Thousands turn out for concert, fireworks.
Friday, the Friends of Coal Auto Fair boomed.
Saturday, it
exploded.
Tens of thousands of people flooded the Paul Cline Memorial
Youth Sports Complex Saturday evening. The evening featured country music legend
Randy Travis, who launched his new CD, “Around the Bend.”
The Register-Herald: July 19, 2008-- Friday, the Friends of Coal Auto Fair boomed.
Saturday, it exploded.
Tens of thousands of people flooded the Paul Cline Memorial
Youth Sports Complex Saturday evening. The evening featured country music legend
Randy Travis, who launched his new CD, “Around the Bend.”
Travis is the
first country music act in history to have a multi-platinum album and was ranked
No. 13 on CMT’s “40 Greatest Men of Country Music,” according to Wikipedia.
Local country music trio Taylor Made, recently signed to a Nashville record
label, was Travis’ opening act. The U.S. Army’s Golden Knights tandem and
competition parachute teams descended onto the crowded field before the concert
began.
Jay Rist, marketing and membership director for the
Beckley-Raleigh County YMCA, estimated 80,000 people flooded the grounds. State
Police estimated 50,000 had already arrived by mid-afternoon, and tens of
thousands more followed their leads as concert time drew closer.
“Wow!”
said Jim Gilchrist, CEO of the Beckley-Raleigh County YMCA. “This is great to
see everyone’s hard work and see this happen.”
Gilchrist said he grew up
in Beckley and never thought he would ever see such a concert — one with a
practical sea of people gathered around the stage — in the city. Before the
concert began, he was hoping he could meet Travis, who is releasing his first
country album in eight years.
“He represents what the YMCA represents,”
Gilchrist said of Travis. “We are built on Christian principles — having a
healthy body, spirit and mind for all. That’s Randy Travis. He runs parallel
with our mission.”
Coal City resident Elizabeth Wyatt bought three copies
of Travis’ new CD, all of which came with a free Randy Travis T-shirt. She
purchased one for herself and two for her daughters. Both she and her boyfriend
Randy Simpson were fans who said they grew up listening to country
music.
Wyatt said she would belt out a welcome to West Virginia for
Travis.
“I’m pretty loud,” she said. “I’ve got a big mouth, and I’m loud
when I yell.”
“I can vouch for that,” Simpson quipped.
State
Police Cpl. M.K. Summers was off duty Saturday, enjoying the concert with his
8-year-old daughter Haley. He held Haley on his shoulders so she could see the
stage.
“As long as she wants to stay up there, I’ll hold her,” he
said.
Summers noted he was also there to see one of his co-workers, Sgt.
Greg Duckworth, on the stage as part of Travis’ opening act. Duckworth and his
two siblings — Brian Duckworth and Wendy Williams — comprise Taylor
Made.
“This is awesome,” Summers said. “This shows the talent we have in
West Virginia can share the stage with a national act.”
Janis Joplin could have had the Mercedes Benz she so desired — as well as the Porsches her friends drove — at the auto fair. Cars from the American automobile’s infancy, 1960s and 1970s hot rods, modern custom machines, trucks, motorcycles — something for every imaginable automotive taste — covered the rest of the field.
Greg and Linda Ullman relaxed beside their 2008 Ford
Mustang GT as the Golden Knights descended, and Brenton resident Richard Butcher
did the same beside his 1966 Mustang GT parked beside the
Ullmans’.
“We’re all brothers,” Greg Ullman said. “I love seeing the old
ones. ... The looks of a Mustang — it sets everything else to the
side.”
Greg Ullman had always been a Mustang fan, owning a 1966 GT like
Butcher’s as a younger man. Now, he and his wife are parents to four children
and grandparents to 13 — who envy them.
“It looks cool to see senior
citizens riding around in a Mustang,” Linda Ullman said, laughing. “It’s
fun.”
“(My grandchildren) ask me, ‘Are you going to leave it to me when
you die?’” Greg Ullman said.
Butcher liked seeing all generations of
Mustangs at the fair, but said he would not even trade Ullman’s 2008 model for
his classic. Four years ago, he bought the car from a Beckley man who advertised
the car in an auto trader. It took two years to fully restore the car because it
was not in good shape.
“It was a basket case — a rust bucket,” he said.
“The parts were piled up in the inside, what parts I had.”
Like Ullman,
he said Mustangs have been a mainstay in his life. A Mustang was his first new
car, what he bought when he first dated his wife. He wanted that car back, but
he found out the car was totaled when he tracked it down to Charleston. Butcher
made his Mustang into a replica of his old car.
As of early Saturday afternoon, 750 to 800 show cars were on the field when organizers believed they would only have 600 to 700, Gilchrist said. He was quick to give thanks to all sponsors — particularly Friends of Coal President Warren Hylton and Jack Fairchild of Fairchild International.
“It’s just amazing,” he
said. “I’m so proud of the people supporting this and our sponsors. Warren
Hylton and Jack Fairchild — Fairchild is just a horse of working. I showed up at
6 a.m. today, and Jack was already here. He was here at 11:30 (Friday) night.
Unbelievable, that man.”
Gilchrist could not hide his excitement as the
concert approached.
“Adrenaline! Excitement! A rush!” he said. “I just
can’t wait. Just to see the Golden Knights jump... Then you have the concert.
It’s very, very, very exciting.”
Everett Cook, president of West Virginia
Coal Recovery, a third-year platinum sponsor, believes the auto fair will
continue to grow and give the local economy a boost.
“Growth will
continue to come to the area with this,” he said. “You have people eating in
restaurants and staying in hotels. This gets bigger every year. ... People
continue to support year in with money and goodwill, and you will see a good
return for the area’s economy.”
The fair continues today — its final day
— opening at 8 a.m. and closing at 2 p.m. Organizers say planning for the 2009
fair begins immediately thereafter.
Source/Writer:
The Register-Herald
By: Amelia A. Pridemore