I searched, can't find it. Where were the Street Rod Nationals held in the 70s? Peoria in 71 Detroit in 72 Tulsa ??? in 73 St Paul in 74 Memphis in 75 ??? in76 ??? in 77 Columbus in 78 Thanks
I believe 76 was Tulsa I was at Tulsa with my Willys and I think it was 76. Was in Columbus in 78 also. Pat
I was at Tulsa in 1973. The first event of any kind that I took my 48 to. If you stood close enough you could still smell the fresh less than a week old paint. If you were at Tulsa in 1973 and were driving a red 40 Ford coupe parked out in the middle of the field that little brunette in the halter top and shorts that kept showing up and hanging around he car was and still is my wife, she talked about that car all weekend and for months to come. We had a ball that weekend even with the list of issues on the way up that that should have put us on the trailer on the way home. Plugged up fuel system, burned up coil and burned up tail shaft on a transmission that Bob Davis (Former TSTI instructor at Waco) and I swapped tailshafts on in a little wrecking yard in Marietta and got back on the road. We spent Thursday night in the Will Rogers Hotel in Claremore because we had missed our reservations at Holiday Inn at the Tulsa airport and ended up getting a room a couple of blocks from the fairgrounds at one of the older motels where my wife spent a lot of time at the pool while I was at the fairgrounds sniffing chrome. We were in line for the "barbecue" dinner with Tex Smith and his buddies Saturday night and got to hear Tex Smith stories for an hour and a half while the line moved along and we got in to where we could get what was left of the barbecue chicken. Great fun for a 27 year old who had read what Tex wrote since I was 12. Far better than what they had for the dinner as we went and got something to eat after the event was over. I've still got my gold NSRA #1551 Charter membership card in my stash of stuff. A buddy of mine Perry Lassiter of Waco (had a chopped and channeled 32 Cabriolet) told me to get my membership card before the Peoria event so that I could have the charter membership.
Me too, Tulsa in 73 with my 39 deluxe coupe. What a show, never saw so many hot rods in one place. Bought some of the makings for the next project there, a 32 roadster.
I was at Memphis in 75 and Columbus in 78, sadly in OT vehicles both times. Columbus was our honeymoon, still married!
My buddy from Waco, JD Fikes caused a small uproar with some folks at Memphis in 75 with his 27 T roadster with the cut down tail end of a 55 Chevy for a turtle deck. I'd stop at his father in law's shop after I got out of college every day and work on the T and we usually went pretty late on it to get it ready to go in the couple of weeks before the nationals. I ended up working for his father in law for the rest of the time I was going to school and until I moved back to Washington in 1975. I think the job offer was "can you come in and work in the shop after you get out of school each day? I can pay you XX a week . XX wasn't much money but the job was one of the most enjoyable I ever had.
I was in Tulsa from California a week or so before the Nationals visiting my Uncle and my Great Aunt. first and last time I went on an airplane. must have been 1973 making me 13 years old. my head probably would have exploded if I was there the right week and got to go. at that time the only real Hot Rods I had seen were the Nor Cal Early Irons at Straw Hat Pizza on a Saturday night..
I was in Tulsa in 76. I decided to go about a week before. I couldn't find a motel room. My future wife called the chamber of commerce and they found me a room at the host hotel. Cars drove around it almost all night. I sat on the tailgate of my truck and watched for a long time. That was my 1st time in Tulsa. The Absorber was being released and the girls in the yellow suits were all over the place showing the product.
Peoria was 1970, then Memphis in 71. my first was St Paul in 79. I was 2, and my purple 38 Chevy was there in primer.
I was in Tulsa in 1973 when I worked at AI Fiberglass. We had a both inside the building they held livestock/horse events in. It was spotless but when it go hot enough inside that building, these horse flyes came out of no ware and bit the hell out of me, Rich Venza and Dave Anderson all day. My memories of Tulsa..... seeing the three coolest hotrods of all time, the yellow, orange and black 34's made it worth the fly bites.
‘77 in St Paul was my first, ten years old, but Dad didn’t have the sedan done yet. We went back in ‘79 driving the ‘33 for its first Nationals. I can still remember cars I saw at those two shows. The Koolaid Kid, a white with colorful ribbon flamed/striped ‘33 5-window. The brown chopped highboy ‘34 3-window with yellow steelies that later showed up on the cover of Streetscene. Then Memphis in ‘80, and I remember Buttera’s half ‘23, half ‘27 roadster.
So Peoria in 70 Memphis in 71 Detroit in 72 Tulsa in 73 St Paul in 74 Memphis in 75 Tulsa in76 St Paul in 77 Columbus in 78 I drove my 32 3W to all the nationals starting 72 through 78 in Columbus except Tulsa in 76. During that time period I relocated from NJ to Ohio to Illinois which made some of the treks a bit shorter. Each trip was eventful and exciting, met notable people, had a great time at each event. Still have the 3W, haven't driven it since 78, relocated again to NJ in 87, rebuilding it for the third time, hope to have it on the road this summer.
Went to '77 all by my lonesome and happened to intersect with the Street Machine and Street Rod Nationals on subsequent weekends, but caravanned up from Kansas City with the RodTiques club in '79. Man, the all-night cruising and partying at the hotel was...tiring! From '77:
The 1st Australian Street Rod Nationals were held Easter 1973 at Nerrandera a country town in the state of New South Wales......I was # 227 of the 234 entrants in my 1940 Dodge & still got it............Andy Douglas.
Damn, I was born a little too late. The event I did make it to as a kid in the late '70s in Timonium MD looked like this.
Yep, "Kool-Aid Kid" was Dave Roehl's CB handle. Sorry, no color photo though - I was shooting B&W film.
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