By Maddy Vitale
Gwen Wilson isn’t quite old enough to drive, but the Ambler, Pa. girl has some superb taste in wheels.
Yet, it seemed as if she liked a 1960 Chevy Corvette for one reason and one reason only.
“It’s red,” Gwen, 2, said before her mom Jolaine Wilson scooped her up in her arms.
Gwen’s dad, Nick Wilson, didn’t seem to mind that his daughter wanted to linger by the car.
He gladly picked her up so the two of them could get a closer look.
“It’s a beautiful car,” Nick Wilson said.
The Wilson family came down to Ocean City for the weekend to visit family and were excited at the notion of going to the Jersey Cape Region Antique Automobile Club of America show Saturday on the grounds of the Ocean City Tabernacle.
The show, in its 63rd year, usually features 150 or more vintage cars. This year, with a rainy forecast, there were fewer cars, organizers said, but definitely enough wheels to keep car buffs intrigued as they perused the vintage cars.
Dave Blyler, the Jersey Cape Region Antique Automobile Club of America president, said he was surprised by the number of antique cars that made it out this year.
“The weather cut back on the number of cars,” Blyer said. “But for this weather, the turnout is great.”
A parade on the Boardwalk was scheduled for 2 p.m., but Blyer pushed it up an hour due to a prediction of rains coming late in the afternoon.
Spectators got their fill of a variety of cars. Muscle cars from the1960s and ’70s were the favorites. The classic automobiles from the 1920s and ’30s also shared the limelight and then there was an impressive looking black Cadillac from the 1970s that made car lovers stop for a second look.
Blyer’s sister Greta Liston, of Upper Township, watched as her grandchildren took a seat in their great grandparents’ 1931 Model A Ford.
Sisters Maeve, 2, and Mallory Liston, and their cousin Ava Greck, 2, all of Upper Township, waved and giggled, from the pristine, restored car.
For Lori and Mike D’Angelo, of Doylestown, Pa., on vacation in Ocean City, the show was a perfect family event. Their children Vivian, 4, and Evelyn, 2, looked at the cars until one caught Vivian’s eye. It was a 1944 toy Jeep.
“You like that?” Lori D’Angelo asked her daughter, before the family went to check it out.
The little girl smiled.
Car buffs like Mark and Sandra Masky, of Rochester, New York, love going to car shows.
Like Vivian, they had their eye on a toy of sorts.
It was a 1963 split window Sting Ray.
“This is my favorite car here,” Mark Masky said.
The couple, on vacation in Wildwood, said they come to the car show in Ocean City nearly every year.
“We think it is really a nice show,” Sandra Masky said.
When asked if they owned any antique cars, they both laughed.
“No, just a new one,” Mark Masky said with a chuckle. “But we really like the old ones.”
