greenie

In our year of home detention, there are a few events in the PA area upcoming. The Carlisle Ford Show will run the weekend of a Friday July 31 to Sunday August 2. The Maple Grove Raceway Swap Meet will be held on Saturday August 1. The Carlisle staff has put enhanced sanitation and social distancing measures in place. We have been to the Spring Swap Meet and the Chrysler event. My advice is to go early, such as Friday morning. The swap meet fields have been nearly full of vendors; and the reduced spectator traffic makes it easy to stay apart from others. We choose to avoid the food court and the indoor displays, but use your own judgement. The Maple Grove Swap Meet is a nice one day event. Gate admission is only $5 and parking is free and close by. The vendors have a mixture of racing parts and antique auto parts. A single walk thru takes about 2-3 hours and the aisles are quite wide. Social distancing will be a breeze. Get there early, because it will be done by noon! Each if these events pose no greater threat than a trip to the grocery store. They are outside, so you decide how close you come to others. With a little thought, you can enjoy a brief respite from Covid 2020!

Hang a left honey, our Hershey Yellow Field Swap Meet space is here somewhere!

27 miles seems like a great excuse to get the Riv out for a drive. Even the ethanol free fuel gets stale quickly, so a 54 mile roundtrip to fill the tank seems worthwhile. In south central PA and northern MD, my choices are a 10 mile trip or a 25 miler. The latter is a bit cheaper, I think 3.49/gal for 89 the last time. Hopefully this won’t start a debate about lead and valve seats. I would use stabilizer for the long winters. When the time comes to refresh the heads, by all means spring for the hardened valve seats.

Nice turn out by vendors, loads of used parts - mostly 1960’s to 1980’ s. We did manage to find a few nice older items. The crowd is down somewhat, so it was easy to maintain a safe distance. The show field is filling up, Saturday will be an impressive display. Take advantage of the numerous hand sanitizer stations, maintain your social distance, and have a great time outdoors!

In MD, once your antique reaches 60 years of age, you can request a permanent tag. One if the few things that are “free” in the Land of Tax and Spend”. The Historic tag provision is still being abused. My son spotted a large food truck on his college campus and it was so adorned. Eventually, they will figure out how to punish the honest antique car owners.

Sorry, it found a new home several months ago.

Steve: I am quite sure the very first “vendors” were met with quite a few disapproving stares. Selling antique car parts in Hershey on the first full week of October is in our DNA, and it will be here after this virus is gone from our RNA. Gene

Hmmm, parking in the Green Field. What if I park in my vendor spaces and scatter a few parts on the ground. Strictly a nod to 1954, of course.

They are apparently delivering some cars with their new tractor trailers. We can all keep laughing until Elon becomes the next Henry Ford.

Good luck with that. I assume you know the original factory invoices were saved from destruction by a lady who worked at Ford as a high level administrative assistant. She was a member of the fledgling Classic T-Bird Club International(CTCI). The story is that she got word they were about to be destroyed and she managed to save all the 1955-57 Ford invoices. When I had a ‘56 T-Bird in the early 1980’s, you sent a pencil tracing of your VIN plate to the Club with (I think) $12, and they sent you one of the copies of the original invoice. If you don’t have yours, contact the Club. It may show the original dealer. BTW, the same gal convinced Ford to save the front fender dies from the scrapper; and several years later Ford made a new run of fenders. She must have been quite a lady. Alas, the Club now charges $50. They have a form on their website. I guess that’s inflation!

For those of us who have attended Fall Carlisle for the past 25 years or so, “pre-war” parts have been creeping into Fall Carlisle over the past 5 years or so. I figured that Hershey vendors have been using Carlisle as a staging area and extending their selling. This year, with 9000 or so Hershey vendors frustrated by the cancellation of the Hershey Swap Meet, it is inevitable that demand for Fall Carlisle Swap Meet spaces will soar- especially if the virus continues to decline. I called Carlisle Events last week and was able to get 3 choice spaces in the flat infield area. As I have not been a vendor at Carlisle for several years, they gave me 3 spaces for the price of 2. Now that CE has an agreement with the PA DOH, demand for these spaces is bound to increase. Get your spaces while the better ones are still available. We can make this our “Hershey” for 2020 and then enjoy the Hershey car show a week later. Its only fitting- Hershey helped “spawn “ Carlisle Events- now CE helps us get through a year without Hershey.

The rear fenders and the garnish moldings were delivered and sold at Spring Carlisle. With the Hershey Swap Meet cancelled, the parts will be on display at Fall Carlisle. If you want to see them in the meantime, just send a PM.

After the week’s events, there is no question that Carlisle Events has created a pathway for other events to follow. Create a Covid-19 plan and follow thru with enhanced sanitation and social distancing. After that, the public can make their own choice to attend or not.

Found at Spring Carlisle. Any idea of the year and model? Thanks!

Perhaps the unique face border is a clue. Model number is P-36383. Thanks!

Not likely to be settled before the event ends. The Judge refused to grant the DOH request today; and she scheduled more arguments for Friday afternoon. She wondered out loud why the State allowed massive protests to go on without social distancing- at least one attended by the Governor. These are large and primarily outdoor venues. In a sense, the Carlisle Fairgrounds is similar to Hersheypark. With a planned opening July 3, I imagine the Hersheypark attorneys are watching this closely. i was there Wednesday; and it was quite easy to maintain social distance. The changes instituted by Carlisle Events to encourage and promote good personal hygiene were appreciated. It’s far more crowded at the grocery store.

It’s so bad I know people who won’t add insurance for 2 reasons: It’s nearly impossible to collect; and adding insurance simply marks for package for possible theft. Sad, but true. I’ve had an easier time collecting for a list item from UPS and FedEx.

We’ll miss Frank the next time we are fortunate enough to set up at Hershey. He had spaces at the very southern end of the Chocolate field, along Park Blvd. RIP friend.

Where are your vendor spaces at Spring Carlisle?

Good idea. I’ll take a selfie in my space and then spend the rest of the day at the AACA Museum.

Carlisle Events continue to plan their slate of shows, starting with “Spring” Carlisle in mid June. The virus and the PA Governor will have the last say; but the optimist in me hopes they are successful. For the last several years, Fall Carlisle has looked more and more like a staging area for Hershey. This year, perhaps it will be a proxy for the Hershey Swap Meet. No one is more enthusiastic about our hobby than Bill Miller, Jr. Let’s hope 2020 finally takes a positive turn.

When this started, I looked at people wearing a mask in public and thought they looked like a bank robber. Now I look at people in public who are not wearing a mask and think they look out of place. We are adults and we can follow reasonable guidelines. If the State of PA moves Dauphin County in the “green phase” sometime before Hershey, I think we can use what we’ve learned and enjoy the Fall Meet responsibly.

John: There was a brass plaque given to car show participants. My guess is that the ribbons were for a different purpose- either for Region workers, or perhaps judges, or both.

Yes. Please send me a PM with your email address. I can send you pictures,

A new addition to my display of 1954, ‘55, and ‘56 Hershey dash plaques. My guess would be it was worn by Hershey Region officials, celebrating their first year as a Region and their first year hosting the Fall Meet. I would not come along for 9 months, so perhaps a slightly older member can shed some light. Thanks!