By Danielle Ray
Landmark Correspondent
RUTLAND — Meeting the “Back to the Future” cast was a dream come true for the Skeen family, whose obsession with movie cars led them to bring their DeLorean Time Machine replica to the 2018 Boston Comic Con, where the meeting took place.
Leah Thompson, Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, and other actors from the well-known 1980s movie series signed the dashboard of the 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 for which the Skeen family began to hunt eight years ago before finally acquiring it in Pittsburgh.
“It was a long, exhausting process, but well worth it,” said Sherry Skeen, who was born and raised in the area and grew up on Quinapoxet Street in Jefferson. “It took us five years to collect the parts because most of the Time Machine was built out of World War II aircraft and antique electrical parts. They have become extremely hard to find.”
Sherry introduced their DeLorean on social media with a May 4 post that featured a photo of the beauty.
“Towing this iconic time machine through Rutland right now! Say hello to Rutland’s newest addition! Isn’t she beautiful?! We are on our way to our 1st comic con! Please feel free to reach out to me for any event rental interest,” she penned.
The DeLorean was made famous through the “Back to the Future” film trilogy franchise that launched in 1985. The movies follow the adventures of a high school student Marty McFly, who travels back and forth in time in the DeLorean owned by the scientist who helps him, Doc Brown.
“The car gets great attention and draws a huge crowd wherever it goes,” Sherry said. “It consistently ties up traffic on the highway, so we definitely have to be careful. We also have to be mindful not to stay parked too long, as it turns any place into a huge event.”
Sherry lived in Holden for several years with her family, which includes her husband, Brian, and their three sons — Logan, 13, Devin, 9, and Donovan, 5 — and for the past five years they have called Rutland home.
“My family has been here for generations,” Sherry said of her strong ties to the Wachusett district. “My stepdad, who died a few years ago and with whom I was quite close, was born and raised here. My mom and I moved to Rutland over 20 years ago when they got married.”
She and her husband first got interested in owning movie cars 14 years ago.
“Growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, we were big fans of amazing movies like ‘Back to the Future,’ ‘Ghostbusters,’ ‘Batman’ with Michael Keaton, and TV shows like ‘Knight Rider’ and ‘The A-Team,’” Sherry said. “After sharing these shows with our three sons … we thought it would be really fun to share the real thing with them and others. My husband thought the idea of picking up our sons from school in a 20-foot Batmobile would be epic.”
Since then, they have accumulated quite the collection. Their first vehicle was a 1977 black Trans Am a la “Smokey and the Bandit.”
“My husband grew up down the street from the famous Burt Reynolds, aka the Bandit,” Sherry shared. “This spurred our first movie car.”
Next was the DeLorean, now a perfect replica of the Time Machine from “Back to the Future,” and then they added “a world-famous race car from the epic Will Ferrell movie ‘Talladega Nights’,” Sherry said.
“It is the screen-used Wonder Bread car driven by the one and only Ricky Bobby,” she said of the race card driver lead character Ferrell plays in the movie. “It was found and shipped to us from Talladega, Alabama. Shake N Bake!”
They are also restoring a screen-accurate KITT from the popular 1980s television show “Knight Rider” starring David Hasselhoff, and have acquired the original molds from world-famous car designer George Barris, who made KITT for the show.
“We were fortunate to get voice actor William Daniels to record personalized phrases for KITT to use when talking to our family,” Sherry said, conveying the lengths they go to in order to make sure their vehicles are as accurately replicated as possible.
“For fun,” she said, they have added a couple 1966 Amphicars to their collection, cars that are famous at Disney Springs in Orlando, Florida, and quipped that people should “be on the lookout for out-of-control cars splashing down in nearby lakes.”
And, sure enough, they are making the Batmobile happen. Sherry said they are building “two more iconic superstar cars,” the 1989 Batmobile and the 1959 Cadillac Ambulance, aka Ecto-1, made famous in the 1984 “Ghostbusters” movie and subsequent films starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson.
“We’re hoping to have these cars gracing the highways this fall,” she said of their latest vehicles.
She said her boys made the 6 o’clock news dressed as “Back to the Future” characters at that 2018 Comic Con, and that they originally bought the DeLorean “to bring awareness to our small family business, Mass Hearing Specialists.”
“We thought it was a fun idea to imagine a time without hearing loss,” said Sherry, whose role is patient care coordinator. “Our patients have enjoyed the build and the journey over the last six years, and we’re all really excited to share the finished car with everyone.”
She said people are welcome to contact them to rent their vehicles for special events, and can contact her via email at sskeen@masshearing.com or 508-21-6576 if interested. Besides offering that and their own enjoyment, Sherry said the family has allowed other great causes, such as The Windham Middle School in Maine, to use the DeLorean “for their fight against opioid overdose awareness program.”
“They had the entire school watch ‘Back to the Future’ and did their take on a future without an opioid crisis,” Sherry said. “It had a huge turnout and was very successful.”
When asked what they enjoy most about the response to their fun and iconic vehicles, Sherry said that they “love that the community really appreciates the hard work and dedication that goes into these cars.”
“The way it brings everyone together to share in the love and passion of such epic movies and characters is amazing,” she said. “Parents and kids being able to relate with one another over these iconic cars is awe-inspiring. We have been very blessed and fortunate to meet so many wonderful people and families that we now call friends. Who would have thought that my husband’s love of odd cars would allow us to share so many smiles and wonderful memories with so many people.”
