LITTLE ROCK — The scene had a festive, if relaxed, atmosphere. People in jeans, T-shirts, cut-off shorts and flip-flops casually admired the wares offered by antique car dealers and food vendors.
Small mountains of fenders, tires, hubcaps, rims and engine parts; trailers bearing cars and trucks - some held together with straps, almost all in need of fresh paint - from eras gone by; and other memorabilia from the Petroleum Age attracted eyes and - it was hoped - more than a few customers.
On the second day of the 45th annual Auto Show and Swap Meet at the Museum of Automobiles on Petit Jean Mountain, dealers, as well as vendors, were still trickling in. Which is not to say the “car corral” was not already bustling. Wayne Jeffers of Hardin said quite a few visitors had already stopped by his stall, where he sold antique gas pumps and station signs.
“I’ve been coming here for 20 years,” Jeffers said, nibbling a sandwich as he sat in the shade. “I’ll come up here some years and sell it all. Some years, I won’t sell a thing.”
Jeffers’ laid-back philosophy is not unusual among the car collectors and dealers who make the annual trek to Petit Jean for the five-day show.
Geary Roberts, who has brought parts and cars to sell at the show for more than 40 years, said he is more interested in fun and fellowship than making money.
“It’s a hobby for me, not a business,” Roberts said. “If all I wanted was to make money, I wouldn’t be here.”
The Hartman resident said he always comes to the show with his family and enjoys the time he spends with them.
“It’s very family oriented,” Roberts said. “We bring our 4-year-old grandson, and we always meet people. A lot of them, this is the only place we get to see them.”
He said he and his wife have been coming to the show for so long they can remember “older ones who have passed on.”
“Many of the people who come here are older, and we were just talking about all the ones who are no longer with us,” Roberts said. “We still make new friends and meet a lot of new people.”
James Yarbero of Lonsdale said the show is “one of the best things for car collectors in Arkansas. Everybody who deals in old cars and parts knows about it.”
He said he sells auto parts of all kinds and either brings his own antique cars to sell or represents other car owners.
His wife, Mar y, talked about the four antique cars they had brought to the show.
“We’ve been coming here for 15 years,” she said. “We sell cars and parts.”
One of the cars she and her husband brought for sale was a restored 1955 Chevy station wagon. The owner had reupholstered the interior of the car by hand and added an after-market sunroof.
“I drove the car up here from Hot Springs, and it’s very good to drive,” Mary said. “It’s got the after-market heat and air in it, which would be very cool right now if it were hooked up.”
Calvin Dover of Hot Springs brought a fully restored 1951 Ford V8. He said he’d been attending the car show since he “was a kid.”
He said he hoped to sell the Ford.
“My father had this car about five years, and I inherited it from him,” he said.
Buddy Hoelzeman, director of the museum, said the swap meet and car show have grown in popularity since Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller started them as a means of giving car enthusiasts a place to show off their collections and bringing more tourists into the state.
“It’s grown to be quite a large show,” Hoelzeman said. “People come to sell cars, parts, anything related to the hobby.”
During the car show, which was held Saturday, judges considered antique cars entered in 36 classifications. The Mid-American Old Time Automobile Association co-hosts the show, Hoelzeman said, which is “the culmination” of the week long event. The “car corral” contains enough space for 1,450 vendors.
“We’ve got a lot of good people up here,” Hoelzeman said. “Car collecting is a very big hobby in this state. We’ve got quite a few clubs represented here - from Conway, Morrilton, Russellville and any other town that has an antique car club.”
“It’s like home week here,” Mary Yarbero said. “Webumped into somebody in Memphis one time, and they said, ‘P.J.!’ I said, ‘My name isn’t P.J.’ She said, ‘Petit Jean!’ It schooled me.” Mary said her father was a mechanic, and she worked on cars when she was growing up. She said she likes meeting and talking with people who visit the car swap.
“I know a lot of these people by name, or at least by sight,” she said, laughing.
She said people look for different things when they come shopping for auto parts.
Vendors usually are assigned the same spots year after year.
“Everybody knows where you are,” Mary said.
“Nine times out of 10,people know what they are looking for,” James Yarbero said of those who come looking to buy a car. “They’ll ask if we know where a certain kind of car is.”
Sales have been affected by the economy over the past few years, James said, but “it seems like there have been more people coming to the show for the last two or three years.”
He said eBay and Craigslist have also had an impact on antique car sales on Petit Jean Mountain.
“Inste ad of waiting to come here, they can get on the Internet and find what they want,” James said.
The auto swap still has an advantage in that people can see firsthand what they are getting, he said.
“You might buy something and realize it’s not quite what you wanted,” he said of the option to purchase an antique car via the Internet.
Jeffers said his pumps and signs fill a niche market.
“Sometimes a restaurant owner will want one of these pumps or signs to put in his restaurant,” he said.
He said he finds the pumps by shopping at flea markets or by finding gas stations that are going out of business.
“I’ve traveled many a mile and k no cke d on many a door,” he said.
“It’s good most of the time,” he said of his sales, “but it’s like anything else.”
He described his week on Petit Jean as “kind of a vacation. You get to know everybody. We meet a lot of new people. I’ve got our camper right here, and we’ll be here until Sunday.”
Staff writer Daniel A. Marsh can be reached at (501) 399-3688 or dmarsh@arkansasonline.com.
River Valley Ozark, Pages 59 on 06/21/2012