8.24.2024 / Frog Follies / Evansville, Indiana

Submitted by Linda Barfield
Ken and I went to our annual Frog Follies Car Show in Evansville, Indiana.  As expected, it was a great show put on by E’ville Iron Street Rods. Weather was perfect, entertainment was great, including the famous frog races, and quite a variety of over 2,500  "pre 49" show cars. As we were going into the show the first day, we saw our twin, another 1936 Auburn Speedster, painted almost the same color.  Since we had never seen another one at a car show, we were very excited to look the owner up,  Dennis McClain and his daughter, Christina from Indianapolis.   His daughter travels with him to car shows.   As you can see from the pictures, his car was painted red with white trim.  This was a true Show Car which is trailered everywhere.  It was immaculate inside and out. It has a convertible top instead of the hardtop that we have. They were parked in another area but we were able to talk to them several times.  We sat with them at the Saturday night meal and dance. Ken and Dennis shared their stories of their cars.  Of course, Ken had far more to talk about than Dennis because we drive ours and have had more issues.

Dennis McClain and daughter, Christina

​We had another very unique car to park beside us at the show, a 1936 Cord.  The original owner, Mike Norton, modified the car from a 4 door to 2 door 28 years ago. It took him 3 years to modify and get it on the road.  The last time he had taken the car out to Frog Follies was in 2000.  He had sold the car to an owner of a museum and the car was in the museum for 10 years.  Then the owner of the museum took the car to Barrett Jackson to sell because he was closing his museum.  An individual from New York bought the car and owned for 10 years and died.  The car was then sold again to someone from New York.  He owned the car for 4 years.  The current owner,  Roy Paxton, bought the car and has only owned it for 4 months.  He is friends with Mike Norton, who modified the car.  They both attended the show and Mike talked about the car more than Roy.  Mike is now 84 and not modifying cars but being here with the car he had modified 28 years ago  brought him down memory lane.  He shared many stories with us and shared pictures of his restoration. One of the most interesting was that he took the back fenders from a 1936 Auburn to build the front fenders that turn with the tires. Very unique!