Middletown >> Ask any member of a car club why they joined up with a group of fellow automotive enthusiasts and you’ll receive the same answer every time: the camaraderie. “We all love the cars so it’s a chance to share our hobby and passion with like-minded people,” said Mark Parode, President of the Clear Lake Car Club.
And in an effort to unite car restorers and those who love the two-lanes further, Parode and the Clear Lake Car Club decided to organize Rock ‘n Rods, a car show, dinner and dance at Twin Pine Casino in Middletown last weekend. For the first time ever, members of all five Lake County car clubs — Antique Automobile Club of America, Clearlake Car Club, Lake Lords, No Name Car Club and Lake County A’s — lined up their cars side by side for a showcase of classic chrome and steel.
No competitions were held and no trophies awarded. The weekend was for friendly conversation and intermingling only. It was the perfect way to kick off the car show season.
“The idea was to bring people in to have a chance for all of us to get together and to show the community this is who we are, these are our cars,” Parode said.
The show featured five cars from each of the local clubs. There was Parode’s fire-red 1968 GTO, a car he acquired 20 years ago but one he’d been lusting after since high school.
Dick Munger, the President of the Lake County A’s, a chapter of the Model A Ford Club of America, brought out a 1931 Model A Ford Coupe, the most restored car of all automobiles, which he began work on in 2000.
A 1967 GTO belonging to Don Whaley of the Lake Lords and No Name Car Club paid tribute to the year of Whaley’s graduation and his son’s birth. The car will be passed down to his son in the future.
For 25 years, Clear Lake Car Club member Don Martin has been working on his bright red one ton truck, which was landscaper’s pickup truck in its previous life. Two and a half decades later and the vehicle has won 200 trophies.
And Lake Lords Car Club President Joe Colabella displayed his turquoise 1956 El Camino, an especially unique vehicle considering El Caminos weren’t manufactured until 1959 — Colabella made his custom, removing the back of a Station Wagon to do so.
These vehicles and the others arrayed along the walls of the Twin Pine Event Center unite people of all walks of life, which is something special about car clubs. To join a club the only requirement is a passion for restoration. “You can have everything from an attorney to a ditch digger and that doesn’t matter,” explained Munger. The only important thing is the car, how it’s been spruced up and where it’s going.
Getting to know people who are experts in vintage cars also has some invaluable advantages when it comes to the restoration process. If someone runs into an issue they often can’t take their car to a dealer because the vehicle is too old. Instead, they turn to their fellow club members.
“If you’re not quite sure how to do it, I guarantee there are many in the club who already have and they’ll either tell you what to do or come over and help you do it,” said Munger. “There’s a lot of mutual assistance that goes on.”
Though trophies are common at car shows, and quite a few people in Lake County have prizes to their names, there’s no competition between members of the local car clubs — many people even belong to more than one. There’s monthly and weekly lunches and dinners and plenty of merriment to be had.
In fact, “club” might not be quite the right term to sum up the local car scene. Members are like extended family more than anything else. Parode told a story of the recent passing of a Clear Lake Car Club member, and how 30 club members attended her funeral, one of whom was asked to give the service.
Car clubs are also about giving back to the community through fundraisers and event attendance. No Name Car Club and Clear Lake Car Club sponsor a Little League team. After the Valley Fire 40 members of the Lake Lords took their cars to Cobb and handed out candy to displaced children.
But while there’s more than enough common ground between club members, one of the things they have differing preferences on is how often their beautifully restored cars should be driven. Some, such as Whaley and Parode, don’t take their cars to the open road often. Others feel that cars are made to be driven.
Munger’s Ford has been on the road since April of 2002. It has 27,000 miles on it. “The most fun is driving it,” Munger said. There’s something almost transcendent about the experience, like he actually is driving down a winding country road in 1931. “You go on the back roads, you see everything, you see it out that windshield. How many people have seen through this windshield, have seen this kind of view? It just takes you back. It has a lot of history to it. It’s a very different feeling from driving a new car.”
On the other hand, Whaley loves car shows for the conversations they foster. “Everybody’s got a story about their time with a ‘67 GTO,” he said. “It’s more about talking to people and meeting people and sharing stories with people.”
But no matter how often a car is driven, what model and make has been restored or which club someone belongs to, car enthusiasts will always agree — they love their shiny coats of paint and their perfectly restored engines from bygone ages.
“If I had a big enough living room I would probably put it there instead of a coffee table,” Parode said.
There were undoubtedly many, many others at Twin Pine Casino who felt the exact same way.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
