Yes, I can prove that old saying wrong because the All Seasons Ann Arbor retirement community provided grilled food for residents and car owners at their annual car show. A DJ spun Motown music and a photographer searched for the perfect Kodak Moments. Both were provided by Diallo of Perfect Day Productions.
Entrance to All Seasons Retirement Home
Retirement homes don’t usually have much action, but this isn’t your run-of-the-mill old folk’s home. All Seasons has an awesome sports bar that fills up with fans on game days, a baby grand piano for residents and guests to play, and a library equal to one found in an English professor’s home.
The silver-haired crowd is made up of people that have been collecting their social security checks for a while, but they’re active, friendly, and like to socialize.
I happen to know about this place because my mom has been checking it out since it opened. She knows more about it than the salespeople, yet they keep inviting her to special events, hoping she’ll move in. So far it’s a money losing strategy.
Occasionally, mom invites me to join her at these promotional events. The wine tasting activity was my favorite. They probably didn’t expect to have a guest that could almost single handedly keep the bartender busy. Do what 2BukChuk does – take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way.
For the free lunch, I drove my 1970 Datsun 1600 to the show, and it gathered a lot of smiles and comments from the crowd. I also discovered it’s a chick magnet for women over 75 years old. So, if you’re an older, single man looking to buy my car, the price has gone up!
There were other cars, including a number of corvettes from the Road Masters Vette Club of Michigan. This 501c organization was founded by Rick Williams (Mr. Rick), Ron Johnson (Ice), and Donald Jinx (Jinx). They don’t just polish up those Corvettes for shows, they sponsor events to raise money for people and organizations in their community. Check them out online and donate if you can.
Members of the Road Masters Vette Club of Michigan
I met Dick, one of the residents at All Seasons. He brought his 1966 Plymouth Satellite 426 Hemi to the show. I’ve not seen a Satellite Hemi but then I’m not really the most observant person at times. So, I used my backup brain and Googled it. This is what I found on the internet: “Plymouth managed to sell 35,399 of them (Satellites) but just 817 were Hemi equipped – making this a very rare car!”
I had a hunch that’s what I would find. Dick has had the car for over 28 years and he’s not parting with it anytime soon. His wife won’t let him! I didn’t want to push it but she might let him go before she lets that car go…So nobody’s goin’ nowhere, and that’s true love.
There was a beautiful 1999 metallic blue Cobra replica at the show. It was built in South Africa and shipped to the original owner, who resided in Sonoma County, California. The current owner is the brother of the original owner. It’s not unusual to have cars kept in families for long periods of time.
The nearest I came to that experience was when my brother drove out to visit me in his 1967 Dodge Coronet while I was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base. He kept a case of transmission fluid in the trunk and every time he filled up with gas, he added a quart of fluid to the tranny. Instead of driving it back to Michigan, he traded me the leaky car for an airline ticket home. He got the best part of that deal.
When I transferred out of Texas, I gave that car to another airman for a couple of cases of beer. That time I got the best part of the deal!
Where was I? The Cobra. It won the Best in Class trophy by 2 votes. There’s a great story behind this car, and I’m hoping the owner will submit it to digmycar.com. I don’t know who came in second, but I’d like to believe it was my Datsun roadster. Or else it isn’t such a chick magnet after all.
Well, I was too busy eating, talking, and looking at cars to vote. It was a close call between that Hemi Satellite, the Cobra, and the yellow Vette. I really dug that bright yellow Corvette, though.
That’s about it for the car show. Even if you don’t have a car to show, it’s always fun to check out the cars and people. For many of us, especially seniors, seeing them brings back memories of the past, hopefully good ones! And sometimes that nostalgia motivates one to find your own classic car. Bring it to the car show and you might even get a free lunch!
Fear Nada, 2BukChuk