I hope everyone had a great weekend. I'm not gonna lie, I got absolutely nothing accomplished this past weekend, other than a bit of reflecting and maybe even realizing I have a little regret.
I was contacted a few weeks ago about the Stag's Car Club's open house/car show on Saturday. The Stag's Car Club is a local car club that was established back around late 50's, 1957 if memory serves. I was a member of the Stag's in the early 90's, around 1990-1995 while I was building our 1940 Chev coupe. I was young and was just building my first "hot rod" from the ground up. There were a couple of club members that were decent to me, but being young and not driving anything "cool" at the time I was kind of pushed by the wayside and not really welcomed into the club the way I had hoped nor allowed to work on the club's race car. I stood by and figured I had to buy my time while learning and figuring out where I fit in the group, but in 1995 when I finished my street rod and it was a hit I realized that many of these same guys who didn't give me the time of day now all of a sudden started wanting things from me, and of course something for nothing, so I left the club and sought out another local club that seemed to be a bit more family oriented. I also left that club around 2002 as well when I completely stepped away from the local car scene altogether.
All that being said, back in late 2016 when the wife and I were buying our forever home and getting ready to build my dream shop, we were buying some new flooring from a local flooring store where we had purchased hardwood and carpet for our last home. I was talking to the guy arranging installation and I had asked him if he knew any good house painters as we wanted to have the house painted before flooring was done and before moving in. He gave me a name, and I realized it was a gentleman from the Stag's Car Club whom I had known many years prior, he and his son had a house painting business. I called him and he came out to give me an estimate where he recognized me immediately and we hit it off, again.
Fast forward and he has reached out to me each summer to let me know about the club's open house and when he called this year I actually said I might take him up on it. Well, I had forgotten all about it until Friday evening when I was home mowing my lawn and my cousin called to see if I was planning on going to the Stag's Car Club's open house the next morning. He is a member of the Beehive A's Car Club and his club was planning on showing a presence there. I looked at the car under the cover and thought, well, maybe I'll just take the Jeep over for a couple of hours. The wife had a luncheon with a friend on Saturday, so she told me I should go.
Saturday morning rather than taking the Jeep, I pulled the cover off the Camaro, gave it a dusting and wipe down, thinking that maybe we'd go for a drive in the car afterwards. I told her I wasn't going to be long and just go for an hour or two. Well, I ended up being there a lot longer than I expected.
Car shined up as departing.
I got there a half hour early and was shocked at how many vehicles were there already.
I heard later in the day that the count had exceeded 400 cars.
This immaculate old '78 K20 caught my eye and I had to snap a picture for my son.
This clean Tudor belongs to a friend of my cousin. He actually purchased my engine hoist last year as well.
This was a unique build.
Can you count the spark plugs?
My cousin's 1927 touring sedan and his wife's 1929 Model A pickup were front and center at their club's display.
My cousin bought this in boxes back in the late 90's. He insisted in keeping it original. He and his dad, my uncle who got my wife and I involved in RV's did all of the work. I did a little welding on some cast iron parts and machined a few shafts and bores for seals in the powertrain as well.
My uncle did most all of the sheet metal work and my cousin painted it. I think it was 2005 when my cousin completed it because he mentioned he was able to give his wife one ride in it just before she passed away from cancer.
This is the club's race car that they have raced for several decades now. It was white with purple flames in the early 90's when I was a member.
I was kind of surprised at how many people I recognized as well as hearing of how many had passed or were in poor health. Several I recognized them, but couldn't remember their names and more than I expected remembered me. It was nice to visit with them, but for the most part I didn't do much but stand back and observe more than anything. I find myself much more of an observer these days in groups rather than participating in the discussions, so it was interesting to stand back and make some observations.
One thing really struck me and gave me reason to pause. The one thing that really bothered me all those years ago at car shows was the same people coming up to me and telling me the same stories of their past and telling me that they would have done things differently on my car that what I did. After listening to that for several years I got fed up with it and walked away in 2002. However, watching and listening to people now, it finally hit me. These people are reminiscing of days gone by and keeping memories alive by telling their stories. It hit me like a brick. I listened to my cousin tell stories to people that I have heard at least a dozen times and I'm sure many of them had heard these stories already as well, but they politely stood there and listened to each and every one.
I decided to sit over with the Beehive A's as they had shade, and it was over 100-degrees on Saturday. I have done some work for several guys from my cousin's car club so I knew a few of them and they were a welcoming group of people. As my cousin introduced me to people, some knew me, some knew of me and others were happy to meet me. I have not participated in a car show in nearly 25 year so I was very anxious about going, but this group made me feel right at home.
As I was sitting in the background and trying to stay cool, several members from the Stag's came up to me and said hello. I had a guy make a comment about he thought I had packed up and left the state. Another said he wondered where I disappeared to. When we walked up the food wagon to grab a hot dog, I was with about a half dozen guys from my cousin's club and one of the Stag's members whom I remembered well from the early 90's came right up to me and said he "thought I fell off the face of the earth".
After visiting with him for about 10-minutes and walking back to the shade, my cousin asked me what these people meant by disappearing and falling off the face of the earth. I told my cousin that when I left the local car scene, I completely walked away and didn't look back.
I had built the yellow 1936 that I've shown in my thread previously for a local gentleman who owned a business in Ogden. He is the gentleman who recently passed away a few months back. He came to me shortly after our street rod came out in Street Rodder magazine and asked that I build his car, which I agreed to, and it entered my shop in mid-1997 when I first obtained my business license. I completed that car in early 2000 so he could hit the local car show circuit throughout 2000. His was the first street rod I built completely from the frame up once I got my business license in 1997. After completing his street rod, he had me do some smaller odds & ends and then quite a bit of work on his 1957 Bel Air around late 2001 and early 2002 where we put a crate 502 and Tremec 6-speed in it, along with some chassis work. I had fabricated some motor mounts, transmission mounts, modified clutch pedal and added a hydraulic clutch for him. I remember him coming to me again in late summer of 2002 asking me to do another build that he was bouncing around in his head, but I had just lost my dad in July of 2002 and was wanting to get more into the sand toys. I remember telling him I was walking away from cars and focusing on sand toys and bikes at the time and that was when I completely walked away from the car scene.
I thought the sand toys were something that we as a family would continue to embrace for many, many years to come and I thought by shifting attention that direction would allow me to focus more specifically on sand quads and sand rails. Unfortunately, when my son got tired of sand toys and wanted to shift gears into Jeeps when he acquired his driver's license, we ended up getting completely out of the sand toys as well. In 2012 we sold everything sand related.
Upon doing some reflecting over the weekend, I think I may have made a mistake and although I'm not one for regrets, I think regret is the best way to describe the feeling I am having.
