Get your motors running at first Ridin' Around Town

PASCAGOULA -- For some classic car enthusiasts, it's the satisfaction of bringing new life to a vintage automobile that keeps them interested. For others, it's perhaps the car is part of the childhood memories.

More than 100 vintage and custom vehicles rolled into Pascagoula's Beach Park Saturday for the city's first Ridin' Around Town. The event, is the city's way of unofficially participating in Cruisin' the Coast, which begins today in Gulfport.

Karen Joplin, a volunteer for the city sponsored event, said the organizers are simply a group of Pascagoula and east Jackson County residents who wanted to put together an event to showcase classic cars, trucks and custom vehicles.

"We're just a group of interested people," she said. "We're real happy with the turn out."

Jerry Dildy of Ocean Springs built his yellow 1914 Model T Speedster from the ground up. He located a rolling chassis with motor and transmission and began searching for parts. In order for the car to be considered an authentic classic, he said, the parts had to be of specific design. For example, the fenders had to be exactly the right dimensions. Dildy completed the project over the winter months and has been driving his 1914 Model T for five years.

"I built it to ride around in, not polish and look at it," he said.

Dildy said the speedometer reaches 65 miles per hour but he knows it goes faster as the needle has pushed past the mark. The only modification made to the car is the addition of rear disc brakes.

"Model T's didn't have good brakes," he said. "I made the disc brakes so people on Highway 90 won't run all over me."

Dildy said the best part of owning the car is listening to stories told by elderly people about the car when it was new -- stories of driving from New Orleans to Biloxi before U.S. 90 was available.

"They had to go all the way around Bay St. Louis," he said. "The trip took all day."

Glenn Lynd of Escatawpa said his 1955 Pontiac Star Chief belonged to his father, L.A. "Rundt" Lynd. He remembers when it was bought new as the family car from N.H. Nelson Jr. Pontiac in Moss Point.

This was the first car he drove as a teenager. The automobile, he said, is more to him than just a vintage car, it also holds memories of his family and of dates with the woman he would marry, Marie.

"When I turned 16, I took my wife out on a date," Lynd said. "It will never be for sale. I want it to stay in the family."

Dildy said when his father permanently handed him the keys to his car, it had been sitting in a shed for many years. Chrome was pitted and the interior upholstery needed replacing. The restoration project took about 312 years to complete.

"It raised about two dozen cats sitting in the shed," he said.

Dildy also owns a 1972 Pontiac Grandville, which was also owned by his father. It was purchased at Patterson's Pontiac in Biloxi. Both cars will be shown during Crusin' The Coast, he said.