TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — When you hear the term Americana, you think of the good old days of the open road, Route 66, and classic cars. But last year, we also just hit the highest total for charitable giving ever as a nation; nearly $600,000,000,000 dollars collectively.
Combine the two and you've got a very special event, year after year.
As I walked through what looked like the doors of a mid-century diner, I felt a little like the kids in Narnia because, like the wardrobe, not just anyone can find George's car cave.
"We like those things that we grew up with and I grew up with older cars in the 1950s and the 1960s."
George Larsen likes cars; like really likes cars.
"What is this? What's a Sprite," I asked.
"This is called a bug-eyed Sprite... This one is a Cobra... This was the first transitions from being cute to being fast," George said, car after car with different looks and features.
He showed me around this hidden sanctuary dedicated to these gorgeous machines that he doesn't show off just for the sake of admiring the craftsmanship or the speed.
"This one's a Chevy Fleetmaster and the difference is how they curved that back over, where the Ford comes straight down," George said.
George loves the memories they bring back of family trips down the road, enjoying the journey as much as the destination.
"It's amazing. They just love it," Dave White told me in the section of George's Car Cave that looks like an old fashioned soda shop.
"The one thing that would make this better," I said, "Milkshakes. Burgers and fries."
"It's almost lunchtime," Dave joked. "It's almost lunchtime!"
Dave is the chairman of the Tucson Classics Car Show - an incredible display that takes hundreds of carefully restored vehicles and brings them to the masses every year. For the better part of the last two decades, this has been an annual event benefiting various local organizations and non-profits. But the Rotary Club of Tucson is used to reaching out and helping others since its founding more than a hundred years ago
"It's just a lot of fun that goes directly into benefiting those here locally," Dave told me.
"You don't have to wonder where your money is going?" I asked.
"That's right," Dave said, "And we give, this is unique to us, we give 100% of our net proceeds. We don't keep anything back for ourselves."
So take a Saturday morning, take the kids, make a donation and go see one of George's beautiful machines. Which one? That's also a bit of a mystery. You'll have to head out to The Gregory School to find out.
"It puts the car people together with the general public and both sides love it. It's a perfect afternoon on a Saturday," George told me.
Learn more about the event:
Tucson Classics Car Show
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Dan Spindle co-anchors Good Morning Tucson on KGUN 9 and is an award-winning storyteller whose work has earned him honors from the Rocky Mountain Southwest Emmys, the Associated Press and the Utah Society of Professional Journalists for both anchoring and reporting. Dan is passionate about history and loves to explore the Grand Canyon State. Share your story ideas with Dan by emailing dan.spindle@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, or X.
