It’s hard to imagine how many millions of miles of highway travel were represented in Clifford, Ont., this past weekend.

Something north of 325 trucks gathered on the Rotary Park fairgrounds for the Clifford Truck Show on Canada Day weekend. Many, if not most, of them have more than a million miles on the clock. They deserve their day in the sun.

As did their owners. They spend countless hours scouring eBay and various salvage yards for increasingly hard-to-find parts for those old machines. But each year, they get out the polish and the wax and get the trucks spruced up for the Clifford Truck Show.

It’s more than a ritual or a chore. You could measure the pride these owners have for their trucks by the miles on the clock, times three.  

For me, a trip to Clifford is more than a trip down memory lane. It’s a bit of a pilgrimage. Over the course of my driving career — 1978-1998 — I had driven copies of many of the trucks at the show. It’s like old-home week with a bunch of old friends.

This was the 14th edition of the Clifford Truck Show, organized by The Great Lakes Truck Club, and somehow each year a few more first-timers show up with a piece of trucking history. It’s not that they’re making more of these things, but more people are hearing about the show and bringing their trucks for all to see.

“It’s really important that we get more young people out to the show, and frankly, interested in our industry,” said founder and organizer, Chris Hall. “There’s a lot of agriculture and livestock trucking in the Clifford area and trucking is still very much a part of the culture. It seems to be slipping elsewhere, but shows like this one are bringing young people in from all over the province.”

The show is tilted heavily to trucks 20-25 years old or older, but a few young’uns manage to sneak under the wire. They gather in the back row, waiting for their day up front.

They’ll get their day in the sun eventually, as we tear more pages off the calendar with each passing year.

Hall said he was very happy with this year’s turn out, despite the iffy weather. Friday was fabulous and the light show Friday night against the clear blue sky produced some fabulous photos. You can check those out here, along with tons of other participants’ shots from the show.

The show begins on the Friday of Canada Day weekend. The aforementioned light show is on Friday night and the Firefighter’s breakfast on Saturday morning. If you want to see all the trucks in all their glory, it’s best to arrive Friday and plan to camp out.

Clifford is located due north of Kitchener, about a 90-minute drive from Toronto or Barrie, and about 3.5 hours northeast of Detroit.

It’s a great couple of days if you’re into old trucks or long to feel the spirit that once drove this industry. If you remember the sparkly plastic custom gearshift knobs, wig-wags, stinky Christmas trees or trucks with no front brakes, the Clifford Truck Show is an event you don’t want to miss.

And the French fries are great too.

Mark your calendars, next year’s show is Friday and Saturday, June 27-28.