Thursday is the hot night in Vandalia when the lot at the Airline Dairy Creme is packed with hot rods. “This is our second year here,” said Carolyn Lewis, the president of the Ohio Cruisers Car Club that sponsors the event.

“We were looking for a new place and came down here last year, and they couldn’t have been nicer,” she added. “Nancy Suther makes the lot available to us, and most of the folks go in to get something to eat or ice cream. The food is great, real drive-in/cruise-in food.”

The parking lot, at 224 North Dixie in Vandalia is a splash of color on a crisp May Thursday, with lots of muscle on display, mostly horsepower. Lewis and her husband Al organize the cruise, and on this night they are in their 1940 Packard. “Oh yeah, it’s got a 400 Chevy under the hood, and a new 700R4 transmission,” he said. “I also pulled the air conditioning off, because real hot rods don’t have air.” Lewis found the car a few years back in Mississippi and has been working on it ever since. “We also have a ’23 T-Bucket and we’re out at cruises about four or five nights a week,” Lewis said.

The Ohio Cruisers Car Club is a loose knit group organizationally, but very popular. “We have over 100 members and we host this cruise every Thursday throughout the summer,” Carolyn Lewis said. “Most of our members have customs and hot rods, but we don’t care what kind of car you have. We also don’t have any dues, but we do host a car show on Father’s Day. This year we’ll be here at the Airline Dairy Creme on June 17. Registration starts at 10 a.m. and the entry fee is $10. But all our proceeds go to local charities. We give to the Vandalia Food Pantry a lot, and we make sure we give all our money away.”

While the average age of the members is 55 and over, Al Lewis noted they have recently picked up some younger members. “We have some younger new members, but most of us are 70-year-old teenagers who love old, fast cars.”

With the parking filling up quickly and nearly 100 cars on hand, Xenia’s Bob Voke was wiping down his 1969 Dodge Dart. “One of our buddies is in the Ohio Cruisers and suggested we come up here. This is our first cruise of the season and this is really nice,” he said. Voke’s Dart has a 340 V8 under the hood, and looks sharp in the burnt orange metallic paint.

“I had a ’69 Dart when I was 19 years old, and then the Army called and the Dart went away, so two years ago, I decided I wanted another Dart. I found this one in Southern Illinois and after seven months in the body shop, I started putting it back together. It’s a neat car, a real lightweight muscle car,” he said.

Voke also has a few other rides in his collection, including a ’65 Rambler station wagon, a ’69 Corvette, and one convertible. “We have a 1963 Valiant convertible, but it’s my wife’s car,” he said.