INNISFAIL – When Red Deer’s Craig Eirich came to town last weekend for the Innisfail Kinsmen Car Show he noticed a classic blue Mustang ahead of him on Main Street.
A few seconds later he looked a bit harder. The vehicle looked exactly like the 1967 blue Mustang his late uncle Dean Bishoff had driven for years to car shows with his father Gary, who drove a classic 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle – the same vehicle Craig was driving into Innisfail for the car show.
After a quick chat with the current Mustang owner, it was absolutely the same car; a classic family reunion of sorts. Eirich and his father had not seen the Mustang since before it was sold by Bishoff in 2010. Bishoff passed away in 2013.
When the one-day Innisfail Kinsmen Car Show on Aug. 28 was over, Eirich was chosen the winner of the event’s People’s Choice Award.
“It's crazy. It made for a crazy day. Uncle Dean was there in spirit for sure,” said Craig, who called his father from the car show to tell him of the Mustang discovery. “Once I parked, I took some pictures and sent them to him, and then it was too funny. He said, ‘I think I remember this car show. What year is this?’ He thought it was a car show he and uncle Dean went too.”
His discovery was pointed out to Kinsmen car show organizers who were more than happy to share it. In fact, they were already buoyant at 11 a.m., just two hours after the start of the annual event.
Kinsmen were hoping to have 200 cars registered for the show, a number that would quadruple the 50 they had at last year’s event, which was held under grey skies with a constant threat of rain. But 2022 was different.
The weather was gloriously superb. Kids were running from one display to another having cards stamped for a joyous scavenger hunt. Food trucks were lined up on a side street for the hungry and thirsty.
By noon about 300 cars had registered. Smiles were everywhere, especially from Kinsmen organizers.
“This is the biggest ever,” said car show co-chair Alistair Loughlin, who with other Kinsmen estimated that about 6,000 people from town and all parts of Alberta and even beyond attended the event. “Absolutely, that is a safe bet. There are wall-to-wall people.”
Kinsmen vice-president Sanjay Davis said there were even sightings of Saskatchewan plates at the event. Davis was also told of the Mustang discovery, which not only gave many a huge thrill but added to the event’s overall morale-boosting quality.
“Everyone likes to see something different,” said Davis. “I think it’s great for the town. It gets people out and about, gets the businesses working together. The service clubs come out. It just brings up morale in the town.”
And it was a car show that had depth. It was not just for the entries that had the hottest and most classic vehicles that came out of a Motor City assembly line. There was room for some old-fashioned ingenuity.
Innisfailian Lode Mathon brought his creation, which he has worked on for five years and calls Betty Boop. Mathon said the idea was to create a copy of an antique race car by using parts from various vintage vehicles.
“I thought, ‘Well, I'm going to put all the pieces of my puzzle that I've been laying around the yard and put it all together,” said Mathon, who was clearly proud of his still uncompleted creation that was attracting noticeable interest.
“I finally made it here in the sunshine to get it into the show and shine,” he added with a chuckle. “It’s roadworthy. It’s not road legal yet but it will be once I am finished with it.”
