NEW GLASGOW – Everyone in Patrick Kelly’s family knows who’s in charge of the 1963 Ford Galaxie.
Once in a while, Patrick will let his wife drive it, but only if he’s with her so he can keep a close eye on things.
“Oh, it’s his – it’s all his,” Aimee said with a laugh on Saturday, where the peacock turquoise-coloured classic sat with dozens of other vintage automobiles at the annual show and shine put on by the Pictou County Antique Car Club.
“He’s just got to decide which kid to pass it onto when he goes.”
Kelly inherited the Galaxie from his father Douglas Kelly, who’d owned it for at least a decade before he lost his battle with cancer two years ago.
He takes it out for a drive “about once a week when the weather’s nice” and under the hood is a big 6.4-litre engine, so the car is not easy on gasoline.
A mechanic by trade, Kelly can tinker with the antique car when he needs to. Compared to modern automobiles, cars like the ’63 Galaxie are easier to work on.
“There’s not a lot of technology in them and they’re made of steel, they’re not plastic,” Kelly said. Because he inherited it from his father, this car will not be for sale.
“I won’t sell it. To me, it’s priceless.”
Down the track at the Scott Weeks sports complex, Danny Irving is sitting in his 1979 Fiat Spyder, which had been rear-ended earlier in the day when he’d been sitting at a stop light in New Glasgow. You can imagine that it wasn’t a good moment for him.
Irving bought the convertible about a year ago, “to drive on sunny days with the roof down. It drives nice on a windy road. It drives nice, you know?”
A car must be at least 30 years old before it can be officially declared an antique and it was a car-lover’s delight this weekend at the sports complex; pickup trucks, classic cars that have survived the decades, even a truck was on display courtesy of the Stellarton Fire Department, which has owned the bright red 1944 Dodge for more than 70 years.
John Boutilier of the Pictou County antique car club said 210 cars rolled into the lot on Saturday, “and tomorrow we’re expecting 300, if we don’t get rained on again.”
