Cars, cruising and stories to tell

Cars are coming to downtown Coeur d'Alene by the hundreds. Thousands of enthusiasts will enjoy Car d'Lane's Friday night cruise on Sherman Avenue, the Saturday car show and Silver Auction's live auction at Independence Point.

Long before there was the Car d'Lane event, cool cars cruising Sherman was just something local kids did every weekend. The route for cruising Sherman in the '60s went from one end to the other, turning around at the Big Y truck stop to the east, a cruise through the parking lot of the Topper at 17th and Robby's Drive-In on Sixth Street.

We had a front-row (porch) view of the cruising from our home on Sherman Avenue and Ninth Street. Car d'Lane's Friday Night Cruise is serious nostalgia for longtime locals, many of whom you'll see either cruising or spectating.

In 1972, my little sister, Janna, was cruising Sherman with girlfriends when a car with a couple of Canadian boys paid notice. It was spring break of her sophomore year. The boys were on their first visit to the States. Fast forward 52 years and Janna and the cute Canadian boy, Rick, will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary Saturday. Rick is now a U.S. citizen and that chance meeting on Sherman Avenue has blessed our family for a half-century. I gained a brother and later four nephews and a niece from the serendipity of it all.

Ron Hotchkiss remembers his first car ... he was just 12 when his grandfather gifted him with a 1946 Plymouth that the family had driven from Minnesota to Hayden in 1958. Ron and his dad had to get it running first. Both Ron and his friend, John Webb, learned to drive a standard transmission in that car, doing laps in his grandpa's field.

The first car that Ron restored was a 1957 Dodge with a bad transmission that he bought at 15. His dad, David, taught him how to rebuild a transmission and his mom, Donna, helped redo the interior. He sold the car and bought a 1959 Chrysler Imperial, selling that to buy a 1964 Plymouth, which was totaled on Fourth Street on the way to buy a root beer at the Frost Top.

Ron drove all of these cars to and from high school and to cruise Sherman. Three years after graduation in 1969, he joined the Coeur d'Alene Police Department. He joked that as a patrol officer, he was still cruising Sherman but not having to buy gas. He retired from CDAPD in 2001 with the rank of lieutenant.  

He didn't retire his passion for cars, with a current fleet of about 30, all stored in his large shops. The oldest is an 1897 Black with tiller steering. The latest model is a 2011 Dodge Challenger, which he bought wrecked off an insurance auction site. It's a rare color, "Green with Envy," with only 400 produced in June and July 2011. Ron searched auction sites for a year before one finally showed up.

I asked him if anyone could ever have too many cars. His reply, numbers are dictated by space, finances and ability to maintain.

When the Coeur d'Alene High School All-Class Golden Reunion takes place Saturday, July 27, the classmate car show is being chaired by Ron. Attendees are invited to bring their 4-wheeled "baby" to enter at no charge. Ron custom designed the People's Choice award, crafted and donated by Iron Mountain Studios.

So which one of Ron's really cool cars will he bring to the reunion? He's keeping it close to the vest ... or maybe with so many he's having trouble deciding.

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"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

The "Stars and Stripes" was adopted by the Continental Congress as the official American flag June 14, 1777, in the midst of the Revolutionary War.

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Happy Main Street birthdays today to John Imhoff, Nicci Cushman, Vivian Worth and Kamryn Peacock. Tomorrow, Mark Tucker, Meg Andrews, Ann Heinen Jacklyn Holovka and Dave Siroshton take another trip around the sun. Happy star-spangled Flag Day birthdays to Oskar Owens, Lincoln Allred (18!), Christina Hatfield, Tiffany Morrett, Shawna Virgil, Don Morgan, Chris Doyle, Lisa Odenberg, Carmen Myklebust, Brandon Bedwell, Susan Noble (70!) and Steve Bruno. On Saturday, Sharon Bruno, Jody Piper, Jeffrey Benjamin, John McMurray, Richard Wegner, Taylor Brockhoff, Bob Fiske (70!), John Hopper and Joe Hutchison blow out the candles. Tim Shepperd, Steve Smalley, Bill Dick, Desiree Barclift, Darick Pope, Brenda Gabriel, Frank Bybee, Stephen Parmentier, Shelly Cunnington and Rebecca Morelli mark another year on Father's Day. On Monday, Raydeane Owens, Jim Foote, Susan Reilly, Vicky Houle, Jesse Bishop, Leigh Cossette, Jennifer Smith and Dana Metcalf put on their party hats. Jim Hammond, Wanda McLean, Katy Meeks and Sean Watson will celebrate June 18.

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Kerri Rankin Thoreson is a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the former publisher of the Post Falls Tribune. Main Street appears every Wednesday in The Press and Kerri can be contacted on Facebook or via email mainstreet@cdapress.com.