STANFIELD — Jeff Bemrose still owns the car he built with his dad back in high school. Over their four years working together on the 1941 Ford Coupe, he found his passion for the classics. Today, however, he’s still fixing the mistakes he made as a teenager.

“I’m still paying for my father’s sins, I guess,” said Bemrose, a member of the Hermiston Classic Car Club.

Standing beside rows of 87 classic cars at the Stanfield Street Fair on Saturday, April 17, Bemrose echoed a sentiment held among many locals.

“People have been itching to get out,” he said.

Recently, Cecili Longhorn, director of the Stanfield Public Library, contacted Bemrose and the car club to help put on the first-of-its-kind street fair, which saw hundreds of people gather in downtown Stanfield for the community’s first major public event for over a year, organizers said.

Owners brought their vehicles from across Eastern Oregon and Southeast Washington for display at the “Show and Shine” event. Bemrose said it was clear that people were eager to get out, with some showing up in the early hours of the morning.

“I think it’s been helping a lot of people,” he said of the event. “People love taking their cars out, and they’ve been really cooped up, so this has been really helpful to a lot of people.”

Vendors at the event served hot dogs, hamburgers, kettle corn and other delicious treats while live bands on the front steps of the library played classic rock, blues and bebop, giving the sunny spring day a feeling of normalcy — which for many had been missing.

“I’m impressed,” said Longhorn, who helped organize the event with Stanfield Parks and Recreation. “I’m super excited about the turnout. It confirms in my mind how much people are ready to have a little sunshine and happiness, and see the good things we’re missing out on.”

Looking out on the groups of people meandering into shops along Main Street, Longhorn spoke optimistically about her hopes for the community of small businesses rebounding after months of hardship.

“That’s the goal is to help our local community see what we have,” she said. “Just because we’re small doesn’t mean we can’t offer fun things.”

Kathy Baker, a lifelong Stanfield resident and owner of Fun Fashions Boutique in downtown, said that many customers from out of town had waltzed through the store throughout the day, as well as some local residents who hadn’t even known the store was there.

“It’s huge,” she said of the event. “It helps us as a small community. It brings people into our community.”

Baker added that she hopes events like the fair bring notoriety to local businesses after the closures brought by COVID-19.

“Stanfield just doesn’t get recognized for some reason,” she said. “I don’t know why. We have, like, 10,000 cars come through here on (Highway 395). It’s crazy.”

A block from the clothing store, dozens of residents lounged in the sunshine throughout the day over meals at the Broken Barrel, a bar and grill serving classic pub food like sandwiches and wraps, as well as burgers with titles like “Trust me” and “Let’s go nuts!”

Martha McClusky, the restaurant owner, said she hopes the fair is held every year. Several other attendees said the same.

“It’s so nice to see people out and moving and being in the sunshine,” she said, adding she was glad to see regular customers returning to the restaurant. “There’s a lot of new people and faces we haven’t seen for so long. There was almost a full year there where people weren’t able to come in and see us.”

McClusky said the street fair is a great example of how Stanfield is continuing to grow.

“This is just making my heart happy to see events happening here,” she said. “I hope that we see many more of these events added to bring our community closer together and get to know our neighbors.”