| Worlds biggest 50s party |
|
|
New Jersey 26th annual event – world’s biggest ’50s party
Biggest or not, Lead East is an homage to the happy days of fuzzy dice, doo-wop and drive-ins, with street rods and custom cars cruising low and slow — their skirts flush, their tops chopped, their bodies channeled (reset to ride low on the chassis and close to the ground). The event’s name is a tribute to lead sleds, kandy kolored or otherwise — cars that were reshaped with curves never intended by their Detroit designers, accomplished in the days before Bondo body filler through the skillful application of molten lead.
At Lead East this year, there were oldies concerts and contests for the coolest cruisers and rattiest rat-rods; seminars on how to dress in 50s fashion and how to write 50s songs; outdoor movies (“Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” “Ben-Hur,” “Two-Lane Blacktop”); sock hops; and, naturally, a senior prom and a parade of the prom queens.  The 26th annual event, spread over four days in nine parking lots in a conference center and office park less than 40 miles west of Manhattan, attracted more than 1,500 old cars and some 15,000 people, many too young to remember the era but eager nevertheless to relive its glories.
The event mixes classics, custom cars and hot rods, a head-turning array of which flanked the trailer workshop of the Meadowlands Street Rods group: a ’29 Model A Ford, ’39 Ford, ’37 Chevy, ’49 Olds, ’34 Ford, all souped up and ready to rumble.
Dave Guttman, 64, a millwright from Sellersville, Pa., customized his 1941 Ford convertible. He had bought the rusted hulk, which had been sitting in a barn, for $9,000. After investing $100,000 more, the Ford has become an original beauty in candy red over red, with a rosewood dash, leather-and-ultrasuede seats, an electrically retractable Hartz cloth top, and power steering and air-conditioning.
“The 50’s were much nicer,” said Terry Cook, 66, the onetime New Jersey hot-rodder, writer and editor for car magazines and the promoter who started Lead East, importing the concept from west of the Mississippi. “You could understand the words to the music,” he said. “The kids didn’t have guns. And if you got real lucky you petted with your girlfriend.”
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
please come to my site. I think it can help you something. Thank you, I pray
Replica Louis vuitton handbags