‘Everybody that’s here loves cars’

MOSES LAKE — The bass contest proved that none of the trucks at the Moses Lake Spring Festival car show had sound systems so powerful they could break windows. But anybody standing next to the orange 2005 Chevrolet Silverado felt their lungs vibrate when owner Santana Palacios turned up the volume. 

A lot of people were impressed.

“I’ve got to do that, bro,” one show spectator told a friend as the bass reverberated and the truck vibrated. 

A sunny spring day and two blocks jammed with cool cars brought plenty of spectators — and cars. The Lakesiders Car Club organizes the show, and Lakesiders member Anthony Reyes said the club has 219 entries. 

“We had to turn some cars away,” Reyes said. “We had people from as far as Seattle.”

The show filled two blocks of Third Avenue and spilled over into nearby parking lots.

“Everybody that’s here loves cars,” Lakesiders member BJ Reyes said. 

Sometimes the car had special memories, like the bright green 1973 Porsche driven by John Hill, Moses Lake. It was his mom’s car; she had cancer back in ‘73 and beat it, and her family thought she needed to celebrate. 

“We all convinced her she needed a Porsche,” he said.

His mom drove it until she died, he said, and it’s been in the family since.

A gray Lincoln Continental was the car that left an impression on Robert Fox, Kennewick, when he was a kid.

“The guys that drove that car - I wanted to be that guy when I grew up,” he said.

His dad tried to buy one, he said, but couldn’t find it and settled for something else. As an adult though, Fox found one near Seattle, a car whose prior owner had cared for well, and Fox bought it.

“It’s a survivor,” he said.

So was the 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air with the lime green paint job, making its car show debut. Owner Mitch Stanberry, Moses Lake, said his great-grandfather bought it new off the lot, and gave it to his dad for college in the early 1970s.

“Those are my dad’s parking passes from 1972,” he said, pointing to the stickers on the fender.

It was in a collision, and the insurance company wanted to total it, but Stanberry’s grandfather was in the insurance business and managed to keep it, he said.

He hasn’t done much to it, and doesn’t plan to, he said. He likes the look and the history. 

The Pontiac Firebird, year undetermined, with the windshield cover from the 1977 film “Smokey and the Bandit” impressed some viewers.

The show drew cars old and new, the 1965 Mustang that Mike McKay of Moses Lake took on a project when he got hurt and couldn’t play sports in high school. The Mustang was a complete fixer-upper.

“A shell with all the parts and pieces (in a box) inside,” he said.

He’s been working on it for about 15 years, he said. 

“There’s not much on it I haven’t messed with or messed a knuckle up on,” he said. 

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherad.com. 

    The Spring Festival car show drew more than 200 cars and filled the street with spectators.
  

    Car lovers check out the 1965 Mustang at the Spring Festival car show.
  

    A 1977 Pontiac catches the eye of a spectator at the Spring Festival car show.
  

    A 2016 Hyundai, a 1965 Mustang and a 1951 MG (the red car behind the Mustang) were examples of the wide array of cars, trucks, motorcycles and tractors at the Spring Festival car show.