Opinion - Columns - Lon Allan

Published: Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009

Lon Allan: Lots to love about these ‘clunkers’

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Monday was the last day to trade in your “clunker” for something better and get government help doing it.

I guess “clunker,” when it comes to our cars, is a matter of point of view.

On Friday night there were hundreds of cars parading up and down El Camino Real that technically would be called clunkers. Many of them were decades old. Many got horrible gas mileage. Some belched smoke. Others seemed in need of mufflers and others were just weird.

I doubt there was a driver there, however, who would consider his special car a “clunker” in the way the government’s stimulus program was intended. Many of those clunkers sported “For Sale” signs in their windows, but I don’t think any I saw would go cheap. Most of them would sell for more than a current model car.

If, as Mark Twain opined, weather gives 98 percent of us something to talk about, cars give us reason to gather.

That was the case during the Hot El Camino Cruise Nite staged by the city of Atascadero’s recreation department. It was a huge success — and I’m sure the envy of the Atascadero Colony Days Committee, which would like to see such a large turnout at its annual October parade.

As testimony to the growing popularity of the annual car event, which is always followed by the Mid-State Cruizers car show at the lake the next day, Maggie Vandergon, founder of Colony Days, its past chairman and long-time parade head, was handing out registration forms to drivers as they slowed at the Sunken Gardens.

She had a great idea to help build up the parade, which has been a part of the celebration of the city’s beginning in 1913 by Edward Gardner Lewis. Lewis wrote that he had designed his model city for the modern automobile. Of course, he was talking about the Model T Ford.

There were a couple of vintage vehicles from Lewis’ era in last Friday’s cruise night and Saturday’s lakeside show. But the automobile certainly outgrew the ability of Lewis’ narrow and curvy streets to handle it.

Last weekend is proof positive that people love cars. There are so many to love, from powerful muscle cars and T-buckets to pickups, classic luxury rides and even “funky” vehicles.

The registration form for the Colony Days Parade (set for Oct. 17) is sitting here on my desk. I may just put my ’46 Willys Jeep in the Colony Parade because of Maggie’s invitation. I hope many other owners of those wonderful yet pricey “clunkers” do the same.

Lon Allan has lived in Atascadero for nearly four decades. His column appears on the Local page every Tuesday. He can be reached at 466-8529 or leallan@tcsn.net.