A mere 46 years ago, Charmetta Mann of Clayton purchased a used black, two-door 1957 Chevrolet Nomad station wagon from a local family for $600. She knows the date of Sept. 19, 1964, well because it was her mother’s 51st birthday.

Seems it was a pretty astute purchase, as she is still driving the car today. You can see the Nomad parked in front of the Clayton Museum every Wednesday night until Sept. 15 as part of the fifth annual Clayton Classic Car exhibit at the museum.

This year’s presentation, Classics of the Road and of the Heart, was coordinated by assistant curator Renee Wing and new museum volunteer Debbie Musante. The museum’s summer hours are 2-4 p.m. Sundays and Wednesdays plus 6-8 p.m. Wednesdays to coincide with the weekly Main Street Car Show coordinated by Skipolini’s.

Elvis is in the building.

Museum curator Mary Spryer explains that a student docent, Brad Shackleton, thought of the car exhibit five years ago when he was in sixth grade and Spryer asked him for ideas for interesting exhibits.

“Every summer since then, we have had a Clayton’s Classic Cars exhibit. Fortunately, we have had numerous people who have collections related to cars, pictures of old cars, old cars themselves or friends with collections and/or old cars so each year’s exhibit has had a different, fresh look.”

This year’s exhibit includes vintage gas station, drive-in restaurant and road signs, license plates, photos, owner’s manuals and the perennial life-size cutout of James Dean, who represents a bygone era of cars and the road in California. This year, there’s also a collection of Elvis Presley miniatures and plates from the Mann family.

Charmetta Mann is part of the Clayton pioneering Frank family, which has lived in the same house in Clayton for 137 years. She recalls when “the Concord cruise was Salvio Street and Willow Pass Road. The kids generally ended up in the parking lot of Rick’s Drive-in, owned by my father, Charlie Mann.”

Other drive-ins in the area were A&W Root Beer (now Hunan Restaurant) on Clayton Road and Market Street and Chaps in Concord. “From 1957 until 1971, I was the night fry cook at Rick’s. I could make it from my home on Pine Hollow Road in Clayton to 2350 Salvio St. in five minutes flat,” she says. “The speed limit on the two-lane Clayton Road was 65 mph with no stop signs all the way to Concord!”

Pit stops were easy in Clayton.

In light of the hue and cry when a gas station was proposed on the current site of CVS/pharmacy, Charmetta has contrasting memories of Clayton. “There was a time when gas pumps were as common as eucalyptus trees in Clayton. Originally, there was a grocery store where Skip’s is now. The Rhine Store, owned by Charles Rhine, was sold to Hans Rasmussen and became the first Clayton Cash Store. It sported a Red Crown gas pump in front,” she reports. “At Pa Rasmussen’s second Clayton Cash Store, now Cup o’ Jo’s, there was a Shell pump. The pump in front of the Growler, now Moresi’s, was another Shell. In the 1950s, there was a Union 76 pump at Thelma’s Village Grocery, now TLC Pet Grooming.”

According to Spryer, most of the porcelain gas signs in the museum exhibit are from the collection of Bob and Eldora Hoyer, who loan different signs every year. The “Merchant’s Lunch 85 cents” sign is from Charmetta’s dad’s Rick’s Drive-in.

A model of the Chevy Nomad is part of the museum exhibit, but the real thing is available for inspection every Wednesday right in front – with its owner there to spin her stories. The Nomad gets 12 miles to the gallon around town.

A couple years ago, Charmetta was at a Historical Society picnic when she began talking to a family from Concord at the trail grounds. Turns out they sold her the Nomad. They had purchased the car new for about $3,100 in October 1956. Mann’s mother, Willmetta, now 97, thought her daughter was silly for buying “that old car” eight years later. “It’s the only car I’ve ever owned,” she says with a smile.

On the rare occasion when she needs parts, Mann has her mechanic try to obtain original parts. “Original parts are much better,” she says. Her biggest repair was a new transmission when the car was 52 years old.

Museum a link to Clayton’s past.

In addition to rotating exhibits in the dining room, the museum has several permanent exhibits. The next rotating exhibit, A Stitch in Time ... Sewing Notions from the Sewing Basket of Kathleen Calhan, begins Sept. 19 and runs through the end of the year. Calhan is married to Charles Calhan, Joel Clayton’s great grandson.

The building that houses the museum is thought to be Joel Clayton’s second home in Clayton. “We always say ‘thought to be’ because there’s no paperwork to prove it,” Spryer says. “It was originally on his property located where the parking lot for the library is currently. It was moved closer to the Keller house (across the bridge) in the early 1900s by the Keller family, who bought some of Joel Clayton’s land after his death, and was moved to its current location on Main Street in 1976 as part of the city of Clayton’s bicentennial project.”

The museum is actually made up of two houses; the rear house was originally on Oak Street and believed to be built roughly the same time as the front house. They were both brought to the Main Street location in 1976.

The museum was cleaned, stripped, repaired, painted and wall-papered by volunteers for over two years, then was dedicated in December 1978 and opened to the public the next month.

The Clayton Museum is at 6101 Main St. For more information, call 672-0240 or visit claytonhistory.org.