Classic cars dazzle Sisters

Rod Wymore and Hazen Barnard check out a 1934 Ford at the custom car show. photo by Jim Cornelius

The streets of Sisters resonated with that familiar rumbling sound as the High Desert Rod & Custom Car Classic rolled into town last weekend.

Dozens of cars of vintages ranging from the 1920s to the 1970s shone in the sun on Saturday during the "show and shine" at Sisters Comfort Inn and Mountain Shadow RV Park.

Folks strolled among the cars, admiring the rich paint jobs, the shining chrome, the powerful engines -- and reminiscing about the cars they once owned and what they could have been.

Rod Wymore and Hazen Barnard of Molalla admired a 1934 Ford tricked out with a flathead motor. The car had an interesting historical presence. It was not really a vintage '30s car; it was the kind of hot rod someone in the 1950s might have built off an old auto.

"If you'd made a hot rod out of it in the '50s, you'd have the same stuff on it," Wymore said.

It was as young men back in the 1950s that Wymore and Bernard first got interested in cars.

In fact, Wymore could have been that guy back in the '50s making a hot rod out of a 1930s Ford. He had a chance to buy a '33 Ford with a Chevy 348 engine (c. 1958) in it.

"My parents wouldn't let me buy it 'cause they knew I'd probably kill myself," Wymore said. "It hauled."

Both men were in Sisters with their wives -- who had their own cars in the show. Bernard's wife had a canary yellow Camaro and Wymore's wife had a Mustang.

Barnard teased his friend about that. "He's a Chevy person, so it's her car," he said.

While both men have always liked their cars, they acknowledged that it took maturity -- and income -- to get into custom work.

Both men had some cars back in the day that they bought just to drive and they now wish they'd kept them.

"Back then you were just glad to have four wheels and a motor," Wymore said.

"You didn't give a rat's meow how it looked."

That's all changed now, of course. Everything looked magnificent, shining under the hot Central Oregon sun as golden oldies blasted across the concourse.

The show included several informal cruises and a raffle benefitting Sisters Middle School that offered the winner a ride in a '57 Chevy or a 1940 Willys.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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