BURRILLVILLE – It’s summertime, and with any help from mother nature, the poor weather conditions we have been dealing with over the past couple of months should be coming to an end, and the car show scene will begin to shift into a new gear.
The most important thing to any automotive enthusiast and classic car and truck owner is the strong continuation of the classic car show hobby and culture. We all need to introduce kids into the world of classic vehicles and take them to these venues so they too can appreciate the beauty of our American automotive history.
Taking a kid to a car show could make the difference between this automotive culture and hobby growing – or slipping away over the next two decades. Enthusiasts are getting older, and many are not able to continue enjoying this hobby due to age, poor health and financial instability. Every year, it seems like we keep losing classic car and truck owners, and they are not attending these events as much as they did in the past.
I think that it is very important that these types of automotive events take place every year and that little kids are brought into the fold, and have a chance to experience what many of us have experienced over the past 25 years and beyond. If you have children, please, take a kid to a car show, and do it often. It could be what sets the stage for our future classic car and truck show culture and hobby.
Jim Weicherding is a Burrillville resident, and the founder and creator of an award-winning traffic safety effort Seasons of Safety. Weicherding contributes kids’ coloring cartoons, which can be printed and used to help parents discuss safety issues with their children. He has a long list of police officers and firefighters in his family and has worked with law enforcement and firefighters in a creative public safety capacity for more than two decades.
