front of his ’69 Charger, with Steve Benson and his ’67 C-10 Chevy pickup and Jason Fick and his 1930 Model A put on a hot rod show Saturday night.**

But out front lit by only Neon, Samler’s ’69 Charger, Benson’s ’67 C-10 Chevy and Fick’s ’30 Model A looked like the movie set of “American Graffiti” — an eerie contrast on a warm summer’s long weekend.

A row of raw, red and orange power parked bumper to bumper for the emerging pandemic world to see and admire.

You could hear ‘The General’s’ horn — if you wanted, said Samler.

Or “not!”

We chose the latter.

Benson’s Chevy sat snug between something old and something new with enough cargo space to compete with what was under the hood.

Fick’s Model A was an A-1, first class classic.

Hot wheels, for sure.

They looked like the front row on a starting line of the Gravenhurst Indy, drawing the dreamy looks of passing modern motorists.

Including a taunting red convertible with an older couple giving glancing glares at them as they circled the block before descending defeated down Bay Street and off in to the western sky.

In the PPE (pre-pandemic era) nights and shows like this would dot little downtowns day and night.

Now F1s and F-150s have given way to “F9,” the latest of the “Fast and Furious” movie franchise that caters to killer cars and high-octane actors sadly sans Paul Walker.

**Dave Samler and friends compare car and truck notes and the latest news on the PPE2.**

In Muskoka in the midst of a soon-to-be PPE2 (post-pandemic era) a few hot rodders resting on their un-rusty laurels will have to suffice.

It beats driving through the McDonalds or Hortons drive-thrus.

In the old Canadian graffiti days they’d be parked at a drive-in diner. And having malts delivered to your car doors by waitresses on wheels who also moonlighted as roller derby competitors on off-nights.

On this night, at this hour the cast of the past was parked in reverse.

Watch for them another night when you dash for cash at the ATM (ed. note: automatic transmission?).

Or if you want to join them — there’s plenty of room on the oldies road and in the PPE2 parking lot.

It could be your good fortune of wheels.