The day after my birthday broke with sunny skies and warm breezes, and I had plans for the day that would take me to the local Chevrolet dealership for the "All Chevy Show". Our car club, the Gulf Coast Corvettes, in cooperation with the dealership, holds an annual event to raise money for charity. We also have fun awarding trophies, eating burgers and hot dogs, and just swapping stories about our cars. Our club, based in Bradenton, saw cars from other clubs as well. The Sarasota based club, Skyway Corvettes, sent several participants, and I recall one winner driving down from Tampa, where no fewer than six Corvette clubs are known to exist.
We had over 100 Chevrolet cars and trucks dating from the 1940's to the newest models, and several classes of trophies. While six dozen registered, several dozen more came for the fun, but did not pay a fee to have their cars judged. There was one guy who showed up in a Buick (apparently did not understand the concept of "All Chevy Show"), but after about half an hour of being ignored, he got in his huge boat of a car and left. The judging of the cars was done by the local Volkswagen club, and our Corvette club reciprocates in judging their show - keeps the issue of "favorites" out of the equation. I entered my car, but had no expectation of winning anything. My car is a "daily driver" and I hadn't even spent that much time "detailing" it with q-tips and toothbrushes, just washed it and vacuumed the carpets. I may be anal, but not THAT anal, and my $20 entry fee was going to a good cause - "In Stride" (Equine Assisted Therapy), a charity that uses horses to help children with various ills. Horsepower - it's not just for Corvettes anymore.
We'll have totals at our next club meeting, but preliminaries indicated over a thousand dollars was raised. People bought tickets for the 50/50 raffle by stretching the roll of tickets around the circumference of their cars. An interesting system, but I think the winner only bought a few chances.
There was, of course, a DJ playing a lot of car tunes from the 1960's and 70's, and other folks promoting car shows coming up on the calendar in the future. Only one accident - a lady (on her cell phone) driving a Honda lightly tapped the rear end of a 1975 Corvette as he was slowing to turn into the lot. That brought out a lady bear from the Florida Highway Patrol to take the accident report - but even tapping a Corvette lightly merited getting the report. The cost of a new Corvette in 1975 was about $7,500 base price - you have to wonder what it'll cost to replace the mechanical and body parts of that 1974 mandated "5 mph rear bumper". The trooper was driving a Crown Victoria, but we welcomed her Ford onto the lot to aid a fellow Corvette guy.
A local restaurant from Longboat Key (my island) provided food to the Anna Maria Island cub scout pack, and they sold hamburgers for $3.00, hot dogs for $2.00 and potato chips for .50 cents. I had my water bottle, so didn't need a drink (could refill it from the water fountain inside the building, after all) but purchased a tasty hot dog around noon - when the show was nearing its close, and hamburgers were going for half price, I finished sating my appetite.
"Baseball, hot dogs, apply pie and Chevrolet" was a favorite jingle used in advertising, and it depicted an All-American day. Other adventures awaited me that evening, featuring a parade and more hot dogs. But that's for another blog entry, to follow.
We had over 100 Chevrolet cars and trucks dating from the 1940's to the newest models, and several classes of trophies. While six dozen registered, several dozen more came for the fun, but did not pay a fee to have their cars judged. There was one guy who showed up in a Buick (apparently did not understand the concept of "All Chevy Show"), but after about half an hour of being ignored, he got in his huge boat of a car and left. The judging of the cars was done by the local Volkswagen club, and our Corvette club reciprocates in judging their show - keeps the issue of "favorites" out of the equation. I entered my car, but had no expectation of winning anything. My car is a "daily driver" and I hadn't even spent that much time "detailing" it with q-tips and toothbrushes, just washed it and vacuumed the carpets. I may be anal, but not THAT anal, and my $20 entry fee was going to a good cause - "In Stride" (Equine Assisted Therapy), a charity that uses horses to help children with various ills. Horsepower - it's not just for Corvettes anymore.
We'll have totals at our next club meeting, but preliminaries indicated over a thousand dollars was raised. People bought tickets for the 50/50 raffle by stretching the roll of tickets around the circumference of their cars. An interesting system, but I think the winner only bought a few chances.
There was, of course, a DJ playing a lot of car tunes from the 1960's and 70's, and other folks promoting car shows coming up on the calendar in the future. Only one accident - a lady (on her cell phone) driving a Honda lightly tapped the rear end of a 1975 Corvette as he was slowing to turn into the lot. That brought out a lady bear from the Florida Highway Patrol to take the accident report - but even tapping a Corvette lightly merited getting the report. The cost of a new Corvette in 1975 was about $7,500 base price - you have to wonder what it'll cost to replace the mechanical and body parts of that 1974 mandated "5 mph rear bumper". The trooper was driving a Crown Victoria, but we welcomed her Ford onto the lot to aid a fellow Corvette guy.
A local restaurant from Longboat Key (my island) provided food to the Anna Maria Island cub scout pack, and they sold hamburgers for $3.00, hot dogs for $2.00 and potato chips for .50 cents. I had my water bottle, so didn't need a drink (could refill it from the water fountain inside the building, after all) but purchased a tasty hot dog around noon - when the show was nearing its close, and hamburgers were going for half price, I finished sating my appetite.
"Baseball, hot dogs, apply pie and Chevrolet" was a favorite jingle used in advertising, and it depicted an All-American day. Other adventures awaited me that evening, featuring a parade and more hot dogs. But that's for another blog entry, to follow.
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