Wantagh Preservation Society puts on a vintage car show

The Wantagh Preservation Society had a jam-packed day on Saturday, hosting its first Antique Car Show and dedicating roughly one-third of an acre of land that it has acquired next to the Wantagh Museum.

Tom Watson, the society’s president, said the land used to be a backyard, but the museum can now use it as a “passive park,” which will give the car show room to grow.

“Because we got the new piece of land, it gave us a little more elbow room,” Watson said. “Because this was our first show, we weren’t sure how many cars would show up. So we definitely had about 40 cars we were able to fit. If we had gotten 50 or 55 cars that showed up, we wouldn’t have room. Next year, as the event gets more popular, we’ll probably get more cars in front and cars in back.”

Not a car guy necessarily, Watson learned how big the car culture on the South Shore is when he was putting the show together. “Organizing this event, I realized there are a lot of people in Seaford, Massapequa, Wantagh, Bellmore that have old cars,” he said. “I’d say of the 40 here, there are about 30 locals from Wantagh.”

Frank Martucci, of Bellmore, was happy to talk to passersby about his “Bugmobile,” a 1958 Oldsmobile Super 88 decked out with plastic bugs and information on critters like the “bug of the week,” something Martucci changes up at each car show he attends. This time, the bug was a Japanese garden spider.

“The Bugmobile is a memory of a day in Jersey when I first got the car 40 years ago,” Martucci said. “I took a ride to New Jersey and met the Oldsmobile Club of Jersey, which was right by a horse farm by a field, and we sat down at some broken-down picnic table and we opened our lunches and you know what happened next: bugs everywhere.”

Two decades later, Martucci was inspired to get a food tray, with fake hamburgers and fake bugs, to present alongside his ride. “I started out with a spider, and I’ve got like 40 of them now,” he said. “The last one I had on display was a Manchurian golden scorpion.” The Bugmobile has been Martucci’s ride since he first bought the car in 1977, at the suggestion of his father, who said that an automatic would make it easier for him to take his road test. “Everybody’s preserving the history,” he said of the event. “It’s a good takeaway.”

One of the newer cars was a 1981 Checker A-11, known by many New Yorkers as the stereotypical checkered cab. Owner Barbara Kiss told the Herald about the specific feature that made the cars so iconic. “People remember them fondly, mostly they remember the jumpseats,” Kiss said. “I can’t tell you how many people would argue with their sibling over sitting on the jumpseat, It’s just the experience of being in it, because it’s very different. It’s special.”

A jumpseat back in the day allowed the taxi to fit five in the back, three on the bench seat and two on the round seats that would be popped into place by the cabbie. The hobby of collecting antique cars started for Kiss when she met her husband, Larry, “When I met my husband, and we’ve been married 33 years, he had a few antique cars, and we had a few different ones over time, and then we got our first Checker and got hooked.”

The appeal of the now novelty car comes from a time when more “style” was put into what people drove. “When you think of the late ’50s, when they went crazy with the fins and the chrome, the younger people are missing out.”

Barbara and Larry enjoyed the first car show, appreciating the quaintness and relaxing atmosphere.

The Preservation Society, she said, is “doing a very good job — it’s a nice show, it’s not huge, the music’s not overly loud, they have food, a sitting area, and a real bathroom.”