LOCAL

Poughkeepsie car show attracts restored vehicles with stories

Jack Howland
Poughkeepsie Journal

The 1929 Ford Huckster that sat in the Poughkeepsie Elks Lodge parking lot had to be put together by hand, and the vehicle’s 67-year-old owner, Bill Jago, said there was a bit of driving involved, too.

Bill Jago smokes a cigarette as he gets into his 1929 Ford Huckster. It once carried produce.

In the fall of 1999, a family friend from Columbia County told him about a vintage produce truck, but added that there was a catch: It had been torn apart over the years, with the majority of the vehicle in her possession and a couple of essential parts in Pennsylvania. Jago bought it “sight unseen,” he said, and hit the road to pick up the engine and wooden truck bed waiting in a garage one state over.

Six months later, in March 2000, he finished building the vehicle, updating it with an “overdrive unit” so he could take it out on the road.

A 1929 Ford Huckster at the annual Car, Truck and Bike Show.

It once was a produce truck, Jago said, hauling fruits and vegetables.

“I have a scale in the back; I just don’t have it hanging,” the Town of Poughkeepsie resident said next to his car, which sat alongside dozens of others Sunday afternoon. “You step back in time and go to what the basics were, that you need to get to point A to point B, and you have fun doing it.”

There were 72 automobiles at the seventh annual Car, Truck and Bike Show at Poughkeepsie Elks Lodge, and among the attendees were vehicle owners excited to show off the restorations they had made.

Event co-founder Norm Dennis estimated there were slightly less than 100 people at the event due to overcast conditions Sunday. But the 59-year-old Town of Poughkeepsie resident said enthusiasm remained high, with plenty of automobile owners paying the $15 entry fee and others coming out to enjoy the vehicles, food and a carnival dunking booth for Elks Lodge employees.

An engine sits in the open hood of a car Sunday. There were 72 vehicles at the event.

Dennis, who runs Norm’s Auto Repair, said what he finds special about the event is all of the work that goes into the cars before they arrive.

“The event starts out with people who sit there and actually start building (a vehicle) from scratch,” he said. “You put a lot of hours into them, and then you get to say, ‘OK, this is what I have now.’”

There were a wide variety of cars and trucks from different generations at the event, some with popping colors like purple and green and red, and an array of motorcycles including one black bike with a sidecar.

Andrew Willis, 32, showed his 3-year-old son all the different vehicles Sunday afternoon but was equally interested in watching the boy’s grandmother, who’s an Elks Lodge bartender, get dunked.

A car sits outside at the annual Car, Truck and Bike Show. There were 72 vehicles at the event.

His son got to push the button that downed his mother, as he wasn’t quite strong enough to get the ball there.

After that, the two walked through the parking lot and looked at cars “not commonly seen” on the road, Willis said.

“All the shiny trucks and cars that he has Hot Wheels of — now he gets to see it,” he said. “It’s cool for him.”

Jack Howland: jhowland@poughkeepsiejournal.com, 845-437-4870, Twitter: @jhowl04