Beltsville Shell Rules Of Engagement
What's the rules when you send the Beltsville shell over the world? Registered mail compulsory? To my experience ordinary letters tend to disappear, while registered ones don't.
Those are excellent questions
magnusk750. First of all, this all got started when I thought my friends here, being car guys in general, would enjoy reading
Beltsville Shell You Are What You Drive as much I did. It also gave a realistic glimpse into what it was like growing up as a teenager in the United Sates in the late 1950's to 1960's in our car culture at that time.
Turns out Mike Oberst read it and enjoyed it as much as I had and made a proposal. Why not, he suggested, send his personal copy around to those friends here who hadn't read it yet, but would like to read it. When they finished reading it, after signing the inside or back side covers...
...they in turn would send that same copy on to the next reader and so on. That was over 3 years ago and that same copy of
Beltsville Shell aka
BS 1.0, is still being passed around and enjoyed and has since literally traveled all over the world. About 1 1/2 years ago it went missing in the mail here in the USA and was thought to be lost but, as luck would have it, after several months it turned up in
New Zealand of all places. In case it ever was lost I had written contact information for myself in the book and eventually it came home, back the Center Of The Universe.
Since that time I have suggested it be mailed in a manner which is a little more secure...
...than just dropping it in with regular mail. I leave it up to each person's discretion as to how they choose to pack and mail it. Registered mail is an excellent way to better insure it not getting lost in the shuffle and isn't really that much additional expense.
So that's where we are with it today. It's showing some signs of travel and use but overall it is still in good condition. Author Cary Thomas...
...is intrigued with the concept that one copy of his book is circulating around the world, being enjoyed by his fans everywhere and those of us here at
The Restored 1930's Auto Shop. He is highly supportive of what we're doing. I email him occasionally to update him as to
BS 1.0's current status.
babaluba in Norway sent me this note after he had read it,
" Sincerely sorry for the delay, I have little excuse. But, to repent for my sins...
... I put together a small travel pouch for it. Sadly not at the level Thomas would have made it, I am sure, but the book is starting to look worn, so I thought it best if it could have some protection on its way around the world.
And also, the material I used is genuine Think City A306 (Norwegian electric car) seat upholstery fabric. I took a few rolls with me when they closed up after bankrupcy back in 2011. I thought it fitting, as a small piece of Norwegian automotive history to follow and protect this great book.
(Btw, the Think City was destined for production in Elkhart, Indiana as part of the US economy "revival" programs a few years back, and they actually even started small scale assembly before the company sadly went flat. So there you go, even a bit of modern american automotive history as well...
Prior to that...
... Jasper, aka,
Laro13 from the Netherlands had sent a 13 mm wrench to accompany it telling us,
"the 13mm gedore wrench is still there. It's one of the most used sizes in Europe." and
bazzateer sent along a book marker which he noted is
"The patch off my old uniform jacket is still there then, all the way from Scotland Yard!" There is also another book marker with it but I don't have a picture of it. Jasper the wrench will share a spot with the book once it comes back to the shop for good, but I didn't want to risk it getting lost so it's not being circulated with the book. Instead at present it's being displayed in the shop (and being used every so often
).
So that's how we have a book written about a group of cars guys in Beltsville Maryland that now is encased in genuine Norwegian electric car material along with a metric wrench from the Netherlands and a Metropolitan Police patch from Scotland Yard and accumulating more air miles than most businessmen.
Here's the current list and reading order for
BS 1.0:
-
63Nova - Illinois
-
Roscoe - Florida
-
Craptain - Florida
-
DRRummel - Maryland
-
bluestripe67 - Washington, DC
Then to Australia
-
Lyndon - Sydney, Australia
-
1/2 Cup - Shepparton. Victoria. Australia
-
VMX42 - location in Australia unknown at this time
-
Nursepeter1973 - Western Australia
Then to New Zealand
-
williamhamilton - Wairarapa, New Zealand
Once it returns from its 2nd New Zealand tour and all our Southern Hemisphere friends,
BS 1.0 will begin on its 3rd USA/Canadian tour starting with...
-
tkbowman - Burien, Washington
-
56vette461 - Northern California
-
jbmatth - Northern Oklahoma
If I've overlooked someone please send me PM to get on the list.
bluestripe67 - Dennis when you finish
BS I'd like you to mail back to me, I'll send you my address. I want to be the one to pack and ship it to
Lyndon in Australia. Everyone should contact the person in front and behind you on the list, send them a PM with mailing information just as we did in Europe and the UK. That all worked exceptionally well. Thanks everyone.
Next up, more shop projects!
Thomas
But the new owner tells me he's more than happy with the car and he promises to give it the same loving care I did. That was good news to me. I was afraid someone would buy it, then heavily modify it and just generally abuse it which seems to be the fate of some many of them. 
You know I wasn't an English major after all, just a poor, poor airline pilot!
