At the ninth annual Hot San Jose Nights fest, young people stare in wonder at the classic cars and strange flying machines.
SAN JOSE — The air above Reid-Hillview Airport on Saturday morning was laced with the insect-like droning of weird little flying machines and sputtering Cessnas. Retired military tanks prowled across the tarmac, while a big brass band went thump-thump-thump just behind the Tradewinds Aviation hangar. And as the crowds streamed in and the temperatures climbed, a kid sold water from a cooler full of quickly melting ice.
It was the ninth annual Hot San Jose Nights, held in the middle of a weekend day. But nobody seemed to mind the misnomer.
The point of the gathering, after all, was putting classic cars and airborne marvels in close proximity to lovers of such things and their children, all of whom were practically guaranteed to enjoy a jaw-dropping moment or two before they went back home.
Richard Harris gets that. He’s seen the magic first-hand — the light going on in the kids’ eyes when they spot his two glittering mashups of automobiles: a’ 37 Chevy woodie “that started as a four-door sedan, ” and a’ 28 Dodge four-door sedan “that I redesigned and turned into a Rat Rod woodie.”
“I love the nostalgia that these cars represent to me, ” said Harris, who added that he’s “loved classic cars since I was 13 and now I’ m 105 — not really, I’ m 70.”
Did he mention that he has another three of these bad boys at home?
The retired industrial-arts teacher from San Jose just sat back and enjoyed the show: a flow of humanity flowing by, many stopping to admire the surfboard-topped woodies, many pushing an occupied stroller, some juggling paper plates for greasy fried chicken, all of them craning their necks to take it all in. There were free flyovers for kids, tank rides in real tanks, drone battles and free hot-air balloon rides, tons of food and thousands of dollars being raised for charities, including hunger drives and programs for the elderly.
“We’ ve been raising money for nine years now, ” said Susan Hennessy, who along with her husband, Mike, started the free event back when it was first held downtown. “We collect food donations, too, for the Second Harvest Food Bank. And while we started as a classic-car show, we’ re trying to attract more kids to more and more S. T. E. A. M. hands-on events and educational booths.”
Which makes a ton of sense, this being Silicon Valley and S. T. E. A. M. being “Science, Technology, Engineering, Aviation & Math.”
A handful of volunteers help put on the festival, which is sponsored by the VMC Foundation and its CEO, Chris Wilder, along with Dave Cortese, president of Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, and fellow Supervisor Cindy Chavez. Nonprofits can put up booths for free, the Boy Scouts help out and — this being held at an airport and all — there’s that BBQ Cook-Off for wings.
Organizers of the one-day Hot San Jose Nights extravaganza like to say that the event celebrates all things automotive, aviation and scientific, featuring hundreds of vintage cars, 40 planes on display and a science/tech fair designed for budding scientists and knee-high techie wannabes.
And there’s more — much more: The San Jose State University aviation program based at the small airport is one of the nation’s oldest and the only public institution in California offering a B. S. in aviation. The program, featured prominently in this year’s show, describes itself online as being “well-positioned to assist aspiring aviation professionals in realizing their dreams.”
Also in the dream-realization business is Ana Ruiz, a Menlo Park pilot who started the local branch of Women in Aviation, a group dedicated to turning girls on to not just the art of flying but also a possible career in the sprawling infrastructure that supports those pilots.
“We want to get more young girls interested in the entire aviation industry, ” said Ruiz, who started the nonprofit five years ago. “We want to show them that STEM has many sides, including weather forecasters, air-traffic dispatchers and jet mechanics.”
Helping Ruiz on Saturday was Graciela Tiscareño-Sato, a decorated military veteran and bilingual STEM consultant to K-12 school districts. On Saturday, she was signing copies of her children’s book about young people getting the aviation bug.
She said Hot San Jose Nights is a perfect example of how you can bring together young people and exciting careers in aviation and, sometimes in a matter of magical moments, change their lives forever.
“You can’ t be what you can’ t see, ” Tiscareño-Sato said. “Kids come here and they see with their own eyes these options for them in their lives, right there in front of them. For a lot of kids, today is the first time in their lives they’ ve even seen an airplane up close.”
As she spoke, the kids streamed past — one hand in their mother’s, the other pulling a toy classic car — and their eyes full of wonder.
