AJC CARS NEWS
Creepers Car Club keeps cruising alive
Marietta club gathers a vast array of street rods and restored vehicles
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, October 03, 2008
One of the oldest automotive organizations around Atlanta is the Creepers Car Club, which was established in August of 1960 by a group of car enthusiasts around Smyrna.
The group’s name harks back to an earlier era, when cruise night really meant cruising slowly around a popular diner in a fast street ride.
GARRY McWHIRTER/Special
The Creepers Car Club of Marietta attracts a vast array of street rods and restored vehicles from the late 1920s to late models at their Fun Run. The club has donated nearly $400,000 to local charities over the past several years. This year’s event will be the 21st Annual Fun Run.
But as veteran automotive journalist Garry McWhirter laments, “there’s no cruising in cruise night any more.”
Indeed, today most car meets are mostly gatherings in a parking lot, whereas in the 1950s and ’60s, cruising for many meant driving to the Varsity in Atlanta. On the Southside, hot-rodders circled Shoney’s parking lot in College Park, while those on the opposite side of town cruised the local restaurants there.
Benny Denson, a Marietta resident and member of the Creepers club, recalled the routine of his younger days when he drove a ‘57 Ford with a 406-cubic-inch engine. “We’d go to Shoney’s in Marietta, then to Burger Ranch and to the Dairy Queen,” he said.
Old-school cruising
But by the late ’60s, Denson said, traditional cruising was becoming a thing of the past. Today, he said, many young people have different interests – electronic games, the Internet, etc.
“Young people have different ideas today,” he said. “We were just having fun, hanging out with our friends and girlfriends. We didn’t have a lot of money, so we’d just ride around all night.”
Fledgling car clubs like Creepers came along and formalized many car-related activities. In the early days, the Creepers Club co-sponsored the Atlanta Car Show, first at the Lakewood Fairgrounds and later at the Atlanta Merchandise Mart. The club also held a car show at the North Georgia Fair for 10 years.
The early members of Creepers, which now includes about 40 families and two original members, also were pioneers in rod runs. In 1964, the entire club – 13 cars – drove to Panama City and the group was one of only two clubs represented at the first Gatlinburg Rod Run.
The club is old-school in many respects, but it is adapting to the times. Recently, its rules were changed to allow cars 1972 or older. The previous rules required cars to be 1948 or older. And members have restarted one of their main events, an annual car show, largely because of popular demand.
On Oct. 18, the Creepers will host Fun Run 21, at Jim R. Miller Park in Marietta, an event that over the past 20 years has raised more than $355,000 for charities including the Calvary Children’s Home, Cobb County Association for Retarded Children, Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital, The American Cancer Society, and Rhubarb Jones’ Leukemia Walk Across Georgia.
Back by popular demand
It’s one of the oldest car club organized events in the Atlanta area, but it almost went the way of the cruises of the ’50s and ’60s.
The Creepers didn’t host the show for several years, a decision that disappointed many car lovers on the Northside.
“People would see the Creeper’s tag on my car and ask me why we didn’t have a show,” Denson said. So it was restarted three years ago, and it has been growing every year since. “We’d have 600 cars at the show before we quit having it,” Denson said. “We had about 300 the last couple of shows, and it’s growing.
“We’re building it back up.”
And more importantly, Denson said, they’re maintaining the fellowship and camaraderie that made the old cruising so much fun.
“We have been blessed to be able to own and enjoy our cars and car shows are a way we can give something back to our community,” he said. “It is not just about the cars we own, it is as much about the life time of good friends that we have acquired that span several states as we go to different shows year after year.”
