Thinking it would be pretty fun, I registered my ectomobile into the 250+car show.
I got ready early, suited up and gave the car a quick rinse from the garden hose. I set up on the corner of Mountain and College avenues, the two main streets in Old Town. Asher showed up and we hung out a bit, running over to Subway to grab some early lunch. Turned out that the guys working were huge ‘fans’ of ours, so everything was half-priced. Delicious and fun!
I managed to find a wide open spot that was right at the entrance to the event, but far enough away from the pro and classic cars that our media and antics wouldn't piss anyone off. This was cool because my car was visible from the busiest road in Fort Collins, smack dab in the center of the main thoroughfare for spectators to enter the event, and not stuck between a line of 1965 Mustangs… good deal.
The car was ENORMOUSLY popular! We're fairly well-known with the college-age crowd and people who use myspace due to our crazy late-night antics, but this was the first time that regular citizens of northern Colorado had a chance to meet us. Parents with little kids, older couples who had read our articles in the papers, and everyone else got to come up and ask us why we did it, what we were going to build next, and to thank us for doing something incredible and unique in this community. I had no idea so many people would actually be thanking us for the positive impact our little project has had on the town.
Austin showed up just as the show was starting. We found ourselves talking to kids about how we really caught ghosts, describing the proton streams as sort of “laser lassos” that we use to capture them, and then talking to the parents about why we built the car, how we did it, and the next car we plan on building. We had kids running all over wearing my ectogoggles and the keymaster helmet, hilarious!
Funny thing, we talked to more than a dozen people who thought we were actual paranormal eliminators, who thought that the Ghostbusters represented an actual company. One yuppie woman, who for all we know could be a nurse or other high-paid professional, asked how to make appointments with us for our services… A couple of stoner-type guys came and asked if we were for real, I told them we just build movie cars…. he seemed disappointed, and I asked if he was okay. He said hearing that was like hearing that santa wasn't real. I explained to him that while Ghostbusters aren't real, Santa does in fact exist. That put his mind at ease.
Our music selection varied throughout the day. About once every hour we would blast the siren and go through a bunch of ghostbusters music, such as remixes and selections from the soundtrack. Then we would play soundtracks and various other crowd-pleasing songs, then filled the space in between with Austin's Rob Dougan cd.
Shauna showed up a little later having just gotten off work. She suited up and walked around with us a little bit, and also helped present the car to more and more people as attendance to the car show peaked in mid-afternoon. Aside for New WestFest, I had never seen this many people walking around Old Town!
Mmmm, grey is so much better than khaki! A half-dozen FC police officers stopped by and talked to us, some had never even seen the car and others thought it was the greatest thing they'd ever seen; needless to say we keep on pretty positive terms with local cops and the like.
Hot buster-on-buster action!
I kept thinking it was too bad that there were a bunch of restored Model Ts out in front of the old fort collins firehouse…. would have been AWESOME to put the car there:http://www.flickr.com/photos/80651083@N00/449552265/)
What we thought would be a “hanging out looking at the other cars” day turned out to be a “take pictures of us hugging half the population of colorado” and “teaching kids not to cross the streams” sort of day. It ended with us leaving by driving the car through the crowd, all the way through the car show and back to College Ave. Of course we ran the lights and siren the whole way, getting cheers and calls of “Who ya gonna call?” What an unbelievably positive experience and event!
