VIENNA, W.Va. (WTAP) – Members of the Pioneer Antique Automobile Club have parked their antique and modern cars of various makes and models along the inside of Grand Central Mall.
Roy Meredith, the club’s president, says the club has hosted this antique car show almost every year since the mall’s opening in 1972.
“The club was formed in 1961 with several members and over the years, we’re into the 65th year right now… We’ve had fun in the mall every year, and the cars come and there’s a different variety every year. People bring their cars out and enjoy them and that’s what it’s for,” says Roy.
The oldest car in the show is a 1913 Ford, while the newest is a 2009 Corvette.
Roy says they had 29 cars in this year’s show, but in the past have had upwards of 100.
Roy says his passion for cars bloomed when he moved to Parkersburg in 1957.
“When we moved to Parkersburg in 1957, we was on Avery St. and we would watch the 5:00 traffic come up through there. A kid out of the country, it was exciting to see the different cars you had seen pictures of but never seen,” says Roy. “And then we would argue about which was which year and whatever. Over the years I’ve been to the car shows, I was at Pioneer Antique Automobile Car Show 20 years before I joined, probably 25.”
Since joining the club in 1992, Roy says. his favorite part about these types of events they do is meeting new people and seeing their reactions to cars they knew growing up.
Yesterday, I was here at the AMC Pacer down in the here and a woman was jumping for joy,” says Roy. He says she was saying ‘that was the first car I learned to drive, it looked like this and it looked like that’.
Roy says, “She was just all excited to see one and, you know, you don’t see them that often. They’re round but you don’t see them that often.”
Each car at the show has a unique story. One car in particular, that is the 1929 Ford Model A, used to belong to Roy’s great uncle, and he says the was surprised when he first saw it rolled in to a previous car show.
“The first time I’d seen it was in City Park when they had the hard fun car show out there. Sort of funny, but I seen the original title up in the back seat which said Tinker Griffin… Which was my great uncle,” says Roy.
“I sat on the driver side running board when I was a kid working in the hay field in the country, eating my lunch right there. When they had it in the mall the first time and I talked to them on it, they said… ‘We didn’t have to do any body work on it other than one place’, and I told them I said, I know exactly where that one place is at because I’d seen it happen,” says Roy.
He says over the years the color of. the car has changed. Originally, it was maroon but now it is green.
One of the other cars with a unique story at the car show is the 1957 Chevy.
Roy says it belongs to the club’s secretary, Sharon Coleman, and her sister Brenda. He says they originally bought the Chevy for their father after his wife and their mother passed away.
“He went to car shows and cruise-ins and he got sick and passed away, and they kept the car, ” says Roy. “They’ve taken good care of it.”
Roy brought two of his own cars to the show, as well. They are pictured below.
The cars will be parked in Grand Central Mall until Sunday at 6 p.m., when the mall closes.
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