R W Burgess

* * Peter, Not funny, but the video is and I know its a tough job to control.

That's why they're called options.....YOUR CHOICE! :-)

Just our club, up to your club to pick the day, like a Saturday morning when most people don't work. I'll be glad when I never work again. :-)

* * That's the cool thing about the Buzzard's Breath Region. Our pizza dinners are either free or $5.00. Bring your own drinks sometimes. Our membership fee is marginal, so marginal that I forget what I paid. We have some really fun members thanks to the original crazy Board that started that region. On another note, my Northern Neck Region has annual Christmas Dinners at a reasonable cost. It's free!! We make enough money off of our annual car show to pay for our members. We also have weekly wednesday breakfasts that are cool, plus when the weather is right, we might go to a member's garage and help repair their broken vehicles. What's not to like? Car Clubs are what you make it, just think positive. Wayne

* * PLEASE, my head!!!!! :-)

* Still is. My family loves to tour. To have a great tour, you need a group of people who have contacts with things unseen before and connections with people that can "open up those doors". Generally, clubs have the members who can make those things happen. The funny thing is that a lot of younger people do not know "what is behind the door". Examples, Y-O Ranch in Texas, a submarine in New Hampshire, breakfast on the beach of Bogena Bay in California right next door to where the movie, "The Birds" was shot. Private Tours of antique car collections in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida (Don Garlits-home of Smoky Yunick's engine dynamometer.), Tours of famous early American Mansions pre civil war in Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, etc.). The cool thing? Sharing these trips with others while making friendships that last a lifetime. I miss my old car people, come on 2023! EDIT! WAIT! I left out the mermaids in Weeki Wachee Park! Will never forget it.

* * Kid brother gets killed by an overzealous cop. Payback time. Pay the piper!

You need to see that one Paul! Great movie plot, excellent movie!

* * I like my gee gaws too West!

Former President Howard V Scotland I remember a trip Earl, another fellow and I took to a car show in North Carolina back in 1978. It was in my car and Earl was the last of the three of us to decide to go, so effectively that made him low man on that particular totem pole that weekend. Late Saturday afternoon after judging, the three of us got in the car and headed back north up I-81. We got to Marion, Va. that night and stopped at a motel. We got a room with 2 beds and a rollaway for Mr. Low Man on the Pole. Well, apparently there had recently been some flooding in the area because the rug on the floor was soaking wet. But what the heck, we were three tired guys so we dried our feet and went to bed. Earl's rollaway bed turned out to be a real experience. It seems that the center support was a bit longer than the two ends so it was continually tipping toward one end of the other. A real see-saw. Suffice it to say that Earl had a very restless night, and he couldn't put the mattress on the floor because of the water. Now that he is top gun I will be certain not to allow myself to fall into any position where seniority comes into play. I'll bet he figures he still owes us one, and I am the only one left to get even with as the third guy passed away several years ago. Remember Earl, respect your elders. :-)) Editor’s Note; Mr. Scotland was AACA President in 1988 and 1989 and also a member of the Chesapeake Region some years ago.

By Bob Ruckman I am honored to be asked to add my reminiscences to Wayne Burgess’s special tribute to Earl, who certainly has “come a long way”, from his joining the AACA and the Chesapeake Region in 1962 to his ascension to 2004 AACA President. Congratulations, Earl. Your “snowy white hair” becomes you, as you approach your 65th year. I, however, must have inherited a very favorable chromosome, because I am 73, and my hair has stayed blond! But the rest of my bod continues to sprout new cancers, so I am content to stay alive, and be able to enjoy my fiftieth anniversary in our wonderful hobby in 2004. As the “Iron Man” of car shows, I’ve come a long way, too, as have those first three plaque boards Earl saw leaning against the front bumper of my 1932 Plymouth back in 1962. (My plaque collection is now on its 32nd board, the first 30 of which are displayed in the AACA Museum in Hershey.) I am very pleased to learn that Earl’s first meeting with me is so “vividly” recalled, and that he can identify with one of my columns in which I explained that I dress up for car show appearances. Now that he has become AACA’s President, and will be attending many National Meets and tours, it behooves him to dress well. The power of the written word never ceases to amaze me, in that my columns can influence my readers, even Presidents! I wish you well, Earl.

I tried sending a PDF of the following from, and about Earl. Sorry, I guess its this way or no way. I will add two more comments from past AACA members afterwards. You might recognize their names. I had asked these two guys to make comments back in 2004 when Earl became AACA President. I put this article together in the Northern Neck AACA Region newsletter, the region that Earl put together for the enjoyment of the local antique hobbyists. Growing Old with Old Cars By Earl D. Beauchamp, Jr. It was enjoyable reading about Bob Ruckman in the latest issue of “Northern Neck’n Antique Autos News”. Although Wayne mentioned that Bob preceded me in this hobby by some time, Bob Ruckman and I do go way back. I can still remember, and actually visualize the first time I met Bob Ruckman. The place I know, the year I’m uncertain about. Having joined AACA in April, 1962 I feel certain I went to the Winchester Apple Blossom Meet that year. I have 8mm movies of the Apple Blossom Parade as far back as 1958, but also from the show in the 1962-1965 period. I was really young then, and even still had dark hair! Old cars of the 1930s and 1940s had been a love affair for me since I could cut their pictures out of magazines. My first car was a 1939 Buick like the blue one, that I bought for $100 newspaper route money in 1955, and then I’d had another one in 1957 I bought for $15 (the least expensive 1939 Buick I ever owned). When Judy and I returned from our Honeymoon, we had $45 left, so I purchased another ’39 Buick for $40. My cousin, Buddy Beauchamp, owned a body shop and wrecker service in Fairfax. He hauled the car to the Herndon farm where Judy’s parents lived, and my father-in-law got it running. We used it for a second car, and in that car I had my first brush with AACA. I pulled in at a car show at Jim McKay Chevrolet in Fairfax, VA in 1959. I was given an application, but when I got home I discovered I needed a sponsor and I didn’t know one. Later, in 1962 I came across the address for AACA in a publication and wrote them a letter. They sent me the name of the then-President of the Chesapeake Region in Baltimore and he hooked me up with Ed Kegley, the service manager of Gladding Chevrolet in Glen Burnie, Maryland who agreed to be my sponsoring member. Judy’s parents moved to Upperville, Virginia, which is near Winchester, so that made the show easy for us to attend, even though we lived in Maryland. We could spend the weekend with her family. So, I’ll say it was 1962, and it doesn’t really matter, but this I remember vividly. We came upon a 1932 Plymouth 4-cylinder sedan in a shady area. There were wooden plaque board leaning up against the front bumper, just covered with plaques. No doubt these same plaque boards and more are those that now reside at the AACA Museum in Hershey. With the car was a young man who was very enthusiastic about the old car hobby. Somehow we exchanged names, and for a number of years exchanged Christmas cards….well, Bob wrote Christmas letters! This was including time during the Vietnam War when he was on active duty with the Navy. Eventually that practice drifted away, but we’ve always had time for a few words at various car shows since. Well it’s good to see Bob Ruckman is still at it, and I’m glad I’m still at it too, even with my snowy white hair. After all, the alternatives aren’t too good, right? It’s really been quite a wonderful journey, my association with AACA, and I’m sure Bob would have to agree that is true in his case too. By the time I joined AACA in 1962 I had sold the $40 Buick and didn’t have an old car. We had a good ’49 Buick when we moved to Maryland at the end of 1961, but it was sold for $200 to pay for a new refrigerator. My Dad hated the old car hobby so much that he offered to help me with the down payment on the house if I’d sell the ’49 to get a refrigerator. It didn’t work though. Poor Dad, Judy bought me a ’34 Pontiac for Christmas 1962 for $95 and I was right back into the hobby. The Pontiac turned out to have a rod loose, so I sold it and on my 25th birthday I bought the ’39 Buick that has been with us ever since. I had to borrow the $120 from my Credit Union to buy it too! I met a wonderful friend and Buick buddy there in Glen Burnie in 1963. He owned a 1938 Buick convertible coupe and soon after added a 1937 Buick convertible coupe. He led us to our first Hershey Meet in 1963. Jim Mathews was his name, and he passed away during 2003, owning a ’35 Auburn speedster he never quite finished. Jim had to park his beautiful ’38 on the parking lot that year. It wasn’t yet acceptable in AACA. Of course we were in our “modern” 1958 Buick. His car and mine would not be acceptable in AACA until 1974 and that was a difficult time for Judy and I, as we had restored the ’39 Buick twice by that time; but the emphasis really should be on “fixed up” rather than restored. By today’s definition the first time it would have been a “driver” and the second time it was competition “second place highest”. However, during that 1971 restoration effort we did have the interior redone in real leather by a Mexican guy who ran a shop in Elkridge, Maryland. It is still beautiful to this day. The Buick's first National Meet was in Roanoke, Virginia; probably in 1974, and I remember meeting up with Jackie Ashburn there. He and I had met a number of times earlier when we vacationed at White Stone. The way I met Jackie was by looking in the AACA Roster before vacationing in the late 1960s at White Stone. I think he was an AACA Life Member before I was. I think I became one in 1975, the last year it was still $100 – what a bargain it looks like now, almost 30 years later. I don’t always agree with Jackie, but he’s been here in AACA doing old cars about as long as I have, and this old car hobby has been a lifetime experience for him, just like it has for me. I also admire his not having white hair like me. In those days the Roster was free. I met Paul Stosch the same way some years later. Anyway, at Roanoke what I said above was true to form, as the Buick won 3rd Junior trophy. In 1978 we drove the Buick to Louisville, Kentucky to an AACA National Meet. It was the only Junior car, and it still only won a 2nd Junior, so at the end of the year my good friend, Dave Boogaard, and I took it all apart again and started over. Dave is now my next door neighbor in Florida by the way. Anyway, this time the car was stripped, every piece of chrome and glass removed. The glass was replaced, the rubber was replaced, some chrome redone, all of the cadmium plated parts replated, and the dash and window frames wood grained by an expert. Although the engine was rebuilt in 1965, the late Bobby Nicholson if Beltsville, Maryland reworked the head, clutch, driveshaft and rear end. Don Prather dropped the headliner and repaired a dent in the roof, and gave me the best suggestion of all; that being to have all of the stainless polished. Dave painted the car in Ditzler lacquer over a primer Don Prather recommended, and it is still near perfect today. The car won a 1st Junior in 1981, a Senior in 1981, a Grand National 1st in 1982 and a Grand National Senior in 2000. Think of that, after 18 years of driving. I suppose it was a dream come true to be nominated for a National Board position in 1994, winning, and stepping up to the Board in 1995. I’ve managed to go all the way from Jim McKay Chevrolet to the Executive Vice President of AACA, the number two position out of 60,000 members. I’m up for reelection to the National Board again this year. By the time you read this, the election will be over. If I am returned to office, I may even become National President 2004. That is something I could never have even imagined. If I am not returned, well it’s been a great run, and as the cigarette ad said, we came “a long way Baby.” I’ve been in quite a number of Regions over these many years, and I was brought up in the hobby with the understanding that class judging was the root of old car collector’s desire to build the best car they could. Now, AACA even has the “Drivers Participation Class” for folks like I once was, who could only take their car to a certain level of quality for one reason or another. There was a time, many, many years ago before the late Director Sam Bailey came up with the first outline for Class Judging when people were painting their cars with paint brushes and calling them restored. It’s true, quality may have advanced beyond production in some cases now, but on a given day at a given show, in a given Class, the little guy can still compete. I do think you have to work up to a standard, rather than down to a standard. By the time you read this, the dust will have settled. Having moved my legal residence to Florida, I didn’t feel I should take a major role in the argument. It should be settled now. Having founded the Northern Neck Region, I wish it nothing but the best no matter how this issue goes down. Thanks for all of your support while I was heavily involved in the Region. Your support of the “First Ever” Sentimental Tour that we ran here on the Northern Neck, was instrumental in the National AACA Sentimental Tour becoming a reality. Actually, that was the final step in my lifelong desire to give the proper “acclamation” to the cars I’ve loved from the 30s and 40s since I was big enough to cut out their pictures. One other thing that Bob Ruckman mentions is dressing like a gentleman for these events. Although I agree with him, and should at least wear slacks to these Meets, I’ve gotten lazy with my approaching 65 years and lately usually wear jeans. I think I’ll start wearing slacks again after reading his article to spruce myself up a little. "I'd say Earl and Judy looked pretty sharp in this picture!"

Jim, Years ago had a base station with a beam antenna burning the airways at night at home. Got a call from a neighbor's kid letting me know that the parents could not watch The Waltons on their TV set because my Base Station was transmitting over their show. I finally found a electronic devise that cured my CB problems. Embarrassing!

* * Have you sold her Tex??? Wayne

* * It's worth the effort to just travel to a show or even just drive on the highway. People wave, blow horns, even follow you to gas stations and ask you a million questions about your old car and how they had one "just like yours" or except it was a different color, oh and it might have been a Ford, not a Chevy like yours.

* * Virginia is cracking down on farm tags now, requiring insurance. I am thinking they will require a state tag now to enforce it. Antiue tags may be next as a stronger followup.

Just another government push to screw up our old engines and force us to spend more money on new equipment. Had 2 different air-cooled engines this past year that had to have the carbs cleaned out because they sat too long. Next they will be telling us that electric vehicles save the environment. Wait! Wayne

* * Thanks for the link. I saw the mention of a door situation. I could not see the problem they mentioned. As I enter the era of rest homes, I'd still like to enjoy a car like that for one year. Of course the wife liked the look of the car until she saw the price. Ha ha. I do like the white color and I realize that these types of cars are not supposed to "pop". Oh well, just rambling right? An old fart can dream, right? Wayne- the old, well you get the picture.

Just brousing and noticed this Caddy that interested me. I tell my wife all the time that I'd like to sell a bunch of my old normal type antique cars and buy just one very nice CCCA car????? Wait, it looks like I may have to sell all of my cars, plus my house and the cash money I have hidden from my wife in a jar in the back yard. Darn! Wayne

The Beech was for the Southerners, the Bo was for when he was in Yankee land! 😄

Just an update, Judy is preparing to have Earl moved back to Virginia with a local viewing (I assume) at Montross Virginia. It will be a 2 day trip back for Judy and her daughter who lives down there. Arrangements are not final yet. Just speculating at this point, but it may be the weekend before the Virginia service. I have so much to say about my relationship with the Beauchamps, will share them later as I get my thoughts together. Wayne

Plasticman, Still use ours in our over the road Peterbilts. Still don't we heard much chatter anymore, a shame. Wayne

* I like this idea. We need more of this!

I rode around Watkins Glenn in our wooden wheeled 1929 Essex some years ago on a tour, top speed about 40 MPH. Of course the last sharp turn with the tree in the corner had me wonderign though. :-)

I'd like to know how many miles those batteries would go, if maybe you upped the speed to 45mph? Really cool!!!