Bob Richardson always wanted to buy a Ford Fairlane like he had in high school. When he finally found one, it provided more than a link to his past: It helped him make friends.
Richardson had moved to the Albany area for his job and found it a little lonely.
I didn’t know anyone, he said.
That changed when he started going to car shows and cruises with his Fairlane. Richardson formed some close bonds with fellow car owners, which only tightened when Guptill’s Arena announced it was going to move the day it held its monthly cruises. The car club that was staging the cruises couldn’t do it on the new night, Richardson said, so he and his wife, Joan, decided to form a new club dedicated to keeping the Guptill’s cruises alive.
That club, the Capital District Cruisers, holds cruises at Guptill’s in Latham once a month during the summer. The next one is Monday, Aug. 9, from 4 to 9 p.m.
If you go, expect a crowd — Richardson said there are typically 600 to 700 cars and upwards of 5,000 spectators.
`I’ve lived a lot of places, and I’ve never seen anything this size,` said Frank Alguire of Ravena, the club’s president.
Like Richardson, Alguire got involved in car clubs after he moved to this area and was looking to meet people. He got into cars not because he was looking to recapture a piece of his youth, but because he likes `cars that catch your attention.`
`When they drive by you on the road, you’re more likely to notice,` he said.
Alguire noticed the car after which his custom hot rod is modeled while watching `77 Sunset Strip` when he was younger. The television show featured a character named Kookie who drove a 1923 Model T.
`I fell in love with the car,` Alguire said.
Alguire thought about purchasing a Model T, looking at several that were for sale, before deciding he would build his own.
`I’m a hobbyist,` he said, noting that he built the frame and got a junkyard transmission.
As much as he likes the attention that comes with owning the Model T, his favorite thing about the Guptill’s cruises, he said, is that they aren’t competitions. There are no entry fees or trophies.
`It’s just a lot of fun,` Alguire said. `There’s no pressure.`
Erin VanVeghten of Latham grew up enjoying the laid-back vibe at Guptill’s with her dad, a longtime classic car owner. When she and her husband, Dana, learned the cruises at Guptill’s were in jeopardy, they didn’t think twice about joining forces with the Richardsons.
`We could not see losing such a good thing to do,` Dana said.
`Everyone looks forward to it,` Erin added.
Dana said that he’s drawn to the club and the cruises for a simple reason: Cars are his passion.
`That’s my thing,` he said. `That’s my football. That’s my golf.`
That’s a common sentiment among classic car owners, who largely aren’t into sports or drinking, said Pat Villani of Glenville, the group’s treasurer.
`It’s a whole different breed of person,` Villani said. `You can walk up to any car person and you’re going to find a friendly person.`
Another trait car owners tend to share is that they’re mechanically inclined, he said. That’s the case with Villani, who said his gleaming ’57 Chevy was an `old rust bucket` when he bought it.
Villani has actually owned a number of ’57 Chevys. But he eventually got tired of them and decided to buy a ’66 Impala convertible instead.
That didn’t go over well at home.
`My wife was very upset,` he said with a laugh.
So off he went to find another ’57 Chevy.
Doug Roberts of Albany looked admiringly at Villani’s car and a handful of others during the club’s recent picnic at the Crossings in Colonie. Roberts is somewhat unusual in that he belongs to the club but doesn’t own a classic car. He joined after the Richardsons, whom he knew from work, assured him that `having a car is not necessarily a big thing.`
But that doesn’t mean Roberts doesn’t want to own a car someday. Recently retired, he bought a camper and then a truck to haul it. Once those are paid off, he hopes to get a classic car, probably nothing newer than 1970, although he hasn’t settled on a make and model.
`Some of the old cars, I just love them to death,` he said.
The appeal of the club, he said, is seeing just what every owner does to make his or her car a little different from the rest. Everyone is more than happy to talk to him about the modifications they’ve made and what cars they think might be a good fit for him.
There was a time when Joan Richardson would have felt lost in such conversations. But after marrying her husband, she came to enjoy the classic car scene as much as he does.
`We just like the camaraderie,` she said.
Guptill’s is the perfect place for that camaraderie to grow, according to Bob Richardson. For one thing, there’s a lot of space, including a grassy area where owners can display their cars. Beyond that, it’s fitting to hold the cruises at a roller rink, considering that skating was a huge part of people’s childhood.
`It’s perfectly in the era,` he said. `We all went roller skating. It’s just all part of the nostalgia and the memories.`
Admission to the cruises is free, although the Cruisers ask for one non-perishable food item (or cash) to help support the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York. There is live music, and ice cream and other food is sold at Guptill’s Coney Express. Cars as old as 1985 are welcome at the August cruise; the Sept. 13 cruise is also open to cars from any year with after-market customizing.
For information, visit www.capitaldistrictcruisers.com.
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