WILTON – There’s one sure way to catch the eye of someone on the street.
Just drive a car 25 years old or older that shines like new down the road or park it in a lot, and you’ve captured their attention.
“You go through town and everybody is hollering,” Vivian Searles of New Vineyard said Wednesday night. “People are into old cars.”
So when you bring a large group of the classic and muscle sports cars, as well as motorcycles, together in one spot, you’ve get a gathering rich with talk about cars and restorations.
“It’s just socializing and meeting a lot of nice people from all over,” Searles’ daughter Linda Grondin of Wilton said Wednesday night.
She cruises town with her husband, Alan Grondin, in their red 1971 Nova.
They parked Wednesday night at Dutch Treat in Wilton alongside other beauties, including a garnet 1941 Chevrolet club coupe.
It was raining, and lightning flashed in the sky, as people gathered under a tent and a disc jockey played music.
But still there were spectators checking out the automobiles.
Linda Grondin started organizing cruise nights from 6 to 8 p.m. at the eatery four weeks ago after she found out that Fast Eddie’s in Winthrop had closed. They used to go to cruise nights there.
This particular night, Grondin said she didn’t expect many cars to turn out because of the weather. But the previous Wednesday, 65 cars and 20 motorcycles lined the drive of the landmark establishment that overlooks Routes 2 and 4 in Wilton. Cruise nights organized by Real Castonguay at Lakeshore Restaurant on Route 4 in Livermore on Thursday nights are also becoming a hit, Grondin said.
Grondin said she and her family, including her late father, Leland Searles, used to take family trips and cruise the roads in their prized automobiles.
“It was kind of like our little hobby thing,” Grondin said. “We just got together when we could.”
But now that hobby has expanded beyond her family, as the couple say they meet lots of new people from all over.
“It’s a fun night,” Alan Grondin said Wednesday. “We meet some nice people. It’s a good way to meet friends, get parts for vehicles and sell and buy vehicles. It’s not always the same crowd; every week it’s different.”
There’s a lot of money tied up in the cars, he said. Some people have $30,000 in their vehicles, he said. He’s owned 58 cars over the years, most of them muscle cars and the rest classics.
“Once you lose interest, you sell it and buy another one,” he said.
Rebecca Starnes of Chesterville and her husband, Ken Starnes, have several cars they’re working on.
“We enjoy the old cars. We enjoy the talking to other people about their cars and what they did during restorations,” Starnes said Wednesday. “It’s just something we really enjoy.”
Sharon Rainey, co-owner of Dutch Treat with her husband, Bud, said she goes out and looks at the old cars and dreams a little.
“It’s kind of nostalgic, Rainey said. “Every week I go around and pick out two that I would like to have. I’d like to have them all.”
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