Expect a logjam along Ogden Avenue on the West Side on Sunday. The holdup? A large crowd taking in a car show and community fair.
The Route 66 Classic Car Show returns to Lawndale for its 11th year, occupying Ogden between Harding Avenue to the southwest and Hamlin Avenue to the northwest. That stretch of Ogden was chosen because it is part of historic U.S. Route 66, one of America’s original coast-to-coast highways, which is a big deal to many car enthusiasts.
“We really try to hold to the Route 66 theme and try to have something that’s quaint, elegant for our community,” said founder Drewone Goldsmith, from North Lawndale.
Goldsmith expects about 200 vehicle owners to register for the event, at $15 per vehicle, and said participants come from across Chicago, as well as from downstate and even from out of state.
In addition to classic cars, the show will include custom cars, racing cars and motorcycles. There will also be food trucks, kids’ activities, live music and a visit from the Jesse White Tumblers.
Admission is free. The event starts at noon and runs through 5 p.m.
A panel will award trophies to the top vehicle in several categories, such as classic car — “anything over 20 years old,” Goldsmith said — custom car, American-made and the “Pastor’s Award,” usually given to the owner with the best story, said Pastor Wayne ‘Coach’ Gordon of Lawndale Community Church.
Past contestants have, for example, claimed a variety of former owners, including one who said their car was driven by Al Capone. But Gordon said he likes hearing stories about someone’s dedication to their vehicle, like how “on Saturdays, they work on the car and they’ve done that for six years and now we finally get to see it in the car show,” he said.
For the kids, Goldsmith — a Chicago Fire Department lieutenant — plans to have vehicles from CFD vehicles on hand and perhaps even a CFD helicopter flyover.
“One of the biggest things that I love is opening up our children’s minds to what they have not ever seen before,” Goldsmith said.
“It opens up their imagination to what they could actually possibly do and it brings a sense of curiosity.”
Michael Loria is a staff reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times via Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster the paper’s coverage of communities on the South and West sides.
