SEVERN, MD – We live in an age where holiday events are frequently combined with gatherings of collectible vehicles to create holiday-themed car shows as an additional way to celebrate those special days on the calendar. We often hear about Father's Day car shows, Memorial Day car events, Labor Day car gatherings, or Halloween Trunk-R-Treat events, so why not devote an additional car show to celebrate the biggest holiday of them all – Christmas?
Why not, indeed. Last Sunday, December 14, I planned to attend the Christmas Car Show & Yearly Auction, hosted by the Street Survivors of Maryland car club, that was open to all vehicles and held at the Glen Burnie Elks Lodge #2266, located in Severn, Maryland – not too far from the area where I grew up. This show also had an auction held inside the Lodge for miscellaneous new and used items, and all of the proceeds benefited the Alzheimer's Association's Greater Maryland Chapter. This was also a participant-voting event that was to be held rain or shine, with 30 trophies available, and there was usually some form of a Santa emblem standing on the trophy tops.
I went to this show several times before, and often the winter weather was quite cold making spending too much time outside difficult. So the plan was to quickly set up our cars and then run inside the lodge where the temperatures were more hospitable. For this event, however, the forecast called for 41 degrees on the day before, but for that evening the prediction was for rain and snow becoming all snow during the night with temperatures going down to 30 degrees, with possibly 1 to 3 inches of accumulation. The winds were to increase to 20 to 25 mph with snow showers into the morning and a high of 32 degrees but lowering to 20, and then going all the way down to 17 degrees by Sunday night.
This was certainly not baseball and hot-dogs-on-the grill weather, but my friends and I wanted to go to this show as this was to be our last event of the year before our show cars were put away during the off-season. Given the snowy forecast, we all decided to leave our prized ponies at home in their stables while we took our daily drivers to this event. And so this day would become the sixth car show for my 2015 Ford Fusion while my Mustang stayed home.
Looking out my front door early on Sunday morning, I was greeted with the landscape being covered with 2-3 inches of fresh snow. Any thoughts that this was only going to be light dusting immediately vanished. Checking the weather again said that light precipitation would continue through 7 a.m., but the Street Survivors never changed their plans, so we still had a live show to attend on this day. By 6:45 a.m. I was all bundled up and standing in the dark in my driveway with only one outside light for removing snow from my wife's car and my Fusion, followed by shoveling my drive and sidewalk to keep the community happy. I thought it was terribly cold until I saw a stranger walking his dog in the snow with this person wearing shorts and a light jacket. Well, maybe it was not too bad out there after all?
The ride to Severn was like driving through a winter wonderland. All of the trees were coated in light snow as if driving through a picture postcard from way up north somewhere. Out on the main roads there were what seemed like more snowplows and salt trucks than passenger cars. Everyone kept their speeds down, and I arrived after about 25 minutes of driving. The parking lot was not plowed, and the first thing I saw was that almost everyone came to this show in their daily drivers – many still partially covered in snow and ice, just like me! I saw only maybe two or three cars that were our typical show cars.
I met up with several friends and we all walked in to register. We paid our entry fees and logged into a list of entrants, but we were not given show signs for our cars nor voting sheets – either then or even later during the day. I next introduced myself to the club president, Mike Pilkerton, as he had posted links on the club's website and Facebook pages which allowed their members to read the show report that I wrote about their excellent Veterans Show that was posted on FordRacing.com/Articles back on November 10.
All of the activity for this show was held inside the Elks Lodge as it was so cold and overcast all morning with icy conditions outside where we were parked. Later that morning the sun came out, but the temperatures fell into the mid-20's, and then the winds picked up. In the interim the club conducted its auction and raised well over $1,000 for the Alzheimer's Association, a very noble cause. Eventually we made it to trophy time, and they began calling the winners forward.
As it turned out, there were only 27 awards given from their 30 trophies, leaving three left over – so everyone who entered went home with a nice trophy. This was more like getting an award for coming to this event in such marginal weather conditions. Overall, none of us could remember ever going to a car show before when it was snowing. As I said to the club president, next year he will have to change the flyer to say that their show will be held, 'rain or shine . . . or snow'!
FORD RACING PHOTOS / COURTESY RICK MITCHELL
