{"id":419247,"date":"2016-01-21T01:22:36","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T09:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bangshift.com\/?p=419247"},"modified":"2016-01-21T20:28:41","modified_gmt":"2016-01-22T04:28:41","slug":"hop-in-the-hot-rod-time-machine-and-check-out-this-1980s-car-show-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bangshift.com\/bangshift1320\/hop-in-the-hot-rod-time-machine-and-check-out-this-1980s-car-show-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Hop In The Hot Rod Time Machine And Check Out This 1980s Car Show Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Words and\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>photos by Doug Gregory) –\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Blackwell is where I was born and raised and was also on the 2014 Drag Week path.\u00a0 That route took this impressive band of automobiles right down Highway 177 (Main Street) and past one of the sites where many Rod Runs were held\u00a0 \u2013 Memorial Park.\u00a0 Memorial Park was as much a fixture of my youth as was my home.\u00a0 An Olympic-size pool complete with a pair of small artillery guns out front and a miniature Statue of Liberty made it an icon of Americana.\u00a0 I took swimming lessons there until I was a teen and the city\u2019s \u2018main drag\u2019 ended in a turnout on an adjacent street.\u00a0 The other end of the \u2018main drag\u2019 was once at the old Sonic Drive-In then moved to the Wal-Mart parking lot after a sign was posted disallowing a left turn out of Sonic.\u00a0 All of these sites are featured in this series of photos from the 1980s.\u00a0 Blackwell is situated well inside Tornado Alley and has the distinction of being one of the relatively few cities to ever be hit by an F5 twister.\u00a0 Back in 1955 the wind passed through the East side of the town well after dark destroying over 400 homes, several businesses, and two large factories while killing 20 residents and injuring over 250.\u00a0 Time magazine made a short film about it that us kids got to watch in grade school. \u00a0 As you might expect I have a bit of knowledge about a few of these cars since some were part of the local club, the Streeters, which I was a member.\u00a0 Though it\u2019s a small town we certainly had no shortage of nice and interesting rides.<\/p>\n

A fixture in my life at the time was friend Dean McBride.\u00a0 Dean was a friend of the family and I began hanging out with him in my late teens.\u00a0 He taught (or tried to) me a lot and together we attended most of the events depicted in this series.\u00a0 He\u2019s a hotrodder from back in the 60s and together with the others of his vintage I heard a lot of stories and soaked up a bunch of information.\u00a0 Another local, Monty Doan, graduated high school with Dean and went on to earn an engineering degree followed by decades of employment with GM.\u00a0 He kept a small shop on the South end of town and from it some well-crafted creations emerged.\u00a0 Coincidentally his shop was just a stone\u2019s throw from the Jordan\u2019s which are mentioned in this series as well. \u00a0 I\u2019ll always remember the Corvette he\u2019s had since his college days.\u00a0 The two builds I remember most are a \u201948 Chevy pickup and a \u201939 LaSalle.\u00a0 Both featured Cadillac power trains, suspension, and other items from the marquee.\u00a0 Another well-established ride around town was Dexter Oldham\u2019s \u201934 Ford Pickup.\u00a0 His \u201934 had been in primer since before the first time I saw it as a much younger kid so the painted version was very welcome.\u00a0 He acquired a pair of un-built plastic models of it and asked me to build a before and after version.\u00a0 I did and when it came time to paint the body for the \u2018finished\u2019 version of the real thing he gave me a film canister full of the real-deal paint.\u00a0 Wonder what that half-ounce or so was worth\u2026?\u00a0 I had to fill in things like the front fender spare-tire well and fab a gas tank to match his new one which was stainless set flush with the back of the bed.\u00a0 I robbed a couple of different models for drive train parts (SBC), tires\/wheels, and other trinkets get make the \u2018mini-me\u2019 as accurate as possible.\u00a0 Wow that\u2019s been a long time ago.<\/p>\n

Enjoy this trip back to the 80s.<\/p>\n

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