OWLS HEAD, Maine — The Fabulous ’50s, Sensational ’60s Car Meet and Antique Aeroplane Show at the Owls Head Transportation Museum had a local feel to it as hundreds of Maine residents flocked to the coast to check out the old cars on exhibit.
“In my 34 years here this has to be one of the best-attended events ever, and I’ve been here for 29 of them,” museum director Charles Chiarchiaro said Sunday. “It’s really a great turnout of cars and really a great turnout of Maine people. We have our tourists, but more and more we’re seeing Maine people coming here to see what we have to offer. By giving more value, we’re finding we’re getting more Maine people.”
Chiarchiaro said the museum’s decision to increase its marketing in the state has paid off with larger crowds and more home-grown members. Thirty new members from Maine joined on Sunday alone. Now that children under age 18 are allowed to attend for free, the museum’s attractions are being seen by more local people than ever.
On the Fourth of July weekend they were treated to more than 100 classic American cars from the 1950s and 1960s. Visitors also could see vintage aircraft take to the skies and inspect the museum’s exhibits of rare vehicles, engines and airplanes. New this year is a permanent display of horse-drawn coaches and carriages, including a rare and colorful Gypsy Wagon hand-crafted in England in 1850 complete with a sleeping area and wood-burning cook stove. “A Wagobago,” joked Chiarchiaro.
Also popular at this year’s show was the “Kids Corral,” an area set aside for children and filled with pedal cars, trucks and tractors. Boys and girls laughed and shouted as they pedaled the cars in the enclosed area.
The event began at noon sharp with car owners blowing their horns all at once in a tribute to the Fourth of July weekend and Sunday’s fantastic weather. Cars lined up side-by-side from one end of the parking-exhibition area and between the two center gazebos, which stand 120 feet apart in tribute to the length of the Wright brothers’ first flight in Kitty Hawk, N.C. A replica of their plane is one of the museum’s more popular exhibits.
Most of those walking the grounds were there for the cars and many were first-time visitors, including Edward Sanborn of Detroit. Sanborn traveled to the coast with a friend and was glad he came.
“It’s fascinating,” Sanborn said. “I’ve lived here all my life, and this is my first time. I’ve never seen anything like this. Got some great cars here.”
The car exhibit also was a nostalgia trip for 75-year-old John Bilodeau of East Madison, who said he can never get enough of them. Although not yet a member, Bilodeau has visited the museum many times. He enjoys talking old cars with the owners and the memories they revive.
“My first car was a 1936 Hudson Terraplane, and jeez, was that thing fast,” Bilodeau recalled. “I used to race guys with flat-head Fords, and I would blow right by them. We all raced around in those days. You could go out and get cars for 10 to 15 dollars back then and then you’d go to the junkyards and get parts.”
Besides putting their wheels on display, many of the owners left the museum in groups for a quick ride around the area. Visitors would see a dozen vintage Corvettes or Model A roadsters drive out the gate and return a half-hour later.
Although its heritage was a decade before the 1950s, the customized gleaming black 1940 Chevrolet Coupe “Lil Toot” owned by Vassalboro couple Nelson and Charlene Kiss, with its chrome engine and six carburetors, was a popular attraction all afternoon. Camped out in a folding chair by the rear fender, 70-year-old Nelson Kiss regaled whoever asked with tales of how he stripped the car down to bare metal and put it back together in four months and managed to lose 35 pounds in the process.
“That was in 1998, and I’ve put 42,000 miles on it since then,” the retired manager of a Connecticut Chevrolet dealership’s repair shop said. “I love to talk about cars with people and guys because there aren’t that many of us anymore. We’re getting to be like World War II vets. Every day more and more hard-core gear heads are disappearing.”
Chiarchiaro said the purpose of the museum is not only to provide a place for people interested in the history of modern transportation, but also to interest them in the area’s many other cultural attractions.
“The whole area is a great attraction if you live in Maine. It’s not just Owls Head; it’s the Lighthouse Museum, the Farnsworth Museum, Mount Battie, the entire midcoast area,” he said. “The dream of the founders has finally come true. It’s not just a place for people who like to fly planes or drive cars; it’s a place for the entire family.”
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