Renegade Issue 35

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For the last five months Gabe and I have been hosting
“Throwback Thursdays” at the Kenda Drive-In, one of only
three Drive-Ins left in the state of Arkansas. Even though
I grew up only 15 miles from this particular Drive-In, my life
took me in different directions and I never took the time to
visit a Drive-In. I have to say with all of the old classics and
hot rods, it was REALLY something to behold.
Our event was held the last Thursday of the month and was
limited to pre-1980 vehicles. For this year’s series of car
movies we opened with the cult classic “Two Lane Blacktop”,
moved on to “Vanishing Point”; the 1971 original, watched
Quentin Tarantino’s “Death Proof”, and in June saw a movie
titled “Clutch”. With the extremely HOT weather that we have
had, mixed with a VERY rainy season, planning for this type
of event is very stressful to say the least when it all depends
on the weather. Choosing to show a movie in March gave
some concerns but we ended up having beautiful weather
for both showings in March and April. The thunderstorms
and heavy rain kept many out in May, and we were lucky
to get the movie watched in June and make it back home,
which is 40 minutes away. Driving my 1974 Charger, without
defrost and with semi-antiquated wipers at midnight is not
really something I want to experience again!
Admittance to the movie was free and goody bags were giv-
en out to all “first-timers” who had not attended one of the
movie nights before. Punch cards were given to each car
that came through. The car owners were told that the more
nights they attended the better chance they had at winning
prizes. A couple months into the event, I asked Gold Eagle,
makers of 303, if they would donate the grand prizes and
they came through in a tremendous way.
Our “Throwback Thursdays” grand finale was held July 28,
where we showed “Smokey and the Bandit” and it was AWE-
SOME! We had double the attendance of the other movie
nights and this time Gabe and I were set up with my huge
CRO/Sta-bil tent (part of the welcoming kit that I received last
year for becoming a CRO Champ), giving out hundreds of
sunglasses, samples, pens and extra donated goodies that
I still had left and wanted the crowd to have. Even though
we hosted this event as volunteers, with no pay whatsoever,
I always want everything to go as planned and want the at-
tendees to have as much fun as possible.
As an added bonus, we had a guy at the Drive-In who had
WON a classic Trans-Am, in black, nonetheless AND his
friend, Chris Graddy, a Corporal with the Arkansas State Po -
lice, Troop I who brought in a vintage police car!!! Before
the movie started, we had our very own Smokey and the
Bandit pursuit chase at the Drive-In. I can tell you that there
wasn’t a person on the grounds that night that wasn’t smiling.
Thinking back to the kind of simple entertainment two cars
brought to a crowd of mostly older adults was astonishing!
After they got through with their pursuit, our local “Smokey”
announced over his radio that all people holding punch cards
were to meet in front of my tent. The car owners who attend-
ed the most movie nights received wash buckets filled with
premium products from 303. The winners not only received
all seven full sized products, they also got a vast assortment
of sponges, towels, microfiber cloths and pads to use with
those products!!
Some of the other sponsors helping out with this awesome
event that I would like to thank are: JEGS, Mecum Auctions,
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Eckler’s, Doni Langdon owner of Throttle Gals Magazine,
Hemmings, National Corvette Museum, LMC Truck, Sue
Gogolinski owner of Just Get Dirty Garage, Painless, Rock
Auto, Edelbrock, Grundy Insurance, Hagerty Classic Insur-
ance, NPD/National Parts Depot, Summit Racing, Stoner,
Meguiar’s, Simoniz, Wizards and Coker Tire. I would also
like to thank the owners of Massage Works of Harrison,
James and Amy Benefiel, my local hometown massage
clinic that I visit on a regular basis. They not only keep me
upright and mobile, they donated to the event AND showed
up for the finale!
This was not a car show and we marketed it to get EVERY-
ONE who owned something cool together. We had every-
thing from rat rods, farm trucks, daily driven classics, and an
original condition GTX Hemi car to a truck that ran on wood
pellets. Every month we saw new and interesting cars and
met some really great people. I met a super cool guy named
Bill McEntire who gave me a Ziploc bag of rattlesnake ear-
rings that he had made, to give out each month to the ladies
in attendance. He lived very close to the Drive-In and each
month he would catch a ride home so that he could bring out
all four of his classics to show support. Since I don’t wear
earrings, he made me a rattlesnake bracelet and gave me a
string of rattlesnake bones to hang from my rear view mirror.
I promptly put that in my Challenger and it looks AWESOME.
It is amazing and so rare to find someone who is not only
willing to help, but who goes above and beyond just because
he knows it makes people happy.
This has definitely been a highlight of my year. Being a
CRO Champ, with Gold Eagle supporting me and supplying
all of these great products really makes for a wonderful and
memorable event, not only for all of the car owners but for
the whole community of car people who will continue to hear
about these types of grassroots events.
Chris Gibbany
Old Iron Never Dies!