Fabulous Fords Gear Up at Knott's Berry Farm

CC dances in front of a Ford Fairlane at Fabulous Fords Forever.

In the summer of 1987, before I started seventh grade, my dad and I drove from Oklahoma to Los Angeles in a 1964 Ford Fairlane -- a car, he assured me, that would be very popular in the retro-loving La La Land.

He drove across five different states in that car, at one point asking me not to fall asleep, which I did maybe 15 minutes later. (Some loyal sidekick I am!)

That was a fun trip. I can still remember the vastness of the Arizona desert and the heat of the California sun. Other details are fuzzy more than 20 years later (wow), but I remember that car, with the manual stick shift on the driving column, taking us down Santa Monica Boulevard to the beach, where I saw the ocean for the first time. (It was also where I, wearing a then-trendy Coca-Cola swimsuit, got knocked on my bum by a crazy-strong wave -- you know, the kind they don't have in Oklahoma.)

So it was fun this weekend, when I took CC down to Knott's Berry Farm to check out Fabulous Fords Forever, an event dedicated to rides from Ford Motor Company. Surely, there would be a Fairlane somewhere in the crowd. And what a crowd it was. There was a sea of cars in every direction.

CC sidled up to the above Ford Fairlane, a tarted-up version of the pale beige variety that my dad had, as well as a 1929 Buena Park Police car (above right). She also dove into the front seats of a new Ford Explorer on display, and looked a little perplexed next to the "Disco Pinto," covered in tiny mirrors (below).

And while CC had fun checking out some "awesome" cars, as she called them, what perhaps intrigued her most were several families of free-range chickens and roosters roaming around the Knott's lagoon.

"Cock-a-Doodle-Doo!" she cried, as visitors looked on smiling.

"Cock-a-Doodle-Doo!" a rooster answered back, much to CC's surprise.

It was a little trip down memory lane -- at least for me. My dad's car wasn't there, but his California-born granddaughter was, checking out Fords and soaking up her native sun.

(Note: Media tickets for Fabulous Fords Forever and Knott's Berry Farm provided.)