I’m not what you would call a car aficionado, but cars run in my family. My dad was an autoworker for 35 years in Spain and I married the daughter of a retired GM autoworker who also collects classic cars, like this old Ford for example.
I thought of both of them this week as I sketched members of Old Rides Seattle, a car club started by Central Area automobile enthusiasts in 1972.
Henry Nelson of Beacon Hill, also a GM retiree like my father-in-law, has a long resume in the automotive industry. He worked as a sales manager overseeing all Chevy dealerships in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska and was the head of the Department of Automotive and Diesel Technology at South Seattle Community College.
Nelson is also one of the founding members of Old Rides, “the longest-running predominantly African American car club north of Los Angeles,” he said.
Of nine cars that he owns, he likes his 1940 Cadillac Sedan the best. “It would be like a Mercedes Benz today … only the rich people drove those type of cars in 1940.”
Nelson warns that car collecting is an expensive hobby. He even bought the house next to his to expand his garage, which also includes the first car he ever owned, a 1950 Ford Custom that is currently in the shop being rebuilt.
Clifford Holland, also of Beacon Hill, retired in 2003 and joined the car club in 2005. He was a store manager at Safeway, where he worked for 38 years. He purchased his 1956 Ford Thunderbird in 1982, when it was already starting to become a collector’s model. It’s the car he always wanted since he was 15, but wasn’t able to afford until his mid 30s. He said the frame, engine and interior were restored to get the automobile back to the original specs, a process that took a year and a half.
For Holland, “it’s a sense of pride when you have a very nice-looking automobile.” He is currently serving as president of the car club.
A few curious people stopped to talk to Valerie Pipkin as I sketched her 1955 Buick Roadmaster last Wednesday at Columbia Plaza.
She likes classic cars for the same reasons I do. “I don’t care about the mechanics. I just like the way they look,” said Pipkin, a member of Old Rides Seattle since 2008. “They are like rolling pieces of art.”
Pipkin bought her car at Hot August Nights, a popular car show in Reno, Nevada, that attracts automobile enthusiasts from all over the country.
She said she was sold on it as soon as she saw the interior’s blue and gold upholstery and art deco dashboard. She also loved all the “bright work,” the chromed fender benders and metal decorations that adorn the exterior body of the car.
It all makes it look very luxurious, but Pipkin said this car was the “Cadillac of the working class.” If you couldn’t afford a Cadillac, you bought a Buick.
Pipkin’s Buick was her ticket to join Old Rides Seattle in 2008. To become a member, you need a car that is at least 30 years old and is in driving condition, explained founding member Henry Nelson.
That will make our family’s cars qualify in a couple of decades. We have a 1999 Chevy Prizm and a 2003 Pontiac Vibe. I don’t see them as “art” right now, but years from now some chrome may do the trick.
