RSS 2.0 FeedJuly 29, 2011, Bellmore Life
Bellmore car show offers safety, stability
Friday night car shows draw crowds to the area.
HOT CARS...IN THE SUMMERTIME: Mike Appice’s salmon-colored 1936 Ford two-door coupe is always a hit at the Friday Night car show, presented by the Chamber of Commerce of the Bellmores and the Town of Hempstead every Friday night through October.
The 1957 two-door pink cadillac also turns heads everywhere it parks at the show, which draws respectable crowds for family fun.
Car enthusiasts attending Bellmore’s Friday Night car show are touting the stability a new partnership between the Chamber of Commerce of the Bellmores and the Town of Hempstead has brought since the deal was inked early this year.
“There is stability here now,” remarked Gerry Lewis, who has been bringing his 1941 Willys to the same parking lot for almost 18 years, even before the Friday Night Cruisers held sway in Bellmore in the late 1990s.
“They’ve done an excellent job with bringing Porta-Sans into the show, and with providing garbage cans to throw garbage out,” he continued.
He added that with a charge of $3 per car, “they’ve done very well with traffic control, too.”
Several members of the South Side Boys, one of several car clubs that threw their support behind charging a fee for car enthusiasts to display their cars in the parking lot, spoke with this newspaper about what they see as improvements to the show since the town and the chamber went into partnership.
“Three dollars for a night out is pretty darn cheap,” said Mike Cabasso of West Hempstead. There aren’t a lot of places for car enthusiasts to go to meet with their fellow enthusiasts, he said.
“This is the best cruise night on Long Island,” said Charlie Muli of Franklin Square. “This show is much more organized than it’s been in years.”
He said that by charging an entrance fee into the show, an element of control has been injected into it, which permits those with cars to open the hoods of the cars so viewers can see the engines.
In previous years, with no centralized control, Nassau police would fine car owners who opened their car hoods because the parking lot was solely for commuters parking their cars, according to town ordinances. County police had no choice but to fine those with open hoods.
Gary Wurtz of Levittown, whose daughter rebuilt an engine, adding pink into the motor’s color scheme, said “Everyone likes the old cars, and this show is a great night out for families to see those cars.”
Michael and Erika Palumbo, of Farmingdale, know full well the importance of a car show in projecting a stable image.
Ms. Palumbo, raised in Bellmore, came to the car show to have pictures taken as part of the 1940s theme she and her husband used during their wedding.
Now expecting their first child, Victor, she and her husband took several photos with cars as backdrops, stopping by to visit with Mike Appice and his 1936 Ford two-door coupe, which was used in the backdrops.
Thrilled to see the photos of his car as backdrop for a series of alluring poses used to promote the wedding, Mr. Appice, of Westbury, again turned his attention to the car show, saying the show had become more stable this year. “It makes the surrounding community that much better,” he said.
The show, he said, offers more stability because of the better conditions. “The show is a step up,” he said.
Mike, of Islip, said that on Friday night people can finally get out, and to “see bands and collect for the show are good things” that create stability.
Friday night, for example, The Rock Underground on Bedford Avenue sponsored entertainment in the showmobile provided by the Town of Hempstead. Among its acts were the adult class, playing selections of classic rock. The next showmobile to offer entertainment will be on August 26, and again on October 7.
The rock school’s glee club also performed.
At least one Bellmore eatery has found a way to benefit from the car show. Clearwater Charlie’s, a new establishment on Pettit Avenue, sends a waitress to the car show to take orders from car enthusiasts and patrons alike.
Manager Peter Demirakos told this newspaper that a waitress going out to take orders for car show patrons, from car enthusiasts to browsers, was helping increase business because people were coming back during the week based on the tastes of the foods.
“People don’t know we’re here yet, so we take the food to them,” he said.
Added waitress Jackie Bersack: “I go to everyone showing at the car show at least twice during the evening.” She said she has her “regulars” every week now, such as families and certain car enthusiasts from the South Side Boys.
