Hot Summer Nights and the love for Palmer

PALMER — In what was a window into time, the city of Palmer became an encyclopedia of classic cars Saturday night. Models of cars from the 1920’s to today, were on display en masse downtown for the city’s Hot Summer Nights event.

Hot Summer Nights has been going on since 2002, and has grown over the years with more and more cars showing up to the event. The event was run by the 49th State Street Rodders, and the man behind this idea was John Troutner. Troutner was busy Saturday night as the Rodders handed out free food to people who came to see the cars. Their estimates were around 1,100 hamburgers and hotdogs were passed out.

However, it was the cars themselves that people came to enjoy most. Charles Brawley, one of the car owners there, spoke about the quality of the cars.

“What’s amazing is the quality of the cars in Alaska — look around these parking lots.” Brawley said. “It’s just amazing the things we keep in our garages.”

These types of events are important to a community. From the people coming in to see the numerous amount of cars, to the locals who bring out their cars for the public to enjoy.

“On one side of the event. You’ve got an economic thing with the whole city of Palmer,” said Troutner. “Really enjoys having us bring out these cars and people into town because it puts a lot of cash into this town. Not just tonight, but for quite a while to come. Now that’s what it means to the town.”

With events like Hot Summer Nights that have been going on since 2002, the businesses in places like downtown Palmer have seen a change in atmosphere when the cars start rolling in. From the restaurants, to the saloons and bars with the car shows, there comes a good amount of people.

“It creates a pretty good influx for business this time of year,” said Susan Timm, an employee from Klondike Mike’s. “This time of day, usually we’ve got live music on the weekends. So it’s always helpful to have the extra crowd, you know drawn in for the different events and stuff like that,”

According to Troutner, this event has been expanding by 30 percent over the years, which trickles down to the car owners themselves who own these pieces of art, from a 1928 Model A from Ford, to a 1970 Mustang owned by Charles Brawley. Brawley’s car, like many other out that Saturday night, comes with its own stories.

“Bought it from another old soldier, long time ago. After realizing I bought one of these new like most people, after a couple years of good therapy, you went on with other automobiles,” said Brawley.” “But I realized a long time ago I wanted another one, so here it is. It’s like a kid that won’t go away. It lives in a conex, in a cover — it gets tucked in at night.”