Published: July 04, 2009 09:15 pm      

WOW! Hundreds cruise Goshen during reunion

Event expected to break recent attendance record for First Fridays.

The number of people that showed up was beyond my expectations. I figured a lot of people would come, but I didn’t think it would be that many,” Kauffman said. “I overheard a little girl say ‘Momma, is everybody in Goshen down here?’ It almost seemed like they were.”

The mayor made one lap cruising, which he said took about 45 minutes.

“I don’t think that we want to bring back cruising every Friday night or every First Friday, but if it’s an annual event it might be OK,” Kauffman said. “I think if they do it again we may have to be more vigilant about watching for the squealing tires and loud mufflers and that sort of thing.”

Event organizer Don Riegsecker also noted the limited tire squealing.

“It made me a little bit nervous, but I think everybody was pretty well-behaved,” he said.

Riegsecker said if the event is held again, however, he would look for a new initial staging location, as there wasn’t enough room for all the cars that showed up. He was also surprised by the number of spectators the cars drew.

“I didn’t expect so many people to come out just to watch people cruise,” Riegsecker said.

According to Kauffman, June’s First Friday set a record for attendance at the event at around 2,000 people. Both he and Riegsecker said they believe the cruising crowd exceeded that record.

“That had to be the biggest First Friday ever, I would guess,” Riegsecker said.

He said the mayor poked fun at him while at the event.

“He told me ‘you did a good job, but how are you going to get them out of town?’” he said.

“I think there was a lot of pent-up demand for cruising,” Kauffman said, adding “It was fun to see all those old cars cruising up and down Main Street.”

Riegsecker echoed his sentiment.

“I was excited about it, I was happy. Everything turned out excellent,” he said.