GREENSBORO, Md. – Yes, this winter has seemed long, but the winter before was no fun either. After a six-month layoff from car shows during our 2023-24 Maryland winter that had several cold stretches but fortunately little snow, my Mustang friends and I were anxious to get back on the show circuit once again and attend several of the better events in the central Maryland area. After two earlier poor outings at other events, our first great choice for 2024 was the Greensboro Lions Club's 10th Annual Marty Gangemi Memorial Car Show, held on Saturday, May 25, at the Greensboro Elementary School located on Main Street, which has a wide, relatively new paved parking lot. I have attended this excellent event several times over the past years and have always enjoyed it.
My drive was about 67 miles or an hour and a quarter heading toward our Eastern Shore, which included crossing our magnificent Chesapeake Bay Bridge again, followed by a good early morning run through the country and farm fields leading to Greensboro. This year the Lions offered 50 Top Choice trophies, along with three other specialty awards, and the event was open to all makes and models of cars and trucks. The club usually uses an outside judging company with score sheets to review the entrants, which I greatly prefer. This show is incredibly well run, and I would not change anything!
This event was first scheduled for May 4, but that weekend was a wash out. The weather for the new date was perfect with clouds and sun and temps in the low '80's after the early morning haze burned off in the low-lying fields nearby. The only problem was that the new date was on the Saturday before Memorial Day when many people kick off their summer by driving to Ocean City, Maryland, or the Delaware resorts, potentially resulting in heavy traffic on our Route 50 that takes us to the shore. I left early on Saturday morning hoping to avoid any heavy traffic on 50, but as I was crossing the Severn River Bridge near Annapolis, all three lanes were reduced to a crawl. Several minutes later I saw that there was a fire engine sitting on the left side blocking two lanes of traffic, followed by several State Police cruisers and a damaged something-or-the-other. But once we got through that congestion, much to my surprise we sailed right through to our Eastern Shore and then on to Greensboro, and it was a relatively easy ride!
I’d previously covered the Greensboro Lions' show from 2023 for FordPerformance.com, and had a feeling this return to Greensboro would be equally as enjoyable. For me the highlight of the 2024 show was meeting a man from Delaware who drove to the show in his 1914 Ford Model T that looked like the day it was made! He had owned this Model T for many years, and in fact had restored it to better-than-new condition 51 years ago. While I was walking around taking pictures for my e-newsletters, the owner asked if I would like to sit in his car, and he would take my picture. So I got in by the small right door and sat down. This antique car was 110 years old and immaculate inside. I then handed him my camera, and he took two pictures of me leaning out giving the thumbs up. Unfortunately, he’d pressed the wrong button on my camera, and later I saw no images.
At any rate, I then asked him if he ever took passengers for a ride in his beautiful Model T? He said yes, and asked if I was interested, and of course I accepted. So he turned on the ignition and hand-cranked the engine from the outside, and the car shook a few times and fired up. We then drove around the school's parking lot a few times among the show cars and returned to his parking space. At one point he asked if I wanted to drive it, but I knew from hearing about these cars that the foot pedals on these old Model T's were vastly different from what modern cars have, so I declined and just enjoyed the ride in this incredible time machine. This was great fun and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I will remember that short but memorable ride forever!
Eventually the time came for our cars to be judged. In the past the Lions have used Shamrock Appraisers, who show up wearing green polo shirts and evaluate each car or truck using one judge only and what I thought were score sheets and spending five or ten minutes per vehicle. But for the show this day, I am not sure how our cars and trucks were evaluated. There were no independent judges in green shirts. Instead, three or four men and women dressed in casual clothing walked by each of our Mustangs, wrote something on a clipboard, and only took short glances at our engines and interiors. This process seemed to only take a few short minutes per car. Not that this method was not a good idea, but rather it was not quite what we were expecting. Maybe Shamrock was not available? We were not told what the judging criteria was, but each review for our cars was very brief.
As we went into the early afternoon, we were called to the portico areas in front of the school for trophy time. For this show there were four of us from my home area, Leo with his '08 GT convertible, Glenn with his '08 GT coupe, John with his '66 GT coupe, and me with my '11 V6 Mustang. The club started giving out their Top 50 trophies. Glenn was called early in the rotation, and then the other three of us waited. We watched as row after row of the Lions' trophies were awarded to so many other owners. The three of us started going into a crisis mode when the club got down to its last eight or nine trophies! And then finally I was called, and then Leo, followed by one other person, and then John received one of the last few awards. Thank you, Greensboro Lions!
The Greensboro Lions conduct one of the best local, all-makes-and-models car shows in my area. Every dollar received from the entry fees is put toward worthwhile charitable causes, and the shows are well run and held at an excellent location. The only shortcoming was that usually they draw over 100 cars and trucks, but this year there were only 78 entries. Why was that? Because the rescheduled date was moved to the long holiday Memorial Day weekend? The weather was perfect and the traffic was only moderate. For such an excellent show, I will never understand why there are not many more people attending events like this.
I’m sure glad I revisited the show – and the very special ride in that Model T made it all the more special!
FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY RICK MITCHELL
