Vintage Cars Bring Back Memories

The guests were a little late and people were starting to wonder.

“Are they coming?” asked an elderly woman in the lobby at the Riverview Retirement Center. “The antique cars?”

Shrugs said no one knew.

Out by the back parking lot, a dozen or so people stood under the bright Sunday afternoon sun, waiting. There was something dispirited about the silent scene. Had these old folks been stood up? It seemed sort of like a weird TV commercial. You know, “This is what life is like without Pepsi” or something.

Then an excited voice changed everything. “They’re coming!”

And 15 shiny vintage autos driven by members of a Ford restoration club pulled in, parking side-by-side.

At first, nobody seemed quite sure what to do. It was reminiscent of the scene in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” when the alien emerges from the spaceship and everybody stands around gawking.

But before long retirement center residents and others moved in to check out the vehicles, most of which were from the ‘30s and ‘40s. Soon car talk was hitting on all cylinders.

“I had one like that. Mine was a two-door.”

“It’s a fortysomething.”

“I remember when I was a kid … “

“A rumble seat!”

“Today, they all look the same.”

“We had one where the spare tire went into a slot.”

“What about the upholstery?”

“This must be a ‘35.”

“Nostalgia, nostalgia.”

“No thanks, I’ll keep my Toyota.”

“Vernon had one like this.”

“Was it ‘37 when they started putting the hard top on them?”

“The tires were so much bigger.”

“How come they’re all Fords?”

“Like those running boards?”

“Sure wasn’t much room inside.”

“I guess we all drove them at one time or another.”

“The first car we ever owned was . . . “

“I want this convertible.”

“I didn’t see a for-sale sign on any of them.”

“I’d drive it off, but I don’t have a license anymore.”

“Nice paint job.”

A woman with white hair and a terrific smile gestured toward a sedan that looked like it belonged in an oldtime gangster movie. She stood by a front fender and made a patting motion with her hand but didn’t actually touch the car. “Really something, isn’t it?” she said. “Nice to see something this old treated with such care and respect.”

, DataTimes MEMO: Being There is a weekly feature that visits gatherings in the Inland Northwest.