MARSHALL — Even though the car show is canceled for this year, Shades of the Past members will still be cruising the streets of Marshall Friday night with everything from Mustangs to rat rods.

The annual cruise is at 6:30 p.m. Friday throughout Marshall, starting from the Runnings parking lot.

Bev Peterson, a new member of the Shades of the Past, said that hopefully people will bring out their lawn chairs and watch as the cruise goes through town.

“It’s a good way to give back to the community,” Peterson said. Plus it’s fun for the members to do the Friday cruise, she said.

The Shades of the Past car club started in 1986, said club president Jerry Haas. It currently has more than 60 members.

“This is a fun group,” Haas said.

And they’re always looking for new members, Peterson said. Haas said they’re also looking for younger members as well. You can have new cars or old cars to be part of the club, they said.

The club does community service where they go out to all the assisted living/nursing homes in Marshall to offer rides in their cars to the residents and brings root beer floats and prizes for the residents, Peterson said. Although they won’t be doing that this year “we’ll be around next year,” Haas said.

The club members also do a fall cruise with a different destination each year, and during the summer, the club members get together to cruise to different eating places in southwest Minnesota, Peterson said.

“It is a fun way to cruise and socialize with other club members,” she said.

Haas said the Shades club board was waiting to see what the Back to the ’50s car show in the Twin Cities was going to do before it made a decision on its annual show.

“Theirs is two weeks after ours,” Haas said. In the end, the Shades board canceled its show first.

Canceling the show was a big decision, Haas and Peterson said. The show is also a club fundraiser, Peterson said.

Haas said it takes a good four weeks to get the plaques and the T-shirts ordered for the show.

Peterson added that Haas had already done a lot of preliminary work for the show before they decided to cancel.

Haas said the cruise has had as many as 200 vehicles participate.

“We’re hoping for a big showing,” he said.

The cruise will include a variety of cars, new and old, Haas said, from hot rods to street rods and rat rods.

Peterson said she and her husband have watched the cruise for many years, and she thought that she’d like to be a part of that, too.

And she has a favorite kind of car.

“I really like Mustangs, forever,” Peterson said.

Haas has a rat rod that is a 1938 Ford pickup.

“A good friend of mine helped me build it,” he said. The vehicle has an S-10 frame and a 350 motor and transmission, he said. “We have fun with it.”

“We get a lot of lookers and thumbs up, and it makes our day,” Haas added. He said he recently put a surfboard in the back.

Because of COVID-19, Peterson said they plan on practicing safe distancing with the cruise and hope spectators do the same.

Cruise route

• Left turn from Baseline Drive onto Susan Drive

• Right Turn onto Clarice Avenue

• Right onto Boyer Drive

• Right onto Highway 59

• Highway 59/Main Street through town to South Seventh Street

• Left onto South Seventh Street around the courthouse

• Left onto Sixth Street

• Right onto Highway 59/Main Street back through town

• Right onto Southview Drive (at Hy-Vee) to South Second Street

• Right onto South Second Street

• Right onto West College Drive/cross Main Street/continue on East College Drive

• Left onto O’Connell Street and a quick left onto Service Drive. Take service road to the Market Street entrance of East College Drive, turn right onto East College Drive back to Main Street

• Left onto Highway 59/East Main Street to Running’s parking lot