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She stepped off the bus her tiny frame moved slowly carrying her small purse matching her pink dress and hat as a small smile crept across her face, the twinkle in her eye hidden by her glasses.
She had to be in her 70’s — perhaps middle or early, but not close to 80 yet.
Once she made the last difficult step off the motorcoach, she slowly walked toward Scotty’s Classic Car Museum.
She first noticed the smell — rubber, well-kept leather upholstery, motor oil, a well-cared for service garage — something right of the 1940s and ‘50s.
Her eyes gazed across the showroom floor until she caught a glimpse of the 1951 Ford Victoria to her left.
As she slowly moved toward the antique automobile, you could almost see her taking a step back into time as she placed her frail hand on the hood of the car.
“It was May, almost summer time, 19 (I couldn’t make out the year she said) when I went on my first date in this car,” she spoke. “I remember he took me out for a hamburger and ice cream. We cruised around and then we parked …”
Out of respect, I quickly stopped paying attention to the intimate details, but it was then I realized what had happened, what was taking place and the epiphany that had just happened.
For me, the director of the Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Scotty’s Classic Car Museum was another tourist attraction. One of 29 such attractions in Crawford County the CVB uses to sell visitors on coming to visit, stay the night, dine and shop in Crawford County — until that warm day last summer when this elderly woman stepped off her motorcoach and made me realize what Scotty’s Classic Car Museum really meant.
For her, it was the opportunity to go back and relive a special time, a special place and a special evening in her life — the connection was the 1951 Ford Victoria — a car she swore was the actual car used in her date because it featured the same color paint and the same leather interior.
For others, it has a place to gaze at toys and games from their youth — die-cast cars, metal pedal cars, bicycles — a place to remember automobile advertising and marketing materials from era before “www.” and the brand was more important.
The old Coke machines, the vintage gas pumps, the old signs and of course, the automobiles, one from almost every decade from 1930s to the 1970s and each had their own story, a bonus treat offered by Scotty Bitner to every visitor who wanted to know more.
She stepped off the bus her tiny frame moved slowly carrying her small purse matching her pink dress and hat as a small smile crept across her face, the twinkle in her eye hidden by her glasses.
She had to be in her 70’s — perhaps middle or early, but not close to 80 yet.
Once she made the last difficult step off the motorcoach, she slowly walked toward Scotty’s Classic Car Museum.
She first noticed the smell — rubber, well-kept leather upholstery, motor oil, a well-cared for service garage — something right of the 1940s and ‘50s.
Her eyes gazed across the showroom floor until she caught a glimpse of the 1951 Ford Victoria to her left.
As she slowly moved toward the antique automobile, you could almost see her taking a step back into time as she placed her frail hand on the hood of the car.
“It was May, almost summer time, 19 (I couldn’t make out the year she said) when I went on my first date in this car,” she spoke. “I remember he took me out for a hamburger and ice cream. We cruised around and then we parked …”
Out of respect, I quickly stopped paying attention to the intimate details, but it was then I realized what had happened, what was taking place and the epiphany that had just happened.
For me, the director of the Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Scotty’s Classic Car Museum was another tourist attraction. One of 29 such attractions in Crawford County the CVB uses to sell visitors on coming to visit, stay the night, dine and shop in Crawford County — until that warm day last summer when this elderly woman stepped off her motorcoach and made me realize what Scotty’s Classic Car Museum really meant.
For her, it was the opportunity to go back and relive a special time, a special place and a special evening in her life — the connection was the 1951 Ford Victoria — a car she swore was the actual car used in her date because it featured the same color paint and the same leather interior.
For others, it has a place to gaze at toys and games from their youth — die-cast cars, metal pedal cars, bicycles — a place to remember automobile advertising and marketing materials from era before “www.” and the brand was more important.
The old Coke machines, the vintage gas pumps, the old signs and of course, the automobiles, one from almost every decade from 1930s to the 1970s and each had their own story, a bonus treat offered by Scotty Bitner to every visitor who wanted to know more.
Today, when Scotty’s Classic Car Museum celebrates its final day (open to the public for free from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.) not only is the travel and tourism industry in Crawford County and Southeast Kansas losing a tremendous asset, but the visitors and the rest of us alike will miss an opportunity, the opportunity to step back in time a relive a unique era.
I can already hear it in the weeks, months and years to come, “Scotty’s is closed? I always wanted to visit that place.”
Don’t miss out; make plans to visit Scotty’s Classic Car Museum this Saturday. It’s your last chance.
Other museums in the news
■ Tuesday, a longtime friend and partner in the Crawford County travel and tourism industry was recognized by the Crawford County Commission. Denzel Davidson, who will turn 90 in April, was recognized for his many years of volunteer service, time and dedication to various organizations and projects in Crawford County. Davidson, who has worked at the Crawford County Historical Museum in Pittsburg since before it opened in 1978, still to this day makes sure the doors are open for visitors. Some 1,500 visitors shadowed the doors of the museum in 2010.
■ Big Brutus celebrated 25 years as a tourist attraction in Southeast Kansas in 2010 with 14,146 paid admissions during the calendar year.
Big Brutus is operating on its winter hours (open daily 10 a.m.-4 p.m.) and a discussion is forthcoming in regards to Kansas 150th Sesquicentennial Celebration on Jan. 29 and Big Brutus.
■ The most recent issue of Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal reports the National Baseball Hall of Fame paid attendance numbers dropped from 301,775 in 2008 to 289,000 in 2009. The publication did not mention numbers from 2010.
■ In the same issue of the SportsBusiness Journal, the new NASCAR Hall of Fame which opened in May in Charlotte, N.C., is recommending a one-third operational budget cut for the next fiscal year since attendance numbers are coming in lower than expected. Initially, the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority and the NASCAR Hall of Fame projected 575,000 paid visitors for fiscal year 2010-2011, but revised projects based on 250,000 paid admissions.
Craig Hull is the director of the Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau. It is the purpose of the Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau to promote travel and tourism in Crawford County, Southeast Kansas and the Midwest. He can be reached at chull@pittsburgareachamber.com or at 1-800-879-1112.
