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‘Back to the Drive In’ - Saturday 27th February 2010
How does the song go? O’ what a night!
Put 300 classic chrome bumper cars, a thousand or so adults and kids, an iconic location, mix in some great classic movies, a little Elvis Presley, a cruise, live entertainment, trade stands, a monster charity auction conducted by Shannons and what do you have? A great night out is what you have!
Where to start?
Remember going to the Drive In back in the 50’s & 60’s when the whole family piled into the family wagon and went along, kids in pajamas playing on the swings and slides, hanging the speaker on the car’s window, carrying dinner from the restaurant’s ‘healthy’ menu back to your car, when ‘movies’ were ‘pictures’ and the night’s program started with cartoons? Well that’s what we set out to relive and hopefully we got as close as you can. |
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The two cruise locations in Chelsea Heights & Vermont saw entrants’ convoy down to the Dromana Drive In. Fortunately, those starting in rain at Vermont drove out of it to enjoy a cool but dry evening on the Mornington Peninsula.
After parking the car and settling in, Dirty Boogie’s 10 piece Big Band kick started ‘Back to the Drive In’. The jumping castles were soon pumped up and quickly filled with kids of all ages. There were a good number of trade stands to check out, provisions to be collected in Shel’s Diner, prizes to be won in the best dressed contests’, entrant’s prize draws winning numbers to check and of course the 300 plus cool cars to wander around.
It was soon time to conduct the monster charity auction. There were some great deals to be had and when the Shannons auction team had completed the sale, $9000 had been raised for local charities. Our thanks to all the businesses and people that provided the products or services to be auctioned.
It was then time to conduct the draw for the annual LGC Cruisers Grand Prizes. We had three prizes all valued at around $1000 each. We also had the principals of each of the three sponsors present to draw the three winner’s names. Our thanks again to Peter Koning from Hoppers stoppers, Graeme Hutson from Southern Shopfitters and Rohan Hutson from the Radiator Workshop for their generous sponsorship this year. The names were drawn out in the following order.
1st Barry Campbell Cruiser No 304 of Hastings. Barry was present and selected the $1000 voucher from Radiator Workshop in Mornington for Air Conditioning components. Barry is travelling to Alice Springs in his tray truck and thinks A/C might be very useful!
2nd Matt Joseph Cruiser No 425 from Blind Bight
3rd Mark Brennan Cruiser no 244 from Mt Martha
Turtle Wax ICE Best Presented Award. As is becoming the usual, it was a challenge finding just one deserving winner but eventually Michael Kibblewhite’s ’51 Chev Ute got the nod. Michael collected around $200 worth of Turtle Wax ICE car care products to keep his Black Ute in top shape.
Event’s Special LGC Cruiser Draw. Dave Hall’s slip came out of the box with the names of all the Cruisers actually present and he now has a 600W Woofer to install in his 2 door Chevy.
Congratulations to all our winners.
Thank You’s.
- Thank you to Bradford Badges in Braeside, Hoppers Stoppers in Hoppers Crossing, Shannons in Cheltenham and the Radiator Workshop in Mornington for selling tickets on our behalf.
- The Dirty Boogie big band for generously providing the entertainment.
- GP Hire from Rosebud for providing the cherry picker for use by the photographers.
- Paul & Shel from the Dromana Drive In for taking their business ‘offline’ on a Saturday night to support the fund raising objective. Providing the venue, the movies and the jumping castles, making ‘Back to the Drive In’ possible.
- Although all the members of Let’s Go Cruisin’ quietly work away at hosting our events, a special thank you must go to John & Raelene Leggo for their efforts in pulling all this together.
Would like especially to thank all the following for making tonight’s Charity Auction possible through their generous donations. The $9000 raise as a result will enable some very dedicated people in Mirrabel, Community One and the Menzies Foundation to continue their valuable work in our community.
Ausam Pure Hot Rod Products
Bayside Customs Hastings
Bayside Landscape Centre Mornington
BDS Panels Mornington
Bradford Badges Braeside
Buff n’ Stuff Mornington
Cathy Russo
Dingo Records
Dromana Drive In
Fast Fit Mornington
F&J Autos Rosebud
Graffiti Publications
Hot Wheels
Johnny Z
John Matthews Signs
Magoo Garages Traralgon
Mike Harbar
Mornington Peninsula Windscreens
Radiator Workshop Mornington
Rod Stewart from Hot Rod Revival Magazine
Sabe’s Hobby House Frankston
Shane Abbott from War Paint
And the movies hadn’t even started yet!
When they did, the show started out with the traditional playing of ‘God Save the Queen’. How long since you’ve seen that? Then a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Then it was Grease and after intermission, Elvis staring in Viva Las Vegas. Yes, you may have the DVD’s at home but there’s something about seeing these classics on the big screen, especially at the Drive In.
It was after midnight when the last Elvis fans started motors and cruised home.Keep an eye out for this event to feature in magazines in a few months time as a number of their photographers were present. In the meantime, here’s some from Graeme & Ian
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