Fernbank Park Saw Plenty Of Pontiacs At Rollin' On the River

In 1977 an action comedy featuring Burt Reynolds, Sally Fields, Jackie Gleason, and country music star Jerry Reed was released and sent people not only to the theater but also to Pontiac dealers. Smokey and the Bandit was the story of a trucker (Reed) and his "point man" (Reynolds) who happens to pick up a lovely runaway bride (Fields) who are smuggling, of all things, Coors beer (yes, there was a time when Coors was not sold east of the Mississippi). They were being chased by the "evil" sheriff (Gleason) who was best described as persistent. While Reed drove the 18 wheeler, Reynolds and Fields out smarted and out ran the law in a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. And that is what people wanted. The Trans Am was introduced in 1964 but it was the 1977 Firebird trim model that grabbed the nation's attention. On hand for the 33rd Annual Rollin' On the River show at Fernbank Park was a very nice 1981 version of that car. There were also other Pontiacs on hand including a GTO, a Trans Am, one of the last generation Trans Ams, a TR 6.6 Trans Am, a Firebird convertible and a Firebird hard top.