My office is just a short 5 minute walk from this location and I drive by it when I head to my office. I noticed older cars gathering here in front of Bagel Street Cafe in early 2021. Whether it started in 2020 I don’t know but I know it was a reaction to Covid and the desire to get out.
As you can see there are a lot of trees with the morning sun peaking through. I’m not sure when it starts but 8:30 am would be a good guess. All cars are gone by 11:00 am. I had walked through several times without a camera and had never brought one of my cars down since this is on Friday. I am not thrilled driving one of my classics home in heavy Friday traffic and take the risk someone is stupid. Already went through that which is another story. So you can say I am gun shy. Eventually I brought one car down and guess what? I was the only car there at 10:00 am. What? Turns out the property manager wasn’t too keen on all this after 16 months and said no more. Apparently lasted two weeks, in June, only after the manager calling around and finding out no one was in charge as this was just people showing up. Grapevine so to speak.
The crowd is heavily older as in mostly over 70, and retired, with a smattering of those between 30-50 years old. All kinds of cars from Model A and up to very new Porsches and an Italian thrown in. Those bookoo buck cars don’t really interest me. So I play favorites and shoot what I like and what I can if I can get a clear shot.
The 1973 Mustang Mach 1 is the first car I shot and talked with the owner. He is the original owner and the car is definitely a Curbside Classic driver as you can see. This was a month ago but I saw him this past Friday, the 15th as I drove in with my Dodge. He’s got slot mags just like my Cougar. Wow, good taste.
This caught my attention and I just had to rib him about it as this is something one doesn’t see too often stashed in front.
On to other cars and some I am making my best guess as to their year. I think I run from oldest to newest. So here are two Models A’s right out in front of the coffee and bagel shop.
Next, and I’ll be honest, I have no idea what the car is but I know it is in the 30’s. Looks to be chopped. I’m making a guess here, 1934 Ford? At least the body is. The only reason I shot a car, like this, is because I loved the purple. Talk about color!
I believe this is a 1948 Buick Special here. The black car, again a guess, it is a Ford out of the early 40’s perhaps?
Next we have this 1950 Packard at least I am pretty sure of that.
This 1950, I could read the plate, Olds 88 was a true hot rod. Not over done at all but those rear tires clearly meant business if you saw them back in the day. The owner definitely over 70.
What is one of these shows, with an older crowd, without a British roadster? Well there were two today. A 1952 MG Roadster and a Morgan Roadster. I don’t know the exact year of the Morgan, and since I didn’t pay attention when I shot it, I had to go looking for what it was. What helped me was when I googled British marquis and then I saw the right one. I saw the Morgan owner drive away and he would fit the bill of a proper English gentleman.
Into the 60’s which would be, given the crowd, the most common decade represented here. So we have a 1960 F-100 Box Style which I rarely see anywhere at all compared to a once in awhile view of a Slick.
Also extremely rare we have a 1963 Ford Econoline Pickup.
What are one of these gatherings without a Corvette. Thankfully there are never more than four which is refreshing. The same goes for another marque. Here I forgot about the rd Corvette which is out of time sequence. Oh well. There happens to be, I assume, an unfinished BMW 2002. Lurking in the background is what? Get their late, lots of cars this Friday, and park on the outer edges. Although several people followed me out to there because, as they said, what is this, what year is this, I remember a 73 CHP Polara stopping me, and so on. There were no four door sedans or hardtops there from the 60’s, 70’s, or 80’s. Actually nothing from the 80’s at all.
1965 Stingray I believe.
The other marque that tends to be over represented are Mustangs. I’v never seen more than four and this Friday there were only three. The 73 and two 66’s. Here is a 66 GT with a Bugeye Sprite next to it. Oops, that is a 59 I think?
Also not a lot of Chevy’s at all. Two Corvettes and this 67 Chevelle SS. I harbored a secret love for the 66 and 67. He who has mainly Fords.
A 1967 Barracuda with the fish way in front of the word Barracuda? Couldn’t get a decent shot of the early woody SUV in the background.
A 1967 Continental convertible.
1968 Dodge Dart GTS I assume is real.
1972 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am if I am right. Interestingly no Camaros. In fact I have yet to see one here.
We jump up to 1979 F-150 Dentside I believe.
Last is a 1991 Fleetwood Brougham. I love this particular year of the Fleetwood Brougham. It is another car I would love to get my hands on. Muscle cars are nice so don’t get me wrong, but I get great pleasure in driving the big boats. While driving my 67 Parklane and 73 Polara are different due to engine differences and suspensions they are a lot of fun for me. You just have to try it.
So that is it for now. I don’t know how Paul does it because even this short picture write up took a fair bit of time. I would never have the time during the day when it is light out and things to accomplish. This Saturday, the 23rd, is my West Coast National Cougar show in Brentwood at the Club Presdient’s house. I’d say estate if you can park 100 cars in your yard. Been since 2018 for a meeting due to Covid. I am excited. More pictures of the day as there will be cars from up and down the West Coast.
I really like the park-like setting. It beats the acres of asphalt of most other shows. I’m sure attendees appreciate the ample shade, although it doesn’t help the photos any.
Big boats are where it’s at. In middle age I have come to value comfort and quiet above
all else! Make mine a fuselage Imperial.
Think the black car alongside the Buick is another Buick.
1940 I think
I thought the black one was a ’41 model because the headlights were built into the fenders, whereas the ’40 Chevvie had the headlight housings stuck on top of the fenders. It really is a 1940 Buick.
Nice little C&C for CC! A little something for everyone.Thanks for sharing it with us. 🙂
I especially enjoyed the Olds 88 and the Trans Am. My 6th grade teacher had the same year Firebird in dark blue metallic with “4 on the floor.” Back then it was just an average 1 or 2 year old daily driver, but I sure thought it looked cool.
Looking forward to your coverage of the Cougar meet.
I’d say that Corvette is earlier than a ’65. The 1965s has the pointed front nose just like the 1966. I would venture a guess at about 1959-60, but I could be off.
A close resemblance to that 91 Cadillac is shown in this weeks’ story arc in the Rex Morgan comic.
Just took a second look at that Corvette Stingray shot. Is that a 1970 Dodge Monaco in the adjacent parking lot? Nice photobomb.
He’s referring to the picture below his text, which is a Stingray from ’65-’66.
I’ve tried hard to get all of our contributors, including this one, to stick to our convention of “show, then tell”, meaning placing the text below the corresponding image, but there’s always going to be one or two that will go against the grain.I used to fix these, but I just don’t have the time anymore.
It’s so much more logical to have the text be below the image, as it is essentially a caption.
To be honest I saw something when reading up on how to post before I did my very first one with the Kodachromes from San Diego. Somewhere I got the impression that the caption was above which I thought strange at the time but who was I too question. Nothing was never said, and I never asked for clarification so I continued. This is the first time I have ever been made aware of this personally. I will now go into the three other drafts and start to rearrange them.
In addition to being in the Writer’s Guide, every post on CC (with a very few exceptions that have slipped by) has that format. I just assume that’s something contributors would notice.
I redid a significant number of your posts, which involved a lot of cutting and pasting, but presumably you didn’t notice?
It’s ok; But I’ve just had to give up fixing them, as it takes too much time.
“In addition to being in the Writer’s Guide, every post on CC (with a very few exceptions that have slipped by) has that format. I just assume that’s something contributors would notice.”
Where I read it around here is too far back for me to recall how. It is what it is. As for others I wasn’t paying attention to their format I just looked at the pictures when they were presented in a car show format. I’m not an editor by nature so if they did they did.
“I redid a significant number of your posts, which involved a lot of cutting and pasting, but presumably you didn’t notice?”
Nope, as I don’t read them once I have finished. It could go up one morning all changed and I would never know since I already know what it says. The only way I would have any idea is it someone contacted me and said the format was wrong. No one did till now…
My favorite is the Olds 88, with tri-power no less! I have just attended my first few Cars and Coffee events. At first I thought that I would find a lot of the people to be stand offish. I find that many posts about these events on my other forums often take on a snarky tone. However, I had no disappointments. I can easily talk to other people and I had many pleasant conversations.
I’m not surprised that older retired folks make up a large number of the participants, who else has the free time in the morning or afternoon on weekdays when most of these take place? I found that the three local events that I attended were nice and low key.
There is a very informal meet up that takes place in my local Lucky’s parking lot. There is a Boba, tea, yogurt shop that is always packed with young folks. Certain nights there’s a large number of tuner type cars, and the drivers pretty much behave themselves.
In my neck of the woods (eastern PA), Cars and Coffee was the s*** before Covid. Tons and tons of cars of all ages and types, and owners and attendees to match. Everyone easy to talk to. Common ground is the cars. Every age group and demographic mingling and chatting about that common interest. Yes, there were burnouts, loud exhuasts, and people running from the cops in dangerous fashion, but 99+% of the massive crowd (can’t even begin to relate what a massive area of multiple huge parking lots this took up) were just car lovers loving cars. Even if the local corporation branches started to encroach with dealer displays taking up way too much of the central area that had been devoted to regular people’s regular cars, and vendor tents set up to sell imported “tuner” crap otherwise listed on eBay and Amazon stores, with some local questionably ethic’d automotive related chains also begging for customers.
Then, they closed it down for 2 years.
It came back this year. Instead of mixing demographics, it seems to now be well-heeled college students showing off their very questionably modified German cars, mostly with Jersey plates and just talking to each other. The single most pronounced word is “bro.” The vape clouds abound. Nobody chats with each other. You’re hard pressed to find anything made outside of the 2003-2020 window. The size went from 7-10 football fields to part of 1/4 of a roped off section of 1 parking lot. A good percentage of the attendees are heading out by 8:30 AM. The vendors are all gone. The big area near the (now not-opened) concession area is an absurdly widely spaced display of Escapes, Ecosports and Explorers from a local Ford dealer. The rat rods, 50s 60s and 70s American muscle, Japanese cars and JDM imports, daily drivers that simply used to be common and aren’t anymore, and even a good chunk of the cost no object supercars and modified late model sports cars – all gone. Just 2010-ish VWs and BMWs with Megan Racing fart cans, cut springs and Linglongs or Blacklions mounted on dirty eBay special wheels, seemingly just grouped with similar examples huddling together to talk about the previous night’s bender.
Parking isn’t hard to find now.
I hope it comes back in actuality over the coming years. I was heavily disappointed in the Philly Radwood early this summer, and my heart has been broken by the Cars and Coffee displays so far.
The good things in life are becoming harder and harder to find.
In my neck of the woods (eastern PA), Cars and Coffee was the s*** before Covid. Tons and tons of cars of all ages and types, and owners and attendees to match. Everyone easy to talk to. Common ground is the cars. Every age group and demographic mingling and chatting about that common interest. Yes, there were burnouts, loud exhuasts, and people running from the cops in dangerous fashion, but 99+% of the massive crowd (can’t even begin to relate what a massive area of multiple huge parking lots this took up) were just car lovers loving cars. Even if the local corporation branches started to encroach with dealer displays taking up way too much of the central area that had been devoted to regular people’s regular cars, and vendor tents set up to sell imported “tuner” crap otherwise listed on eBay and Amazon stores, with some local questionably ethic’d automotive related chains also begging for customers.
Then, they closed it down for 2 years.
It came back this year. Instead of mixing demographics, it seems to now be well-heeled college students showing off their very questionably modified German cars, mostly with Jersey plates and just talking to each other. The single most pronounced word is “bro.” The vape clouds abound. Nobody chats with each other. You’re hard pressed to find anything made outside of the 2003-2020 window. The size went from 7-10 football fields to part of 1/4 of a roped off section of 1 parking lot. A good percentage of the attendees are heading out by 8:30 AM. The vendors are all gone. The big area near the (now not-opened) concession area is an absurdly widely spaced display of Escapes, Ecosports and Explorers from a local Ford dealer. The rat rods, 50s 60s and 70s American muscle, Japanese cars and JDM imports, daily drivers that simply used to be common and aren’t anymore, and even a good chunk of the cost no object supercars and modified late model sports cars – all gone. Just 2010-ish VWs and BMWs with Megan Racing fart cans, cut springs and Linglongs or Blacklions mounted on dirty eBay special wheels, seemingly just grouped with similar examples huddling together to talk about the previous night’s bender.
Parking isn’t hard to find now.
I hope it comes back in actuality over the coming years. I was heavily disappointed in the Philly Radwood early this summer, and my heart has been broken by the Cars and Coffee displays so far.
The good things in life are becoming harder and harder to find.
I previously have seen Coffee & Cars advertised on line such as one in San Ramon. This is not that at all. Pretty much all locals, who by simple word of mouth, came by. No one in charge here. Seeing 40 cars would be a lot and this is about 30 car plus or minus given which Friday and what time you are walking by. So far, on the few Fridays I have taken a walk through, I have seen the Danville Police cruise through the lot. No one who comes wants to disturb the local businesses which is why everyone gets out before 11:00 am and the lunch crowd starts to filter in. I might show up with my Cougar tomorrow, morning traffic depending, before my Saturday only Cougar show.
I’d take a big old Ninety Eight over a muscle car any day.
Beautiful show, setting, pictures, cars. Thanks for sharing.
I’ll take the yellow Buick convert. To go!
Looks like a good reason to go back to the office!
Continental convertible please, though the BMW 3.0 Coupe next to the Dodge GTS qualifies as best European, IMHO
I’ve been waiting for my epiphany to show up, and it finally arrived. The thirties woody station wagon on the light truck chassis glimpsed in the greenery behind the Barracuda is an International, probably a 1937 model.