The piece on Tom and Ann Beuckens’ wall is as wide as a car: a bug screen, made with a metal frame, formed to fit the front of a 1957 Ford. “The screen came off of my Dad’s car,” Tom Beuckens says. “I’ve enjoyed having it on my wall but it’s time to bring it down and pass it on to someone else who will appreciate it.”

Beuckens garage collection is sure to please the crowd at the Minnewaska Classic Car Show, also taking place in Starbuck City Park on August 6. He has a collection of vintage wrenches—one with the Ford script forged across the handle. There are gas cans and vintage license plates. Most of the plates are from Minnesota: “There’s one from 1923, one with the Centennial dates of 1849-1949, and a three year one with 1918-1919-1920 stamped on the plate.”

The other half of Beuckens’ collection is rural and primitive: old barn doors, antique doorknobs (with mix-and-match plates and locks), weathered picket fences, vintage chicken feeders and watering cans, galvanized wash tubs, and steel grates formerly used to ventilate between floors before forced air systems. “I spent many hours sitting in front of those in the winter trying to heat up,” Beuckens says.

Beuckens’ collection also features several rare items. He has a cloth mat, about 10 inches wide, stretched inside a wood frame. Once part of a McCormick Deering grain thresher, “it’s a Conversation Piece now,” Beuckens says. He’s also bringing a crate of empty vintage pop bottles. “Some are really old brands: Bubble Up and Kickapoo Joy Juice.” The bottles feature their original labels and may contain one or two bubbles in the glass—a sign of their age and the times in which they were poured.