SUN GLARED OFF shiny chrome and gleaming hoods, surfaces waxed to prideful perfection for the monthly Classic Cruise In at Dawn’s Corner Bar in Dundas. The event was a first for me on a Sunday afternoon when I could have attended several other area car shows. But Randy and I chose Dundas.
By car show standards, this proved a small event, compacted into a paved parking lot across the street from the bar along Railway Street North.
While we meandered among the vehicles, which included cars, trucks and a few motorcycles, The Chad Johnson Trio played on the deck behind the bar. I remember only “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” the other songs becoming background music as I tuned into the car show.
But outside and in (I peeked inside), people packed the place, enjoying the music, $2.50 domestic tap beer and $10 cheeseburger baskets. Greg, who drove his 1956 black-and-white Chrysler to the show with a Sears bike strapped to the rear, vouched for the sizable, tasty burgers. I should have thought ahead. But Randy grilled burgers the previous evening and I was neither hungry nor thirsty.
I settled for appreciating and photographing vehicles driven to Dundas for a show-and-tell of sorts on a Sunday afternoon heating up to be a hot and humid week in southern Minnesota.
Conversations flowed as classic vehicle enthusiasts discussed whatever you talk about when you’re really into cars. Randy, who worked as an automotive machinist in next door Northfield for nearly 40 years, talked to former customers. That included a guy who brought an old truck Randy worked on. I hear those stories all the time from grateful customers. Randy was, and is, really good at what he does and knows a whole lot about everything automotive.
I’m more interested in the quirky, the artsy, the unusual. A Big Bird dangling from a Big Bird-hued Firebird brought to mind my second daughter who, as a child, carried her much-beloved yellow Sesame Street stuffie everywhere.
A vintage Honda motorcycle reminded me of my oldest brother revving up his bike, roaring across the farmyard, tires spitting gravel.
I expect nearly everyone attending the show could share a story, for classic vehicles are the stuff of memories.
Grandpa’s car. Siblings piling into a boat of a family car for a road trip. First car. Learning to drive a stick shift. Saturday night at a drive-in movie. A stop at the root beer stand. Racing down a back county road. Young love in a car parked at a dead end. Lights out under an inky dark sky. So many memories and stories.
As I walked among the many classic vehicles, I could only imagine the stories, told and untold. I wonder sometimes if that isn’t the real reason why people own these vehicles. It’s a way of holding onto the past, of connecting with previous generations, of reliving yesteryear, when life was, in many ways, less complicated.
Some may consider their vehicles an investment. And maybe they are. An investment in life as it once existed in quieter, gentler times.
By the end of my walk about the classic vehicles, I’d taken some 80 photos and engaged in several conversations. But mostly, I observed. The setting. The people. The vehicles. The art. After all that, and as the pavement was heating up I needed to cool off in air conditioning. I also needed a drink of icy cold water, although a beer may have hit the spot, too.
FYI: Dawn’s Corner Bar in Dundas hosts a Classic Car Cruise In from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. the last Sunday of the month June-September.
© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
Honoring America locally in red, white & blue July 1, 2026
Tags: 250th birthday of America, America, birthday of America, book display, books, Books on Central, commentary, Dundas, Faribault, flowers, Fourth of July, holiday, July 4, July Fourth, Keepers Antique Shop, Minnesota, patriotic clothing, patriotism, red white and blue, Statue of Liberty puzzle, window display
RED, WHITE AND BLUE banner everyday life annually around this time each year. I’m talking not only U.S. flags flying from poles, but much more. And this July 4, the 250th birthday of our nation, American pride seems especially abundant. Or maybe I’m simply noticing because of the milestone celebration.
Whatever, I challenge you to see how your friends and neighbors, local businesses, churches and other organizations are celebrating and/or running with the July 4 theme.
Locally, I found plenty of examples in expected, and unexpected, places. At Keepers Antique Shop along Central Avenue in Faribault, I always expect proprietor Nona Boyes to create a window display appropriately themed to a particular event. She didn’t disappoint, staging two mannequins draped in red, white and blue holding an American flag between them. The patriotic theme carries to a corner curio and additional window space. Boyes’ art education and background show in every single window display she creates for her antique shop.
Across the street at Books on Central, I happened upon another July Fourth display, this one atop a table. Because this is a used bookshop, books center the space created by volunteer Jeanne Campbell with assistance from Mary Campbell.
Books about the White House, “The Star Spangled Banner” and Alexander Hamilton are for sale along with other volumes artfully placed among mini American flags, a Betsy Ross statue and touches of red and white ribbon. “We the People—A Pictorial Celebration of America” and “1776” by Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough are also among the selections.
If you really want to get to the basics, you’ll find a pocket book of the U.S. Constitution propped in a front window display themed to celebrating the birth of this country.
To the north on Central Avenue, Fashions on Central promoted a RED WHITE BLUE SALE on a sandwich chalkboard.
At the State Bank of Faribault, an American flag graces a lush pot of flowers outside the bank’s front entry.
But it was red flowers planted in galvanized tubs and backdropping white hydrangea that drew my admiration for July Fourth floral plantings. I was en route to a garage sale in a south-side Faribault neighborhood when I spotted the work of gardener Kay, who planted red, white and blue flowers throughout her yard. She wasn’t home when I stopped. But her husband, Paul, promised to pass along my praise.
When I stopped at an estate sale, I purchased an unusual piece of art perfect for the Fourth of July. For $3, I snagged a puzzle of the Statue of Liberty pieced together by Gerda Dolman of Madison, Minnesota, when she was 100 years old. She lived to nearly 102, dying in 2021. Her son mounted the puzzle on wood. Gerda’s Lady Liberty now hangs on my dining room wall, a visual reminder of freedom, liberty and hope for all who came, and continue to come, to America. Like Gerda’s Norwegian ancestors.
As we celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday, I focus on those foundational words of liberty and freedom. I hope others do, too, as they don patriotic attire, enjoy parades and BBQs, watch fireworks, and consider all this nation has endured from the Revolutionary War to present.
This message lifted from the tabletop display at Books on Central says it all: “For 250 years, we have maintained and loved this country that was created as the great American experiment, an exercise in self-governance and respect and freedom. Long may this great experiment reign, cherished and supported by those it protects and honors. Happy birthday to the United States of America!”
© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling