Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc.

The back of a mirror of a 1954 Ford reflects passersby during the car, motorcycle and tractor show Some came for the shopping, some for the cars, while others just came to be a part of the experience. But all of them braved the chilly weather and filled the downtown streets of Casa Grande on Saturday. "It's such a wonderful venue," said Dale Sexton of the Arizona Avanti Car Owners Association, whose organization took the club participation award, with nine at the car show.

The Chandler resident and his wife, Norma, have been to nearly all of the Downtown Main Street Fairs over the past seven years. "It's such a neat time. The women got to do shopping and the men can do the cars.

" Down Florence Street nearly 150 vendors showed their wares, talking to passersby. Some looked, some shopped. "I bought a pretty necklace to go with it," Hallen said.

"It's very classy and it's like two for one," she said of the jacket. "The quality of vendors this year is wonderful," said Gloria Smith-Zanone, an emcee for the Main Street organization. On Sunday the drizzle and colder temperature kept most away.

It was basically over before it started, unfortunately. Vendor Tony Carrion of Eagle Creations in Phoenix stood with hands in his pockets trying to stay warm. "It's a lot slower than yesterday," he said.

Carrion hasn't had much luck lately at street fairs and craft shows. "In Tucson we had winds and it was freezing. At least yesterday people turned out.

The weather was beautiful last year," said Carrion, who has been at the Main Street fair for two years. "It's just a mess," said Mark White of Gallery 1, who ducked into Corks wine bar to warm up Sunday. Some vendors started packing up around 1 p.

m. At 1:30 the skies opened up and it poured. Throughout the day, vendors and visitors trickled away from the event.

"It was an incredible show, our exhibitors were extremely happy with being in Casa Grande," said Marge Jantz, executive director of Main Street. "Our only disappointment was the weather. There was snow at the Carefree wine festival, bad weather in Tubac, it was a problem statewide.

"Our exhibitors do love to be here, we have a large percentage that have come back year after year. They love the hospitality here and the downtown." Volunteer Karen Larned with Main Street said, "From our perspective the weather has not been cooperative but people are coming.

We have had people come from out of town. We try to have fun whatever the weather is. We encourage people to come back.

" Saturday the ...

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. Of Casa Grande were doing a brisk business. The smell of roasting almonds in flavors from sweet garlic to jalapeno to sweet pecans wafted down the street, drawing folks in.

"A lot has to do with the weather. People tend to eat more when it's cool," said ..

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of Casa Grande. In between breaks near the entertainment on the stage on Third Street, Casa Grande Juliettes and Boy Scout Troop 758 cleared away spilled kettle korn and cleared tables. "I like cleaning and helping people and dancing," said Jessie Childers, a scout.

Clinton Heath, whose father is the scoutmaster, Robert Heath, said he was volunteering because "I like to help out the community." Other boys and girls who were on cleanup detail included Andrew and Mathew Collins, Rebecca Heath, Jamie Mann, Kaitlyn Roberts, Amanda Aherns, Childers. Robert Heath, Ron Childress and Tammy Smith, leaders of the scouts, said they have been bringing the kids for the past three years.

The Juliettes earn badges and the boys' community service counts toward their rank progress, Robert said. Besides the smell of roasting nuts, incense emanated from a booth featuring Bob Marley-wear, Rasta jewelry and African art. Farther down, kettle korn warmed the air.

"The music played on, even though everyone was packing up. It was still festive and it felt better that the music continued on," Jantz said. At the Paramount Theatre people milled in and out of the historic building checking out the architecture.

"A lot of people are coming in," said Michelle Stoor as she handed out flyers about upcoming events. "This is our first time to the street fair, we just hadn't wandered over here," said Roseanne Wood, a winter visitor from Stockbridge, Mich. She and her husband, Eldon, reside in Las Colinas RV Park and ducked into the Paramount to see the sites.

"It could have been a bit warmer," said Eldon. "We've never been to the theater but plan on coming back to the murder mystery dinner," Roseanne said. Jan Harkless was busy at her booth putting green, yellow, white and other colored lipsticks on the fingers of ladies stopping by.

"Lots of girls in the area use it because it's a local product," she said of the Queen Creek-manufactured products such as aloe and Vitamin E-enriched lip stains, lotions, sunscreens and salves. Across the way down Third Street, Sharon Litton and her daughter Choridy Williams sat next to each other manning their booths. Litton's Creations by Biff had a wall of steering wheel covers she had sewn.

All NFL teams, plus flowers, desert scenes, military, cars, Red Hats, Betty Boop and others are featured on the covers. "I made these covers eight years ago," Litton said. "It's a hobby gone wild.

I do everything now." Williams was selling her homemade candles and keeping her mother company. "It's slower than last year.

It's the second year we have been here and we are in the same spot so we've had a lot of repeat customers," said Williams on Saturday. At the Casa Grande Main Street information booth, volunteer Sandra McGee said they received a lot of questions about the car show. "It's been great, people from Canada are coming for information on Art in the Alley and other events in town," she said.

There was a lot of participation in the 50/50 drawing on Saturday with a winner from Georgia walking away with $443 and the other half going to preservation projects of Main Street. The information booth also sold car show T-shirts, historic downtown mugs and note cards. The car show and motorcycle show drew a large crowd on Saturday, but Sunday only four cars showed up and they left before noon.

Saxon Motorcycle sponsored the motorcycle show and had nearly 20 motorcycles on display. "We're trying to grow this side of the fair," said Mike Gaber, CFO of Saxon. "This is one of the things we do in town .

.." Board members were selling the 500 tickets at $100 each for a chance to win the 2007 custom motorcycle.

On Saturday they sold 11 tickets. The drawing will be held during the Chili Championship on March 3. "Next year we are going to open up the car show to a few more exotic cars," said Al Inde, who founded the show five years ago with Bill Little.

They started with three cars and last year 229 cars came. The weather deterred some this year, but 141 made it to Second Street. Russell Sopha of Casa Grande took first place in the T-bucket category with his 1923 car.

Next to him was son Colton, 9, in his small classic car, just his size. "We built this," he proudly proclaimed as car buffs stopped to photograph him. "He'd been to a few car shows with me and I said to him 'let's build you something you can take along,'" said Sopha, who has taken his T-bucket and son to Palm Creek, the Chili Cook-off and several out-of-town car venues.

"It was a good project." "We were here two years ago and it was red. We completely rebuilt it," said Rozanne, who her husband says pays the bills for the prized car, in a shiny purple with platinum pearl paint accents and chopped top.

"It was lots of late nights, lots of hot August nights," joked Dale. "Most of the shows we do are around Arizona in Tucson and Tombstone. We drive it to all of them," he added.

"They are all good cars here. There isn't one car here I wouldn't want in my garage." Vintage class 1941-1980: John Eilers of Mesa, 1967 Olds Cutlass Supreme Custom class: Freddy Tapia of Casa Grande, 1952 Chevy 4-door passenger car Street rod late 1941 to 1980: Tim Stoner of Tucson, 1957 Chevy Bel Air Muscle car: John Breitkreitz of Casa Grande, 1968 Plymouth Roadrunner Truck stock: Brian Drew of Wellton, 1965 Chevy Fleetside Truck mod custom: L.

C. Jones of Phoenix, 1968 GMC 1500 Truck 4 x 4: Richard and Earlene Cruze of San Manuel, 1971 Ford Bronco Sports car: Alicia Dorazio, Larry Manning of Tucson, 1980 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe Corvette 1954-1967: Larry Manning of Tucson, 1965 Stingray Corvette late: Dan Smith of Casa Grande, 2002 Corvette T-bird: Herb Gray of Phoenix, 1959 two-door hardtop Thunderbird Mustang 1965-1980: Stan Jones of Casa Grande, 1965 Ford Mustang Competition drag and racing: John Breitkreitz, 1968 Dodge Dart Low-rider: David Gayton of Casa Grande, 1988 Chevy Monte Carlo Special interest: Denton Pavelick of Apache Junction, 1957 Hillman Husky Youth 18 and under: Mike Taylor of Phoenix, 1971 Chevy C-10 truck T-Bucket: Russell Sopha of Casa Grande, 1923 Ford T-Bucket Best paint: Rick Bustamante of Casa Grande, 1939 Packard Best engine: Gabriel Riccelli of Chandler, 1973 Ford Torino Best in show: Dale and Rozanne Buck of Mesa, 1928 Ford Sedan Delivery Volunteers are always needed for Main Street's projects. To participate in the street fair, Art in the Alley or other events, call Marge Jantz at the downtown Main Street office: 520-836-8744.