Monday, May 11, 2009

Mothers Day....Out

Friday morning I was stressing over the weather guessers premonitions about rain and didn’t make my decision till 10Am on if I would go to Locust Grove MS to share my “hot rod” heritage and the RedRat with Rick Schafer’s students. I had been dodging rain for a few weeks now and had been lucky I thought I could make it between rain cells so I called Rick and told him I would be there at 1:30. After I parked and set up the RedRat like I was at a show or cruise I waited for the students to come out. I had been working on a script to make sure I didn’t forget anything this time. I was glad when I saw the students coming out and one of them had a stool for me to use, I have my “Chester” imitation down pretty good by now! grin! Before I got to go into my rehearsed presentation Rick started by telling them how hot rodding got started and more. I was ticking off the things on my list that I was going to say and figuring how/when I was going to jump into my deal.. .. Soooo I think I got everything said that I wanted to but I’m not sure. Next time I’ll go over my script with Rick first. We also need to pick a different place to hold the event as there is a generator for the whole school right next to where I parked, and given my poor hearing and some of the students soft voices I was having trouble hearing the questions. Kaizen, always improving.. ..next time will be better. The students seemed to enjoy our time together and they liked the RedRat. As before the students were very respectful of the car and of me. At least I could answer all the questions.. ..I felt good! A few of the students wanted me to do some burnouts.. ..I declined. Then one said how about the sign inside my trunk? He would buy me a hamburger if I did a burn out.. ..it was tempting! But since I wanted to be invited back I thought it was better if I declined and besides my clutch ankle is not healed yet and I really don’t have the clutch control I need to be safe. The weather was cooperating but the sky was beginning to look blacker so I left around 2:30 and just knew I was going to get wet before I got home.. ..I didn’t though! Next time I need to get more people to go with me.. ..it is a neat experience for the students AND me. I know other hot rodders would like to assist too.. ..I’ll have to work on that.

Friday evening The Princess and I braved the ominous clouds and got to VA BBQ in time to get our “preferred” parking spot! The Princess so likes “her” parking spot. And since it was our 44th wedding anniversary on that day I thought I would treat her to a gastronomicalextravaganza with dinner at VA BBQ! I know I know whatta guy, it’s just who I am! There was a nice 55/56 red T-bird that left early and Jim brought the Rotten Peach out to share. I don’t know what the Princess did to Pete and his orange Camaro but those two were jabbing each other all night. While we were dinning, Jim with the black/blue Malibu caught up with us and he shared how the guys at A1 had been helping him with the bling improvements to his Chevy.. ..He doesn’t even have to use a hood stick now! hehehehe Check out the electronics in his car as well as the new Underwood interior.. ..it’s first class! Jim wants to start a cruise on Sunday afternoon, more about this next time. Special Ed and Carolyn showed up with their orange ’39 and as usual the folks were wowed with it! They won peoples choice but they had left early so they didn’t get it, too bad, grin Most of the usual suspects were there too but as the sky started to look bad Ron called the evening before everyone left. A good evening cruise.

Saturday morning and the weather looked good so we drove to Bob Evans for breakfast and met Andrew and Dan & Ramona who were going to the Falls Church show with us. We left around 8:15 and made the trek to Falls Church.. ..I really don’t like to go up north for anything.. ..I worked up there for over 30 years and I can’t seem to go anywhere there without remembering some bad customers or something else negative.. ..it’s like going back to prison! Yeah I’ll take some more beatings.. ..Oh yeah!
We arrive at the Falls Church HS show and parked under the trees.. ..so we would be in the shade all day and wouldn’t have to put up the canopies. Andrew parked in the wrong place and the Princess & the Queen scutched him about it till he agreed that he could have parked in a different place.. ..but he didn’t move.. ..Way to go Andrew!
There were about 50 cars in total and this year the “tuners” parked up front with the rest of the cars.. ..which I liked. I never liked the two different generations separated.. ..they are the new “hot rods” and we should all be displayed together.. ..heck even the jeeps were displayed with the rest of the normal cars.. ..grin! The orange Lotus was a unique piece and the dual turbo Z car was special too. I liked the Ford Econoline PU, you don’t see many of them anymore. There were four Vettes there but I liked the black 60’s on the best. The old motorcycle, a BSA I think, was chopped and looked like fun. Pete brought his 428 Mustang to represent the blue oval and the Stangs and Fangs Car Club. The Cosworth Vega is a very unusual piece, check out the pictures. And the Jeeps could never quite get up on the roll back; they always almost fell of the right side.. ..what’s up with that? The Princess got a plaque.. ..first place in hot rod class.. ..and she won’t let me forget that I got second place in hot rod.. ..she is going to very hard to live with for a while I think.. .. .. Les & Peggy, Pete and Andrew got plaques too with Dan & Ramona getting best of show, what a deal! The show is usually supported by a local car club but 50 cars isn’t bad without their support! And the show proceeds go to augment the HS auto shop, a very worthwhile cause.

We saddled up and drove south, hooray, and headed for the Foster’s Grille on Rt. 17 with the VA Stockers cruise that was in progress. Jerry’s very special green/black Willys was there along with Ed’s special orange ’39. Ed showed us his new trunk prop, nice Ed.. ..very special !!!! JV came in his car with no doors and Jim & Linda finally came out to play with their blue ’08 Vette. Bad-to-the-bone Bill was there along with Dave and the rest of the VA Stockers. I really like the black ’57 Ford, in fact some pictures I took last year have been viewed literally all over the world, and I have received favorable comments about it from Sweden and other countries in Europe and Asia! We ate dinner at Foster’s and went back outside to visit a while till the pollen overcame some of us and we headed for home and a two hour shower! It was a long day but friends make it fun! Memories!

Sunday we met at Bob Evans again and after some saturated fat encrusted food we left for the Fredericksburg Street Rods annual Mothers Day show at Walker Grant MS. This event benefits the Special Needs department at that school. In this time of budget cuts all the additional assistance any school can get will be much appreciated and needed! Help when you can. Some of the past shows here have been plagued with bad weather.. .. Not today! The weather was as perfect as anyone could ask for. Sunny, breezy and temps in the 70’s.. ..perfect!
There were over 170 cars entered this year and they ran from Jerry’s black/green Willys to some traditional machines and everything in between. Please review the pictures I posted on the Webshots site; http://rides.webshots.com/album/571958663UCFCla
I liked the orange ’57 Ford, the red ’32 Ford Vicky, Tooties white ’57 Olds, the red ’59 Impala and, and, and.. ..It’s a good thing I don’t have J. Leno’s money.. ..hmmmmmmm He does own a Shotwell car.. ..maybe.. .. There are always cars that I don’t see anywhere else so it’s a show that I like to attend. Chuck and Cindy came up from Mechanicsville with some of their friends to attend, yeah the red car looked lonely Chuck. Tom and his ’55 Vicky won a trophy along with fellow Culpeper Cruisers, Tony and Beth in their Vettes. Dan & Ramona won with the Piggy Express, again! Ed won again again again again..hehehehe. Dave with his red Ford PU won a trophy and fellow VA Stocker, Jerry won best of show with his green/black Willys. Mark won a trophy with his orange ’73 Camaro.. ..now if he could just find someone to help with his paint.. ..grin DJ Ron won a trophy with his Camaro and I thought he might lift the front wheels during his victory lap, watch the video. The Princess says she doesn’t understand why she can’t win every year.. ..she is THE Princess after all? Stafford Classics won the club participation award, I think we had 12 club members.. ..out of 160 registered members, at a local show? What’s up with that? The show had adult games, kids games, Flowers for Mothers and really good BBQ. There were other vendors too like funnel cones! yum

This show is one of the best organized and executed shows that the Princess and I attend during the year. The Fredericksburg Street Rodders work all year to make this show what it has become in 19 years and their efforts culminate in this show. If you had the misfortune of missing it this year you need to fix that for next year. Bring MOM to the show! Buy MOM a hot rod to drive too! grin Memories are made of this!

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