Back to the 50's Weekend

I have to confess, I love old stuff.  Old cars, old tractors, old WWII airplanes.  Few places are as fun to poke around in as a forgotten attic or an estate sale.  Anyway, Grandpa B. and I spent the day at the State Fairgrounds for the Back to the 50's Weekend.  I hear about this every year and always think about going, but never do.  If you haven't, it's quite a trip back in time.  An estimated 11,000 vehicles were there, and they were seriously crammed into every nook and cranny that would hold a car or truck.  I was reflecting on the way home that I have a very hard time imagining a "Back to the 2000's Weekend" in the future.

A good place to begin ... Grandpa loves his fire trucks.

A cherry-red '57 Chevy graced the Crysteel building.  Nice touch!
On second thought, this might be a '55.  The grill doesn't look quite right for a '57.

How awesome it would have been to head up to the lake for the weekend in this De Soto.

Don't remember for certain but I think this was a '61 Impala that someone coated with blackboard paint, and left boxes of chalk for people to scribble with.  Look to the lower left.

Grandpa was reflecting that he had a '46 Dodge pickup as a youth, and hauled garbage for 50 cents a load.  The following are a series of '46 Dodge pickups with varying versions of TLC.  Okay I just noticed that last one was a Chevy.  Well you get the idea.

Grandpa B. reports that in their dating days, Grandma B. drove a Mercury Montclair WAY too fast on the streets in Luverne.  The next couple are well-tended examples of that model.

After the '46 Dodge, Grandpa upgraded to a '63 Impala in Honduras Maroon.  There was a mint-condition example present.  The last two in this set also show a '63 Impala in the same color, but in the SS model.

Particularly intriguing were the "rat rods," the street rods for which looking terrible is a matter of pride.  It might be hard to see but the rod below has brats grilling over the manifold.  A stuffed fox under the front wheel was made to twitch, which had one youngster quite fascinated.

The banjo is made with barbed wire and a bedpan.

The ECTO-1!  Okay, not THE ECTO-1, but AN ECTO-1.  Close enough!

Something I hadn't paid much attention to before were the oak-lined truck boxes.  These were absolutely gorgeous.  Totally inappropriate for hauling brush.

I think a guy who was with us had designs on this fascinating Chevy truck/Ford roadster combo.

City of Stillwater police car, complete with CB radio.

"Say Barney, I heard they was headed up to Mount Pilot"

If you have seen "The Rum Diaries" you might remember an entertaining chase scene in this freak of vehicular nature.  One cylinder, 40 MPG, top speed 53 MPH, made by BMW.

Last but not least, the station wagons.  The Chevy Nomad, the Bel Air wagon, the Mercury Monterey, and I don't recall what the last one was but it looks to be a Chevy as well.  Dana has wished for a Traverse to haul the family around in, but I think we'll need to convince her to go for one of these.  Yeah the Traverse has all the modern conveniences, but one of these rides would be WAY COOLER.