Saturday, March 17, 2012

Went to the Kansas City St. Patrick's Day Parade and a car show broke out

Did you know that Kansas City, Mo., hosts one of the largest St. Patrick's Day parades in the United States? Nearly a half-million people turn out downtown to watch all the floats, marching bands, and giant balloons.

Normally, I would sit in one place, snap a photo of all the neat cars as they drove by, then present it to you in a slideshow. But this year BHo's second grade class was chosen to march in the 40th running of this Kansas City tradition, so I was on the move.

The kids were really excited for the opportunity to be in the parade, and I can see why. That is a lot of people you're walking through. You get a much different perspective when you're in it than you do sitting on the sidelines. People are everywhere. They're twenty deep on the sidewalk. They're hanging out of windows. They're dangling off of rooftops. They're piled on any van, statue, or retaining wall they can find. I actually think it might be more interesting to walk through and look at the people than it is to watch the parade!

So does that mean I didn't find any cars to show you? Heck no! There were all kinds of interesting things sitting in the staging area before the parade. So I broke away from the kids for a few minutes to snap a few pictures.

Like any parade, there were a lot of police cars. But in this one, the Missouri Highway Patrol brought out their '59 Dodge patrol car. I don't know how accurate that car is, but it looks neat, and it's restored nice. Love the red gumball on the roof.

Some of them are regulars at local car shows and other events. There's a slick '41 Chevy convertible that we've seen at cruises and other parades that never gets old to look at. A big old black '47 Buick convertible is good enough to be in a concourse show--because we've seen it in one before at the Kansas City Art Institute.

There was a '53 Ford convertible that I thought was kind of interesting. Back then, there was a dealer-installed option called the Coronado Kit, which was sort of a spare tire facade that bolted to the trunk lid. The Ford that was used to pace the Indy 500 that year actually had one. The one at the parade kind of had that, but instead of the tire thing being bolted to the car, this was built into the trunk lid. I'm not an expert on old Ford accessories by any means, but I'm guessing that maybe this was an aftermarket addition?

Other notables included a '75 Eldorado convertible, an oppulent '39 Zephyr four-door phaeton, a '59 Corvette, several older Rolls Royces, a nice '36 Ford two-door sedan, and a '74 Buick LeSabre convertible that was transporting baseball legend Frank White.

OK, so it wasn't Goodguys or anything. But there were still a few things there looking at, and it was a pretty fun atmosphere. Plus, we were a part of a Kansas City tradition. Check out the slideshow for car and crowd pictures to give you a sense of everything that was going on down Broadway from Lindwood to Westport this morning.



1 comment:

  1. C,
    Greatttttttttttttt, again !!

    BHo, one day you'll be the Grand Marshall !

    Don
    "Basehor Boys"

    ReplyDelete