OLDS — The Northern Lights chapter of the Oldsmobile Club of America held its 31st annual Oldsmobile Show at Hildebrand Motors on July 19.
Unfortunately, only about 15 vehicles were on display when the show opened at 12 noon. Attendees there said in past years, there have been many more; more than 60 a few years ago.
Ken Pilidis, president of the Northern Lights chapter of the Oldsmobile Club of America, had a couple of reasons for the lower number.
One reason was the threat of rain.
He said another reason was the fact that the vast majority of those showing vehicles had to drive a long way to get to Olds.
“For example, for me to come to this show, I'm driving 125 miles from Edmonton and then back today. So that's 250 miles for me. That is over a tank of gas. And so it can be an expensive trip, in that sense, for gasoline anyway,” Pilidis said during an interview with the Albertan.
“But Olds is a nice little town. It's always nice to come and visit.”
Pilidis noted that back in about 1993, most club members lived either in Calgary or Edmonton. It was suggested they should hold their show in Red Deer, which is more central. Pilidis suggested Olds instead.
“For 30 years we've been coming here. This is our 31st show,” he said. “During COVID we had one show in Red Deer, but the other 30 shows that we had were all at this dealership.”
Virtually all the vehicles on display dated back to the 1960s or 1970s, possibly into the 1980s. In previous years, the show has included vehicles far older than that – even dating back to the early 1900s.
“We did one year have a ‘32 and in 2005 we had a 1905 car here,” Pilidis said.
He said the lack of those much older vehicles was likely due to the fact that they’d have to be hauled to Olds by trailer.
“The older cars are harder to drive, they would have to all be on trailers,” he said.
“When I went to the Oldsmobile show in Lansing, Michigan, on the 100th anniversary, they had something like 50 1901 curved dashes. But they were all trailered in. Nobody drove it from where they were from.”
“But well, the weather there at the time rained too. Only the day of the parade did it really come out nice.”
