I think when we were young, guys just gravitated to cars. They were a status symbol when you were a teenager, it provided you a freedom you had never experienced before.

Being able to go where you want, when you want, without having to ask your parents for a ride. And some of the cars that came out in the sixties and seventies were very macho, muscle cars if you will.

I still remember getting my learners license at 14 in Florida and driving my parents 61 T-Bird, with a required parent or adult in the passenger seat. When I turned 16 I got my first car, a 1961 Ford Fairlane.

No adults were required now, and the fun started to happen. Cruising through the Burger King where everybody cool hung out. It was the thing to do.

I never had the opportunity when I was young to own one of those muscle cars. I did get to drive one once, it was my Brothers 66 Chevy II SS, 327 and 4 on the floor. That car was fire engine red and ran like a bat out of hell.

I took pride at the time being able to identify most any car on the road, whether it was a 50’s or 60’s model, I knew them all. And I certainly enjoyed the 70’s models too, it was an era of automobiles that was as cool as the 50s and 60s, and it was my first full decade of car ownership.

We still had awesome automobiles come out in the 80s through today. But they just don’t have the same nostalgic feel of the eras when I was growing up.

They have created many great features that we would have never imagined back in the day, heated seats, rear cameras, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and totally rad sound systems.

In the old days it was style and muscle that made cars sexy, today it’s more about the bells and whistles offered by the manufacturer. I think that’s one reason so many of us like visiting classic car shows. Taking us back to the days of simplicity, and sexy powerfully fast cars.

And in those days, there was no plastic used in the car body, something you see a lot of today. They were literally tanks in the earlier days.

Of course we were paying 25 cents for a gallon of gas, so all the extra weight did not matter. You could literally put a dollar's worth of gas in your car and drive for the rest of the day.

I thought the car show at Fitzgerald Park had a lot of great variety in vehicles for us to enjoy. I hope you like the gallery. Honestly I’m not an expert on classic cars, but I know quite a bit about most of them that have been manufactured in my lifetime.

If it came out earlier than the 1950’s I don’t have a lot of ability to provide details. But I did my best identifying all the cars in the gallery, but some descriptions are basic, as I was not able to find more information. Enjoy!

Classic Car Show at Fitzgerald Park Grand Ledge

One of the most exciting collections of classic cars gathered in one place - 76 cars to view

 

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