CULLMAN, Ala. – The second Saturday of June marks an important occasion for car lovers in Cullman: the Pentastar South Car Club’s annual Mopar (Chrysler-made vehicle) car show. Every year, the proceeds from the show (registration fees, raffle tickets and extra donations) go to benefit the Secret Meals for Hungry Kids program, a charity created by the Alabama Credit Union that discreetly provides food for students who may go hungry over a weekend without school meals. This year’s show was the largest in its history, bringing 113 cars from as far as Colorado and Kentucky.
One car owner from New Orleans had a special story to tell about his vehicle and Hurricane Katrina. Paul D. Reynolds, III, a member of the Big Easy Car Club who comes to the show each year, brought a black and yellow 1971 Dodge Super Bee that spent roughly a month under 7 feet of water after Katrina.
“I decided to keep it, and it took five years to redo it. That’s why it looks as nice as it does,” he said. “It sat and rusted for about a year while we got homes and businesses rebuilt. Cars came last, but about a year after all that mess we started on cars and it just ended up this way.”
He described the work to restore the car as a “five-year labor of love” and said he takes it to about five shows each year that are run by friends of the club.
Reynolds continued talking about the Cullman show, saying, “I love Cullman, Alabama! The people up here are probably the nicest people I’ve ever met, and we travel all over. Believe me, we go all over – Texas, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee – and the folks here are the nicest I’ve met, period.”
The Big Easy Car Club provided food for the show; Reynolds said they make an effort to cook for all their friends’ shows and spread the Cajun love. This year’s menu included fried shrimp (which Reynolds said was caught just two days before by his shrimper son-in-law), red beans and rice with sausage, a play on jambalaya called “pastalaya” and homemade white chocolate bread pudding.
One of the biggest highlights of the show was the Dukes of Hazzard Mobile Museum. Randy Yates has been collecting Dukes of Hazzard memorabilia for more than 20 years, and about five years ago he decided to load his collection into a trailer where he could keep everything and take it out on the road with him. His collection not only includes costumes, action figures and posters, but also iconic cars from the show.
“I have the General Lee, I have the cop car and I’ve got the Daisy Jeep and Roadrunner at home, also,” he recounted. He said he frequently goes to shows with John Schneider (Bo Duke), and will actually be visiting his studios in Louisiana in July. The museum had a donation box set up at the exit, and the donations were given to the Pentastar South Car Club for the Secret Meals program at the end of the show.
Brenda Allison, the show’s organizer, said that the decision this year to move away from Depot Park to a larger venue was met with a lot of positive feedback.
“The move here has been well-received,” she stated. “Everybody loves it here, and unless something changes then Sportsman Lake will probably become our permanent location.”
Allison said the show gave out 50 awards for “Show Winner” cars, in addition to awards for longest distance traveled (one for cars driven, another for trailered), car club with the most participants, best detailing and sponsors’ favorites, among others.
While the exact amount of money raised will not be announced until later in the week, Allison said the registration fees were $25 per car (with 113 cars, that makes $2,825) and there was a total of $1,116 in the pot for the 50/50 raffle, so $558 would go to the charity as well; however, the winner of the pot gave $300 back, so the 50/50 pot could mean $858. That means an estimated $3,600-plus for the charity before extra donations are factored in.
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