CRESTVIEW — Forty-three of Detroit's classic and more recent products were joined by one vehicle each from Wolfsburg and Hiroshima to complete the Okaloosa School Nutrition Association's inaugural car show.
Vehicle registration fees and sales of lunch plates, combined with bounce house admission tickets, raised $1,200 for the association's scholarship fund and continuing education efforts.
"We had 45 cars! Isn't that awesome for the first car show?" organizer Lynn Rogers, Crestview High School’s cafeteria manager, said. "Everybody said it was going to rain but it just turned out to be a perfect day. It was fun. We had a good time."
Vehicles lining the high school's front parking lot ranged from souped-up 1930s roadsters to 1950s sedans with gleaming chrome bumper bullets and hood ornaments.
Classic cars from the ’60s included the Rogers family's 1967 Plymouth Satellite, a pair of vintage Mustangs, a yellow Thunderbird, and a Mercury Cougar.
A Pepto-Bismol pink early-’60s Volkswagen Bug and a 1989 Mazda B2200 truck converted to a low rider, just barely off the parking lot, attracted car buffs who munched barbecue sandwiches and hotdogs while strolling from car to car.
Newer entries included a late-model Trans Am with an ultra-detailed paint scheme made to look as if the sleek car was peeling off its factory skin to unveil the beast lurking within.
A vintage 1950s T-bird, several Corvettes, including a classic 1967 Stingray, and a 1978 Chevy Malibu with a stuffed white tiger reposed on its roof drew approving gazes.
The association plans to make the car show an annual event, a precursor to the April Spanish Trail Cruisers Club's yearly Average Joe Car Show.
The crowd pleased organizers, who learned some lessons for next year’s show, Rogers said.
“Next year, we know we're going to do a little more advertising,” she said.
Contact News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at 850-682-6524 or brianh@crestviewbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: First school nutrition association car show nets $1,200