On Father’s Day, nobody had to remind eight-year-old Victoria Lawrence who was the Best Dad Ever.
It was the guy sitting ahead of her in the passenger seat of the 1965 Ford Mustang wearing a black shirt that read exactly that.
Nobody lets Victoria beat them up a play fight the way her dad Mark does and that’s why he’s the best dad ever, she explained, while waiting with her parents in the CN Centre parking lot Sunday for the start of the Cruisin’ Classics COVID Cruise for a Cause.
The Mustang was being driven by Victoria’s mom Elizabeth, a California girl who got the car as her first vehicle as a present from her father, who brought it back to showroom quality in their garage in Mill Valley, Calif.
“We bought it for $650 and it barely made it back to the house and he spent about 10 years restoring it,” said Elizabeth. “He’s a backyard mechanic and he’s restored many vehicles. He has a ’63 Ranchero, my sister had a 50th anniversary Mustang, my brother has a Mustang and my other sister has a Mustang – we’re a Ford family for sure.”
Her ‘65 now has 747,000 miles on it, about the same distance as three trips to the moon. Elizabeth always looks forward to displaying in at the Cruisin’ Classics Show and Shine and loves the camaraderie of meeting up with other car owners. But this year, the pandemic forced organizers to scrap the usual gathering at Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park and instead they brought some of the city’s finest rides to the people.
“I love driving it,” said Elizabeth, just before the tour took off. “We kept it straight to (original specifications). It has a 200 cubic-inch straight-six (cylinder motor).
“We’ll miss the one-on-one conversations with everybody but I’m hopeful we’ll reach more people who might not have been able to make it down to the park.”
Mark is quite talented with a wrench in his hand and he’s already started fixing up a ’57 Olds Fiesta station wagon he inherited from his grandfather, and the pressure is on to get it done. Victoria wants that to be her wedding car.
“I’ve got as few more years to go,” he said.
The Lawrence family joined a long line of vehicles in the Father’s Day cruise and they toured a good chunk of the city in a parade from Exhibition Park to the Hart to College Heights. It drew about 325 vehicles and thousands of spectators who waited along the route to watch the slow-moving procession go by.
Lori Tataryn, a former Prince George resident who now lives in Penticton, showed up with her son Michael in a stunning orange 1934 Nash three-window coupe, a car her husband Mike began to restore shortly before he died of a heart attack five years. He never got to finish the car, one of six of its type left in the world, and Lori paid to get the job done.
“He had it running the day before he died,” said Michael.
Mike left a legacy of a Chevy pickup truck and three other restored cars, including the 1970 Pontiac GTO Michael drives. He found the Nash coupe in a farm northeast of Edmonton and brought it back to Prince George.
“He died five years ago at the end of March and I had some guys finish it for me and it was at the Father’s Day Show and Shine that year,” said Lori. “It was a tribute to my husband.
“I came to see my son and daughter-in-law and grandkids and do the Father’s Day car show. I’m here every year for Father’s Day.”
Michael normally would have brought the GTO his dad used to have as his daily driver, but it’s up on blocks right now with a transmission problem so he took his seat behind the wheel of the Nash.
Marilyn Monroe showed up Sunday for a ride in the back of Bill Empey’s red 1956 Cadillac convertible. Monroe, also known as Kat Fullerton, said she thought it would be fun to bring a little Vegas to the cruise and she connected with the Cruisin’ Classics on their Facebook page to find just the right vehicle.
“I had to be a convertible, and I’m glad it’s not raining today,” said Fullerton/Monroe.
The event raised $5,311,20 for the Salvation Army Food Bank.
“We had a lot of fun,” said Cruisin’ Classics president Chris Knight. “There were a lot of people on the roadside and a lot of people out everywhere. They were lined all the way up Foothills and on all the side streets we were on. It was a beautiful day.”
