Stories

Interview at Memory Lane Motors in Portland Oregon with owner Dale Matthews for the Rotary Club of Canby on 8/28/2020.

Dan and Rory’s 1941 Ford has quite a history behind it with ties to Canby.  Stan Dietz a former Canby car guy owned the car before their dear friends in Oregon City John and Millie Roberts, who owned the car from the early 70’s, restoring it once.  Dan always admired the car, so Rory took a chance and asked John if he would ever consider selling it.  To her surprise he said yes.  The car was a perfect gift for Danny’s 60th birthday in 2007. Since then, with the help of the Canby Cruisers, Dan was able to bring the car back to its original glory (with a few extras of course)!

The Canby Cruisers, along with Dan have helped Frank put on the Cutsforth Cruise in for the past 20 some years.

Thank you Frank for featuring the story of our 41 Ford!

1st Annual Cutsforth’s Cruise In – 1995

We started our first Cruise In in 1995 really not knowing much about Cruise Ins. We just wanted to have a fun event for our customers with music, cars and food. A lady who worked for us, Dianne Helgerson and myself always took risks in marketing our store, doing crazy stuff trying to make our store be different. It may not have always worked out, but most of the time it did and we had fun doing it!

The first year there were about 30 cars in the show. It has grown to 600-700 cars in 2021! The first 1-5 years the store parking lot was the location for our car show. We would fill up our parking lot with cars on that Saturday in August and really made it hard for our customers to shop.

The Canby Cruisers helped us promote and grow the car show. They suggested we move the car show to Wait Park and call it Cruise In at the Park. It was a great idea and has made it a really great event for Canby.

One of the most awesome things about Canby is it still has a great sense of community awareness. The Cruise In has done some really good things for nonprofits in town with sales of hamburgers, hot dogs, soda, ice cream floats, etc., maybe raising $85,000 to $95,000 over the years.

One of the most wonderful things regarding the car show is all the wonderful people and their stories about families and cars. We have been blessed to have great support from a community of car enthusiasts. Thank you everyone for your loyal support throughout all the years.

1955 Ford Customline

In 1955 I bought this Ford Customline from Holman and Williams, the Ford dealer in Molalla. I used it on our honeymoon and brought two kids home from the hospital in it. In 1960 I sold it when we were assigned to a tour in France. In 2016 I decided I wanted to relive some of those memories, so I found the exact body style and had it shipped here from Southern California. Since then I have had it restored to the original colors (Buckskin and Snowshoe white) and had the original interior installed.

Byron Shriever, Canby, Oregon

1940 Ford Pickup

Multi award winning custom pink 1940 Ford pickup built in Lancaster, California in late 1990. It was built by the late Corky Prothro (Professional rod builder) for his wife, Cornell, who loved this truck.

This truck always gets the Woman’s Choice Award at the shows and has also won at the NSRA western nationals among the many prestigious shows it has been in. Sadly the passing of both Corky and Cornell forced the sale of this beautiful truck in 2014. The current owner obtained it in 2016.

The truck has a 351W motor with a AOD transmission, 9” rear with 3:50 gears, tilt power steering, power disc brakes, power windows, shaved door handles, frenched headlights, and oak bed with polished stainless strips. Other features include: All Henry Steel, TCI Chassis, Mustang Rack, Halibrand wheels, air conditioning, remote door openers.

Bruce and Kerri Harding, Canby, Oregon