Yes, I am getting wound up!!! My old club, the Road Angels car club out of Belleville, Ontario are having their 50th year reunion this Saturday. These were/are a truly great bunch of guys. They took me under their wing in 1965, when I was a country kid newly arrived in the "big city" of Belleville (population about 20,000 back then). These guys were like "Gods" to me---they ran a rail dragster, had a clubhouse, and knew everything about hotrods that I was so anxious to learn.---and they were such truly friendly great people!!! I stayed with the club untill 1982 when I left Belleville and moved away. When they decided to have the reunion, they tracked me down via the internet, and sent me an invitation. The roadster pickup is washed and polished, the engine has never worked better, and the tires all are full of air and ready to roll----(its about 200 miles to Belleville from my place). The weather forecast says hot and sunny for Saturday and Sunday. Damn, I'm excited as a 15 year old!!!
And a truly great reunion it was!!! I kept watching the internet weather forecasts all week, getting ready for a 260 Kilometer drive in the roadster pickup, to Belleville, Ontario. All week long they called for sunshine all weekend. Then on Friday night they changed everything to rain and thunderstorms. Kathy and I got up early Saturday morning and headed out under extremely threatening black overcast skies. The rain held off all the way, and when we arrived at the Bellleville Fish and Game Club, where the reunion was being held----WOW!!!! The parking lot was full of everything ranging from model A roadsters to Hemi Barracudas. I seen guys that I haven't seen for over 25 years. They had a closed loop program running on a VCR/ television set-up, showing a variety of pictures of club members and their cars, going back over the last 50 years. I even seen a pic of my custom 56 Ford pickup that I built in 1975. On tables across the back of the hall, they had memorabilia, trophies from past club events, trophies from the early dragster days, club jackets, the whole thing!!! The afternoon was spent catching up on old times, and at 7:00 PM a catered hot meal was served. Excellent food, followed by speeches from the current president, Barry (Huck) Flindall, who has been in the club for 46 years. Huck told a lot of funny stories about past club happenings, the dragster days, the car show days, and paid tribute to a number of club members who are now p***ed away. A great disc jockey was on hand, and an evening of dancing followed. Every club member, both past and present was given a key chain, that is a reproduction of the original cast aluminum "bumper plaques" that were cast when the club was formed back in 1956. Kathy and I, being old poops, (well, me anyways), drove across town in the rain to our hotel at about 11:00 PM, and I found that the roadster is fairly "weather resistant" even though it has no sidecurtains. We stayed overnight in Belleville, and drove home today in intermitant sunshine/thunderstorms, getting home about 4:30 this afternoon. The roadster pickup worked great, the club reunion was a big success, and we had a wonderfull time. Thank you, Road Angels.
Brian we found a write up of yours on the internet about your early days in Belleville and we enjoyed it very much. We would like to know if you would have any issues with us reprinting it in our Coasters Lead North c. c. newsletter under the ***le Cruising. We are a local car club from the Cobourg area and we like to try to put local write ups in our newsletter. Thank you in advance Jerry Plante Coasters Canada Lead North c.c. c.c.l.n@hotmail.com
I write a lot of stuff. Some of it is true history. Some of it is history the way I wish it had been!!! Get in touch with me and let me see what it is you want to print.---Brian---I'm in the Barrie phone book.
The Jalopy Journal
