BUCKINGHAM FOUNTAIN PICTURES

If you have visited the Chicagoland Mopar Connection’s website (www.chicagolandmopar.com) in the past 2-3 months you may have noticed that there is a new picture on our home page of 12 cars in front of Buckingham Fountain. The picture of the 12 cars in front of the fountain is an idea I had come up with 30 years ago, when I owned my very first Mopar. I had always thought that the fountain lit up at night with the Chicago skyline behind it would make for a great background for pictures of my muscle car. Unfortunately, I had never gotten around to taking those pictures back then but the idea kept resurfacing in my mind from time to time.

Early in August of last year the idea came up again and I was discussing it with a friend, and he thought that it was a great idea and that I should pursue it. Of course, he wanted to have his car’s picture taken there also. So I called the Chicago Park District and made some inquiries and I got the information that I needed to proceed. Along with the paperwork to be filled out there were going to be fees and of course, a security deposit needed. I was also told that there was a limit of 10 cars that I could have there, and that the photo shoot had to be during the week – no weekends. I proceeded to fill out the paperwork and sent a check to cover the fees and security deposit and picked the date of the photo shoot, Thursday, September 20, 2001.

Now I had to find 9 other people willing to share the costs and had a Mopar that they wanted pictures of in front of Buckingham Fountain. There is no rhyme or reason as to whom I asked other than I was looking for a variety of the high-impact colors from the 1970’s muscle car era. After deciding on what color cars I wanted in the picture I realized that I was over the 10 car limit. So I called back to the Chicago Park District to ask if I could have 12 cars instead of 10 with the reason being that there were 12 months in a year not 10 and that I would like to have 12 different cars in case we decided to make a calendar, they agreed.

During the time that I was trying to locate owners of the specific color cars I had chosen, disaster struck in the form of the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. I discussed the situation with the few people I had already contacted and we decided to postpone the photo shoot until the following year. When I called the Chicago Park District to postpone and explained the reasons why, they were very understanding and said that it wouldn’t be a problem and to call back in the spring to reschedule.

Over the next 6-7 months I got commitments from the rest of the 12 car owners that they were willing to pay to help cover the costs. During those winter months I also located a photographer, Don Hinds from Hinds Photography, to take the pictures. After having had this idea for 30 years you wouldn’t think another 6-7 months would make a difference, but it did. Realizing that my idea was finally going to happen and it was getting closer to becoming a reality I was getting anxious, along with the 11 other car owners.

Spring finally arrived and I rescheduled the photo shoot for Thursday, June 6, 2002 and then hoped for good weather. After a whole week of cloudy and rainy weather that first week in June, Thursday turned out to be a picture perfect day and the photographs turned out beautiful.

I sent the picture to be posted on our website’s home page because I thought it not only showed some of the Mopars that were in our club but it also showed an unmistakable Chicago landmark.