West Lebanon
“Rob Taylor came to us a while ago and asked if we would come and make wings as part of the celebration,” McGary, Salt hill’s regional manager, said of the chamber’s new executive director. “The wings theme — we thought that was a good idea. … We were happy to participate.”
So was Liz McNamara from Plainfield’s McNamara Dairy, who was selling maple-flavored popcorn, candy and especially ice cream from the farm’s Mac’s Maple sugarhouse.
“This is our first year here,” McNamara said. “Rob called and asked if we could bring our maple creemee trailer here. It was already booked, but we decided we could still set up a tent.”
A longtime Meriden dairyman himself, Taylor spent most of the day on the airport road, herding dozens of vintage cars and scores of pedestrians — many pushing toddlers in strollers — through the one gate into and out of the complex of private hangars south of the airport terminal.
“It really got gushing here at the beginning,” Taylor said after waving a school bus full of visitors toward a satellite parking lot and a silver Porsche and a copper-tinged 1971 Camaro out the gate. “It’s been a great day.”
While this year’s expo had been “right up on our radar” since the last day of the chamber’s HomeLife Expo in March, Taylor, who officially took the reins of the chamber last October after a couple of months as interim executive director, had been looking ahead to this day since serving as a volunteer for the 2016 Wings and Wheels.
“I brought my kids here the year before, and they loved it,” Taylor said. “It reminded me of years ago, when we’d come to the airport as little kids. … We’d eat at McDonald’s when that was about the only thing on 12A, and come up the hill and drive by the old terminal and watch the planes take off and land.”
The Lebanon chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles program offers aspiring pilots ages 8-17 a chance to do more than watch. At the chapter’s tent on Saturday, Lynn Picard estimated they’d had 40 people sign up.
“Even though we’re not doing actual flights today, I’m excited that we’ve had so many willing to come back to experience flying,” she continued.
“When they schedule their first flights, I hope (the weather) is just like this.”
On a day with low humidity and temperatures reaching the unseasonable upper 70s, representatives of the Lebanon Fire Department found themselves digging more kid-size fire helmets out of their stash early and often, after doling them out to the many youngsters who had examined the ladder truck.
“I’d say we’ve given away at least 500,” Fire Chief Chris Christopoulos said with 90 minutes left in the expo.
“Over the years we’ve generally given out about 1,000.”
While the kids were looking up to the firefighters, Claremont resident Kiley Shackett, in his mid-40s, was one of the younger people among the baby boomers and octogenarians admiring the civilian vehicles, running the gamut from a few 1930s sedans through a parade of 1960s muscle cars and pickup trucks.
“I work in respiratory therapy at Valley Regional Hospital, which is how I keep my toys funded,” said Shackett, a 1990 graduate of Newport Middle High School who has fostered several Ford Mustangs from the 1960s and 1970s and particularly prizes his 2003 extended-cab Ford F-150 pickup. “I didn’t bring any of them this time, but next year, I’ll definitely come here.”
So, most likely, will Enfield resident Gary Hutchins with the cobalt-blue, 1978 Austin Mini 1000 coupe that he began nurturing five years ago with the help of his industrial mechanics and welding students at the Hartford Area Career and Technology Center.
“When I got it from a guy in Connecticut through Craigslist, it literally was a basket case,” said Hutchins, a 1967 graduate of Hanover High School who previously worked as a mechanic at Gateway Motors. “Most of the parts were in baskets. … It was a wonderful experience for the kids to work on it and bring it to this point.”
While the mid-September British Invasion car show in Stowe, Vt., might be more prestigious, Hutchins finds it more cost-effective and just as much fun to share his project with his Upper Valley neighbors.
“I considered going up there, until I found out it was $75 to get in,” Hutchins said. “They let us in free here.”
All too soon, Hutchins will be bringing his summer wheels back to school for a winter’s rehab. And the rest of us will be bundling up and wondering where this season went.
“We’re not going to have too many more days like this,” Josh McGary said before whipping up another batch of Salt hill wings.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.
Correction
Chuck Solger and Keith Merrick, of Post Mills, Vt., sat near Solger’s 1929 REO at the fourth annual Wings and Wheels event at Lebanon Municipal Airport on Saturday. Solger was misidentified in a photo caption in the Sunday Valley News.