To many, cars are just a mode of transportation. Certainly, a set of wheels with bells and whistles makes the ride ever-so-smooth, but when it’s time to trade in, love for those vehicles is fleeting.

Old cars may mean trouble for many, but not for those who participated in Friday’s Route 66 Summerfest Cruise-in. For these motorists, the older the ride, the better.

To car owners like Fred Davis of St. James who sported his 1923 Ford Model TT, "old is where it’s at."

“It’s a Ford Model TT. Yes, it’s a Model T, and the second T stands for truck,” Davis said of his mostly wooden, cherry-red, impeccably clean auto with wooden spoke wheels, squeeze-ball brass horn and monocle windshield.

“It belongs to our family,” Davis said. “I’ve got two daughters who each think they’re first in line for it,” he said with a chuckle.

Davis was here to show the speedster he’s owned since 1982, and despite urging from Jim Larson, who organized the Route 66 Summerfest Cruise-in, Davis was not going to take his car into Rolla.

“No, I don’t think so. Not for this baby,” Davis said, protecting the investment for the amount he refused to disclose.

“It’s priceless. Price is not a factor. It takes a buyer and a seller to make a sale. It’s not for sale,” he said.

Davis was not alone. Owner after owner echoed those comments. Nearly all, but one.

El Willman, also of St. James, at least entertained an offer to purchase his 1934 lavender Ford sedan.

“Sure, how much?” Willman said.

Somehow it really didn’t seem to matter what price was offered for the polished Ford.

The same could be said about J.D. Williams of his father’s 1939 Pepsi-blue Ford.

“Man, I don’t know. You’d have to ask my dad. I don’t think so, I’m just driving it,” J.D. said of his father Doug Williams, also of St. James.

Then there is Maria (Sachs) Carroll who had her family’s 1933 Plymouth Deluxe 6 sedan with its chromed flying woman radiator cap who paid to have the car restored and then gave it back to her father, Robert Anderson, when the restoration was complete.

“My great grandfather bought the car for $450,” Carroll said. “He gave it to us, we restored it and then gave it back to my father,” said Carroll who was at the Cruise-in with her brother, Richard Anderson, and his wife Ronda.

“It’s not for sale. It’s just part of our family,” Carroll said.
More than 100 cars of various vintage participated in the Cruise-in along Old Route 66, said Larson.

“The weather was great, just perfect for the drive in (to Rolla). We had well over 100 cars and more than 30 motorcycles. We had perhaps the largest downtown car show ever in Rolla.”