Thank You for coming to Billetproof Florida 2008! On behalf of the Poor Boys Car Club of Florida, I want to say Thank You to all of you that came to the 1<SUP>st</SUP> annual Billetproof Tradional HotRod and Custom Show in the Southeast held at Garlits <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comBig Daddy Don</st1laceName> <st1laceName w:st=" /><st1laceName w:st="on">Drag</st1laceName> <st1laceName w:st="on">Racing</st1laceName> <st1laceType w:st="on">Museum. </st1laceType></ST1We are honored to have had you as our guest for the day, and I hope that you enjoyed yourself and the entire days events. A lot of time and hard work by our guys, our wives, and some close friends went into making this such an amazing event. The overwhelming success of this show would have not been possible with out each and everyone of you that came to show your HotRod and Custom, and to those that came to see and enjoy those cars and trucks. As most of you know, we have experienced tragedy in our club family. We lost our fellow club member Myron Jr. in a car accident in December, and my son Cody in a car accident in January. Myron & Joyce had an award this year to give in honor for their son Myron Jr. which warmed all of our hearts. Next year, my wife Jennifer and I will honor Cody with an award in his honor. I personally want to Thank each of you that looked me up on Friday and Saturday to give your heart felt condolences and a big hug. Each of you has a special place in my heart for your kindness, thoughts and prayers. We want to say a big Thank You to Alan and Melissa of Billetproof for choosing the Poor Boys of Florida to be the Host Club for the event. We are truly honored to have been chosen for this task and I trust that we did a good job for you. We understood from the beginning the risk and expense to do this, and that is why we worked so hard to do what ever we could on our part to make it successful. The support of the 500 folks that brought out their HotRods and Customs for the 1<SUP>st</SUP> event is a sign that doing this show in the southeast was the right choice. We want to say a big Thank You to our fellow Poor Boy brothers that came to the show from all over the country. You guys and gals are truly amazing, coming from <st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State>, <st1:State w:st="on">Michigan</st1:State>, <st1:State w:st="on">Tennessee</st1:State> and Alabama<st1:State w:st="on"><ST1</st1:State>. Your support at the show and throughout the year is fantastic. I hope that we showed our Florida <st1:State w:st="on"><ST1</st1:State>fellowship to you and that you will come again next year. We want to also say a big Thank You to Big Daddy Don Garlits! Your love for traditional HotRods and Customs goes beyond measurement. It was so good to see that you were enjoying yourself throughout the day, and when you rolled out your Swamp Rat dragster, and fired it up well I was speechless. The fantastic stories that you shared with us at the end of the day will be in our memories forever. You have reinforced our desires and p***ion to build and drive old style HotRods and Customs. We want to Thank all of the Clubs and individuals that stepped up to fabricate Awards. The creativity and craftsmanship is truly amazing. We know how much time, energy, and searching for components goes into doing it, not to mention cost. I personally was honored to have been chosen for the Body Basher Award that was crafted by Lockwood Kustoms. I had finished the car on Thursday night before we left to drive to the event. We are truly honored that you did it, and I hope that you and others will consider doing it again for 2009. If you are interested in doing an award for 2009, please PM or email me. We want to Thank the Bands that played awesome music for us all to enjoy throughout the day. I couldnt stop from snapping my fingers and tapping my toes to the great beat all day long. There is no subs***ute for the live music that you all performed for us. You guys Rock! We want to Thank all of the vendors for taking the chance and coming to a new event. Your support and quality of products is truly first cl***, and I hope that you had a successful sales day, so that you will consider returning for another great day of Billetproof in 2009. </O <O <OWe hope that each of you enjoyed yourselves and we hope that you will come back again and bring some more HotRods and Customs with you next year! Sincerely, Glenn Hayes <OPoor Boys Car Club Florida
Hey Glenn...It's certainly the Poor Boys and the BilletProof folks that everyone should be thanking! You guys really outdid yourselves. No one can wait till next year. We'll see you soon! Tim MBL
Mbl is right, you guys need to be thanked. That's why I love this guy, he is so humble for all the hard work he does. As the newest Poor Boys chapter, and only being one for less than a year, you guys did an outstanding job. I feel like my baby just graduated.
You did, and we will. All our guys were proud to be even a small part of it. Thanks again to all of you for the hospitality and camaraderie. My favorite two pictures :
I dont think anyone had more fun at the show than Glenn Smiling all day long and thanking everyone that rolled through the gate. I couldnt have put it any better Glenn. Cant wait for next year!!!
hey glenn. poorboys. mr garlits. thanks for your efforts/contributions which made billetproof a really special event. sincerely, chris b.
Damn it Glenn you didn't leave me anything to to say I was thankful for. Guess I'll just have to thanks my dogs for not tearing up the house while I was gone for the show. THANKS EVERYONE!!! We had fun too...
Not much I can add to what Glenn said so well. After all the anticipation, 10 days later we're still trying to remember it all. It was very hectic but also very satisfying to be the host for a major car show and to feel like we hit a home run right off. Thank you all for coming. At the very beginning of the planning there was some discussion about there being enough "trad style" cars to support a show like Billetproof. We knew there were some but we also felt that there were quite a few that we weren't even aware of. Glad to see so many like minded folks at the show. And a special "tip of the cap" to all the Poor boys who came down to support us. That's huge. Now if we could just keep tabs on the Detroit bunch.... Thanks all and we'll look forward to seeing you next year. Mike
Best show I've ever attended hands down. My hat is off to everyone who was involved and I am sure many put much effort into making it such a great event. I am already ready for next year... or perhaps... Billetproof II 'Summer Version'?? Anyone?
Thanks to everyone who attended the show. and thanks for all the positive feedback we've recieved.I couldn't believe how many cars I'm seeing in all the photos that I missed even though they all had to p*** me at some point while manning the registration tent all day!! Willie
Well Like I said before I can not wait till next year. I am trying to figure out how I can move to Florida. I have a lot of selling to do from now till then. Anyway I will be at the show next year no matter what.
Come on over, we have lot's of homes for sale, and ton's of car action......beside the Beautiful weather year round
No!---Really!--------------Thank you Billetproof, PoorBoys, Bands, and OtherClubs that had anything to do with the show. Thank You, we had a wonderful time. dan
Thank you Glenn for covering all my thank you's also. You did that so very well. That is why we look up to you as our leader. Although I was busy all day and didn't get much of a chance to look things over good and socialize a little, I am ready to do it again next year. I was a little worried that the show could fall on it's face, but it went beyond my optimistic expectations. Thanks again to everyone.
My Thank yous... It's long, so get comfy. Poor Boys - Thanks for encouraging me and putting up with my dumb questions and me in general, I can be a pain in the ***. Special thanks to Ted (and Tom), who played tag with the bonehead who said he was going to buy Green Stink, and didn't bother to return his phone calls after Ted drug it up to GA for him. Then he brought Green Stink with him to Billetproof for me. At least I had SOMETHING there that ran, and it let me see the show, when my knee said I wasn't going to be able to. That was just the latest things you guys have done for me, this thing is way to long already to mention the rest, Glenn, John, Lil Mike, Dave, Brian, Skip, Willie, Art, Roger, Myron and Co., Thanks guys! To out of state Poor Boys, Thanks for coming! Gator, thanks for the striping and the art subject, Tim, Bruce and the rest that my ****terness prevent me from remembering. Jon (DV8) - For letting me borrow his trailer, and un-****ing it with a hammer after we ****ed it up putting the car back on... Then being cool when I returned it and busted a taillight lens in his frickin driveway. Thanks man, I owe you big. Josh (Tudor) - It was like we were old friends, brothers in 46s or something, I'm afraid to ask how I can become a Sock ****ers prospect... Does it involve a sock? Lil Jeff - Thanks for doing the dash, some days when I was at the barn, you were the only one that got anything done, while I search for some stupid thing I misplaced, or got distracted on some stupid little part that didn't need the amount of time I gave it. And thanks for being there that Thursday too, you were a huge help. DO YOUR HOMEWORK!!! Ivan, Joes dad, and my "barnlord" - Thanks for putting up with the mess I've made in there, and the late (and ridiculously low) rent, I will be up to date next week, and I'm going to go clean up as soon as I hit submit. Alan - Thanks for letting me put my still yet to be fired 46 'out there, I had a great time. Greg, Bryan and Alex - Thanks for coming down, seeing you guys there made my weekend. Joe - Holy ****! I can't even begin to thank him for all he did. Margueritte couldn't come to the show (see thanks to Margueritte below) as was planned at TRR, so Joe stepped up and took her place. He drove an hour from his house North Tampa</ST1 to my place and he gave up a 4 day weekend, only to be put to work all weekend, and was cool about the whole thing He was at the Barn all day Thursday (until 9pm, after I asphyxiated him with Ace Hardware spray paint fumes) taking orders and questioning some of my stupid (sleep deprived) decision making when it needed questioning. And he was cool about it. Then he stayed overnight and got up at the crack of early Friday to help me load the car on the trailer (that's what made us late, it took an hour to haul it up using two ratchet straps, that's what made us late for the meeting.) We didn't have time for breakfast and only stopped at SR 52 Flying J and grabbed some gas, jerky and coffee... I didn't even buy that for him, still he was cool about it. Once we got to Ocala</ST1, where we put him to work setting up trash barrels. I wanted to go to the pre party, so we kinda skipped dinner at Cracker Barrel, and thought we could get food at No Where, well we got to talking with everybody and by the time we thought about food, it was all gone. So all we had was beer for dinner. We finally went up to the room about 12 or so, hungry. He was cool about that too, drunk, but cool. The next morning I woke him up at 5 am so he could get the shower first and maybe some breakfast before the work began, we know how that turned out, so I had him help me unload the car, and missed most of the morning meeting. Then we got back gate duty. Standing up all day... Lil' Mike brought us some BBQ around 11 and were there until about 1:30 pm, so we hardly got to see any of the show. He was cool about it. After the show, we used his truck to clean up all the trash, and all the barrels, and he must have thought WTF as he didn't even get to drive his own truck, he got the disgusting job with me and Lorene, lifting holey bags of trash! Still he was cool about it. We loaded up my car and headed home, in the rain, he knew he had to drop me and the car off at home down in Largo, and then he still had an hour drive back home once he finished, I offered to just stop at his house, and I could take the car the rest of the way, and bring his truck back the next morning, nope, he was cool about it, we went all the way to Largo first. On the way home, about 2 miles from my house, I finally got to buy him a meal, dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. We got through eating and it was still raining, we were pulling out of the parking lot, and we went through a big puddle, in that puddle was a HUGE tire eating pothole... BAM!... BAM!... BAM, BAM! Holy ****! It was raining and asked if we should get out and look at stuff, he said "no, let's just go, it'll be cool" and we took the car to the barn, unloaded it, pushed that heavy damn thing into the barn, and unhooked the trailer.. all in the rain, and he went home. it was about 9:00 pm. The next morning, he calls me and says his trucks frame is bent, the bed is WAY further away from the cab that it ever was before and the hitch is angled downward a little. Holy ****! How am I gonna fix THAT, I thought. then he says, "we'll have to look at it someday, it's cool for now The next weekend, he had free tickets to go to the pre-St. Petersburg Grand Prix festivities car show called Festival of Speed (Ferraris, Lambos, Porsches, etc.). So we went. We were walking around and I wanted a beer so we went over to the tent and I got two, and handed one to him, and he says "Thanks, you didn't need to do that How cool is that? Thanks again Joe, I could think of a better guy to call my best friend. Thanks to Margueritte, for letting me do everything I needed to do, and taking care of things on the home front. She knew how important this was to me and didn't gripe when I was gone almost every night (most times till 10 pm or so, sometimes as late as 1:30 in the am), and all weekend long for about 3 months. The post was deleted, but she had the extra stress that during that 3 months, our 11 y.o. B***et Hound, Elvis, was diagnosed with renal failure, and need pills (he really didn't like pills and she has the scars on her hands to prove it) and special prescription dog food, and had to be coaxed to drink and eat. That's the reason should had to bow out, we decided that it wouldn't be right to hand him off to someone else knowing about the special care he needed. We don't have any kids, and our dogs are like our children. Elvis had to be put down last Saturday, after 5 seizures in 2 hours. I'm going to miss him. Thanks again Margueritte, I love you. I am one lucky son of a *****.
****, I feel a group hug and a rendition of Kumbaya coming on. Thanks a lot fellas, see you next year.
I don't know if anybody had the patience to read my thing, but we yanked the bed off Joe's truck, and boxed in a few areas of the rear frame, and I found a slight wave in the bottom part of the right rail, so I beat the livin **** out of it, and welded in a boxing plate over the area to make strong like bulll. He's happy, and we put it back together with no spare parts.
The Jalopy Journal
