gwells

KInd of aligns with the information that Leatherique claims about their 'Rejuvenator Oil': "Known world wide for its ability to soften even cardboard hard leather. It is a complex blend of animal proteins, collagens, with absolutely no oil fillers of any kind." Many years ago either the originator of this product (Clausen) or the current maker had an ad that featured Dick Teague claiming that he'd softened the original leather in some 1905 car such that the car didn't have to be reupholstered! I also know my late dear friend Tom Shriver in Nashville swore by this product line.

Correct. From Wikipedia: "Connolly Leather Limited was a British company that supplied highly finished leather primarily to car manufacturers. Founded in 1878, it went out of business in that form in 2002. A successor firm, Connolly Brothers, UK, has resumed producing traditional Connolly leather products and lines."

A lot of people, including the late Dick Teague among others, felt this was/is the best leather conditioning product: http://www.leatherique.com Used to be sold under the Clausen brand many years ago.

Invoice sent.

Game I always liked to play at Hershey, Amelia, etc. You can have one car... which one? For me, Bugatti Type 35B.

One Daniels fact that they give at the Boyertown museum (where they have several examples) is that Daniels cars were produced only to order. I've never seen that claim elsewhere; can anyone confirm it?

In one Facebook group, it has been ID'd as a 1925 Star Sports Roadster.

I saw Steve so many times I accused him of stalking me... LOL! He's among the hardest-working people at Hershey. We're lucky to have him in the AACA.

Same here. Traveling home over the last day or so, but I still have more to post regarding my trip. Stay tuned...

Yeah, I'm running behind, guys, but I'll catch up. Got a surprise invite to the Society of Automotive Historians 50th anniversary banquet Friday night from my old friend Tom Warth (founder of the late, lamented Classic Motorbooks), where I was honored and thrilled to meet Nicola Bulgari and Karl Ludvigsen (the keynote speaker). It lasted much later than expected, so the posting I planned to do that night went by the wayside. I took huge number of pics over the last few days and it's going to take a while to cull them, too. I had foolishly reserved my Hershey hotel only through Friday night so had to proceed on to my next stop, Altoona, Pennsylvania, after the car show ended late Saturday afternoon. Seems there was a nationally-televised football game in State College, Pennsylvania, so I had a bit of trouble finding a hotel room at a reasonable price. I spent Thursday again mostly in the Chocolate fields, with a brief foray into the Red field to track down a couple of friends. Ran into Tom Warth while taking the pic of the neon sign vendor shown below. I snuck behind him, grabbed him by the arm, and asked in a strong voice if he was one of them illegal aliens. (Tom is a Brit by birth, if you don't know.) He was kind enough not to slug me... or run! Since the 1933 diner in downtown Altoona I am posting from (anyone else amused by the fact that a 1933 diner has fast and free wi-fi?) is getting busy and I really shouldn't hog a table after finishing my breakfast, I'll just post my pics from Thursday. The first pic is as much as I could get of one of the Chocolate fields from the pedestrian bridge near the Giant Center. It is just one of the six or seven flea market fields (some are split into separate parts, so how many there are depends on how you count them).

If you mean tomorrow’s car show, I do plan to take a lot of pics and will post some of the best ones here.

Didn't do much on Tuesday except head for the AACA National Headquarters to pick up my parking pass, and to buy the national 2019 Hershey T-shirt (which I wore Wednesday) and the 2019 program with the vendor's spaces listed. Then headed back to my hotel to rest up a little from the busy previous three days. Decided not to attend the library's literature sale late Tuesday afternoon simply to prevent myself from being tempted into buying anything. Also didn't visit any of the fields on Tuesday to watch folks getting up and to see the early birds serious on getting there first. Headed out reasonably early on Wednesday, so I could stop at Bob Evan's for a decent breakfast and, of course, got into a long conversation with the two gentlemen in the booth across the aisle who were also in town for the meet. After they departed, the gentleman in the booth in front me me turned and wanted to know just what was this old car meet. He was in Hershey on business and knew nothing about it. Since a lot of the long-tine vendors have spaces in the two Chocolate Fields, which are close the Giant center parking lot I have to use, that's where I started. After ambling around for 20 mins of so, down the aisle comes a car which pulls up to me and down rolls the right front window. It's my best man Don Peterson, with his son Wyatt driving, headed for their space in South Chocolate, so I snagged a ride. What are the odds that the first person I knew that I met at Hershey would be Don, who lives in Roswell, GA, just twelves miles from my home? Didn't have much luck tracking down two or three friends at their spaces or the club tents where they will be on duty, so I'll try again today. The field looked a little thin early Wednesday, with a lot of spaces unoccupied, but I'm sure that will change today. As is my habit, I spent a lot of time talking with strangers while resting my sore back sitting alongside them on benches and at tables. And since I had spent a lot of time asking questions of people at Hershey last year during preparation for the meet story that I penned for the club magazine, it was natural to continue doing so. I am pretty garrulous by nature and really like to talk to people, probably a bit too much... The most amazing thing I discovered this year, and the most discouraging, is that an estimated 75-80% of the people I am interacting with at the meet are NOT AACA members! This stuns me. For me, it would be unconscionable to attend Hershey and not to be a card-carrying member of the underlying organization. I assume everyone knows that the flea market spaces can only be purchased by AACA members and one also must be a member to enter a car in the judging on Saturday. As this fact dawned on me, I began asking more detailed questions on the subject: why haven't you joined the AACA? There was no single response. "What does it get me to be a member?" "What does the acronym AACA stand for?? "I was surprised there was no admission charged to attend this flea market." "The club hasn't asked me to become a member in any of the info I have looked up online or received here." (When Steve Moskowiitz reads these comments, he'll tear all his hair out, I am sure.) Perhaps it's a function of the internet age, where for so long so much was free. I know a lot of the folks I communicate with on these forums admit to not being AACA members. But I also know from other hobbies that a long-term lack of support from the participants for the people and the organization running the show and making things happen eventually comes home to roost. Every collector car club I know is struggling to maintain their membership numbers. It would be a crying shame to see the Hershey phenomenon disappear in the distant future due to a continued decline in membership, not that such a thing is imminent. But I'll bet everyone reading this remembers a newspaper or two that had been published for a century or more that today no longer exists. Lack of support killed them, sure as all get-out. And the ones that survive online, think New York Times or Wall Street Journal, only give you a taste of their content before you have to subscribe. The AACA is the premier collector car organization in the world, the oldest and the largest I believe, and supports the old car hobby on an unbelievable number of levels.That three-quarters of Hershey attendees don't feel it is important to be members is rather depressing to me, that's for sure, and does not bode a rosy future. Enough on that subject, time to head off to the fields to walk and walk and walk... and to hopefully hook up with some of my old friends and to make some new ones. And to see cars and parts and other things I've never seen before...

Sez you... LOL!

Not a chance, Ed. The rest of his family would disown him! LOL... And you must know what the Petersons are bringing to the show on Saturday.

I am still playing a bit a 'catch-up,' so here's Monday's very enjoyable activities. Shortly after I started at the Southeastern Railway Museum, our part-time employee Kristen left to take a full-time position at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington, Pennsylvania. I jokingly emailed the museum's executive director to let him know we now had a low opinion of his facility since he'd snagged one of our most beloved and hard-working employees. Understanding the backhanded compliment I was expressing, he replied warmly and invited me to pay a visit if I was ever in the area. Scott Baxter hadn't known I was coming to nearby Hershey within a matter of weeks... In October, the trolley museum is only open to the public on weekends, but the staff is there during the week anyway, so Scott said a Monday visit would be fine. In fact, they were hosting a school field trip of about two dozen kids that day, which is why I was able to grab a ride on a vintage trolley while they were doing their track check for the ride the kids would be taking. Beginning as the Pittsburgh Electric Railway Club in 1946, the group eventually acquired three cars and a museum location in 1954. For the next ten years volunteers worked to construct track, a car barn, and a diesel generator to provide the 600 volt DC power necessary to operate the cars. The museum opened to the public in 1963 and continued to add cars and infrastructure, changing its name several times and acquiring tax exempt status. Track and turning loops were added to give a two-mile run and their 12 acre site leaves plenty of room for future expansion. The museum's collection now includes 50 pieces of rolling stock, almost all of them historic trolleys including the original 'Streetcar Named Desire' from New Orleans! Many of the trolleys have been restored to better than new condition, too. Today, the museum is very active in education and outreach and is probably the nation's premier museum devoted to this rail transportation mode. While exhibiting my ignorance about trolleys ("What the difference between a trolley and an interurban?"), I discovered I have a lot to learn about the streetcar era. Scott patiently answered all of my dumb questions. I would willingly have extended my visit for a lot longer, but I had a long drive back to Hershey along the dreaded turnpike and Scott had to go unload a truck of pumpkins (that were originally scheduled to arrive the previous Wednesday) to use in the museum's nearly month-long 'Pumpkin Patch Trolley' event. If, like me, your knowledge of streetcars and trolleys is thin, the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum is definitely place you want to visit. I also paid a very quick visit to a long-time member of my Slotblog slot car forum who lives just eight minutes from the museum. It's always fun to meet up in person with someone you've known 'electronically' for better than a decade. Ron Culp owns an active private slot car raceway located in the basement of a local sportsman's club and I was tickled to learn his track was one I had raced on in Mineral Ridge, Ohio, in 2002. This track design is known as a 'UK Black' and is one of the more difficult designs to race on. It was a joy to see it in nearly-new condition; wish I had been able to take a few laps on it but that was not possible for several reasons.