Moonlight Memories Car Show Celebrating 30 Years In Hatboro

HATBORO, PA —The borough is gearing up for its biggest event of the year that offers residents another trip down memory lane.

The 30th Annual Moonlight Memories Classic Car Show will be held along York Road on Saturday, July 29, from 5 p.m. until dusk.

For three decades, this event has shown a spotlight on this historic community.

“Our sponsors welcome this yearly opportunity to support the local businesses, as well as civic and non-profit area organizations,” said Tim Schultz, the borough's mayor and president of the Hatboro Chamber of Commerce. "We’ve organized a fun event for visitors of all ages with this trip down memory lane. In addition to the classic cars and trucks on display, we invite everyone to visit our restaurants, shops, service businesses, and other stores.”

From the very first show in 1993, the car show typically attracts 400-500 specialty autos, muscle cars, and trucks, as well as 35,000 to 50,000 spectators and dozens of vendors, organizers said.

This year, there will be live music. Borough restaurants and street food eateries will also offer a tempting variety of summer refreshments. Delaware Valley’s WRDV public radio station will host a live broadcast of nostalgic tunes from the era.

Historically, Hatboro was once considered one of the most well-known cruising towns east of the Mississippi in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s and it was even once highlighted in Hot Rod magazine, organizers said.

"Young people from everywhere in the Delaware Valley would routinely drive down York Road at slow speeds, doing their best to show off their cars, meet new friends, and perhaps street race when the time was right," the chamber said. "At times, the Borough Council and the Police were often not too happy with the nightly parade of cars going nowhere and there was a profound generational tension between the town elders and their Cruisin’ kids.

"Those cruises slowed down in the late 1970s due to the gas crisis for young car enthusiasts. This was the abrupt end of one of America’s favorite past times in Hatboro, but it would not be the end of our love of cars. Less than 15 years later, the business leaders of Hatboro took matters into their own hands," the chamber said.

The chamber said that three Hatboro chamber members —Joe Tryon, Harry Reiter, and Kenny Bishop —came up with the idea to bring the hot rods back to the borough.

It was to be named, Moonlight Memories, however, most people refer to it by the common name of the Hatboro Car Show, the chamber said.

An award presentation is scheduled for 9 p.m. at the corner of Moreland and York roads in the Parking Lot of Reid’s Repairs LLC.

This year’s event sponsors are Hatboro Federal Savings, Patriot Chevrolet, O’Neil Buick/GMC, O’Neil Collision Center, Tilghman Builders, Split Lane Cycles, Glanzmann Subaru, Jaguar Land Rover of Willow Grove, Little’s of Hatboro John Deere, Reid’s Repairs LLC, Donte’s Automotive, JP Performance & Repair, Diverse Technical Lines, Inc. (DTL), Amy’s Pizzeria, Delaware Valley Concrete Company, and the Uptight Suburbanite.