28th Annual Blast from the Past Graffiti Night
Onawa, IowaSaturday, June 16, 2012
After a series of rains a couple of days before and sprinkles in Onawa til after 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. . .and lots of praying. .by the grace of the good Lord we were provided a beautiful, if not perfect, afternoon and evening for Onawa's 28th Annual Blast from the Past Graffiti Night.
Heavy rains continued that day in Sioux City to the north and Omaha to the south, so we imagine that even more potential participants stayed home, but by final counts, we still ended up with 321 hot rods, kustoms and special interest vehicles from the Tri-State area!! Among them was a new Ferrari that cruised into Michael's Drive-In!!
This year's event included more vendors, great music, great food, and fun for the entire family. As part of the nationally-syndicated "Take a Kid to a Car Show" program, over 100 youngsters were designated as Official Car Show Judges with special stickers. The kids also participated in a Hot Rod Coloring Contest with prizes for all participantrs including Hot Wheels cars, stuffed animals and faux jewelry, which they all enjoyed.
Members of the Playground Equipment Project were also on hand providing games and activities for the kids, with prizes. They raised over $300 for the Lark/Elementary building's Playground Equipment Fund.
"Pudge" Grabel was on hand to pinstripe vehicles, helmets and anything else people could think of to be striped. . .including new toilet seats, striped with Graffiti Night 2012. . .and sure to be future collectibles!!
Speaking of collectibles, our full-color souvenir tees sold out with dozens of people coming up to buy shirts after they were gone.
Tunes were provided by Todd Melby, who played everyone's favorites. This was supplemented by the Z/98 van and DJ Chopper Scott, who was doing live remotes from Graffiti Night about every 20 minutes or so. . .getting participants on the air to talk about the event.
At 8:00 p.m., everyone lined-up behind Officer Kirkpatrict and the Z/98 van for the events famous Cruise Down the Widest Main Street in the U.S.A.
Participants on the Cruise were impressed as they were greeted by hundreds of cheering spectators lining the cruise route in front yards, parking lots at St. John's Church, Fiesta Foods and other businesses. . .filling both sides of Onawa's Main Street. Many of these spectators got their spots early and were looking for places to eat downtown while anxiously awaiting the Cruise. Vehicles stretched from Michael's Drive-In to the Courthouse, back to Tenth Street and the full length of Onawa's infamous LOOP to the old DQ, where they headed back to Iowa Avenue and back west past Michael's to Lewis & Clark State Park for a cruise along the shores of Blue Lake and through the Park Loop where participants were applauded by campers and greeted by deer and other wildlife in the park.
After that, crowds thinned out as many headed for home. Others hung around Michael's and finally got inside to eat now that the crowds had thinned.
Classics members quickly picked up and got ready to start celebrating a job well done. Suds n Jugs sponsored a band in their outdoor Beer Garden downtown and about a dozen of us ended the night there.
Members Steve Hanson and his sister (and new member with husband Bob) Sandy Wulf did there best Billy Gibbons and Elvis impersonations at Suds.
Many people congratulated the Club on an awesome event saying "you guys have this down to a science". Well, it's definitely a team effort and it's a good thing they didn't see all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes during the planning stages of such an event (not to mention worries about the weather).
Thanks to all the business sponsors and members who pitched-in and went the extra mile to make this year's Graffiti Night such a huge success!!