by James Glaser
August 1, 2003

That is what they were looking for, crowds of white people for Hollywood films and they had to come all the way to Grand Rapids, Minnesota to find one. Last weekend was the annual car show and swap meet at the county fair grounds. This is a big show, with hundreds of cars and many hundreds of vendors. If you need a part for that vintage car you are working on, then the Grand Rapids show is a good place to look for it.

I was sitting at the Methodist Church booth having a hamburger and noticed that the guy next to me had a real fine video camera on a tripod. I asked if he was video taping the car show and he pointed out his two coworkers that were filming us as we sat there.

It seems that it is hard to find a big crowd of white people and these guys had been to Utah, Northern Wisconsin, and Wyoming looking for one with no luck. They heard about this car show and gave it a shot. They were real happy and as I panned the crowd, sure enough it was all white. These guys sell their film to movie production companies and when one is looking for that elusive white crowd, this film will be just the ticket.

After talking for a while, the man with the camera said that this was the first event he had been at for a long time that wasn't filled with ethnic food booths. Well I had to point out the Polish Sausage on the menu and asked, "what could be more ethnic than that?" There was also sauerkraut and he didn't know how lucky that they didn't have any lutefisk. If they had that, it would explain why the crowd was all white.

I don't know why the car show was all white, but as I stayed for the whole weekend I watched for any minority that might come along and saw none. There was one "Low Rider" car in the show, but sure enough the man who had it said he bought it form a Mexican down in Texas.

Maybe vintage cars and hot rods are a white man thing or maybe Northern Minnesota is to far to come for other races to show off their cars, but I can tell you if they drove up here to show their car, they would be welcomed and their work appreciated.

Old cars and trucks are a fun hobby, but can be expensive and take years to complete. I saw lots of fantastic vehicles that we projects that both the husband and wife worked on and many that were father and son or father and daughter works of art.

POST SCRIPT DEATHS IN IRAQ

One soldier was killed and three wounded when their armored personnel carrier hit a land mine on the road to the Baghdad Airport.

In an another attack, one soldier was killed and two wounded in a fire fight fifty miles west of Baghdad.

For the first time US Central Command has admitted that some US troops are committing suicide in Iraq.

The Commander in Chief of United States Armed Forces, George W. Bush started on a month long vacation today.