Charles & Joyce moved to Troutman four years ago from Windsor, Connecticut, and are now regulars at all the shows
and cruise-ins in this area. They might just win the “miles driven award” or at least be a strong contender.
They have driven their 1930 DeSoto Roadster over one-hundred and eighty thousand miles and at age seventy-five,
Charles has no plans to stop cruising and enjoying the time spent with their car and fellow cruisers.
The large bug on the radiator of their car indicates their good sénse of humor and willingness to have fun,
which explains why other cruisers like having them around and cruising has been so enjoyable for them.
They purchased their very rare ‘30 DeSoto Roadster in 1985 and restored it the same year.
There are only seven others known to exist today. They opted to make their car a “driver” and installed a
Chevy 350 engine, 700-R4 transmission and Dana positraction rear-end, and is obviously a very good dependable driver.
Since their car has running boards, I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about them and “Car Hops.”
Maybe I have already given you a clue. Do you know the history of “Car Hops” and where the name came from?
Starting in approximately 1910, servers would hop on the running board of a patron’s vehicle to claim them
as their customer and take their order from them. In the thirties, as running boards started to disappear,
the servers began using roller skates. “Car Hops” on roller skates can still be found, even though very rare, today.
Another interesting thing on Charles’s car is the dual side mounted spare tires, a sign of luxury cars of that period.
