St. Clair Cruisers hosts River Classic Car Show – The Voice

The River Classic Car Show will be held July 13 at Palmer Park in St. Clair. Pictured is a show from last year. (Courtesy of Vern Cummings)

Palmer Park will look like a scene from Arnold’s Drive-In from “Happy Days” on July 13, when hundreds of classic cars will arrive and park for the River Classic Car Show.

The St. Clair Cruisers car club, in conjunction with the City of St. Clair Recreation Department, will present the 22nd Annual River Classic Car Show at the Park. Cars will be on display on the lawn along the St. Clair riverfront at the park from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free for spectators.

Vern Cummings is a member of the St. Clair Cruisers and organizes the car show with his wife, Linda Cummings. He said the show is a draw that helps the local economy, as several businesses have told him it is their busiest day of the year.

The St. Clair Cruisers are an informal club of about 75 members who love classic cars. The club started the River Classic Car Show to host a local classic car event, Cummings said.

“We thought it would be nice to offer this. The park is a beautiful environment. It just evolved from there,” Cummings said. “The first one we had 43 cars. A few years ago, when the weather was really nice, we had over 330 cars.”

Cummings said he has been looking for sponsors for the show since January to help cover the costs involved. The city provides municipal services for the event and the Cruisers handle the advertising.

“We hand out almost 1,000 flyers. We try to hand out the flyers a month or two before the show,” Cummings said.

Registration for the show is $15 and is only available on-site starting at 8:00 a.m. Parking is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Proceeds benefit the St. Clair Historical Museum and Research Center and the City of St. Clair’s ReCreate Klecha Park project. To participate in the River Classic Car Show, cars must be from before 2000.

“We’ll take anything that’s a classic, whether it’s a $100,000 car or a $3,000 car,” Cummings said.

There is no scoring at the show, but the first 300 cars to enter receive a plaque on the dashboard. Cummings said car enthusiasts have come to the show from as far away as Canada, Lansing and Port Austin.

“I’m amazed at how far some people will travel to get to the show. One guy said, ‘I have to make it to two shows a year.’ He lived near Frankenmuth. He said, ‘We go to Frankenmuth and St. Clair, those are our two shows.’ That was a pretty good compliment,” Cummings said.

Auto show attendees will also be entered into a drawing to win prizes. Cummings said the prizes include picture frames, an auto show flyer and $25.

“We’ve been giving them away for a number of years now and people just love them. One gentleman has three of them and the money is still in them. He tells his daughter this is her inheritance,” Cummings said.

For Cummings, however, the show is about vintage cars and sharing car culture. He owns a 1967 Dodge Dart GT and Linda Cummings owns her grandfather’s 1964 Dodge 330. Vern Cummings said he was so attached to his 1967 Dodge that he bought it back after selling it once.

“I bought it probably 25 years ago,” he said. “I sold it and bought it back 12 years later. It was a super nice Texas car, rust-free. And the guy I sold it to drove it very little. And he called me and told me he was putting it up for sale. I said, ‘Well, it’s sold.’ I knew he took care of it.”

Palmer Park is located at 200 N. Riverside Ave. in St. Clair.

Nicole Tuttle is a freelance reporter for The Voice.

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