Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of More Cars: The Shakedown 2016: A Buffet for the Senses

About this time last year, I went to an awesome car show. Big surprise, right? This one wasn't your normal show though. It was a hot rod and custom show that only allowed period correct modifications and pre-'65 models. They judge you at the door and decide whether of not your car passes as a custom or hot rod. I think they even had a minimum of two modifications. If you didn't pass, they had a lot outside the show near the swap meet where you could still show your car and your new "kicked out" sticker. The setting was a cool historic living history museum kind of town, so you got to see all kinds of cool stuff while wandering through the cool cars. They even had a spot where you could pull on your classic camper behind your classic custom and stay on-site. All in all, it was a pretty neat experience in the town of Symco, Wi, at the Symco Shakedown.

Then the people who run the show decided it was growing too big for the little town of Symco, so for 2016, they moved the Shakedown to the Pioneer Airstrip at EAA in Oshkosh. The town didn't like all that revenue being taken out, so they decided to keep holding the Symco Shakedown anyway... on the same weekend... This creates a problem; which do you go to? One of the swap meet vendors said to me, "it's like having divorced parents and choosing who to see on Christmas... It's not fair to us." I think a petition is in order to get one of them to change dates. Who doesn't want to go see two of those kinds of shows?!

This one was sealed away in a basement for 50 years and put back on the road with all the original parts!

Yesterday, I opted for the Shakedown at EAA because it's way closer. It was cool, and the cars we're cooler. A really neat aspect was the old time airport and the few old planes that they were giving rides in. Not only did you have sweet cars that sometimes moved and sounded cool, but you also had the planes taking off and landing and looking awesome and sounding cool. There were times when I felt like I was in an old movie or just back in time. Add a little fog and darkness and Cary Grant, and it's Casablanca all over again.

For $75, you too could ride the big tri-motor plane.

While the airstrip was cool, the rest of the show was basically a park. It was neat to see the cars, but it wasn't Symco cool. I'm glad I went to the show to see how it was, but I feel like next year I'll have to go back and see how Symco is doing under "new management."

I will say though, there were three cars that stood out to me as being really awesome and made a solid case for being on The List. There was a '58 Fairlane that was fully redone and beautiful, a '32 Ford Roadster that was sealed away in a basement for 50 years, and a '32 Coupe that I didn't get a shot of, but it was brown, had all the hood, no fenders, and had a stance like a salt flat hot rod. It would be very hard for me to not daily either of the '32s if I owned them.

When I was in high school, after I got my '64 Fairlane, I thought it would be cool to get all the generations of Fairlanes.

I would drive the wheel off this thing.

I've been thinking about this more and more recently, and shows like this don't help; I think I'm going to sell my precious Crown Vic and put the money from that towards something old to daily. I've got the Bronco for winter driving, so I could park whatever I get in the winter and have it be a more dedicated summer ride. Life is just better in old steel.