Karl Soliday of Sapulpa is well-acquainted with the Dragin’ Masters Car Club. The 1962 Sapulpa High School graduate is one of its first members — back in the ‘60s.
Actually, the club hasn’t been continuous since the days Karl and other local youths banded together to name and grow a car club (see sidebar “Long Lost Scrapbook”), but the spirit and love of old cars have been.
Karl’s first car was a 1940 Ford coupe he bought for $60 when he was but 14. He has had from 25 to 30 favorite vehicles since. He has lost count, but two cars back was another 1940 Ford — much more customized and souped up than his first one.
Seems a lot of his classmates, some members of the re-instituted Dragin’ Masters, have restored renditions of their first cars.
They also like to revisit haunts from the days the fever first hit…and cruising Route 66 or dragging “Main” in Sapulpa. (“Main” being Mission, Dewey and Main along a cruise route that began around the 200 block of North Mission, then right on Dewey to Main and south to Cornwell’s near present day Braums).
“The Beacon Drive-In was my favorite,” Soliday recalls. “That’s where we would begin the cruise” (and then buzz others, the Big Dipper, A&W, The Sapulpan, etc., along the way to Cornwell’s on South Main where they would turn around and do it again.
Soliday grew up just a block off that route—at the house on the corner of Mission and Lee (where TTCU is located today).
The Dragin’ Masters club today has about 10 times more members than it did when Karl’s buddies Ronnie Enlow with friends Tommy Moore and Mac Slaton, set out to form a car club.
Karl’s car today is a 1957 Chevrolet Nomad. It makes much longer cruises. He and Kathy, his wife of 27 years, recently returned from the Nomad convention at Las Vegas. There were only 6,000 of the station wagons manufactured. Maybe half are still in existence. Owners of restored ones across the nation get together each year at various locations.
After high school, Soliday joined the U.S. Navy and was stationed in San Diego. He learned data processing while in the service, married and had three children. Son Lance Ray shares his dad’s love for hot rods (see sidebar story).
When Karl returned to Oklahoma he worked for a time at Sun Oil and then American Airlines from which he retired. He and Kathy are sparkplugs that keep Dragin’ Masters members and other old car buffs fired up about their hobby.
The club meets weekly by way of cruising to local and area restaurants to eat, meet and show off their cars. Sapulpa’s Braums on Thursday nights is a regular occurrence. Members are encouraged to host road trips and attend an official monthly meeting the first Thursday night. It is there they prepare for the annual Sapulpa Main Street Route 66 Blowout. The award-winning car, truck, motorcycle (and added last year, tractor) show draws thousands to Historic Downtown Sapulpa at the Heart of Route 66 the first full weekend in June.
