Creswell hosted its monthly Cars and Coffee show on Saturday, Sept. 1. The show brings out community members and individuals from surrounding areas. ALIYA HALL/THE CRESWELL CHRONICLE
It’s been said that everyone has a story, and when it comes to becoming involved in old cars and car shows – that statement rings even truer.
For Steve Burnette, car shows automatically give participants a sense of togetherness and a commonality to talk about.
”It’s fun,” he said. ”Talking to people about their cars and meeting people. Everyone has a story about their car. You hear often, ‘My dad had one of those’ or ‘I had one as a kid.’”
Burnette said he always wanted a 1957 Chevrolet Belair since the moment he saw his first Chevy. He bought it four years ago for a 65th birthday present to himself, and he said his wife had insisted he buy it because she knew how much he had wanted it. He found it in his hometown in Virginia, and had it shipped out to Creswell, where he now lives.
Since getting the car he’s been to about 100 shows, and goes to one every Saturday. He said he always loved old cars, but he wasn’t interested in shows before he had his own car.
Amy Haugland didn’t used to be interested in cars at all until her partner, Alex, turned her onto them. It wasn’t until he bought a ”beautiful” classic jaguar that they said it went uphill – or arguably downhill they joked, since their collection has grown tremendously.
Her classic, plum Fiat 124 is proof of that. She had been looking into modern Fiat 124 convertibles, but when the couple met a collector to look at a car for Alex, he spotted the classic -a style he preferred to the modern because it felt those were too heavy.
”It’s a fun car,” she said. ”It’s as old as I am; we were born the same year. It’s easy to put the top on and off by yourself, and it’s been great.”
The car has only had a little bit of restoration, but it is still in its original paint color.
