Rain Out

On Saturday, my wife, daughter, and I made our monthly visit to the Belleville Flea Market. The weather was nice and we enjoyed walking around the booths outside and inside. Mary found a couple of old tablecloths and we bought some coffee for her dad.  I found the one seller that I like who has old paper related ephemera for sale: magazines,advertisements, books, road maps, etc.  Since I received a copy of the October 1966 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine when I bought the 1967 Cougar (see story here) I have wanted to see the other similar issues from the 1960's. As I posted before here, this issue was the yearly new car issue put out by the magazine that gave details about the new cars coming out that fall. So, I decided that each time we are at the flea market I would look for more of these issues from other years. I have also found that Popular Science also put out a similar issue each October to compete with Popular Mechanics.


This time I found the following issues for $1 each:

Popular Science - October 1966

Popular Mechanics - October 1967

Also, I couldn't pass up this issue with the rear engine dragster on the cover that posed the question: Are Drag Racers Really Crazy?

Popular Science - December 1963

About 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon I started to clean up the Cougar for the car show at Culver's in Collinsville.  I washed the car, vacuumed the interior, cleaned the windows and treated the tires. We loaded up about 5:30 p.m. and headed out.  I was going to park in the grass like I did the last time, but my dad had saved us a spot next to his car.  We hadn't eaten dinner yet so we went inside to have some dinner with my mom in tow and my dad stayed out by the cars.  We ate and had some ice cream and headed back outside.  When we walked outside we could feel that there was a slight mist falling.  We got back to where the cars were parked and I decided that if I was going to see anything that I better start walking around now because most guys would start leaving soon. My hunch was right.  The rain kept falling and the cars started leaving.  Some cars were ones that I see quite often because these are the guys that are in my dad's car club, including a 1969 Mercury Cougar Eliminator owned by the current President of the club. However, I find it interesting that each time I go to one of these shows I see some cars I've never seen before.  This time there were not one, but two DeTamaso Panteras at this show!  I also saw a couple of cool rat rod trucks and a 1954 or 1955 Oldsmobile with a very early 60's style gold and white paint job.  There was a very original looking 1930 Ford Model A sedan and there are always quite a few Mopars in attendance.  One couple made a brochure for 1968 Plymouth Barracuda which I thought was a good idea.  I think I might do one for the Cougar one of these days. When I have time...

When I got back to the cars my daughter was having a good time trying to hold the umbrella that my parents got out. We waited it out another few minutes and decided that it was time to go.  It was raining and it was getting dark. There will be another time as there are no make up dates for car shows.