New England’s Vintage Car Show 2014…
New England’s Vintage Car Show was spectacular for our 21st annual show. Just when you say we can’t top a previous show, we do.
The “Night Before the Show Dinner” was well attended with over 40 members present and ready to enjoy the fare at Newick’s Seafood Restaurant. While the food was good for the most part the service left room for improvement. I think this was in large part due to the restaurant running short on help that left the wait people overwhelmed. My personal disaster came when the waitress was doing a sprint to serve the meals dumped a container of tarter sauce on me. Granted it was a small container but felt about quart size as I reached back to clean my clothes and would come up with what felt like a handful of the stuff. Bottom line though, my temperament brought me through the situation, along with an adjustment on our check, with a minimum of agony. Of course it helped that Bob was wishing for something to be spilled on him so that he might receive an adjustment on his check.
The next morning the weather was just as the weatherman had been predicting for over a week, cool, dry and sunshine. This was my 7th or 8th trip to the farm museum and still, I managed a wrong turn while leading the group, and true to form, resulted in a turn-a-round and another new way to the museum! But, not to worry! Soon, we were all set up and ready to welcome the best showing of cars to date. Cars arriving were met with the gate folk’senthusiasm and the parkers happily directing them to their respective spots on the show field. After that they were registering and being steered toward the NEVT store to acquire the items available there. Nothing but friendly people wherever you turned.
Cars arrived from all over New England and beyond. We had folks coming from Quebec, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island Brewer, Maine, Cape Cod and beyond. It just amazes me how our show pulls in so many people from long distances.
One car I was especially happy to see and photograph was a 1957 Thunderbird that our dear departed friend, Dick Bernard, had been hard at work modifying with a frame-off restoration while maintaining the stock appearance. His wife, Joanne and son Steve, finished the restoration and certainly did a wonderful job finishing the car. I know Dick would be very delighted to see it today. The car is now in the possession of his son Steve and I expect to see more of this car in the coming months. I did a photo shoot in a very picturesque area of the museum for a Member Gallery layout in an upcoming issue of the Bird’s Nest. The ’57 had folks around it all day examining the level of quality displayed by the workmanship.
In the meantime the food concession was open for business and doing a bang-up job as they were busy straight through day and in fact, running out of some items, namely the $10 Lobster rolls that came with fries. The museum’s gate was busy as well with spectators pouring on to the field to peruse and reminisce viewing all the stunning cars available, especially the Thunderbirds. This show brings out the 1900s through the 1940s cars like no other location. In fact, the Raitt Farm Museum folks have already penciled us in with a date of June 21, 2015! I don’t know how we will improve on this year but I expect that we will.
The participant voting went very smoothly as usual with just a few changes to make things easier for them and me announcing. Unfortunately, for some reason, we can’t seem to attract former Best of Show winners even though there is a special class for them. We need to examine the reasons why and what we have to do to attract them in the coming years. That is the only slightly down area for us.
Kevin Boles, once again, did a fabulous job with the music duties. He has so much music available and I hear people talking about how pleased they were with all his selections. Should anyone need an MC, just let me know and I will put you in touch with him.
One of the highlights of this show for me, and many other NEVT members, was an unexpected visit by Kenny Wilson who has been battling very serious health problems. Kenny is a former Vice President of NEVT and has always been active in the club. Somehow, he managed to drive himself from Methuen, MA to the show. Everyone was just ecstatic to see him and we certainly hope that we brightened his day in some small way. He brightened ours even though he was the one that deserved it! Keep fighting, Ken!
Finally, all the ballots were counted, the awards presented, and the show buttoned down for another year. If you missed this one, put the next show on your calendar and experience it firsthand.
After all this we dragged ourselves home, exhausted and happy that once again a very successful event was relegated to the history of New England’s Vintage Thunderbird Club.