Janet Ricketts

Dear 37Chevy,<P>If you want to find out if you won an award at Hershey you have a couple of options.<P>1. Call national headquarters - the results was turned in on Sunday.<P>2. Better yet, email VP Class Judging, Joe Vicini. You can get his email address from the AACA homepage - click on national directors and then click on email addresses.<BR>When you click on Joe's address, it will open an email window with his address already entered.<P>

Peter,<P>Many thanks for the advance maps and schedule for Hershey - great job!!!!!!!!!!!

I believe the Glidden Tour is in Flordia in 2002 hosted by the VMCCA.<P>I am positive the Glidden Tour in 2003 hosted by AACA will be held in Huntsville, AL.

Peter, if it wasn't for your vision many years ago, AACA would not be where it is today. Ways to communication with our members and others in the hobby are the most valuable tools we possess. The AACA website and this forum is priceless.<P>Our hats off to you, Peter!

John and I were on the AACA Vintage Tour on the morning of September 11th. We started out that day having listened to the news on television before we left, everything was normal at 8:00am. We were passengers with Jim Raines in his 1912 Overland. We drove for about two hours and were the first tourists to make our way to the small town of Jim Thorpe that morning. When we arrived the town was deserted – no cars or people on the streets.<P>After we started to walk through the town it wasn’t long before people were screaming for us to get off the street, and asking, "What were we doing out on the street?" People were excited and started to again scream, "Don’t you know, we are under attack?” They must have thought we were out of our mines when we told them we had no idea what they were talking about. We shared with them that we were on an antique car tour without a radio in our vehicle. One lady shouted the United States is under attack and proceeded to invite us into her home to watch the news. We couldn’t believe what we saw and heard. After we watched the news for quite awhile, we walked down to the parking lot where by this time other old cars had arrived. We really didn’t know what to do. Should you go on and enjoy the day and the tour that was planned for us? We forced ourselves to have a good time mixed with guilty feelings. At least on Wednesday morning one of the tourists had the foresight to go out and buy a bunch of American flags for each of the cars on the tour. It was a great feeling to show our colors and support for this great country.<P>We were determined not to become prisoners in our country. After the week long tour, John and I flew home from PA back to Florida on Saturday. I was nervous about flying, but I was determined that whoever was responsible for this was not going to control us. We cannot let these animals destroy our freedom in this country. We must go on the best we can. Like they said on the news, go out and support this country’s economy – lead as normal a life as possible.<BR>If you were going to buy a car - do it; if you were going to buy a washing machine - do it; if you were going to go to dinner - go.<P>We had a brother-in-law in the city that morning who witnessed the second tower collapsing. He was very fortunate to make it out of the city by train. (Hard to believe he could get a train out). We also had several friends working in the city who are all accounted for and in good health.<P>Our prayers are with those who lost their lives, those missing and unidentified, all the rescue people involved, families and friends personally touched by this disaster, and to all Americans and our friends around the world. <P>A special prayer goes out to Sal’s brother and Terry’s son. GOD BLESS AMERICA!<P>Thank you for letting me share with you.<p>[ 09-16-2001: Message edited by: Janet Ricketts ]

Novaman,<P>I hope you haven't told dad that he needs to stay home.

Novaman,<P>You wore me out just reading your reply to my question. It is too hi tech for me!<P>Glad to hear you are ready to go on another tour. Hopefully, it will be without any major problems.

Novaman,<P>Now wait a minute! Some participants might have thought some of the days on the tour were long, but that has nothing to do with you getting to bed after midnight.'<P>What were you doing between 5:00PM and midnight?<P>

You haven't tasted anything until you experience a KK right out of the oven!<BR> Right, Howard.

Novaman,<P>Great coverage of the tour!!!<P><BR>

Novaman,<P>Howard was seen eating KKs in the parking lot!!!!! I went to KK twice with Howard; I am witness to him purchasing at least 4 dozen KKs. In fact, we all were lucky to get free KKs right out of the oven! Howard, didn't suffer during the tour.<BR>

Peter,<P>Yes, I have been following this thread. I agree, car values should be left up to those in that type of business.<P>I like the changes you made with the links added and the statement that these sites are in no way affiliated or endorsed by AACA.<P>This thread has proven to be very effective.<P>JR

Congratulations to novaman for having the foresight to check the agenda in order to arrive at a time to meet.<P> <BR>Janet

novaman,<P>Just to let you know that President Doug is hosting a get-together for directors and past presidents of AACA on Wednesday evening - yes, I know Dan, this is normally Buzzy meeting night.<P>Janet

Al,<P>The tour went off as planned. I haven't heard about any problems, but I can't speak first hand since I wasn't on the tour. I am sure Ron or someone else on the tour will respond to your question.<P>Retire!!!!!!!!!<P>Janet

Bruce, HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!<P>40 was a surprise to me, since I was 38 for two years. I didn't think much about turning 50. The only thing I have noticed is that most women over 50 do not have grey hair. I seem to be the only one with grey hair; so, today I did something about it. <P>Howard, who were you trying to kid, I knew you would be back and I am glad.<P>Janet

As far as I know, Sandy does not have an e-mail address.<P>John and I wish them well and can't wait for their return to AACA.<P>Janet R.

I became involved in AACA like many other members - we were invited to a region meeting by good friends of ours. Previously, we belonged to the Buick Club of America.<P>JR

MY first car was ugly - my father picked it out - it belonged to a friend of his. It was a 1959 Plymouth Fury, 4 door sedan, two tone green. It had push buttons to change gears; it took me less than a year to kill the transmission, which was a blessing because I went out and picked out my next car, a new 1964 1/2 Mustang coupe.<P>Janet R.

Dear Rod and Al,<P>You are right Rod, right now the cars in the new classes are restrictive. We knew we wanted to recognize these vehicles with a lot of them eligible for judging now and hopefully, attract younger members. You have to walk before you can run. Other vehicles can be added to the current list as long as they fit the original intent of ?factory high performance vehicles.? Perhaps we should have broaden the eligibility from the start, but this is an idea that has been kicked around for years and we felt that it was better to do something than sit back and just keep talking about it. <P>A press release in Muscle Car Review would be wonderful ? we will have to pass that onto our VP Public Relations and see what we can do. Offering a national award sponsored by Muscle Car Review is another interesting idea.<P>Al, it has been suggested several times over the years that we should get on the My Classic Car Show ? you are right, the exposure would be fantastic for AACA. I wonder how receptive he would be now that he has started his own car club; he might view us as competition.<P>I can see we may have a problem with trying to register vehicles for class 35 in that the car owner may not be familiar with the new class and would hence register in class 27. The registration chairman would not be able to tell if the car belongs in class 27 or 35 based sometimes on wrong or limited information given. I am sure these cars are policed before the start of the show and hopefully, by deputies and team captains.<P><BR>J. Ricketts<BR>

Peter J.<P>Let me know how your test comes out.<P>J. Ricketts

Tom and Peter J,<P>I like the idea of spending advertising dollars in other Marque Club publications, like you said, we are reaching hobbyists already club oriented and the dollars to reach them will be a lot easier on our budget. <P>I also like the idea of preparing materials that can be reproduced by members and passed out at local events. Outside of the members who sign up at Hershey because they want to participate as a vendor or sell a vehicle, the majority of us in AACA were probably invited into the club.<P>Developing materials for members to reproduce certainly would be inexpensive. If members are willing to pass out information at local events this could lead into attracting younger members since they seem to frequent all types of car events. <P>Under the new membership chairmen program our new president has rolled out this year, AACA will be participating at local car events and flea markets - represented by this new committee with a booth, banners, and information. This also will be an avenue to informed the pubic of all the advantages of belonging to AACA.<P>This website itself has done so much to increase the awareness of AACA and it will continue to offer more and more down the road. I am about ready to put some new software in the mail to Peter G., which will enhance what we are now doing on the web and increase benefits to our membership.<P>J. Ricketts

Don't be too critical of the factory high performance classes just yet. We knew when we added them that it would take awhile to catch on. <P>AACA needs to get the word out to our members and others about the new classes. We have just started an advertising campaign, but we are still feeling our way around as to where our money will be best spent.<P>If you have any ideas how to effectively advertise these new classes, please let us know.<P>J. Ricketts

Tom and Peter J,<P>Great input - this is what we are looking for. I feel the ads we have out there do not tell the general public just who we are - I think in any ad it is important to do that.<P>You are right Peter, we need to educate our members and ask for their help in getting the word out at local events. I like the idea of AACA preparing fliers for members to distribute, don't see any reason why we can't do that.<P>Tom, the calendar of events online is a good suggestion, we will have to look into that. You are absolutely right, the new division chairpersons are another avenue for spreading the word.<P>What do you think of advertising in publications like Mustang Magazine, Muscle Car, etc.?<P>I feel we have set in motion two good concepts to help us reach more people. We can now make those members who do not want their cars judged feel welcome by the Drivers Participation Class and with the factory high performance classes, hopefully, people will feel we care by separating these cars out of regular production cars.<P>J. Ricketts<BR>