Wilt-Man @ The Cruise-In

[pitbulllady]

Last evening I participated in the monthly "First Friday Cruise-In" hosted by the Sandhills Cruisers and Sumter Cruisers, in the Wal-Mart parking lot, taking my '61 Studebaker Lark. This is where a bunch of classic car enthusiasts, hot-rodders, and muscle/sports car afficianados get together to socialize, show off our rides, and talk to people about cars every month. Since a lot of the cruise-in participants have some sort of "mascot" with them in their cars, either die-cast replicas or stuffed animals, or when the weather cools off, REAL animals(usually a little yappy dog, though one couple brings their African Gray parrot occasionally), I decided to bring MY mascot, the awesome Wilt doll that Sparky made for me. He did look spiffy riding shotgun in a Champagne Gold metallic classic ride, if I must say! He got a lot of comments, too, though oddly enough, most of the kids who stopped by had no clue who he was, but a lot of adults did! One older couple came by with their grandkids in tow, about four of 'em, and the guy wanted to get a closer look at my car since he'd had a Studebaker back in his younger day. One of the grandkids, who was maybe seven or eight, spied Wilt in the passenger seat and said, "Look! It's Mr. Crab!" and his grandmother promptly corrected him, saying, "No, that's not Mr. Crab; that's WILT!" One kid did sorta get it right though: "Hey, it's that red dude from that show with Cheese on it!"

Anyway, here's a pic of Wilt in the seat; that's a freshly-moulted exoskeleton from my Mexican Red-Knee tarantula standing guard on the dash, by the way, not a live spider, and the second pic is of my car in the "line-up", between a hot-rod loosely based on a 1930 Model A Ford(to the left)and a 1987 Oldsmobile 442(to the right). The bit of purple car to the far left is the only other Studebaker, a hot-rodded 1956 Champion.





pitbulllady

[pitbulllady]

Originally Posted by A mysterious girl

Your car and the Wilt doll are very nice!
And about those kids having no idea of who Wilt was, I noticed that not as many kids as I hoped know this show. I'm sure you remember my Wilt wristband. Well, I was playing with it everywhere I went at the mystical abyss and nobody payed attention to it, as if they didn't notice why was I carrying it.
The only kids I know who have ever heard about this show, very rarely watch it, so I can't talk about Foster's with them. Or, like my brother, they think I'm too old to watch cartoons and they laugh at me, no matter how young they are (he just had his 12th birthday a few months ago).
I keep on telling him I'm not too old to watch them, but you must know how many kids of that age are.
And I can't talk about Foster's at school, either. Looks like nobody knows it (I noticed it when someone mentioned different cartoons and then the others answered if they had ever watched it or not: nobody mentioned Foster's), and usually my friends watch very different things from the ones I watch, so... I'm lonely here, but luckily this forum exists, and I am happy, very happy about that.

Thank you for the comment on the car and the Wilt doll; I'm pretty proud of 'em both!

I have a lot of students that watch the show, but then, my youngest students would be in fourth grade, and most of my students are in Jr. high school. It's ironic that the really young kids, those in that 4-9 year-old age bracket, are the ones that Cartoon Network really insists are the core of this show's fans, yet in my experience, they are the LEAST likely to watch Foster's, while many of the teens and young adults I know of watch it. Like I said, the GRANDMOTHER here at the car show knew who Wilt was, but her grandkids didn't. It was pretty obvious who watches the show in THAT family! Back at the beginning of last school year, one of my seventh-grade students got a new pair of high-top Chuck Taylor All-Star sneakers, just like the ones that Wilt wears, and made a special effort to show them to me, bragging about how he had "Wilt Shoes" and I didn't(I soon fixed THAT, though). He, like myself, got those shoes because Wilt has them, and that's pretty good, considering that a lot of the young boys I teach watch the show, but dislike Wilt because he's RED, since many of them are involved in the Crips gang, whose "colors" are blue and black, and they refuse to have anything to do with anything that is red or pink, the "colors" of their rival gang, the Bloods. I know it sounds silly, but sadly, they're really serious about stuff like that.

pitbulllady

[taranchula]

If you made him stay in the car for most of the day, I hope you gave the Wilt Man plenty of liquids. After all, we've all seen what the effects of dehydration can do to him.




Seriously though, that is a sweet looking ride and I'm glad you had such a great time.

[Sparky]

Aw man, it's Wilt! Hi Wilt!

The red-knee exo looks awesome on your dash, lol.

[pitbulllady]

Originally Posted by Sparky

Aw man, it's Wilt! Hi Wilt!

The red-knee exo looks awesome on your dash, lol.

I'm surprised that absolutely NOBODY at the cruise-in noticed the tarantula exo, but then, with Wilt in the passenger seat, I guess the spotlight was really taken away, lol. I've got a couple of Chaco Gold-Knee skins on the dash of my RAV-4, and they definately get noticed, and get some interesting reactions in parking lots! Wilt is definately gonna have to go to more cruise-ins and cars shows, though.

pitbulllady

[wiltfangirl93]

I love the Wilt doll! You're so lucky! Nice ride too.

[Lynnie]

The car is awesome! I have a thing for antiques, including cars, although my interest mostly goes to the '30s and prior. It's fun trying to date such things by looking at their characteristics.

As for Wilt, he's absolutely adorible. The spidie is beautiful, too.

[WiltsAKGirl17]

Oh, neat-Oh!!! I swear, if I saw Wilt riding shotgun here in my little Alaska town, I'd flip out! (In a good way of course.)

I can picture it now: I'm taking out the garbage at SubWay (where I work on the weekends) and I see Wilt sitting in some customer's car. I stop, look in the car for a few minutes, say, "Wilt...?" After another minute or so, I go and ask, "Hey, who drives the <insert car color and type>?" Some one responds, I march up to 'em and ask, "What in the heck were you thinking, leaving him <points out window to Wilt> in the car in this cold?! Are you INSANE?!?!?"

Of course, this would most likely happen when I'm working with my boss and, as cool and lax as he is, he'd probably doubt my sanity and send me home for the day. (ME: But it's only 2 in the afternoon...)

OK, maybe it wouldn't play out like THAT, but I seriously would have to make a comment (compliment!) to whoever was driving the car.

Originally Posted by taranchula

If you made him stay in the car for most of the day, I hope you gave the Wilt Man plenty of liquids. After all, we've all seen what the effects of dehydration can do to him.

Seriously though, that is a sweet looking ride and I'm glad you had such a great time.

Amen to that!

pbl, nice car, nice plushie, the exoskeleton is a cool touch-- awesome all the way around!

[pitbulllady]

Wilt actually rode shotgun with me in the '61 Stude again last Saturday for 30'th Annual Lee County Cotton Festival parade, down Main Street, Bishopville, the town where one of the schools I teach at is located. I'd just had the paint on the hood and front of the car touched up, to cover some rock chips, and had taken the car to be professionally detailed by Hollywood's Car Wash("Hollywood" Stacey is quite a character-he rode his 1979 Caddy limo in the parade, dressed like Jackie Khones did in "Nightmare On Wilson Way"), yet very few of my students seemed to notice the car at all. Their comments to me the following Monday at school generally went along the lines of, "Hey, I saw you and Wilt in the parade Saturday"!

Man, you know the Wilt-Man has got it goin' ON when he can outshine that Champagne Gold-n-chrome vintage Stude!

pitbulllady

[KazooBloo]

Wilt is looking good.