Days gone by, with automotive legends.

[edinmass]

Should have taken more photos as a kid. Back when the people who made the cars and the club were still around. This must be about 1992.........please ID the people in the Marmon. The things legends are made of..........humble gentleman who knew cars ...........in every sense of the word. Sorry it’s blurry, it’s a cell phone photo from a video.

 

 

Edited May 14, 2021 by edinmass (see edit history)

[8E45E]

1992 is only 29 years ago.  I hope they are still alive and well. And the ones who aren't, I hope their vintage vehicles went to good homes.  

 

Your photo must be of vintage 'car guys' in your local area, who mean a lot more to you than it would the rest of us.   Being involved in vintage cars here for 50 years, I got to know several who were well-known and respected in my local area, but little-known elsewhere.  They all had their own special stories of their cars which makes often makes local vintage car newsletters interesting reading provided they took the time to put it to print,  and one can learn a lot of history as well.   

 

This is one reason I find this pandemic so nasty, with all the event cancellations.  Many of these 'older gentlemen'  who are still with us DO attend the local swap meets long after they've parted with their cars, etc., and come for the camaraderie (which I'm sure keeps them alive).  One usually NEVER gets tired of listening to what they have to say!!

 

Craig  

[edinmass]

The driver is Fred Roe, legandary Duesenberg expert, owner, and historian of all things automotive. Great guy, I was lucky to call him my friend. The front passenger is Robert Myers, photographer of more cars shows you can imagine from the 60's to the 2000's. The kid in the back, is yours truly.

[Cadillac Fan]

2 hours ago, edinmass said:

The driver is Fred Roe, legandary Duesenberg expert, owner, and historian of all things automotive. Great guy, I was lucky to call him my friend. The front passenger is Robert Myers, photographer of more cars shows you can imagine from the 60's to the 2000's. The kid in the back, is yours truly.

Spent hours reading his book on Duesenbergs. 

Edited May 14, 2021 by Cadillac Fan (see edit history)

[alsancle]

Ed is fixated on the 1.5 seconds he is in the video.   But for everyone else,  here is the entire thing:

 

 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2021 by alsancle (see edit history)

[Grimy]

Interesting to see how tastes have changed, especially for the VERY contrast-y soft tops in vogue at the time.

 

And Eddie still has the same sxit-eating grin!

[edinmass]

2 hours ago, alsancle said:

Ed is fixated on the 1.5 seconds he is in the video.   But for everyone else,  here is the entire thing:

 

 

 

 

 

I think we can all agree, it’s the best part of the video. 

[Grimy]

1 hour ago, edinmass said:

I think we can all agree, it’s the best part of the video. 

Where's the raspberry emoticon?

[John Bloom]

Ann Ineson.....she seems like a sweetheart of a woman.   A good reminder for me to slow down and visit with everyone at a car event.  You never know what a gem you might meet.  

[edinmass]

34 minutes ago, Grimy said:

Where's the raspberry emoticon?

Underneath your work boots........guess you will never find it! 😝

[Grimy]

48 minutes ago, edinmass said:

Underneath your work boots........guess you will never find it! 😝

Your calling card is under my work boots....  🙂 or is that my dog's?  🙂

[Walt G]

This is neat! Fred Roe was a great friend to me as well, we were very active in the Society of Automotive Historians at the same time decades ago and Fred would drive down to long island to my home when I would host the Pioneer Chapter of SAH events . I feel I was so fortunate to be able to have as close friends people now gone, never thought of them not being around one day, and think of a million questions now that I know that they could answer. In the early 1970s at the request of a former Franklin engineer/trouble shooter for the Franklin Company (who was active in the Franklin Club); he asked me to be his assistant in organizing/contacting any and all former Franklin employees to get them to attend an annual picnic . I did so and the conversations with the men who actually built, designed, or test drove the cars when they were made was just incredible. The stories that they told and I now recall - makes one shake your head and think , that actually happened - I heard it from one who was there or did the deed. I was in my early 20s and they were in their early 70s.

[8E45E]

On 5/15/2021 at 7:08 AM, Walt G said:

I feel I was so fortunate to be able to have as close friends people now gone, never thought of them not being around one day, and think of a million questions now that I know that they could answer. In the early 1970s at the request of a former Franklin engineer/trouble shooter for the Franklin Company (who was active in the Franklin Club); he asked me to be his assistant in organizing/contacting any and all former Franklin employees to get them to attend an annual picnic . I did so and the conversations with the men who actually built, designed, or test drove the cars when they were made was just incredible. The stories that they told and I now recall - makes one shake your head and think , that actually happened - I heard it from one who was there or did the deed. I was in my early 20s and they were in their early 70s.

It is said when someone dies, you lose a set of encyclopedias.  

 

My grandfather sold new cars, including Pontiac, Buick, Mercury and Lincoln back in the 1950's and 1960's.   After reading a Cars & Parts magazine autobiography from a proprietor reminicing about his small-town Mercury dealership in Texas,  I only wish I had the foresight to have asked my granddad how many of a certain body style, or any unique special-order cars the dealerships he worked at many have sold.  

 

Craig

[Walt G]

Hindsight is something we all experience, and have if we love history of any sort. As the appointed historian for the village in which I reside ( and my family has since 1924) I think of the close friends I wish I had just walked down the main street in town with to ask what businesses were in the structures over the years. Heck I can think of businesses that were there when I was a kid , that are no longer . It isn't to late to talk to people, get their memories, and even write things down yourself ! DO IT! Did your folks buy a car new 50+ years ago? were you there? did you help in the choice? Does that dealership even still exist ( now we just have auto malls  mostly)

Even car events - it seems like "only yesterday" that I went to Hershey for the first time ( 1965) rode down in a 1947 Hudson coupe which was nearly a 20 year old used car at the time.  Bought a Neverout brass side light for $8 in good shape needing polishing ( it needs it again now! brass cleaning a life's career) the asking price was $12 and when I got home I told my parents a white lie that I paid $6 because I used up my lunch money for school to buy it with. My Dad new I paid more but he just smiled and wanted to help me polish it.

Talk to the earlier generation when you can and also on the other end of the spectrum follow the saying " take a kid to a car show".  Someone did that for you once! and now look what happened, decades later you are reading this ! when you could be doing something productive, meaningful - like polishing a brass light.....................................

Walt 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Walt G
typo (see edit history)

[8E45E]

One of the shameful moments in my life was when I was 10 or so, on a Saturday hunting trip with my dad, granddad, and my uncle.  After a day of not catching anything worthwhile, they decided to stop in a small town's hotel pub for a 'quick one'.  Because I was underage at the time, and not permitted to be in a bar, I had to remain in the back seat.  I kept myself entertained reading a car magazine, and then I hear a 'thump' 'thump' 'thump' on the window.  It was an old gentleman with a cane who would have been out for his daily walk.  I rolled down the window some, and he said 'I want to shake hands with you!'.  I was intimidated, as it was the first time a stranger had come up like that, and of course the parental warning about talking to strangers would have applied.  I quickly rolled up the window without acknowledging him.  Many years later, older and slightly wiser, I thought about what I had done, and how awful I felt, as this old gentleman may have just lost his wife, or one of his grown kids had moved away, etc.  Looking back in time, had I chatted with him some, I may have gained some knowledge of the area and perhaps when automobiles were first seen in that small town.  

 

Craig

[Walt G]

Craig, thanks for sharing that, but at the age you mention you were following the words of your parents to not to get to friendly with people you didn't know. Have no regrets.

I have had more then my share of meetings by coincidence with people I never expected to. Also have ( which can be a gift or a curse) a pretty much photographic memory , especially about things I am really interested in and then once experiencing I can recall and write it down eventually. Chance encounters with people - one was a fellow who used to see Charles Lindbergh drive his Franklin sedan into the Franklin dealership at Columbus Circle in Manhattan to get it serviced ( fellow was a mechanic at the local Cadillac dealer near by and said his whole shop/dealership wished Lindbergh owned a Cadillac!) . I met him because he walked up to me while I had my Franklin parked near a flower nursery my folks wanted to visit, he saw the car and had to come up to share what he had experienced 45 years earlier. I am a good listener and know ( it seems) what questions to ask - was told that by a former Franklin test driver as well as some people who worked in the coach building/body  industry.

Edited May 18, 2021 by Walt G
typo (see edit history)

[8E45E]

I agree that a photographic memory is definitely a strong asset to have.  One step better would to have had an iphone-like camera back in the day like we do now.  I have also related stories with others about my observations of what I remember and have seen over the years.  And I'm certain you have also met your fair share of Doubting Thomas's as well who won't believe you regardless how convincing you are. 

 

As well, I'm just thankful my memory is still good enough to remember many posts over the past 15 or more years on the Studebaker Forum.  When someone brings up something that was discussed years previously, I am usually able to locate, and then copy and paste the link to the previous thread, and I don't have to repeat myself along with others who also made comments.

 

Craig