Friday nights are for ‘Cruise-Ins’

Classic-car fans and owners help make Clinton’s NAPA look like something from ‘American Graffiti’

August 5, 2021 by G. Chambers Williams III

Collector-car buffs – and anyone who likes to see these antique and classic vehicles – now have a place to gather weekly in Clinton in a scene similar to something from the film “American Graffiti.”

The NAPA Cruise-In takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. every Friday in the parking lot of the NAPA auto parts store at 514 Clinch Avenue, attracting a variety of interesting and historical vehicles.

No particular car club sponsors or manages the weekly event, but most of those who bring their classic cars and trucks to the cruise-in are members of various clubs in the area, said Mike Arun of Dutch Valley, who brought his bright green 1967 Plymouth Barracuda to the meet last Friday, July 30.

“I’m a member of the Clinton Antique Car Club, but people come from all around to show off their cars,” he said.

Arun has had the Barracuda – one of the old Chrysler Corp.’s early muscle cars – since 2009, and has not had to do much work on it, he said.

“It’s pretty much this way when I got it,” he said.

That’s the opposite of the experience of Keller Wallace of Claxton with his beautifully restored 1934 Ford, which he’s owned since 1973.

“I’ve already re-done it twice,” he said.

The dark-red car gets lots of attention wherever he takes it, Wallace said.

“I’ve been all over the country and even to Canada two or three times with it,” he said. “I’ve had it out to Montana, Wyoming, all over the Midwest.

Joe Hensley of Claxton was on hand Friday night with his nearly flawless cherry-red 1950 Chevrolet pickup, which he said he’s owned for the past 14 years.

“My brother Jerry did most of the work,” he said of the truck’s restoration. “I just helped.”

The 1971 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 that Jess Copeland drove to the meet is fairly new to him – he bought it in February.

“It was already done when I bought it,” he said.

Sherrill Cook of Blockhouse Valley cruised in with his 1967 Chevrolet Nova, which he bought three years ago, he said.

There were several more vehicles of note at the cruise-in on Friday, including some mid-1950s vintage Chevrolets in near mint condition.

The owners park their vehicles backed in along the row of perpendicular spaces right in front of the shopping center, which also houses Apple Drugs and a now-closed supermarket.

They mostly sit on lawn chairs on the sidewalk behind their cars, and talk with each other and the many visitors who show up to view the vehicles.

“We’re here every Friday night, weather permitting,” Arun said. Collector-car people don’t generally bring their vehicles out when it’s raining.