Garlic City Fun Run celebrates sixth anniversary with music,
food, cars
Gilroy – The Sixth annual Garlic City Fun Run kicked off this year’s event with music and hot rods. Labeled as family fun, it did not disappoint.
Children from 2-years-old to their early teens could be seen traipsing down Eigleberry between Fourth and Fifth streets with family, smiling and pointing at all the classic cars that sat sparkling in the hot sun in front of them. And of course they had at least one hand full with ice cream.
“If you look around you see young and you see old and they are all having fun,” said Steve Ashford, who sits on the board of directors for the Downtown Merchant Association, who sponsors the event. Ashford said he helped put together the first Fun Run about 7 years ago, however, back then it was called “Sundae’s on Saturday” and wasn’t the spectacle it has become throughout the years.
He added that due to the downtown construction the show had to move to the smaller venue on Eigleberry. Last year there were about 475 hot rods that stretched throughout Monterey Street, while this year’s event only had about 170 cars, Ashford said.
That didn’t deter some people like Marlowe Brinson who was admiring a cherry-red ’55 Chevy BelAir.
“You’ve got great people and beautiful cars,” Brinson said. “And free entertainment; you can’t beat it.”
The song, “Summer of ’69,” was bumping from the event speakers as the car’s owner, Bob Urquides, was wiping down the BelAir. Urquides was attending the Fun Run four years ago with his wife when they came across the car in the show.
“I got rid of (a classic) and kicked myself in the butt for it. I recently wanted to get back into cars,” Urquides said. “Me and my wife had the money and we had been looking. I saw it and I just bought.”
Urquides said that he’s put in a lot of time and money into fixing up the car just to the way he wants it. But one thing he hasn’t touched is the dashboard that is still completely original. Although he’s put in a new engine, tires and a paint job just to name a few upgrades, he wants something in car that still goes back to the roots of the Chevy.
But Isie Quistiam, who was there with his family, doesn’t subscribe to that idea. His canary-yellow 1941 Plymouth Business Coupe stuck out like a sore thumb to some of the people who passed by throughout the day.
“They ask, ‘What is that?’ It’s an oddball car … people don’t know what it is,” he said of the car he’s nicknamed “Da Bomb.” According to Quistiam the car has been in two lowrider movies and has been featured in the Lowrider magazine. But back then it was a candy-apple blue lowrider named “Blue Heaven.”
Now the car has a custom grill, an upgraded dashboard with digital features, a DVD player and suicide doors. The Hollister man who was raised in Gilroy said he bought the car from his brother 35 years ago for $500. Since then he has put in an estimated $50,000 and said the car is most likely worth about $100,000.
But the day wasn’t just about the cars, there was the food and music too. Hector and Manuela Vielma spotted some shade and sat their granddaughter Sienna down with he slushy. As she started to drink it the 3 year old threw her head back, put her left hand to her forehead and said, “Brainfreeze!”
Hector and Manuela said they go every year to the event and said even though they like it, they noticed the difference of attendance from the prior years.
“It’s different from last year,” Hector Vielma said. “There seems to be less people.”
But he said that wasn’t going to stop them from staying the whole night and watching The Hot Rods play in the evening and watching the lighting of the garlic bulb that kicks off events for the Garlic Festival.
Ashford noted the difference from when they had the event on Monterey. With less room they have less cars, he said. But he was afraid about not putting the event together this year.
“We really wanted to do this,” Ashford said. “We don’t want this to die ’cause next year we’re coming back better than ever.”
