The summertime is the right time for hopping in the cab of your truck and hitting the road, but unfortunately there's a million different events all going on at the same time. A case in point was the weekend of June 21, the first week of summer when the MSRA folks were throwing their 36th annual Back to the '50's event. On the same date out in California, not more than 10 miles away from our Placentia offices, the 27th annual F-100 Western Nationals were taking place, and just a little farther north, the L.A. Roadsters were holding their 45th annual show. It was a shame to miss 'em but Tim Bernsau and I had been talking about hitting Back to the '50's for some time, so we decided this year was going to be the year we went. What a great time we had, it was like climbing into a time machine and going back 50 years in time.
Back to the '50's Weekend is held on the 320-acre grounds of the Minnesota State Fair which opened for the first time on September 7, 1885, so as one can imagine there's a lot of great old buildings, and established landscaping to make it the perfect venue to hold over 100,000 attendees and over 11,500 vehicles. For information about next year's show please check out www.msra.com.
Here's "Wings" Kalahan, the...
Here's "Wings" Kalahan, the voice of Hot Rod Radio in front of his '38 Chevy set up to haul his 40-foot mobile radio station. The Cruisn' with Wings show went nonstop all weekend long and was the perfect rock 'n' roll catalyst to trigger massive amounts of nostalgia. Longtime friend "Big Daddy" Roth striped the flames on Wings' '38 in 1994, good stuff Maynard!
From Lakes Country MN, Jamie...
From Lakes Country MN, Jamie Gjersvig rolled up in his Torch Red '52 Chevy by Frazee Auto Body, powered by a souped-up 235-inch Chevy Stovebolt.
Power parts include a Fenton...
Power parts include a Fenton split exhaust and dual-carb intake manifold with an HEI robbed out of an '84 292-inch GM truck motor.
Dale McBain's '46 Chevy is...
Dale McBain's '46 Chevy is sporting Moon "Cool" eyes, a design penned on a napkin by pinstriper Lator Fator while having lunch with Dean Moon.
Dean liked the design so much...
Dean liked the design so much he went straight to the printer and cranked out a bunch of decals with dirty artwork.
We could have shot Brock Shimon's...
We could have shot Brock Shimon's aqua and white '56 GMC extended cab from Corcoran, MN, for a full feature if the interior had been done.
By done we mean finished,...
By done we mean finished, so maybe we'll catch Brock at next year's show.