Believe it or not, there was a...

Believe it or not, there was a time when small boys did not enter the house going vroom vroom through the living room until they screeched to a stop in front of the refrigerator. Heck, no.

In fact, neigh, neigh held sway. In those olden days, small boys cantered into the house, galloped through the parlor and into the kitchen, where they pulled up in front of the icebox, whinnying and pawing the linoleum.

Those were the days when a mustang meant one thing: that small, hardy, wild or half-wild horse of the Western plains, a descendant of the horses imported by the Conquistadors.

And then came that fateful day in April, 1964, at the New York World’s Fair.

Restless crowds gathered around a shrouded object. (Could it be a car? But it’s too small!) The band crescendoed, drowning out the purr of the rotating platform. The veil was lifted. A red Ford Mustang convertible gleamed in the spotlight.

It was small. It was wild. And it cost $2,800.

“It was the first poor man’s sports car,” says Neal Polan, manager of Affordable Classics in Torrance. Polan is the leading sponsor of a classic-car show today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., held by the Pacific Mustang Club at Meadow Park Center, 22767 Hawthorne Blvd., between Sepulveda and Lomita boulevards in Torrance.

The World’s Fair introduction will be re-enacted. Between 75 and 100 classic Mustangs will be there, Polan said--some valued at $100,000 or more. Trophies in 21 categories will be awarded. Big men will become small boys again. There will be no admission charge.

Polan, 36, restored his first car when he was 15. He fell in love with his first Mustang in 1981. He was born in ‘55; the car was a shapely ’66 model. “It was small, economical; it was different,” he said. It became his vroommate. “I fixed it up to sell it. When I drove it around the streets, everybody asked, ‘Who did the work on your car?’ Before you knew it, I’d opened up my own business.”

Parts are still available for the old Mustangs, he says appreciatively. And driving one on the freeway, he says, “I get as much attention as if I’m driving a Ferrari.”