Labor Day weekend car show in Abbeville means abundant nostalgia
To say that Americans have a love affair with the automobile is a well-worn observation.
Nowhere was that love-fest on display more clearly than on Saturday in downtown Abbeville, when the Abbeville Wheels of Time Car Club held its annual Labor Day weekend car show.
Everywhere you looked, there were vintage cars to muscle cars to something in which you could imagine Bonnie and Clyde riding.
Club president Daniel Waits of Greenwood said the motor vehicles parked all around the Square included a few from the 1920s, and a number from the 1930s, on up through the 2000s.
“We have about 40 members in the club,” he said.
This collection of car lovers also makes an appearance during the Spring Festival, when you can find their automobiles parked on North Main, just north of the Square.
Caring for a vintage automobile can be an expensive hobby. People often find vintage cars online through Craigslist or eBay or the like, and can spend as much as $250,000 restoring them.
However, for car lovers, that does not seem to matter. Nurturing a vintage car is an exercise in nostalgia.
All in all, the car show featured 93 classic cars.
“It’s a money pit,” said Waits.
The car club members try to attend a big car show in March in Myrtle Beach, as well as one in Pigeon Forge, TN, and, closer to home, there are gatherings in Laurens, Greenwood and Anderson.
There is also the Turkey Run in Daytona, FL, the biggest car show in the Southeast.
They have what is called the Car Corral, where as many as 1,000 vintage cars are for sale.
Waits is proud of a 1970 Chevelle which belonged to his late mother, and he displayed the Chevelle at the car show in Abbeville.
“I have numerous other ones, too,” he said.
The nostalgia factor was summed up very succinctly by car club member Russ Waters of Greenwood Saturday.
“We were all young once,” he said.