Saturday July 30th, 2011 - Kenosha, WI I love cars. I love shows. Mathematically, that must mean I love car shows. And I do. I especially love car shows when they happen to occur on spectacular sunny days, of which today was one. I had a lot of things to love today because I got to see a car show for free. My film director buddy Mark Gumbinger called and invited me to go to an event called ’Taste Of Kenosha’ with him and his brother Mike. How many ’Taste Of’ festivals do we really need? Chicago seems to always be near the brink of extinction with theirs, but then every other two bit one horse unincorporated corn field burg has to try doing one as well. Not to say Kenosha is any of those things. I happen to enjoy several features about that place, and wouldn’t be at all ashamed to live there. I’ve grown to feel at home through my many years of being on the radio, and the location is absolutely ideal for me with business in both Chicago and Milwaukee on a regular basis. It’s the halfway there point both ways. Another reason I feel a synergy with Kenosha is the American Motors connection. I can unfortunately relate all too well to being perpetually entrenched at number four in what is a field where most people only think of ‘the big three‘. Still, there are fans of the brand. About 300 of them from all over the country showed up near Lake Michigan for the big car show and swap meet that featured AMC products. There was anything and everything on display including Nash, Rambler, Gremlin, Pacer, Hornet, Matador, Ambassador and I enjoyed seeing every one of them. It was a celebration of obscure, and those who like it. Most people collect and/or restore any other brands but AMC, and it did my heart good to see all those oddballs in one place. On this day, a Camaro or Thunderbird would be the freak show. Those cars get their due everywhere else, today it was the Javelin and AMX. That was the hot car of the day, and there were all kinds of them in showroom condition. I’ve been hooked on cars since my grandpa started showing me how to identify them by sight when I was very little. Back then it was possible to pick brands and years out of the crowd with relative ease. Now most cars look pretty much the same and that‘s so boring. Not today. If there’s one thing AMC wasn’t, was like anyone else. What other company would name a car after an insect pest everyone wanted to kill with a rolled up newspaper? Nobody. The Hornet was unique. The whole line was. They were ugly, but in a fun way. My personal favorite is the Marlin. There was an AMC/Rambler dealership four blocks from where I grew up in Milwaukee, and my grandpa and I would walk past it during one of our many walks together and he’d teach me how to distinguish between all the models. The Marlin was only produced three model years, just like the Edsel. It had a distinctive design I thought was cool and still do. There were several at the show and seeing them all reminded me of Gramps and took me back in time. That alone made it worth showing up.
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