Peaches and Chrome
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No comments [ Add Comment ]By NANCY VAN VALKENBURG
Standard-Examiner staff
A little before dusk outside Brigham City's Peach City Drive-In, and Don Byington was searching for words to explain his passion for owning and restoring antique cars.
Did he buy his cream-colored 1940 Chevy Coupe because he was nostalgic for simpler times? Was the car a fulfillment of a burning teen dream? Did he seek an automotive symbol for power and freedom? Or was the reason his appreciation of the elegance of vintage design?
A honk from a passing SUV broke the tension.
"Yeah, man!" yelled a tanned teenage boy in a muscle shirt, leaning out of the passenger seat, making a fist and flexing his arm to signal approval of a row of vintage cars. "Yeah!"
That pretty much answers the question. For the aforementioned reasons and many more, classic cars seem to have a primal appeal that leaps over time and generational lines.
"I grew up in this town," said Byington, now 58 and a Farr West resident. "We used to sleep in the front yard, and we picked out what all the cars were, going by. I grew up that way. A lot of us did, and a lot of us stuck with it."
Byington and wife Pam, 49, were at the drive-in Wednesday of last week for a meeting of the Bonnevills Car Club, devoting this biweekly gathering to planning the Peach Days car show. The show is one of the biggest in Utah, drawing 700 to 800 show cars in an average year.
Peach Days, which includes a full schedule of parades, entertainment and activities today and Saturday, can attract as many as 75,000 visitors to the quiet town of about 18,000. The Bonnevills Rod and Custom Car Show runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
"He bought it because I wanted it," said Pam Byington, motioning toward the Chevrolet. "I always wanted a 'fat fender' (design). It's so cool. I always loved it."
"We were newlyweds," Don Byington explained, shrugging his shoulders.
Truth is, the two have a '64 Nova, a '55 Buick and a '53 Chevy at home.
"The kids have some, too," Don Byington said. "I've been into cars since I was 14 or so, and my family is, too."
Pam Byington said she should have been born a decade earlier.
"My favorite movie is 'Grease,' " she said. "I love the cars. I love the music. I'm old-fashioned. My iPod is full of '50s music."
Byington joined the Bonnevills as a young man, and remembers the seriousness of the club's creators.
"You used to get fined for dirty cars, or for getting traffic tickets," he said. Fines were $5 to $10, and for added punishment, rule breakers could not display their club plaques in the car.
But even Byington cannot answer the question of why the founders dropped the "e" in Bonneville.
"We all figure they just couldn't spell," he said.
The club now
These days, the 35-member club is more about camaraderie, leisurely trips to historic drive-ins and along beautiful country roads, and a shared appreciation for restored or modified classic cars.
<25CF> Rholand Lange, 76, of Brigham City, drives a shiny black '36 Ford coupe with a rumble seat. And if you don't stop him, he'll tell you about the f's had in rumble seats.
"I worked on it 13 years before I took it to a show," said Lange, a retired engineer, of his car.
"It cost me $500 back in 1973, and a man delivered it to me on a flatbed, in parts. It costs thousands to restore, but if I sold it, it would bring about $50,000 to $60,000. But I will never sell it. A man in Detroit saw it in an article, and called me for five years. He said everything had a price. This car doesn't."
Lange will show a second car, a '51 Mercury four-door sedan, radically customized to be a convertible, at the Peach Days show.
<25CF> Ed Quinlan, 35, drives a 1968 Cadillac Eldorado, with gold exterior and upholstery. He bought it from the estate of a doctor who had many cars, so the mileage was low and restoration was unnecessary.
There is one catch.
"It gets about nine miles to the gallon," said Quinlan, with a laugh. "Luckily, I only live about five miles from work."
Quinlan, president of the Bonnevills Car Club, works as a marketing executive for ChemDry's Logan headqua.
"If I'm going to have an old car, I want to drive it around town," he said.
<25CF> Mickey Waters, 50, of Brigham City, has owned his '68 Camaro for more than 20 years.
"It usually sits in the garage," he said. "I'm too scared to drive it. I paid $1,000 and I did every bit of the restoration except some machine work. It took eight years."
Waters said he fell in car love at age 10.
"As soon as I was 16, I bought one," he said, straightening his low gray ponytail. "I like '67, '68 and '69 Camaros, and I've owned 50 of them. My favorite is '68."
Waters, who owned a body shop for 18 years, has made some money restoring and selling Camaros.
"I've still got five," he said. "All '68s."
<25CF> Bruce Griego, a 62-year-old Clearfield resident, drives a '56 Chevy Bel Air, in white and metallic cherry red.
"I've owned 1955s, '56s and '57s, but 1956 is the year they got the chrome split perfect for a two-tone," he said. "I was about 10 when it came out. I've always loved the beauty of old cars."
Griego owns a 2007 Chevd a 2004 Monte Carlo for everyday use. Still, he usually ends up riding one of his Harleys.
<25CF> Bernie Poelzl, 57, of Brigham City, believes his vintage car hobby helped him bond with his stepson.
"We gave Brenden a '67 Camaro when he was 14," said Poelzl, who works at ATK Launch Systems Group (formerly called Morton-Thiokol). "He was too young to drive, but we figured he would get excited about it, and he did. He fixed it up, and I helped."
A favorite among Poelzl's own vintage cars is a '68 Corvette, in burgundy.
"I love the sound and feel of old cars," he said. "I love the way they handle. I like to relive the memories of those years. That dates me, but it's the case with all of us. Plus, it's a girl magnet."
Wife Paula, 44, gave him a playful swat on the stomach.
"I didn't even know you had it when I met you," she said, in mock indignation. "It was in the garage. And you better not be in the market for girls."
"I'm not," Poelzl said, putting his arm around Paula's shoulders. "I've got my gi
