Walmart sponsors first car show despite weather

MOSES LAKE — A visitor to the first annual Walmart car show drove up to the automotive department, where the exhibitors were taking shelter. “Mother Nature isn’t working with you guys, is she?” he said.

“They look better when they’re wet,” an exhibitor replied. While the weather improved as the day wore on, the first couple hours of Saturday’s car show passed in a driving rain.

The car show is something new for the local Walmart, the idea of the crew in the automotive department. “And it had to pour down rain,” said auto care manager Steve Boswell. Nevertheless, the owners of about a dozen cars, ranging from classics – the 1960s tail-finned sedan – to rare models – the 1949 Kaiser – braved the rainstorm.

The automotive center staff was thinking of ways to raise money for charity, Boswell said, and “an idea that came up was to have a car show.” Proceeds were donated to the Children’s Miracle Network and Seattle Children’s Hospital. There was no entry fee, but there were hot dogs and beverages, by donation.

‘We just wanted to do something different,” Boswell said. And an early-April car show is one of the first of the season, said Mike Treadwell, who brought his 1932 Model B Ford truck. Of course the truck doesn’t look like it did when it rolled off the factory floor. Nowadays it’s a street rod, which means, among other things, a much more powerful engine. Treadwell also added air conditioning and other amenities that were unheard of in 1932.

The rain probably cut attendance, according to the exhibitors, and some cars just aren’t that good in the rain. “A lot of them don’t have (windshield) wipers,” said Gordon Edwards, Warden.

Well, one of the cars did have wipers, at least one wiper, “but mine is in the trunk,” its owner said.

Rain and clouds can cut attendance too. “Drive-by (viewers), that’s about it,” said Paul Boehm, the owner of the 1949 Kaiser, “the good-looking one.”

People who stopped by after the rain stopped saw a couple of Minis, a pair of 1960s-1970s muscle cars, some classic sedans. Boehm said his goal was to “restore (his car) back like it came from the factory.” The project took about three months, he said, He took care of the mechanical systems while his friend Ken Douglass, owner of Mild to Wild Auto Restoration in Moses Lake, did the body work. The project took about three months, he said.

Boswell said the plan is to make the car show an annual event. “Hopefully in the sunshine from now on.”

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.