Restoring family car, preserving memories
Staff writer
The Route 56 Classic Cruisers Car Show on Saturday attracted 58 cars, pickup trucks, and motorcycles to Memorial Park in Hillsboro.
“It’s a great showing,” organizer Kim Abrahams said.
He said the show had one of the biggest varieties he had seen in Hillsboro, with entries ranging from antiques to newer muscle cars. He was especially pleased with the turnout because there were also car shows in Wichita, Hutchinson, and Mulvane the same day.
Some of the visitors came traveled as much as 100 miles, but others were local.
Joe Alvarez of Hillsboro showed his 1974 Dodge Charger SE.
“We bought it in 1978 from Dean Schroeder’s when I worked there,” Alvarez said. “It was our family car for years.”
In recent years he and his wife, Barb, decided it was time to do something with the car or sell it.
“It has sentimental value,” he said. “The wife and I both graduated in ’74. That’s one of the reasons I kept it.”
Alvarez told a visitor who was admiring the Charger that he has a “Dukes of Hazzard”-style car horn for it that plays the first line of the song “Dixie,” but it isn’t hooked up. Like Alvarez’s car, the General Lee from “The Dukes of Hazzard” was a Dodge Charger.
Alvarez’s Charger still has its original color, an orange-tinged red. There is still some work to be done, as Alvarez waits for a white top for the car.