Since 2013, Desiree Byrne’s Phoenix-based Front Porch Pickins and Street Market LLC has been staging periodic weekend vintage and handmade markets. The most recent, held in Tumbleweed Park in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, Arizona, included — for the first time — a vintage and classic car show.
“Everything vintage is what Front Porch Pickins is about,” Byrne’s mother, Lori Cooper, explained in the breaks she got between checking in the arriving cars. “So classic cars go hand-in-hand with the theme,” she said.
Besides, she added, Cooper’s own husband, Don, has a 1961 Ford Ranchero and this would have provided him a place to show it, except for the fact that he had to work and thus could not attend the inaugural Front Porch Pickins car show.
But there was a nice assortment of other cars — primarily vintage customs, hot rods and rat rods — parked in the grassy area among the various vendors’ easy-up covered displays of the vintage or handmade wares.
The vendors seemed pleased to welcome the classic cars; one commenting that this was a great way to encourage men to come to the market along with their wives.
If this inaugural car show goes well — and it sure seemed to be doing so — Byrne may stage similar events at other Front Porch Pickins markets, which are scheduled for:
- June 17 at WestWorld of Scottsdale, Arizona (in conjunction with the Arizona State Cornhole Championships).
- July 15-16 at the Oakley-Lindsay Center in Quincy, Illinois (the family’s hometown).
- September 9-10 at the Indian Spring Park and Suspension Bridge in Waco, Texas.
- September 16-17 at the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration Grounds in Shelbyville, Tennessee.
- November 17-18 at the Turf Paradise horse racing track in Phoenix.
Oh, and if you’re wondering why Lori Cooper didn’t drive her husband’s Ranchero to the show, she admitted “I don’t know how to do that (manual) shifter.”
Photos by Larry Edsall
