Friends include Elk City Red Dirt Rodders Car Show in list of stops

Details

Published on Monday, 04 June 2012 16:10

Mary Loveland
Daily Elk Citian 

Jim and Darla Waldrop and John and Jeanne Cole caravanned back to northern Oklahoma Saturday night in their turquoise and red 1950s Ford convertibles, both with a trophy in the back seat of their cars. The Waldrops and Coles have been going to car shows all over Oklahoma together for years, and each year, they come to the Red Dirt Rodders Car Show in Elk City.

The Waldrops, from Laverne Okla., and the Coles, from Waynoka, Okla., met at a car show more than five years ago. Since then, once car show season approaches in May, they go to nearly one car show every weekend together. This weekend, they were parked next to each other again in Ackley Park, and with matching cars, to boot.

Both couples have been collecting classic and antique cars for many, many years, but there's one car they both have that makes going to these car shows so special: The Ford Retractable Hardtop.

"The Retractable shows better than any other car," Jim said. "I would say that we have three times as many people look at our Retractable then we have had look at the rest of our cars. They're just so unique and so unusual it just draws people to them."

Ford only produced the cars for three years, which makes them very hard to find, especially in such good condition.

The Waldrop's 1959 took second place in its class at the show while the Cole's 1958 took third.

For the complete article and more information, look for the Monday, June 4, edition of the Daily Elk Citian.