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Video Report - Rogersville couple gearing up for annual Memory Lane car show, festival

 

Otis Eldridge's creation he built to put his store antiques. From Kingsport take 11W towards Rogersville, turn right (north) at the Route 70 intersection at the Rogersville National Guard Armory. Travel one mile to Caney Creek Road and turn left, then follow the parade of hotrods to Memory Lane.

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It’s the most populated community in Hawkins County — at least one day per year.

Otis and Kathy Eldridge have been busy the past couple of weeks preparing Memory Lane for compa ny.

Every Memorial Day weekend the Rogersville couple
opens up their back yard to more than 8,000 of their closest friends for an annual antique car show and 1950s festival.

Memory Lane is the 1950s style village that the Eldridges began building in their back yard in 1998, and has since mushroomed into one of the biggest yearly events in Northeast Tennessee.

The Eldridges live on Caney Creek Road a few miles north of Rogersville. Their home and business is on the side of the hill facing Caney Creek Road. But when you pass the crest of the hill and start down the back side, all evidence of the modern world disappears and visitors are taken back to a simpler time of hot rods, sock hops, poodle skirts and drive-in movies.

This year’s Memory Lane Car Show will be Saturday, May 24, beginning around 10 a.m. and running well past dark. It started a few years ago as just a gathering for the Eldridges and friends.

As the number of buildings and artifacts grew on Memory Lane, so did the event, and a few years back the Eldridges decided to open it up to the world. For the past few years the event has averaged about 700 classic cars and more than 8,000 spectators.

Otis told the Times-News last week it’s a throwback to a simpler, happy time.

“If you haven’t been, you’re missing it and you need to be here,” Otis said. “If you care anything about the ’50s and ’60s, it’s happening here. You’ll find it more fun here than you will anywhere. It brings you back in time.”

Random Rod Car Club is organizing the car show, and there is a fee for car registration, but spectator entry is free.

Cars will begin registering around 10 a.m., and live “Oldies” music begins at 1 p.m. At 3 p.m. there will be live Gospel music in the church house, and car show entries will receive their awards at 6 p.m.
An Elvis impersonator performs at 7:30 p.m., and when the sun goes down there will be a movie shown at the “Starliner Drive-In located beside the diner. The Eldridges haven’t picked out their movie yet, but it’s always a family friendly hot rod picture from the era.

Memory Lane started with the purchase of an antique coffee grinder that Otis wanted to acquire from the old country store that was going out of business near his birthplace in Blackwater, Va.

It was a store that Eldridge spent much of his childhood in, and as a boy he was always fascinated by the coffee grinder. When he visited the store to buy it, however, he ended up taking home two truckloads of artifacts.

Otis and Kathy were then faced with the problem of where to put all their authentic country store artifacts. Otis used a picture of an old country store that was on a Coca Cola advertisement, and built a perfect replica.

The store is a museum of authentic 1950s country store products, and is open to the public during the Memory Lane festival. There’s usually plenty of Orange Nehi soda and Moon Pies for sale.

The country store was just the beginning. Memory Lane is a full scale 1950s village constructed from either antiques collected by the Eldridges over the years, actual family heirlooms, or old landmarks from Hawkins County and across the region. One of the more popular exhibits is the stainless steel “Studebaker Diner” that the Eldridges moved to Memory Lane a few years ago from its original location in Marion, Va.

Volunteer firefighters will be serving food during the event as part of their annual fundraiser, and no cooking will take place in the diner. Visitors can, however, eat in the air-conditioned diner and enjoy the ambience including a functioning antique juke box that still spins 45s.

The Eldridges also moved an old 1950s-style Texaco station from Bristol, Va., to Memory Lane and placed it at the entrance of a large barn that holds the biggest part of Otis’ antique car collection.
Otis has another impressive vintage car collection at the entrance of Memory Lane where he built a Ford dealership and showroom. The dealership sign came from the old Testerman Motors dealership in Rogersville, and the showroom car is a 1957 Ford convertible.

Ironically the Ford dealership fronts another barn where Otis keeps several Corvettes and Chrysler muscle cars but no Fords.

One of Memory Lane’s newer additions is the old Rogersville “Roxy Theater” marquee which was salvaged when the theater was torn down years ago. The marquee reads “Thunder Road” starring Robert Mitchum. Eventually the Eldridges hope to build a small replica of the Roxy’s interior for showing old movies.

The list of Memory Lane attractions is long and impressive, especially considering that everything is antique and authentic. The Eldridges salvaged a post-WWII prefabricated Lustron house from Rogersville which is completely furnished with era antiques. The “Eldridge Motor Court” includes four 1950s mobile homes, and a 1952 model has been furnished and will be open for public viewing.

The “Commercial District” includes a body shop, two-lane bowling alley, TV/radio repair shop, bank, doctor’s office, and City Hall with jail. On the other side of town is a blacksmith shop, train station including an old caboose, a revolving “Sputnik sign, and a functioning moonshine still complete with 1957 Ford for hauling jugs. Beside the field where the car show takes place is a covered bridge, a church house, a school house, and a replica of the house where Otis was born — including original doors, windows and furnishings.

There are a lot of things about the 1950s that the Eldridges find appealing. The cars, the movies, the music, the styles, the attitude. Otis said it’s a good era to visit at least once per year.

“I was like 8, 9, 10 years old when it was going on, and I was watching my older brothers and sisters having an enjoyable time in life and I was too small to join in and I wanted to do it real bad,” Otis said. “It was just great times, and I know they had great times. I think the the ’50s really was a great era.”

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