Having just witnessed my first Dozinky Days and car cruise, the amount of work and planning for the event was impressive. Well done, New Prague.
The weather drew a huge crowd downtown, perhaps bigger than expected. The event of course benefitted from near-perfect weather and the experience the Chamber of Commerce and volunteers have to draw upon.
The lone complaint was the excessive amount of solid waste perhaps overwhelmed some of the receptacles downtown. If that’s the biggest criticism, Dozinky Days, 2023, was a winner. By latemorning Sunday, the area looked good thanks to quick cleanup efforts.
The celebration started in earnest with the car cruise Friday evening. Over 300 – 303 to be exact, we were told – lined up at the high school parking lot. There was a ton of great looking vehicles, from old trucks, muscle cars and plenty of old classics. There was even a Corvair, the car consumer protection activist Ralph Nader declared “Unsafe at Any Speed” because a supposed design flaw in the rear suspension made the car likely to flip over when driven in abrupt maneuvers. The driver and passenger Friday were young enough they’d seemingly never heard of Ralph Nader let alone the torment the Corvair has endured.
The publicity Nader’s book generated for automotive safety prompted legislation to create the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an agency devoted to saving lives by reducing the number and severity of vehicle-related crashes.
Over the weekend, a keyboard warrior kvetched the car cruise was compromised by certain vehicles being allowed. The car cruise limited entries to 20 years old or older. Apparently, that means a 2001 minivan with minimal rust and in show condition could technically qualify. It hardly compares to the ’69 Camero SS Karen Pexa acquired for herself years after her to-be husband nixed the previous Camero she owned. Apparently, it was too costly to own. Cars can do that, ya’ know.
He obviously never met the 1974 Gremlin two-door that made the drive from St. Paul to Mankato in the fall of 1981. It was a blend of silver and a pale green my older brother deemed “pond scum green.” Couldn’t argue with him.
The keyboard warrior argued the 20-year age limit should be switched to 40.
The first car I ever paid for myself, dad accompanied me to the dealership, Midway Chev, in St. Paul in the fall of ‘79. It served a purpose – economical transportation – until making the full-time move to Mankato and school in 1984. When purchased, this oneowner beauty had 55,000ish miles. It served me well for well beyond the 100,000-mile threshold considered ‘miracle miles’ at the time. Today’s cars are just getting broken-in at 100,000 miles.
It featured two bucket seats with the center console between, perfect for holdin’ hands and all. If memory serves, it had FM and AM radio, perfect for listening to Twins games and WDGY until the signal went away once into the Minnesota River Valley. The drive train extending from front transmission to the rear end of the vehicle necessitated an unforgiving bump down between the passenger and driver’s side of the vehicle. Back seat leg room was a non-issue in a Gremlin.
Behind the back seat was an open area for stuff – too small for golf clubs but large enough for books, backpacks and laundry bags brought home on the weekend.
It was big enough to hold a 16-gallon keg of beer. In a frozen state, the keg served as ballast supporting the rear-wheel-drive beauty on a snowy winter in 1983 when the owner needed a weekend reprieve from Mankato. The state trooper who stopped the driver wasn’t buying the ballast argument until he knocked on it and determined the keg truly was frozen.
With two older brothers working as mechanics willing to coach their younger brother through relatively minor repairs, the vehicle lasted for three-, maybe four years. It finally gave up the ghost with major engine failure in 1984 only to be replaced by an ’81 Chevette. Oh, the horror.
Come to think of it, both would qualify for the cruise. They were classics, no doubt about it. If only they were still around.