Resident organizes a car show at his Metro Vancouver seniors’ residence to rekindle memories
Harry Lubyk has been involved with cars for most of his life. He hauled new Fords from Windsor to Vancouver during the Fifties and Sixties. Oh, the stories he tells of transporting five new vehicles at a time across the country with an underpowered cab-over-engine truck in the worst weather conditions. There were two drivers going non-stop for three days. Then he sold new cars for 32 years to round out his career.
After his sons expressed interest in the revolutionary mid-engine Corvettes introduced in 2020, he bought them each a new 2022 model – one a convertible, the other with a removable hardtop. “The new Corvettes were an early inheritance for my sons,” the 88-year-old says.
It was his sons who restored the 1932 Ford pickup that Harry got from his bachelor uncle who had owned the truck in Saskatchewan since 1936 – the year Harry was born. The truck had seen hard use hauling pigs and cattle to Prince Albert. Harry had stored the truck for nearly 40 years, never finding the time to bring it back to life. His sons Ken and Kirk hauled the truck in pieces to Kelowna where Kirk, a licensed mechanic, oversaw the restoration of the 92-year-old pickup. Harry was lured to Kirk’s home and was presented with the truck. It looks and drives like a new 1932 Ford truck.
For the past decade, Harry, a widower, has been a resident of Parkwood Manor that occupies three-and-a-half acres a block from the Coquitlam Centre mall. He told his fellow residents about the truck and then asked his sons to bring it so the seniors could see it. The showing of the truck became such a hit at Parkwood Manor, Harry decided to expand it to become an event the next year. He invited owners to display their classic cars on a weekday at the beginning of summer.
This year, a lot more classic car owners brought their vintage vehicles for display in the parking lot where the residents could view them and enjoy a barbecue lunch. On display were British sports cars, American classics, pickup trucks, muscle cars and convertibles.
“I owned one just like that. But it wasn’t a convertible,” said Madeline Fibich while looking at a 1964 Chevrolet Corvair gleaming in the sun with the top down.
Residents seated in deck chairs across from the car display shared fond memories of cars and trucks from their past. “We had a 1956 Nash Metropolitan,” recalls Gerard and Theresa Boutin who have been married for 71 years.
Parkwood Manor’s active living director Tania Blake says the car show is very popular with the residents and helps them relive the past. “We will definitely do it again next year, but only if Harry helps,” she says.
Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in a Vancouver-based public relations company. [email protected]
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