The 35th Annual Lemay Car Show

Many, many fully-restored, shiny, machines. TOO shiny in fact... and difficult to photograph.

A couple of friends from Virginia, Janet and Pat Monroe, have been traveling out to volunteer at the Lemay Car Show in Tacoma, Washington since 1996, so we thought we would stop in and check it out. And we were pleasantly surprised!  Not only was it great to hang out with Janet and Pat for a few hours, but we saw some pretty nifty things. We took the abridged, whirlwind tour of the collections. It would probably take years to fully take it all in.

There are so many cars, they are literally stacked on top of each other!

Tess in front of this years featured car: the extremely rare 1948 Tucker

Pat, Janet, and us.

Pat working hard... or hardly working?    : )

The Lemay Car Show, although it has its fair share of cars, is more than just a car show. It truly is a collection of collections: cars, motorcycles, bike, antiques, toys, and many other random items. It was collected by the family of Harold LeMay, and has grown and kind of split into a separate entity which runs the very recently opened America's Car Museum. 

I think our favorite group was the teardrop trailers. Tess has been trying to convince me to agree to help her build one, and seeing them in person might have assured that one of these awesome little trailers is in our future.  It would be a fun (although intense) project.

Two different, but equally awesome teardrop trailers.

I also really liked this collection of brass hose fittings. Maybe it is just the fact that there are so many different hose fittings that all to do the same thing… or that someone thought to collect them… but I thought this display case was cool.

A lot of brass hose fittings. A LOT.

The event is partially held on the grounds of an old military school purchased by the family, where they house the long-distance volunteers throughout the event. Since Janet and Pat have been volunteering at the show since 1996, and travel so far, they get the ‘master bed and bath’, which are pretty nice accommodations for FREE! In addition to giving us the inside scoop on everything, and pretty much giving us a personal guided tour, they gave us the VIP tour of the grounds.

We were quite lucky to see so much, and get the extended experience on our first visit! It is amazing how much knowledge of this collection they have acquired, and it was quite cool to have them share so much history and so many facts with us throughout the day.

Greenwood Car Show

Although this was the 20^th anniversary of the Greenwood Car Show, it is possible that the show has never had such a pristine setting; Greenwood just got a much needed face-lift when the city repaved the main drag and all the major streets of our quaint little neighborhood.

I cannot express how much having brand-new streets, sidewalks, crosswalks, and bike lanes adds to the look and feel of this neighborhood. Thank you Seattle! In the few months we have lived here, we have seen dramatic changes in our perception of Greenwood: it is certainly an “up-and-coming” area of Seattle.

Anyway.. asides aside…  The car show was impressive!

 

 

 There is something about the fuel-rich exhaust of old cars that smells like Americana; reminiscent of times where everything was seemingly infinite:  fossil fuels, the atmosphere as a pollutant sink, and (judging by the size of some of these ‘boats’),  the size of the average garage!

 

  

While there were many beautiful machines to drool over, I was particularly fond of this absolutely perfect, stunning Datsun 240z. I may be a bit biased as I have a special place in my heart for Datsuns; my first car was a 1979 Datsun 280z (fix-er-upper). 

Oh! I stopped by the LeMay Family Collection booth, to grab some literature, and struck up a conversation with a representative. I casually mentioned that I know a couple who fly-out from Virginia each year to volunteer and enjoy the Annual LeMay Car Show, and that I am planning to check it out, and lo and behold, she said. “You mean the Monroes? Janet and Pat!”  I was floored.  Stacy is the “jack-of-all-trades” for the Lemay foundation, and is in charge of coordinating the volunteers! What a crazy  lil’ small world we are living in!