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We Will Always Remember September 11, 2001. . . Have You Forgotten?

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Date of creation of this web site: 26 October 1998 - Date of latest update(s) of this web site: 6, 10, 12, 13, 16, 18, 19, 22, 24, 25, 26, 31 May, 2, 4, 6, 10, 11, 14, 18, 23, 25, 29 June, 2, 4, 6, 10, 16, 17, 22, 23, 26, 27, 30 July, 3, 6, 11, 17, 19, 24, 28, 31 August, 4, 9, 11, 15, 16, 22, 28, 30 September, 5, 22, 26, 29 October, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 22 November 2009 (today's highlights in RED - And please also be sure to hit "Refresh" or "Reload" on your internet browser to ensure you are vi ewing the latest updates to this page)

*11/22/2009 - Oh Fudge! Wouldn't you know that more house and family stuff would prevent me from getting out to Shelton yesterday, on a beautiful afternoon, to check out the Shelton Jaycees' "Tuner Fe(a)st" car event! I sure hope it went well--I guess there's always next year for me!... I also just updated the Calendar page with info on the New Haven 'Fantasy of Light' fundraiser that started Friday 11/20, and runs to the end of December--it's a fun thing to do with your family, and generates money for good causes. I also added a December 6th listing for the Enfield indoor automotive flea market, and will add the three 2010 dates once I get them confirmed. Anyway, be sure to check the Calendar page for all known info, on these and many other events... Finally, I'm going to look at a couple of interesting VW Type 181 "Thing" automobiles this coming week, since Karmann Ghia Convertible hunting has not been going super-well. Who knows, perhaps I'll be enjoying a "VW convertible of a completely different sort" next year...

*11/15/2009 - The Classified Ads page has just been updated with an interesting new vehicle for sale and we also have updated the Links page with a new link for a wonderful local car club with TONS of tradition: The Thunder Rods. Please do check out the newest link listing on the Links page, or go directly to their wonderful online home at: www.thunderrodsct.com ... Hope everyone had a good weekend--some really nice weather for about the second half of it, at least. I was once again thwarted (by family and home responsibilities) in my attempt to get out and do anything old-car-related this weekend, but, like always, I remain hopeful and look forward to the next opportunity!

*11/12/2009 - Happy to report that we've just updated the Calendar page with some wonderful feedback from the Shelton Jaycees' "Tuner Fe(a)st 2009" committee, who got back to me yesterday in response to my inquiry about the possibilities for "other" (that is: non-"tuner" type) cars to be able to show up and participate in this event, which is soon-upcoming, on Saturday, November 21st, in Shelton (with an 11/22 rain date), and which benefits many very worthy organizations--via collection of nonperishable food or toy donations as part of the show car entry. Gotta tip our hats to fine organizations like the Shelton Jaycees who really "get it" about the true spirit of the Thanksgiving Season!... And please be sure to check the Calendar page also for several more new 2010 events also just-added as of this evening...

*11/10/2009 - Amazing! Another cool & local old-car-thing-to-do has turned up--for this very weekend! I think you probably are already aware of the Black Horse Garage open house in Bridgeport happening on this coming Saturday (11/14), however in doing some internet browsing today, we came upon a listing for a cool-sounding food-bank-benefit car show event up in Southbury for Sunday (11/15), which we've just added this evening to the Calendar page--so please be sure to check it out, and if your old car's still on the road, I'll bet it would be a fun reason to take it out for another late-season spin! I know I am "always saying it," but if the weather's decent and I can find some free time, I'd sure like to take an old car out to one or both of this coming weekend's events (especially Sunday's which, incorporates both a car show and a food drive). And who knows how many more nice weekends we'll have to do this sort of thing this year?!... And speaking of potentially fun & soon-upcoming stuff, I would like to say that I had gotten some sort of response back from the Shelton "Tuner Fe(a)st" upcoming on Saturday, November 21st, at River Walk Park--I tried making contact both via e-mail and snail mail, to see if "regular antique" (i.e. non-"tuner") cars might be eligible to participate--but unfortunately have heard nothing back from them as of yet. I may still try checking it out, if I have some time on the 21st, so we may still have the opportunity to report back--we shall see how it goes, I guess... Finally, I had a nice telephone conversation on the phone this evening with the seller of the '74 Karmann Ghia Convertible that I mentioned in the 11/8 update below--he called me because he was a bit mystified as to what might have made me decide not to go ahead with the purchase of his very fine car (since I didn't really elaborate when I told him I was not going to pursue purchase). I am glad that we were able to talk further and that there are no hard feelings. Talking it out with him also helped me more fully understand what it was that I was really looking for in a car, which will also help me in the future as I may come across future possible candidates. Having come from my "humble" '68 Bug background, I realize now that a "perfect" car is not necessarily the best thing for me--since anything I buy to replace the '68 will have to be suitable for just about any driving and "usage" conditions out there (short of salty roads, that is!), because that's how I used the '68 (driving it was the fun of it!). And so, we live and learn, and continue the journey...

*11/8/2009 - Not much new to report, though I did go and reactivate one of the MANY "lost" feature pages from last fall, when AOL closed down their web hosting service with little warning. It was the "Thrashwell" page, that documents a "legendary" old car from my wife's family, and what is known about the origins of that name--about which we've recently (within the past year, that is) received some fantastic new background information--and which we're FINALLY getting published via an update to the Thrashwell page. So, please do check it out some time at your leisure. The link to the Thrashwell page has also been updated and reactivated on the Photo Pages Index page... One minor bit of personal old car news involves our going to take a second look at a spectacular original, low-miles 1974 VW Karmann Ghia Convertible, up in the northwest part of the state, on Saturday (as discovered in a "craigslist" ad). After a lot of soul-searching, though, I decided that the car did not represent what I was really looking for, and was being offered at a very hefty "firm" asking price that was somewhat beyond my budget. As it was, this Ghia was destined to probably be "too nice" to drive the way I used to drive my old '68 Bug, and the very substantial monetary investment also created a stress in my mind that I decided was also not something I wanted. So, the search goes on (for a nice, approximately '68 or later Karmann Ghia Convertible--if you know of any good candidates in the Northeast, please do feel free to drop me a line--thanks!)... Finally, though today is not Veteran's Day technically (that will be Wednesday of this coming week, 11/11/09), I do wish to express my sincere Thanks To All Veterans, for your great service to our country. Today I had the privilege of attending the Branford Veterans Day Observances in our town, as part of our Boy Scout Troop. As always, it was inspiring to hear what the distinguished speakers (town political leaders, religious leaders, and veteran representatives) had to say about the great significnace of the day, and made us pause and reflect. I also marched with our Troop in the Parade, so unfortunately was again not able to drive an old car this year--but it was indeed an honor to march, to help pay tribute to all of our Military Veterans. Mother Nature provided a spectacular day for all of this to take place in the center of Branford, and another highlight was an exciting low-level fly-over by a pair of US Army Black Hawk helicopters. Thanks again Veterans, and God Bless America.

*11/4/2009 - Looking back at Sunday, 10/25/2009: a Spectacular Day for Connecticut Old Car Fall Foliage Touring! Be the ride of choice Vintage German or Vintage British, old car folks "in the fall spirit" made the most of a fantastic recent late-October Sunday, when nice sunny & mild weather combined with some "peak" foliage colors. Thanks to some great photos shared by our old-VW friend Greg Mattesen, we were able to get a bit of a taste, to share here, in the form of a couple of selected hyperlinked photos (thanks for permission to showcase a few of your shots Greg!). Greg was part of a three-car "mini-tour" of Vintage Volkswagen Beetle Convertibles in and around the Connecticut River Valley that day, driving his own superb light yellow 1969 model, and accompanied by Bill Silvestri driving his kool red 1960 model, and "Mrs. Webmaster" (Diane) driving her own black 1954 model. The small accompanying photo shown here a the upper right is a cropped-down piece of a photo of the three VWs waiting on the west side of the Chester-Hadlyme Ferry for their turn to cross over to the other side (click HERE directly on the image to bring up the full-view), and continue on to other sites of interest--such as Gillette Castle, over on the east side, in East Haddam. An impressive old car scene was already going on at the Gillette Castle parking lot, on that beautiful fall Sunday--a majority appearing to be colorful Vintage MGs (probably mostly associated with the CT MG Club - though we also noticed a few Triumphs in there...). Greg, Bill, and Diane also switched cars for part of their mini-tour. Quoting from a 10/26/2009 e-mail that had some of his wonderful shots attached, Greg wrote: "...I think the three vintage convertibles really made an impression on the road. It was a great way to wrap up the year of VW events, with a nice, low-key cruise in some of the most scenic areas of Connecticut..." Regarding this very striking "classic fall" old car image from earlier in the day (location is a driveway just off of Main Street/Route 17, in Portland, CT), Greg wrote: "...Bill and I parked our convertibles...prior to Diane arriving, and got the treat of seeing Diane coming down the street (we also saw quite a few kool hot rods on their way up to the Glastonbury event--judging from the number of cars I saw that morning and also yesterday afternoon, I would say the turnout must have been great)...." Greg of course refers to the "Hot Rod & Kustom Fall-Out" that was taking place the same day up in South Glastonbury. We wish to thank Greg once again for sharing his beautiful antique-auto-themed fall foliage photos!... Finally, please be sure to check the Calendar page for more old-car-related stuff-to-do upcoming the next several weekends--including the just-added Branford Holiday Parade, happening on the Saturday after Thanksgiving--always a fun & spirited evening!

*10/22/2009 - Computer problems! Oh boy, am I happy to finally once again be past the latest round of computer problems here at SAAC World Headquarters. Right after I completed the last update to this page on 10/5/2009 (see below), our crummy PC (manufactured by a popular computer company whose name has four letters) decided that it no longer felt like working...leading to plenty (and I mean plenty) of "quality time" on the phone talking with the company's technical representatives, and also, along the way, getting a new hard drive installed, hassling with downloading resources from the company web site (of course having to be done on another computer), and then waiting for snail-mailed resource disks to arrive (after it was determined that the downloaded files did not do the trick), and then, of course, lots more time on the phone with the (always very-foreign-sounding) technical reps. The alternative, of course, is to have a very expensive computer-shaped boat anchor taking up space on your desk...so we had to deal with the whole painful process. Anyway. enough of that!... It's gradually (& sadly) become apparent to me that our 2009 calendar year of antique auto-related activities is winding down. And to add insult to injury, a few of the really good late-season ones have fallen prey to the recent crummy weather (like the Klingberg event in New Britain which was completely cancelled this year). Another good local one that had questionable weather for its originally-scheduled date, however, happily, appears to have been able to be moved to a workable new date--I am referring to the South Glastonbury Hot Rod & Kustom Fall-Out, that was originally scheduled for Saturday 10/17, then was postponed to its rain date of Saturday 10/24, and then (due to bad forecasts for 10/24), most recently, was moved up one more day to Sunday 10/25 (which forecasters are saying is going to be a great day). Unfortunately for me, I have family obligations on Sunday, so it's going to be another year of waiting--but very good news for those who drive and/or enjoy real, traditional "roots" hot-rods, and have a free day this coming Sunday. Be sure to check out thedetails at the official event site: http://www.hotrodfallout.com/ , and/or the listing on our Calendar page , where, incidentally, a few new-for-2010 old car events have also just been added (plus we're researching others, to try to fill more of the "cold months" with some old-car-stuff-to-do)... Finally, to go along with the small teaser photo shown at the upper right, I wanted to briefly mention that we had another great time at Hershey earlier this month. I am referring, of course, to the AACA Eastern Division National Fall Meet, where we enjoyed two full days of browsing some 10,000 or so vendor spaces filled with old car parts, followed by a day participating in one of the greatest old car shows in the world, along with 2,000 or so other beautiful antique cars and trucks--and all three days of great socializing with old car friends. The image depicts a bit of the front fender of our '54 VW, which was back going for another "repeat preservation" in Class 27A. If you click directly the image (or HERE), you'll bring up a larger overall view of the '54 as it appeared amidst all the other show cars at the Hershey car show on Saturday, October 10th, 2009. On our way driving off the field at the end of the day, we spotted another old car friend, who offered to take our picture in the car (click on that hyperlink). Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and we're already looking forward to the 2010 version...

*10/5/2009 - Happy October--the year just keeps flying by... Well, we did manage to salvage one spectacular day this past weekend--Sunday turned out really nice, after the rain and gray skies of Saturday. On Saturday afternoon, though, I still had the itch to get out with an old car, since the rain had "more or less" stopped. Looking at the Calendar page, I noticed that the Moodus American Legion event (car show & pig roast) that Jack and Maureen Tary had told us about was mostly afternoon-oriented, and so I decided to drive out there with Luigi the Ghia. It was a nice drive through many beautiful areas of the CT River Valley, and very easy to get to. The cars were set up on a ball field adjacent to the building where it appeared the pig roast festivities were going on. When I got there, maybe around 3:30pm or so, there were three cool Chevies already on display (click HERE and HERE for views of the Beautiful Bowties), and two VWs, one of which was a slick, freshly-on-the-road '71 Ghia--and the other a very impressive hybrid woods-buggy, with numerous technical innovations. The owner of the woods-buggy had his very beautiful dog "Argyle" with him, and it was a great pleasure to meet Argyle as well! The very handsome Argyle was gracious to pose on the bed of his dad's buggy, and that's the picture you see featured at the upper right--and on which you can click directly (or HERE) to bring up a larger, uncropped version of the same image. Two more hyperlinked images of the VWs I have are a shot of the woods-buggy and the Ghia, and one of the front ends of all three of the VWs. I had a lot of fun chatting with everyone while I was there, and thank all the organizers for a fun event. Driving home with Old Luigi, I made sure to snap a picture crossing the beautiful Haddam Swing Bridge, and I also have this proof to show that we hit "110" while driving back toward Stony Creek on Interstate 95 (ah, that's kilometers per hour, by the way!)... In the morning on Sunday the 4th, I helped out our Boy Scout Troop a bit in the morning with manning a check-point for the "Bruce's Ride" benefit bicycle ride through Branford and Guilford--which, it turns out, benefits the same excellent cause--The Hospital of St. Raphael Father Michael J. McGivney Cancer Care Center--as this coming Saturday's (10/10) "1st Cruise Against Cancer" old car event in Northford--see the Calendar page for details... And then it was up to West Springfield, MA in the afternoon, to participate in another Big E Parade, for which we had signed up through the The Connecticut Valley Region AACA (of which we are members). We drove up in Diane's '73 VW again, and our daughter Sarah brought along one of her school buddies (Matt had other plans for the day). It was a great day at the fair, and it was great to be able to participate in the Parade once again. Click HERE for a view of some of the other CVR-AACA antique cars staged for the parade, and HERE is an "action shot" of Diane and the girls, driving along the very well-attended parade route. Thanks again to CVR-AACA for facilitating another great Big E Day!

*9/30/2009 - Yes indeed the East Haven benefit car show did get pushed to this coming Saturday, 10/3--check the Calendar page for details. Also, the HVR-AACA's New Milford "Wings & Wheels" event did get postponed yet again (Mother Nature has not been kind to them); it is now scheduled for Sunday, October 11th. And finally, we also just added a new church group benefit car show happening in Meriden on Saturday, October 10th. As always, please do check the Calendar page for all the details... Oh, and for your amusement, I finally got a couple of quickie pictures of how our '56 Ghia (a.k.a.: "Luigi") looks with his "borrowed sneakers" (belonging to our '60 Bug - see mention below in the 9/28/2009 section), bolted on when I was doing some road-testing of Luigi last weekend. Here is a left front overall view, and here is a slightly closer left rear view. How about that color combo? It's Mango Green outers and a complimentary shade of Purple for the centers, a combination that I came up with myself (Mango Green being the body color of the '60 Bug, and with the idea of purple for a two-tone paint job having been inspired by a house in Stony Creek Village). Anyway, it was fun to try the colorful wheels out on Luigi--with the kool vintage Michelin radials--all now fully spin-balanced. Anyway, it was fun to try, but I think Doug the '60 Bug wants his funky wheels back now... Incidentlaly, it also occurred to me that Luigi will be turning 53 years of age next month--having rolled off the production line on October 31, 1956 (Halloween--kinda appropriate for an all-black car, too)... Ok, I think that about covers it for now...

*9/28/2009 - Well, we had half a great weekend just passed, at least! Sorry about all the events that got rained-upon and/or rained-out on Sunday the 27th. In particular I had been looking forward to checking out that East Haven benefit car show, which I am assuming (based on published info) will now be held on this coming Saturday, October 3rd (and I've also written to the organizer, to hopefully confirm that)... Saturday the 26th was really nice, though, and we did manage to get out and enjoy the day, including the Animal Haven's "Walk-A-Dog-A-Thon" in the morning at the North Haven Green--even though it's not old-car-related, we always love to support that fine organization that benefits pets who need homes... Later on the same day, I managed to get some more tweaking and maintenance done on the current "active" old car I've been driving lately--"Luigi" the old '56 VW Karmann Ghia Coupe. Luigi hadn't been driving as well as I felt he could, and so I did some more work on engine tuning, including freeing up the vacuum advance mechanism on the distributor, which seemed to help smooth out acceleration. Not being totally happy with how he was steering, I also did some steering box fluids maintenance, and a bunch of front end lubrication, and that also seems to have helped with driveability and handling. The last thing I did was bolt on a set of two-toned VW wheels with vintage Michelin "XZX" radials, that I had just gotten back from professional spin balancing by our friends at Stony Creek Auto (located at 417 Leetes Island Road, Stony Creek, CT, phone 203-488-7868 - and with a special assist from Bill Silvestri in the form of the loan of his "wide 5" VW bolting pattern adapter plate, which allows old VW wheels to be spin balanced). The wheels, with their funky green & purple paint scheme, belong to "Doug" our '60 Bug, but since Doug is now sitting way back in an inaccessible part of the garage, I decided to test out their balancing on Luigi--and I'm happy to say they roll great now! They also look kinda unique and cool on the all-black Ghia--I'll try to take a picture to show you, next chance I get... Next, I wanted to report on the fun time we had participating with Mrs. Webmaster's '73 VW Super Beetle Convertible, as part of the old car contingent in the afternoon parade around the grounds at The Big E, this past Wednesday, the 23rd. The antique car participation is organized by a club we're members of: The Connecticut Valley Region AACA, and we had pre-registered with them back quite a while ago, to be able to do this. Click HERE or on the small image at the upper right to bring up a larger view of the pre-parade staging scene near the back of the State Buildings (featuring Diane getting patriotic decorations attached to her '73 for the parade). This year Diane convinced "Barker the Parker," Executive Valet's mascot, to ride with us in the parade. There were many other beautiful antique cars also queued up with us before the start of the parade. The parade itself was quite a thrill also! Thanks again to the fine folks of CVR-AACA for organizing this fun day!.. Finally, I wanted to mention having gotten a review of the Time Machines 2009 Antique Volkswagen participation together for the Common Gear (antique VW hobby) site, as of this past weekend (a rainy Sunday project, matter of fact). You wouldn't know there were VWs there this year from browsing the official event web site's photo gallery--but indeed there were no less than 18 beauties entered--one of the healthier marque turnouts in the entire show, I'd wager! Anyway, you can check that report out online at: http://home.comcast.net/~commonsteve/TimeMachines2009/TM09Report.html

*9/22/2009 - Wow, What a Weekend!... 'Good things come to those who wait,' it appears, judging by how long we've been waiting this summer for some really nice weather. There was a lot of great old car stuff going on for sure this past weekend, and we hope you were able to fit some into your schedule. I'm happy to say that amidst other demands, I was able to get both the '50 Bug and the '56 Ghia out for some exercise--like the recent driving I've been doing with the '60 Bug, it felt good to get the other oldies out for some exercise. I even was inspired to create a new SAAC web site header based upon a picture I took down at Stony Creek village on Friday evening, with the '50 Bug--what do you think? Click HERE or directly on the header to bring up a "watercolor stylized" copy of the original image that I based this new header on--yes, it did come from a real picture... On Sunday, I knew that my son Matt had been asking me for a long time to take him back up to the Simsbury "Fly-In" antique aircraft and automobile event up at the Simsbury Airport. We ended up driving a modern car there and back, since we were on a somewhat tight schedule, but, oh boy, it was just as great a time as we remember! All kinds of cool old cars parked in every "nook and cranny" around the airport, and lots of cool older planes parked on the grassy airfield, with even more taking off and landing, plus skydivers, precision fly-overs, and much more--it was "one active scene" for sure. I'm so glad that the weather was so nice for this event. Yes, I took some pictures, and so we may be putting together something for a future SAAC web site feature, so, like we always say, "stay tuned," but meanwhile you can also click HERE for a sample Simsbury '09 image... Some other good old-car friends with whom we keep in touch kept themselves busy too this past weekend. Bill Silvestri and his family drove their '66 Mustang up to the 'Big E' in West Springfield, MA on Sunday, to participate in the old car display on the Avenue of the States that is organized by the Connecticut Valley Region AACA. Our New York friend Roland Metz drove his '77 Bug out to Flanders, New Jersey on Sunday to participate in an "All Air-Cooled Gathering," which, as you might expect, was primarily old VWs, though we heard a few Porsches, and some Corvairs, also--click HERE for one of Roland's sample images from the Flanders event. Roland even had his "spy glasses on" and took some pictures of a spectacular Karmann Ghia convertible that was there sporting a "for sale" sign (a bit outside my price range, but what a beauty...)--thanks again for looking out for me, Roland!... And finally, the small "teaser" photo shown at the above right (click HERE or directly on the image to bring up a larger, uncropped version of this super-impressive image) comes to us courtesy of our friend Greg Mattesen, who drove his '63 Bug out to Southbury, CT, to participate in the Roaring 20's Antique Car Club's huge annual antique car show & flea market (which we understand this year was the club's 39th annual production--wow), that also took place on Sunday (9/20). The event is held on the expansive grounds of the Southbury Training School, and proceeds benefit the institution. In good years, it is not unusual for a 1,000-show-car turnout! Greg reported a great time, with some neat flea market "finds," and also running into a few other fellow old-VW friends there. Thanks Greg for sharing the very cool shot of that very impressive Southbury turnout! For more information about the Roaring 20's club and their legendary show, be sure to check out: http://www.roaring-20s.org/ ... Beyond that, please also check the Calendar page for a just-added October 3rd Moodus event, info forwarded along to us by our friend Jack Tary... Over and out for now!

*9/15/2009 - Just a quick note of happiness at having been able to get up to the CT Pinto & Bobcat gathering in Manchester on this past Sunday, 9/13--which had been rescheduled from Saturday (9/12), due to weather. It was a lot of fun to see other Pintos and Pinto Folks--thanks again to Bill and Connie of the the CT Pinto & Bobcat Forum for organizing it! We even had the pleasure of meeting Shari from Niantic, who owns that spectacular super-original '71 Pinto that we admired at the July Essex Cruise--see the CPR page and also the 9/4/2009 updates section below. Anyway, as always, hope to be adding a mini-feature at some point to further document the fun time in Manchester (but you can also click HERE and HERE for a couple of shots I already posted at the AACA Photo Forum--yes, there was a cool Maverick there too)... But the weather-related date change also affected by ability to attend the East Haven Fall Festival car show on Sunday--darn--I like that one a lot, and am sorry I had to miss it--would love to hear from anyone who did make it... Speaking of East Haven, I also received a heads-up about another soon-upcoming East Haven benefit old car event--see the new listing for 9/27/2009 on the Calendar page--and thanks again to Steve the organizer for reminding us about it!... And speaking of weather-related postponements, I heard the oft-postponed HVR-AACA New Milford event scheduled for 9/13 had to get rescheduled yet again--this time to 9/27--again, please see the Calendar page for details... Finally, a glance at the date reveals that the great Guilford Fair is upcoming this coming weekend! And in a related theme from the shameless self-promotion department, I wanted to bring up the fact that we're still proudly flying our 2009 Guilford Fair sticker on our '60 Bug--this time the small teaser picture shown is from a shopping trip to the nearby Leetes Island Road Super Stop & Shop this past Saturday (9/12)--click directly on it (or HERE) to bring up a larger view (where you might also be able to see a collie head or two in the back window--we had all of our dogs with us that day!). And check out this side view of the '60 from the same spot--you can see that I am running, for now, some wide whites, while my radials are out getting spin-balanced by our friends at Stony Creek Auto--and my old set of "Foxcraft" metal fender skirts, that I had painted up several years back, in L346 Mango Green, to match the car--kind of a cool change of pace, visually, for now, I think--though I also look forward to properly balanced radials for smoother and more confident high-speed running on the highway... Over and out for now!

*9/11/2009 - Time for a bit of reflection on the significance of this date in American history, that forever changed us. It's already eight years passed, but still seems fresh in memory. And not that I enjoy watching rebroadcasts of the day's tragic events in 2001 (I don't), but I also think it's good for younger folks to be able to get at least a bit of a sense for what happened that day, September 11, 2001... On another "reflective" note, of a lighter, happier nature, I am also very pleased to report briefly here on a trio of recent-past area old car (& old-car-related) events, in which I was able to view and/or participate--and they were all, if I do say so, very cool!... Let's see, starting back on Sunday of Labor Day Weekend (9/6/2009), as noted in the 9/9/2009 updates section below, we enjoyed the tremendous thrill of participating, with Diane's '54 VW Bug (and with the company of several other fellow CT VW Association members, including our long-time buddies Bill Silvestri, driving his '60 Convertible Bug, and Greg Mattesen, driving his '64 "Herbie" Bug), in the Shoreline Recycled Teenage Cruisers' big annual Labor Day Weekend Antique Car Show, at the Elks Lodge in Westbrook, CT. The small accompanying image shown here at the upper right is a cropped-down piece of a larger view of a figurative (and almost literal, given the location of the event, right by L.I. Sound!) "sea" of old cars there on the field that day in Westbrook. If you click directly on the image (or HERE), you'll bring up a larger, uncropped version of that same shot. I also uploaded another couple of Westbrook '09 images, that I've also hyperlinked for your viewing pleasure (click directly on each link to bring up the image): An overall view from the southwest corner of the show field, an overall view from the southeast corner of the show field, and an overall view from the northeast corner of the show field. I think you'll agree that Westbrook '09 was pretty spectacular! Anyway, as I always say, more coverage to come, as I find the time to work on it!... Next in chronological order came the Short Beach Days Parade, on Monday, September 7th (Labor Day proper, I believe). Short Beach is the furthest-west section of Branford, and this little community parade really captures the true essence of a community parade--it seems that there are way more Short Beach people who participate in it than watch it! Speaking for where I watched from, none of our group were Short Beachers. A couple of our family's old VWs got pressed into service, and can be seen here, trailing my sister-in-law's '64 Alfa, in the parade. Nearby East Haven usually sends over a couple of cool vintage fire engines, and Branford has at least one super-cool oldie of its own rolling in the parade--with a ton of their modern units stretching out behind... Finally, I had recently seen a poster advertising a benefit cruise night at Bishops Orchards on Route 1 in Guilford, for Thursday evening, September 10th (also as mentioned in the 9/9/2009 updates below), so I thought I'd drive over with the '60 Bug and see if I could hang out for a little while, check out some cars, and help support the Guilford-based "Apple Pi Robotics" club. The cars were displayed over in a grassy field on the west side of the Bishops property, and donations by participants could be easily made on the way in. Lots of cool old cars were still streaming in at the time I had to leave, to attend a Boy Scout meeting later that evening. Here is a view from the west end looking east, and here is a view from the east end looking west. And yes, I was happy to have my 2009 Guilford Fair sticker displayed in the back window of my '60 Bug!... Ok--all for now. Please keep all the September 11th, 2001 heroes and their families--and all of our soldiers in harm's way--in your thoughts and prayers...

*9/9/2009 - Oh boy, was the Shoreline Recycled Teenage Cruisers' show this past Sunday (9/6) in Westbrook great or what?! What a tremendous day all the way around! Congrats and thanks to our friends the S.R.T. Cruisers for a fantastic old car event! Definitely plan to relate more about this event as we are able, but don't have our "stuff" together quite yet--so please do stay tuned... But as of this evening we do have a few more new events just added to the Calendar page , so please do check 'em out. One very-soon-upcoming is a cruise that's scheduled for tomorrow (9/10/2009) at Bishop's Orchards in Guilford--I've heard the ominous forecasts for tomorrow, though, and have attempted to make contact with the organizers to ask if they have a rain date--but so far no luck--however if you hear anything more, or know someone connected with event from whom you can possibly obtain that sort of info, please do let us know and we'll attempt to get it posted ASAP... All for now!

*9/4/2009 - "Let's Roll!" Not only is that a general call-to-action for old car folks to get their antique cars & trucks out for some driving enjoyment before the 2009 season slips through our hands, but it also has special historical significance at this time of year, as we approach the anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terror attacks on the United States. Folks who paid attention to the facts about that day probably recall that phrase as having been immortalized by one of the United Flight 93 heroes who overpowered the hijackers intent on crashing the plane into the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC, and through their efforts ended up with the plane crashing into a field in Shanksville, PA. Of course everyone onboard perished, but their memories live on. Listening to a New York all-news radio station a couple of days ago, I heard an item about the "Ride With The 40," which is a memorial motorcycle ride, Newwark Liberty Airport (NJ) to California, tracing Flight 93's original flight path, organized by a relative of one of the Flight 93 heroes, to help raise money for the Flight 93 memorial, and also with the more general mission of "...Remembrance, Patriotism, and Honor for the passengers and crew members of United Flight 93..." Anyway, having been forever affected by the events of that day (see the phrase that we keep prominently posted right below the SAAC graphic header at the top of this page), we thought it was worth passing along, especially at this time of year, with the September 11th anniversary approaching. For those interested in learning more about the events of September 11th, 2001, I've found a remarkably nonpoliticized account contained in the US Governments's 9-11 Comission Report, and set a week aside two summers ago to read it in its entirety--I recommend it to anyone who wants to know the facts of that day. There are lots of copies of it around in used book stores, or you can also go on Amazon and buy a new or used copy... Ok, enough of my patriotic ranting for now--let's get back to some old car stuff. Among several new and/or rescheduled events added to the Calendar page this evening, I wanted to make special mention of Bill Rainey's CT Pinto & Bobcat Meet that's soon upcoming on Saturday, September 12th in Manchester, CT. We make no apologies for our own interest in antique Pintos, with our own Connecticut Pinto Registry page featured prominently at this web site, and we heartily endorse the work that Bill Rainey does to foster Pinto and Bobcat enthusiasm in our state! Thanks, Bill for "keeping the Pinto faith," and look forward to participating in Manchester on September 12th!... And so, being in a "Pinto state of mind" and getting psyched up for the Manchester meet next weekend, I was also reminded about the super-nice early Pinto that I took pictures of at an Essex, CT cruise night back in July--and so I dragged those pictures out and created a timely updated to the Connecticut Pinto Registry page this evening to feature a few pictures of that beautiful 1971 model Ford Pinto. If you click directly on the small image at the upper right, which is a scaled-down image of the super-fine '71 Pinto at the July Essex, CT cruise, you'll be taken to the CPR page, and the go to the "CT Pintos" section for mre info and hyperlinked pictures!... Ok, that's it for now--I wish you all a happy Labor Day Weekend, and hope you can enjoy some time with your family--and your old car too! Maybe I'll see you on Sunday at the Westbrook Elks Lodge antique car show--we are planning to attend along with several other CT VW Association members...

*8/31/2009 - Yow--the last day of August, 2009 already--and possibly for the first full-week span of the summer, the weatherman's forecast looks nearly perfect--figures! Oh well, nothing accomplished crying over spilled 10W40--rather, it's time to refocus efforts on getting out there and trying to have some old car fun during this "latter part" of the 2009 Connecticut Old Car Season--and there are still many more opportunities out there waiting for us, I can assure you--just check our Calendar page... Most recently, I have heard that the Housatonic Valley Region AACA car show at the small airport in New Milford, that had been rescheduled from 8/23 to 8/30, had to be rescheduled again, due to unacceptably wet field conditions (due, in turn, to recent rains on 8/29)--the new date is now some time in September--but regretfully I don't have that info in front of me this minute--I will look up and report back on that next chance I get... One thing that did indeed happen on schedule for this past Sunday, the 30th of August, was the Shelton Jaycees Antique Car Show & Craft Bazaar at beautiful River Walk Park (on the banks of the Housatonic River) in Shelton, CT. Diane decided to drive her '54 Bug, and our son Matt and I followed in our '60 Bug. We got there fairly late in the morning, and couldn't stay too long, but we had a really fun time participating, along with several other old VWs, and tons of other antique cars and trucks of all types (as I recall, our VWs were entry #'s 297 and 298, so a very impressive total turnout). The people running the event couldn't have been nicer or more helpful. We even found a superb Italian ice vendor there, and all enjoyed a cooling summer treat. Though pretty warm out there on the nice flat grassy field of River Walk, we also found some shade and some nice cool breezes coming off of the river over at the east side of the show field. In all, it was really a nice way to spend some time on a sunny summer Sunday, and I'm also happy to report that both of our old VWs ran well all the way out and back on our trip to the "All American Valley." I took my camera and recorded a few overall views that I'd like to share with you at this time. First, the small "teaser" photo at the upper right is a cropped-down version of an overall view from the south end of the field, looking north--click directly on the small image (or HERE) to bring up the larger, uncropped version. Please also check out these self-descriptive hyperlinked additional images from the 2009 Shelton Jaycees show: Another overall view looking north, from about mid-field or so, an overall view looking south, from around mid-field or so (note the Route 8 bridge in the background), and one more view in which you can see the Housatonic River in the background of more show cars, illustrating what a great spot River Walk is for an antique car show! We look forward to creating a more detailed review page to show off more of our photos, but for now we tip our hats to the Shelton Jaycees for a really great event!... So, how about you folks who went to the Sikorsky show happening concurrently down the road in Stratford, or the always-kool Prospect Sock Hop later in the day? We'd love to hear how those events went also... Over and out for now!

*8/24/2009 - Wow, where is the summer going?! I can't believe that my kids are already starting up their school year later this week (our town's schools open up for students on Thursday the 27th). I thought Labor Day traditionally signaled the end of summer vacation, but Labor Day's not until a couple more weekends. Maybe it's all the snow day school cancellations that global warming has been bringing us in recent years, that is causing school administrators to start things up a little earlier than usual? Anyway, I think we should take it all as a signal to try and get out there to the local old car events and pack as many of 'em in as we can, before the cold weather returns! The good news is, of course, that there is a ton of great events yet to come this season--and plenty more great weather in which to enjoy them. As of this evening our Calendar page has once again been updated with some new and/or rescheduled events, including the reschedule (due to bad field conditions caused by recent rainy weather) of the New Milford "Wings & Wheels" show produced by the Housatonic Valley Region AACA and Blackhorse Garage--was originally scheduled for 8/23, and is now on for 8/30 (this coming Sunday), and also a 9/19 car show in New Haven produced by the radio station WPLR, and even a Rhode Island military vehicles show this Sunday (8/30) that our friend Leo Andstrom just sent us a snail-mailed heads-up about... But there is also another different perspective with which to view the coming of September around New England, and that is Fair Season! And around our central CT Shoreline area, that especially means the Guilford Fair, which runs September 18, 19, 20, 2009, at the Guilford Fairgrounds in Guilford. I realize it's not an old-car event, but The Guilford Fair really is a wonderful local tradition and source of pride for this area. And to add just a little bit of "old car flavor" to our appreciation of the Guilford Fair, I like to do my best to acquire a Guilford Fair bumpersticker or two, to display on my old car! Now that I've sold the '68 Bug, our old '60 Sunroof Bug, known as "Doug," has moved into the role of "Official Guilford Fair Sticker Display Vehicle!" With particular help once again this year from the Guilford Fair's webmaster Lisa Dudley, and also Larry of the popular local "In A Flash" studio in Guilford, I was able to acquire two of the 2009 Guilford Fair bumperstickers a couple of weeks ago, and just recently I finally got them onto both "Doug" and also my modern driver '96 Passat wagon (I guess "modern" is a relative term!). The accompanying picture here at the upper right is of course a close-up of the sticker on Doug's back window, which, if you click directly on it, will take you directly to the Guilford Fair official web site. And then I hyperlinked another couple of related images from the same photo session, so you can see a medium view of the sticker on Doug's back window (yes indeed, that's a 1960 period-correct YOM plate!), and also an overall view of good old Doug, resplendent in his coat of VW color code L346 Mango Green--with, of course, the bright yellow Guilford Fair sticker standing out nicely on his back window. And finally, here is a "new and old VWs" posed shot, again featuring those eye-catching stickers. In case you were wondering, the reason we enjoy "flying" our Guilford Fair bumperstickers each year is simply a matter of local civic pride! Thanks Lisa (& Larry) for your Significant Sticker Assistance again this year!

*8/17/2009 - Not a lot of old car news from this end since last check-in. This past weekend was fully taken up with non-car-related family activities, including a collie dog cultural event down in Wayne, New Jersey that we enjoy taking in every year as a family (everyone goes, even the dogs!), known as the Sunnybank Gathering. It was hot but fun. Getting back home on Sunday afternoon, it was then time to prepare for an evening family gathering at our house concurrent with Diane's sister from CA being in town, so you now how that kind of stuff goes... But I did get out to run a couple of local errands on Friday before we left (8/14), and had my camera with me, and took a couple of old car pictures along the way! The first photo-op was at the "Freightliner" place on School Ground Road in Branford (that's the road that goes down the hill behind the Chowder Pot, and connects with Route 139), where I saw several old Fords (I'm pretty sure anyway--I didn't get out of the car to inspect them). The small "teaser" photo at the upper right can be clicked-upon (or HERE) to bring up a larger overall-type view of all of them, and then you can click HERE for a shot of the close group of three. It has been my observation that old cars appear outside of this place only on weekdays, and only during normal business hours--I never see any out there on weekends or evenings. I don't know anything else about them--nor did I get close enough to look for any phone numers on the for sale signs--sorry... The second "local old car photo-op" was back up the hill and across the intersection, at the Sunoco gas station on Leetes Island Road, directly adjacent to the I-95 (Exit 56) southbound on-ramp. It is a decent-looking 1977 Ford Pinto Sedan (normal trunk, not a hatchback), with "$5,900 OBO" written on the for sale sign, and a number to call: 203-787-0567. Here is a front view, and here is a rear view... Other than that, I've also inserted a new event happening in Rowayton (that's a part of Norwalk) on September 13th, onto our Calendar page, so please do check that one out...

*8/11/2009 - Well, as you know, family obligations always take precedence over frivolous stuff like old cars and Shoreline-area old car events--no secret there! It would have been cool to have been able to taken in that "Potato Festival" cruise night over in Northford, on Friday night--but no dice (due to above reason); in driving by the event that was still going on, on Sunday (8/9), though, I was quite impressed by the scope and size--it looked like a seriously big deal (almost like a "three quarter scale Guilford Fair," I'd say-at least from the external appearance). I'd sure love to make the Potato Festival car cruise next year, if possible... And then there was the car show in Clinton happening on Saturday 8/8, and also a Higganum Car Cruise the same day (that we got onto our Calendar page with the 8/6 update--thanks again Jack Tary for getting us the info)...and then more great stuff on Sunday 8/9 (not the least of which was the VJ Day Parade in Moosup (thanks again to Leo Andstrom for the heads-up on that). But Saturday evening we did make a special effort to clear our own calendar, so that we could get out to New London, to an event called The Dave Camp Gathering - I realize I never added it to the SAAC Calendar, but for background, the online flyer for it is posted at: http://home.comcast.net/~commonsteve/TheDaveGathering.pdf - and then there is other info about it appearing in the "7/24/2009 Updates" section of the Common Gear web site (my other online old car hobby project... The Dave Camp Gathering came about due to the recent passing in Florida of a local Connecticut antique VW hobby "legend," Mr. David Camp. A good friend of Dave's from New London, CT, Allyn Devars, was co-organizer of a "progressive" memorial gathering in and around New London that was held on Saturday, August 8th, 2009, which also happened to be Dave's birthday. Diane and I were very pleased to attend the portion of The Dave Gathering that took place at Allyn's home in New London, which also was originally Dave's home--adding much significance to the occasion. We traveled to New London in Diane's '73 Super Beetle Convertible, and as you can see from the small "teaser" image at the upper right (be sure to click HERE or directly on it to bring up another image from the gathering), our mutual friends Clay and Mary Smith also drove to the gathering in their 1962 VW "High Roof" Panel Truck, from nearby North Franklin, CT. Our VWs parked outside of Allyn's house on the street added to the wonderful "old VW scene" already evident in Allyn's driveway, where his recently-acquired Mexi-Bug, and '71 Single Cab Pickup Truck, among others, were parked. In addition to the chance to chat with Allyn about how he first got to know Dave, and to visit Dave's old house, of which we have many pleasant memories from the past (and with which Allyn has done a magnificent job of renovating and preserving), a special treat during the visit was the chance to talk with Dave's brother Mike Camp, who with his wife Betty, had traveled all the way up from Florida to participate in the gathering. Talking with Mike was great--he had numerous stories about automotive exploits he and Dave did together--two incorrigible car nuts, for sure. In all, it was a very nice way to remember our old friend and VW mentor Dave Camp. We thank Allyn for the chance to get together to reminisce about this special person, in such a special place. We extend our deepest condolences to Mike and Betty and all of Dave's family and friends.

*8/6/2009 - This past Sunday, August 2nd, it should also be noted, was the Belltown Antique Auto Club's Annual Meet in East Hampton--so while we were dodging the rain drops in Wallingford, other antique auto folks were dodging them at the Belltown Show! Quoting from a broadcast e-mail received from Belltown's webmaster R.J. Phil (mail@rjphil.com), dated 8/6/2009 (mailed earlier this morning): "...Hi All - Well, the weather could have been a BIT nicer...but we had a great time anyway. It's always a pleasure to see the beautiful cars that folks bring to our show. The flea market was populated with lots of 'good stuff' as always, and those attending had a good time looking over the cars, visiting with old friends and maybe making some new ones...The photo gallery from this year's show is up on the website (http://www.belltownantiquecarclub.org)--take a look!...Thanks everyone for attending!...r.j. phil..."... I checked out the photos, and it looked like the Belltowners indeed had a great turnout of beautiful old cars--in spite of the iffy weather--congrats to all!... In other news, I've added more new events to the Calendar page as of this evening, including several details on the very exciting-sounding September 12th Redding HCCA/AACA event--where it should be noted, the "traditional" pre-war cut-off has been revised this year to a 1958 cutoff, for all unmodified vehicles, of course--and we thank our friends Messers Kelly and Colley for getting us all the details. And the other one that's VERY soon-upcoming is a cool-sounding Car Cruise happening this Saturday, August 8th, in Higganum--and we thank our good friend Jack Tary for getting us all those details.... Over and out for now!

*8/3/2009 - Rain in a weekend forecast--again?! But that was not about to stop me from getting up to the Mountain Ridge Resort in Wallingford early yesterday morning (Sunday, 8/2), to meet Charlie Gunn and to help out with the incoming antique cars for this year's "Antique Car Display at the 2009 Great Connecticut Traditional Jazz Festival." I drove "Doug" our old '60 Bug, and soon was getting parked in line, in the special "display row" on the driveway directly adjacent to "The Big Tent" (main music venue for the Jazz Festival, among the 4 sites set up for performances). Around mid-morning, we started feeling rain drops, but the old cars kept coming, right on up to the 11am "informal cut-off" for antique automobiles. Charlie, with his "Early Ford V-8 Club" connections, I'm sure was influential with the turnout of no less than three spectacular vehicles (including his own '34 Sedan, plus a '41 Mercury Coupe, and a '39 Ford Sedan). Between Diane and I, there were two old VWs (our son Matt rode up with Diane in her '54 Convertible). Other "two vehicle" musters included: hot rods (a bad-a** blown Chevy coupe, and a super-detailed International pickup), Alfas (a coupe and a convertible), and Model As (a fordor sedan and a 5-window coupe). Standout "singles" among the antiques included an very clean '80s Buick Riviera, a super-nice Avanti II (from a card displayed in the window, it appeared to be a 1969 model, with a 350 cu.in. Stingray engine; manufactured by Avanti Motor Corporation of South Bend, Indiana), an immaculate mid-60s Chevy Corvette Coupe, and a big & impressive '60s Buick Electra Convertible... Last but not least, however, we must mention the always-JazzFest-enthusiastic vintage MG people, who mustered no less than 5 examples of their fantastic vintage British sports cars, including three MGAs (like this cool one Matt is checking out--note also the rain drops!) and two MGBs (one rubber bumper and one chrome bumper-the latter with Rhode Island plates!). A very impressive turnout--in very questionable weather yet! I'm sure that promotion and word-of-mount among the Connecticut MG Club (visit their online home at: http://mgclub.homestead.com/) helped to spur the MG folks' wonderful turnout, so we do indeed tip our hats once again to them (including our local-area MG friend Bob Howard who made sure to follow up with us on behalf of the MG club for details on antique auto participation)... So, if you've been counting (and/or if I've reported accurately), that's a total of 20 antique autos participating in this year's Jazz Festival Antique Auto Display. I think that's quite respectable, especially considering the weather, and how relatively NOT hard we worked this year on getting the word out (and that was per direction from the Festival--I guess they were probably worried about what to do with a too-great turnout of old cars)... Once Matt and I finished running around to try and get some good photos of all of the old cars (with the eye toward, of course, a future SAAC web site feature...for now, click HERE or directly on the accompanying image at the upper right for an enlarged panoramic view looking west, and here is another sample view looking east), we enjoyed the opportunity to head for the music tents and building venues where musical acts were performing. One of our favorites, "Igor's Jazz Cowboys" from AZ (http://www.igorsjazzcowboys.com/) were performing by the pool, where we stayed and enjoyed their always-interesting mix of jazz, western, and American roots music. At a quick stop for some popcorn, we ran into Diane, who convinced Matt and I to stay around for the "sing along" hosted by the great Galvanized Jazz Band (http://galvanizedjazz.com/), over at the main tent, with special guest MC (and well-known jazz music enthusiast/performer/banjo player/personality) Joel Schiavone, and standout guest performers Jane Campedelli and Skip Hughes. The sing-along, which featured Mr. Schiavone interacting with the audience and leading the crowd in the singing of many old familiar ditties from the '40s, including well-known advertising jingles from the radio age, and following up with several patriotic songs for a "finale"--all very ably backed by Fred Vigorito's superb "Galvanized" group and talented guest artists. And sitting in the audience, it seemed that everyone around us knew all the words! It was truly an uplifting hour. I said to myself that after however many years (10, or 11, or 12, or whatever) of attending the Great Connecticut Traditional Jazz Festival, that I'd finally discovered it's "heart." I can't say enough about what a wonderful, positive experience that was! But that is also in no way intended to speak any less of any of the other musical acts--which are all great and all worth catching. I'm happy to say that both of the old VWs ran very well for the rainy trip back home to Stony Creek (here's a view out my windshield of Diane in her '54, proceeding up Route 80). Diane gave her '54 a good bath, and I know that "Doug" the '60 Bug is probably also due after that trip... In closing, I'd like to thank Charlie Gunn and the management of The Great Connecticut Traditional Jazz Festival for all their consideration and generosity, in inviting antique automobiles back to be a part of this year's Festival, at the new Wallingford location. From what I could see, even with the weather issues, the event seemed to be a great success--hopefully financially for the organizers--but undoubtedly culturally and spiritually for the attendees. I hope that this wonderful Connecticut tradition can continue for many more years to come, and if antique autos get invited back again, I would encourage all to check it out.

*7/30/2009 - "It's not the heat, it's the humidity!" So, it appears some real "summer" weather has finally hit Southern CT--better late than never? Perhaps...after all, it is summer... Anyway, I've added some new events to the Calendar page as of this evening, a couple of which are fairly soon-upcoming. One that I was pleasantly surprised to discover recently is happening on Friday night, August 7th, in Northford (which I believe is technically a section of North Branford), called the "Potato Festival Cruise Night." How great that the old car folks have the opportunity to enjoy a little bit of extra-special fun in conjunction with this overall wonderful-sounding small-town festival! Our hats are definitely off to the organizers (North Branford Parks & Recreation, and probably a whole ton of volunteers). The place where it happens, as listed in the event notices I've seen, is a park on Route 22/Forest Road, that's just adjacent to, on the north side, of the North Branford Police headquarters--I think it happens in the big field on the other side of the manicured ball fields (from signage I've seen upon driving by there recently). Anyway, check the Calendar page for details on that one, plus tons of other upcoming fun summer old car stuff!... In other news, I've been enjoying a somewhat "new-found sense of freedom," since having sold my '68 Bug last weekend. Make no mistake, I know I will miss it, but it is also fun, now, "considering the possibilities" of other sorts of cars that might fill its space, at some point. Scanning classified ads has taken on a bit of a new thrill, especially when I come across interesting-looking '68 & later VW Karmann Ghia Convertibles for sale. I'm sure it's going to take a long time for me to find something that I really like--especially considering how much VW Karmann Ghias in the Northeast liked to rust! But, again, the anticipation is almost half the enjoyment. Anyway, if you hear of any really nice, unrusted, unmolested prospects, please do feel free to drop me a line... Thanks!

*7/26/2009: Steamin' Hot in Guilford! - Well, I was woken up at about 3:30am this morning by some loud thunder & lightening--and with just enough time to run around and shut windows in my car and in the house, before the dramatic downpour started. While I was awake, I then switched on a bit of the weather channel, and saw their prediction of "scattered thunderstorms" through the day. It did not seem like it was going to be a great day for a car show--the best I was hoping for was at least not a repeat of last year's really violent weather at the car show. But since it is, and always has been a "rain or shine" proposition, Time Machines 2009 was still going to happen, no matter what Mother Nature threw at it. My commitments to being there also included working with Boy Scout Troop 441, to help park cars. Our Troop Chairman kept the majority of our volunteers outside doing battle with the spectator parking, but allowed me and my son Matt to stay inside the gates and work with the show car parking--this also allowed me to keep tabs on the antique VW car show class participation, which turned out to be quite impressive, thanks in large part to the enthusiastic participation of the CT VW Association enthusiast group (of which I am a member). As you can guess, the morning's rains, and probably the combined effects of many of the other recent rainy days, kept the atmosphere at the Guilford Fairgrounds pretty steamy and damp. There were wet spots in the field that folks tried their best to avoid, and it appeared pretty successfully for the most part. From what I saw, the spectator parking lot did not fare as well--I hope everyone eventually made it out of there. Anyway, the day did stay sunny and rain free, and it appeared the show did end up with a fairly healthy turnout of show cars, spectators, and flea market vendors. I enjoyed not only checking out the old VWs and chatting with many owners, but also walking around to check out the rest of the show with my son. Judging the VWs went smoothly (I was again assisted by my son Matt again this year with that task), and the 3 award winners were very deserving (and if we could've given out a 4th place, we had an excellent candidate); though we also hope that the folks don't just go for the awards. I also brought along my camera and took a few shots--one sample overview is viewable by clicking HERE or on the small cropped-down version at the upper right--and we plan to do more Time Machines coverage once we get our stuff organized. And another local internet venture we just heard about has already posted a great number of car images from the show--here are the two pages-full: Page 1 and Page 2. In closing we congratulate the CT Area Classic Thunderbird Club (and especially their hard-working Show Chaiman Fred Klaus) for doing a superb job with this year's Time Machines car show, in spite of some challenging conditions!... And in one final, unrelated note, my '68 Bug is now with it's new owner as of yesterday--we wish them many happy miles!

*7/23/2009 - Yow, I'm glad I made it out to Westbrook yesterday evening, since today really was a washout, weather-wise. And the reason I traveled out to Westbrook on a Wednesday night was, of course, to check out a bit of one of the "Harbour Seal" restaurant cruise nights, that are run by our friends the Shoreline Recycled Teenage Cruisers--an always fun & well-attended event. Naturally I had brought along Time Machines flyers to hand out, but also my camera, to snap a few overall views. The balmy summer evening brought out a nice selection of beautiful cars, and "Rockin' Richard" was spinning some great oldies music, as always, to provide the proper atmosphere. I didn't run into anyone I knew, but I did recognize a few locally-based old cars, plus enjoyed scoping out a few new ones that I'd never seen before. In all, it was a wonderful way to spend some time on a beautiful evening. The accompanying image at the right is a slightly cropped and reduced version of a shot of some of of the colorful old car front ends on display at "Harbour Seal" yesterday evening (click HERE or directly on the image to bring up a larger view). For a few other views, you can also click on hyperlinks of a distant overall view looking back toward the restaurant, some fronts of many kool cars that were lined up along the back fence of the cruise night area, and also some more car front ends from the middle row of cruise night participants. Thanks, as always, to the Shoreline Recycled Teenage Cruisers for carrying on this wonderful and long-running Shoreline old car tradition... On the way out it was also interesting to see a "Marty's" drive-in restaurant a hundred feet or so west down the road, on the other side of Route 1--I wonder if that's being run by the original "Marty's" people, who ran the "Harbour Sea"/"Ray's" in the old days???... And in other news, a little earlier that same evening, a nice fellow who saw my '68 Bug listed for sale came by to look at it, and decided that he'd like to have it. And so, IT IS ON DEPOSIT at this time, with the final transaction scheduled to take place on Saturday afternoon. I was very happy to see that there is at least one other person out there who sees the car's "inner beauty," and all it can offer in the way of reliable and fun old car driving enjoyment--be it for commuting, pleasure trips, or whatever. The other good news is that the car will be staying within the local-area, so we may see it on the road in the future from time to time. I had many good times and learned a lot about old cars from the old '68, and I'll miss it. Time now, however, to try and pay a little more attention to our other semi-neglected old cars!

*7/17/2009 - "Department of Relentless Self-Aggrandizement" (ha ha) - Ok, I decided I had to get a little more serious about presenting my '68 Bug for sale, and so I gathered up a bunch of recent pictures, and put them on a dedicated page, along with a few more facts and descriptions about the car. You can view the new '68 Bug For Sale page at: http://home.comcast.net/~shorelinesteve/68BUG/ForSale.html . I even made up a spiffy new little banner graphic, shown here at the right, to make it easy for you to navigate to the new page (aren't I thoughtful). The car is, of course, the same one that is featured in the SAAC banner at the top of this page. I really have had a lot of fun with it over the years--I'd even go so far as to say that I've had more fun with it than any other old car I've ever owned. The reason I say that is that it's been such a good, solid, capable, driving car, that I've never felt the least bit trepidation in using it as a daily summertime commuting car--including for my 50-mile daily round trip from Branford to Stratford and back, which encompasses a significant amount of mileage along Interstate 95. Make no mistake, this is a stock '68 Bug, so I have to drive defensively when I'm out there with the big trucks, SUVs, and what-not, but with this Bug I never felt that I shouldn't be there--and especially now with the sweet-performing rebuilt engine, there is no problem maintaining highway speeds, with power to spare. Anyway, I could go on and on, but for now, if you have any interest in a decent, very solid and driveable antique VW, please do check out the '68 Bug For Sale page--thanks for looking!... Also, at this point, I may drive it to the Time Machines event in Guilford next weekend (to park in the Car Corral area of antique cars for sale), so that might be a chance for you to check it out "up close and personal"... Well, what do you know--another weekend upon us, and hopefully some relatively decent weather to enjoy it with. I have a few projects around the house to attend to but also hopeful to of getting out, perhaps, to a car event or cruise night if I can--maybe see you there...

*7/16/2009 - Aloha, the Calendar page has been updated once again as of this evening, not only with many additional details about the upcoming Stony Creek "Blessing of the Fleet" festivities (the antique car display portion of which is called "Cars on the Lawn"), for which we thank Mr. Wink Brainerd. And for that same date (Saturday 7/25), we've also added a listing for a benefit Cruise Night and Pasta & Meatball Dinner happening in the evening, up in Wallingford, to benefit the family of a recently deceased antique car enthusiast who had waged a courageous battle with cancer--and we thank our friend Jack Danovich of the F.O.R.D. Club for passing along that info--and also salute the fine organizations who came together to make it happen: the FORD Club, the Summer Knights, and the Connecticut Street Rod Association... In other old-car-related news, I am happy to report that I was successful in getting out to a couple of really kool area cruise nights earlier this week. On Monday evening (7/13), my daughter Sarah and I traveled out to New London to take in a bit of the Ocean Beach Park cruise night, which was great as ever--what a fun & well-attended event that is! Naturally, Sarah and I also took the opportunity to hand out Time Machines flyers that we had brought along. I also took a couple of quick photos, including the small one you see here at the upper right, showing a bit of what a bustling scene it was there in the O.B.P. parking lot--you can click HERE or directly on the image to bring up a larger version. Two more "overall type" shots from O.B.P. include this image again from the eastern side of the parking area, looking toward the west (note the throngs of spectators!), and this image from the western side of the parking area, looking toward the east. There was kool oldies music being played, lots of people enjoying the adjacent boardwalk and beach, plus the adjacent amusement park area also appeared to be in full-swing. In all, it was a fun place to be on a summer Monday evening!... And what do you know, on the very next night (7/14), I had the opportunity to stop in to the Essex Tuesday Cruise at the Volunteer Fire Department on Route 154, and had a super time there also! The turnout of cars was tremendous on another magnificent summer evening, enjoyable chats with many old car friends old and new, and it was another great photo-op for the limited amount of time I was able to spend there (possibly to share a few pictures at a future time, though)... And though I only drove by, on the following evening (Weds 7/15), when I was coming home from spending a day of non-car-related family obligations up in Middletown (ya gotta do what ya gotta do...), I did notice what appeared to be an excellent turnout of old cars in the "Amato's Restaurant" Wednesday cruise at their location on Route 22 just south of the Northford Center--so will have to stop by next time I get the chance!... Hope you're able to get out a bit and enjoy your summer. Over and out for now...

*7/10/2009 - The Classified Ads page has been updated with my for sale ad for my trusty old '68 Bug--it is a good solid car and has a lot of life left--I find it perfect for daily summertime commuting, and it gets me a reliable 30 miles per gallon, with the summer-of-'08-rebuilt engine running like a top. Anyway, please check it out... The other thing I wanted to mention this evening is that the Calendar page has been updated with a listing for a fun and very local event--the Stony Creek 'Blessing of the Fleet,' happening on Saturday, July 25th, which incorporates a cool little informal antique car display on the grass in front of the Church--all smack dab in the middle of beautiful little Stony Creek Village. We participated last year and had a lot of fun--I believe the Brainerds (of Stony Creek's famous "Brainerd's Garage") are the folks who organize the old car display... All for now--have a great weekend!

*7/6/2009 - Some significant updates have been added as of this evening to the Sunday, August 2nd listing for the Antique Auto Display at the Great Connecticut Traditional Jazz Festival in Wallingford, on our Calendar page, thanks to some additional details about the nature of the antique participation in the event that were passed along to us by our friend Charlie Gunn (thanks again Charlie!). And then, another helpful person sent along some details about the CVA's 7/12 VW event in Lebanon, CT--also added to the Calendar page as of this evening... And while we're on the subject of old VWs, I wanted to show you how the "auxiliary" set of refinished wheels & 155R15 blackwall radials turned out, as mounted up on our '54 VW (accomplished as of yesterday). They seem to give both an "old" and a "German" look to the car, we think, compared to the wide whitewalls that the car has worn "all its life." We did some around-town cruising in the car yesterday with the new sneakers, and are very pleased with both the looks and the performance. It's sort of a "purposeful" look finally for the old (perennial "trailer queen") '54! What do think? Here is an overall shot of the car in our garage as of this morning, and here is a close-up of the newly-redone wheels, with fresh tires, and "NOS" trim rings and the hub caps (transferred from the other wheels)... And while I'm on the subject of old VWs, a tip of the hat is due once again to the Stony Creek Auto guys (417 Leetes Island Road, Stony Creek, 203-488-7868) for the very nice job of spin-balancing the fat Michelins on the wide "914" wheels that are on the '68 Bug--which is been a dream to drive lately, now that all my brakes are also completely "dialed in" (with the new master cylinder, plus a couple of bleeds and a brake shoe adjustment). HERE is a picture of how the car presently looks... See you on the road!

*7/4/2009 - Today's a day when we are drawn to think about our patriotic roots. Some may say it's not "politically correct" to be patriotic these days--to have the belief that one lives in the greatest country in the world--but thankfully there are many who still are, and who still do. In a related vein, I have been thinking lately about some information that our friend from Plainfield, CT, Mr. Leo Andstrom, recently sent us, regarding the only VJ Day Parade that is held in United States, upcoming this year on Sunday, August 9th, in the eastern Connecticut town of Moosup. The people of Moosup could probably teach us all about what it means to be patriotic. Please do check out the August 9th listing for the Moosup VJ Day Parade our Calendar page, for a little more background about the meaning of the day. Independence Day is also a good day to remember and thank our Veterans... In other news, I've had a couple of challenges lately with my old '68 Bug, thankfully appearing now to have been fully overcome, with the help of some good folks. I had what acted like a complete master cylinder failure two Thursdays ago, which prompted me to scramble to find a local replacement--thanks to my good friend Greg Curello of "Curello Restorations" in Hamden, I had a new one in hand the following day. While not exactly an "easy" job, the m/c installation went smoothly the next day (Saturday). Bleeding the lines, however, showed that I had a breached metal line at the left rear--due to chafing against a shock absorber (and I have only myself to blame). Thankfully the Stony Creek Auto Service guys (417 Leetes Island Road, Stony Creek, 203-488-7868) were working that day, and fixed me up with a proper length replacement, which I installed to finish the job, allowing me use of the car again. I did another bleed, plus adjustment of the shoes at all four wheels, yesterday, and I am completely pleased with the nice firm pedal and good braking performance... And finally, to go along with the accompanying graphic here at the upper right (featuring the front ends of two positively stunning Chevies that were on display--yes, these and many other Beautiful Bowties were indeed present at the F.O.R.D. Club's show!), I also worked yesterday to put together a "first draft" of a report on a very enjoyable visit up to the F.O.R.D. Club's annual Meriden car show, that took place on Saturday, June 6th, 2009. I had written a few words about this wonderful day previously on this page, back in the update dated 6/6/2009, with a couple of hyperlinked photos. So as to avoid duplication, I did not reuse those photos for the new feature page--but still incorporated what I feel is a pretty decent selection of shots, to hopefully convey a sense of what a wonderful and varied gathering of old cars it was. So anyway, you can click on the accompanying image here to take you to the new feature page, or on this hyperlink. Thanks again to Jack Danovich and all of the F.O.R.D. Club members for a really fun day in Meriden!... All for now. I wish you all a Happy, Healthy, and Safe Independence Day. And Thanks Again Veterans!

*6/29/2009 - In addition to the new Calendar page events added upcoming at the Golden Age of Trucking Museum up in Middlebury (two Tuesday cruises in July and August, and a car & truck show on a Sunday in September), I wanted to insert a nice note we just received yesterday from Bill Raccio, who was involved with organizing the antique car display at the "Taste of the Shoreline" event going on at the Guilford Fairgrounds yesterday (Sunday, 6/28), as had been mentioned below in our 6/25 update. Quoting from Bill's note dated 6/29/2009: "...thank you so very much for your...support of the first car show for the (Guilford) Chamber of Commerce. Although I only had 17 cars I do feel the iffy weather had a hand in that...again a thousand thanks to you, Bill Raccio..." And thank you, Bill, for your work in organizing a fun & local Shoreline-area old car event--again, I wish I had been able to make it--and if anyone may have any pictures of the old car gathering at yesterday's "Taste of the Shoreline," please do consider sending 'em along--thanks!

*6/25/2009 - Sorry for the very short notice here, but I only ran across the listing last night while browsing the WDRC 102.9 FM "Cruisin' News" web site--I am referring to a new Car Show connected with the big "Taste of Guilford" food/cultural/civic event upcoming this Sunday, the 28th of June, at the Guilford Fairgrounds. I've added all the information I was able to find out about it, including the details published at the WDRC "Cruisin'" web page, to our Calendar page as of this evening, so please do take special note... And that is certainly not to diminish in any way the news of the Blood Sweat and Gears' New Haven car show that got moved up to its rain date of the 28th (from the originally scheduled date of the 21st), but now you Shoreliners especially have a choice of car stuff to do this Sunday (though, as always, I do urge calling ahead to verify before traveling any distance). I am also regretfully unable to attend either event, though, as I have other commitments for Sunday. I wish everyone good weather, and a good time on Sunday!... In other news, we've finally managed to get at least a rudimentary page together to feature some of Jack & Maureen Tary's fine photos from the recent Deep River Rotary Club Antique Auto Show, that was held Sunday, June 7th, 2009, at Devitt Field in Deep River, CT. We've always loved the small-town CT River valley charm of Deep River, and especially this car show--which unfortunately we were not able to attend this year--but thankfully the Tarys were (and brought their camera along too)! Right now, we have a couple more small changes/additions to get done to the feature page, but at least this "first draft" is ready for your viewing and enjoyment. You can click on the small image at the upper right to take you there, or on this hyperlink: "Jack & Maureen Tary's Deep River 2009 Photo Review" . Thanks again to Jack & Maureen for helping us with this wonderful event review (and our friend Jack Danovich too)!

*6/23/2009 - Oh boy, I guess I violated one of my own rules this past Sunday, June the 21st. I have always enjoyed participating in the Branford Festival's Classic Car Cruise, and so I guess I was so focused that I neglected to consider the possibility that the event might get cancelled (thanks to all the rainy weather)! This year, after having driven VWs for many years in the past, we decided to take Diane's '73 Pinto Squire (a.k.a. the "Country Squirt") out for the event. The second clue (the first being, of course, the weather) was the Branford police officer who reluctantly let us past him on South Main Street, after we told him that we "were in the classic car show" (to which he kind of shrugged and said he "wasn't aware of any classic car show"). We picked our way carefully up the back end of Taintor Drive (I'll guess it was around 11am or so), and upon reaching the entrance to Town Hall Drive, we saw a grand total of one other old car (amidst a great crowd of people, however, milling around, apparently in connection with the Branford Road Race, which appeared still to be in "full swing" at that point). I recognized the yellow Ford GT40 kit car hybrid of Ansonia's Frank Hoinsky parked along the side of the road, right by the Town Hall stage, and carefully parked the Pinto right behind him (click HERE and HERE for two shots from our little "two-car display"). A three-piece rock & roll group was just getting started, and so we enjoyed listening to their set, while "hanging loose" by the Pinto (typical scene shown in the image at the right--click HERE directly on it to bring up a larger view). I also had the chance to chat a bit with Mr. Hoinsky, who noticed my "Collie Health Foundation" logo'd shirt, and it turned out he was a collie enthusiast too!... Frank eventually fired up his radical GT40 and was on his way, but I was in the mood to hang out and enjoy the scene for a while longer, which I am happy I did, because the next musical act was called the "Steve D'Agostino Band" (http://stevedagostino.com/), and boy, were they great! I listened to & enjoyed most of the D'Agostino set of cool jazz standards, before I figured it was probably time to get rolling (especially since no other old cars showed up).... It wasn't until the following day that I bothered to check the Branford Festival web site (http://www.branfordfestival.com/) and noticed that the Classic Car Cruise had been "CANCELLED!" Oh well! I still had a good time and thank the Branford Festival organizers for all the work they did producing the event... Speaking of weather-impacted old car events, we also heard that our friends the "Blood Sweat & Gears" Car Club elected to postpone their New Haven car show to this coming Sunday (June 28th), so that sounds like something definitely worth checking out (and check our Calendar page for more info). And then, I also wanted to draw your attention to the June 28th Cystic Fibrosis Foundation motorcycle fundraising ride that's starting out in Guilford--also just added to our Calendar page--thanks to info passed along by our friend Gary DiNicola of Stony Creek Auto Service... And finally, I wanted to add a quick tip of the hat to the good folks at the Connecticut Street Rod Association (http://www.csra.org/) for the really fun & unique old car event ("Connecticut Dragway Reunion," formerly known as "Connecticut Nostalgia Night") they organized last night (6/22) at the Mountain Ridge Resort in Wallingford. This was the first one that I've ever been to, and I had a great time (despite the gray and misty weather)! I was pleased to throw some money into the "participant donations" pot on my way in (drove my old '68 Bug), which benefits the Wallingford Wishing Well (charitable organization that aids needy families). There were lots of cool hot rods, including several very serious "old school" race cars on display. Here is a bit of an overall view from the parking area (click on the hyperlink to bring up the image). A special treat was getting to hear several of them start up and rev their engines a bit, right around 7pm (the so-called "crackle fest"-and boy, did they crackle!). It was also a chance to check out the Mountain Ridge resort facility a bit, which is where the Great CT Traditional Jazz Festival's antique auto display will be happening, on Sunday, August 2nd--it looks like a perfect spot for that also--and very easy-to-get-to off of the highway (I-91 Exit 15)--again, check the Calendar page for all other known details at this time.... All for now!

*6/18/2009 - More rainy, drizzly weather--gotta love it. I guess you have to take those nice-weather events in whenever you can, since the next upcoming one may get rained out!... Anyway, for this evening's quick update, I wanted to draw your atention to the Calendar page for lots of details just posted about two related, successive-day events upcoming on 7/11 and 7/12 in Haddam--they sound like both a "Rockin'" and a "Rollin'" good time!... And then I also had forgotten to mention in the 6/14 comments section below about having enjoyed chatting once again up at Glastonbury with Mr. Ernie Eldridge of Willimantic, who, in addition to owning a super-original 1962 VW Karmann Ghia that's the exact same original color as Diane's '63 ("Pacific Blue"), is also an auctioneer and historian, among his many pursuits! HERE is a picture of Ernie from Sunday... And, hey, just in time for the rain, I'm finally commuting daily once again "for the season" in my old '68 Bug (see the header graphic on this page). Can't really explain why I've waited this long to activate it (aside from that old bugaboo called "inertia"...), but I'm very glad finally to have done so. I'll be seeing you out on I-95 in the slow lane... Ok, that's it for now...try to stay dry...over and out...

*6/14/2009 - Happy to hear that the Main Street Middletown event was able to go on as planned--and sorry to say that I didn't make it up there--it's always one of my favorites. But some good stuff to report as of this weekend on the old car front. First of all, I was able to pick up the mounted & balanced '54 Bug wheels & tires setup from the good folks at my favorite local garage, Stony Creek Auto (417 Leetes Island Road, Stony Creek, CT 06405, 203-488-7868), this past Friday afternoon, and I'm itching to try 'em out--click HERE for a sample image--what do you think? Thanks again to the S.C.A. guys for the typically great work!... Saturday was a completely spoken-for day, as I had to assist with a huge house party--at our house--which thankfully we made it thru, relatively unscathed... But Sunday, after a bit of a slow-start and some cleaning up from the previous day's "carnage," I was eventually on my way north toward Glastonbury in my modern car (just didn't have the energy to go thru the trouble of dragging an old car out, and was already getting a very late start as it was), to check out the Central CT Region AACA's annual summertime antique car show in a beautiful and modern downtown Glastonbury office park. This was my first time visiting this event, and I was very impressed. The show appeared to be laid out very neatly, with classes arranged for very early relics, on up to later-era antiques of all sorts, plus some hot rods and some later special-interest vehicles as well. I got my Time Machines flyers handed out, and then enjoyed chatting with several old friends who were also in attendance, like Jack Larson (with his slick MINI convertible), Roland Metz, Bill Silvestri, and Greg Mattesen (the latter three gents drove three beautiful antique VW Beetles to the show and parked them together). I snapped many pictures too, and would eventually like to put together a small feature for the SAAC site. For now, you can click HERE or on the small image from the Glastonbury show at the upper right, to bring up a larger, more detailed version of the same shot, and then I have another hyperlinked shot sighting down one of the rows of beautiful old cars on display. In all, I was extremely impressed by the event, and wish to congratulate all the CCR-AACA folks who made it happen!... On my way back south in the early afternoon, I decided to stop in Middletown and visit with my folks for a while, and then decided to drive "back roads" back down to Stony Creek. What a pleasant surprise, upon driving past Lyman Orchards in Middlefield, to see a fantastic Jaguar show happening on the grass there! I stopped in and had a great browse of many beautiful Jags of various vintages--happily I also had my camera to capture couple of "overall type" shots, such as this one, and this one. The cars were so gorgeous--those Jag people don't mess around! Anyway, hopefully more shots of beautiful Jags to show you when I get a chance to go thru more of my pictures--I also need to see if I can look up and find out the nature of the event and who was running it (EDIT: The event appears to have been the "Jaguar Club of Southern Connecticut's Annual Concours d'Elegance"). So, that was definitely an unexpected pleasure to cap off a fun Sunday... Hope you had a good weekend. Now back to our regularly scheduled rainy & wet weather (UGH!)...

6/10/2009 - Well, I don't know about this rainy, misty, and generally gray weekday weather, but I guess if you can end up with two positively spectacular weekend days like the one just past, then it's "probably" all worth it. But then, when you consider how hard people work to put on weeknight car events like cruise nights--and especially like the big special one that's scheduled tonight for Main Street, Middletown--then you feel bad. I looked at the published info for Main Street Middletown, and there is a rain date listed: "...Rain Date June 17, Please check back for up-dates..." (ref. http://ecoverthehillgangcarclub.com/events.shtml), so we'll hope for the best, whatever turns out... And speaking of last weekend, some good old car friends of ours were able to make it out on Sunday (6/7) to another event that we always enjoy--the Deep River Rotary Antique Car Show at Devitt Field. Jack and Maureen Tary sent us a selection of photos they took, along with a few nice words about their experience--and more recently we also heard from Jack Danovich who also made it out to Deep River (busy weekend for Jack, having worked his own club's car show on Saturday in Meriden!). So, we do hope to work some sort of feature up about the 2009 Deep River event, when we get the chance... And then, speaking of getting the chance to work on features, we finally got a chance to lay out a first draft of a report on Antique Auto Participation at the 2009 Branford Memorial Day Parade. The small image at the upper right, which was taken from right by the edge of the reviewing stand (the cars are kinda washed out, but I think it gives you a feel for the overall scene), is also an active hyperlink that you can click on to take you to the page--or you can also click HERE. As of this morning I've also written directly back to a few folks who had inquired about participating in the Parade, with hopes that perhaps we might be able to identify another of the "unknown" cars or so... And finally, we are still keeping hopeful for some pictures from the 5/30/09 Xavier Middletown car show--please do keep us in mind if you may have any--thanks again!

*6/6/2009 - Couple of quick updates on what so far has been a positively killer weekend, weather-wise! Today was positively magnificent, and I'm happy to say that I made it up to Meriden to check out the F.O.R.D. Club's antique car show at the Meriden Center. I had been to this one last year, and really enjoyed it--and this year's was equally great--and even bigger. I ran around and handed out Time Machines flyers, and also snapped a few pictures, such as the small one shown here at the right, and also a couple of overall views that I've hyperlinked: An overall view from way over at the north end of the parking lot, and then a "close overall" view of several beautiful antique cars arranged on a beautiful green grassy area. I had such a wonderful time walking around and checking out all the great cars, and also running into folks I knew, such as Jim and Judy Dziuba with their beautiful 1930 Ford A Sedan, and others. With the good photos coverage, I would like to put together a feature page, so please stay tuned for that (though I have another feature page that I still have to work on first, concerning the antique autos in the Branford Memorial Day Parade--just heard back from one of the car owners who participated, with some very nice feedback). Congratulations to the F.O.R.D. Club on a really great car show--this really is what summer is all about!... Anyway, earlier in the day today, I buzzed up to Glastonbury, to borrow a "wide 5" wheel balancing adapter plate (allows those weird old-VW wheels with the irregular-shape center hole to get spin-balanced on a conventional machine), from our friend and fellow old-VW enthusiast Bill Silvestri--thanks again Bill!... And then I also am pleased to report that I've compiled a bunch of information about the previously-mentioned Wednesday Northford "Amato's" Restaurant cruise nights, and have added itl to the Calendar page (including a scan of a newspaper display ad advertising the event), so please do check it out... Let's see--tomorrow I am involved helping out with my son Matt's Eagle Scout Service Project, so no car stuff for me--but at least the weather will be good, as we're working on a trail for the Branford Land Trust... REMINDER: Still seeking photos from the 5/30/09 Xavier/Middletown car show... All for now...

*6/4/2009 - Very quickly this evening: On our Calendar page we've revised the listing for the Wednesday night Norwalk cruises--thanks to a helpful heads-up by a site visitor... We are also further efforting info about the Wednesday night Northford cruise at Amato's Restaurant on Route 22--stay tuned... On my nearing-completion wheels project, I finally stripped off the masking tape--what do you think?... And finally, still looking for any pictures, and/or any other input, on the 5/30/09 EJK Car Show at Xavier in Middletown--looking toward putting a small feature together, as noted in the section below--thanks!

*6/2/2009 - Oh man, June already--is it me, or does it seem like the season is accelerating?! Well, I spent some more time yesterday with project wheels...but it's not 100% what you think...since, amongst the ongoing stuff with the "auxiliary" wheels project for the '54 Bug (the last of which you saw hyperlinked in a picture "as-black-painted" from Saturday), I also made some very substantial progress as of yesterday toward my NEXT vintage wheels restoration project--reference this picture I snapped yesterday afternoon upon getting 'em all home and laid out (and thanks yet again to my Torrington old-VW buddy Tom Matulis for the nice deal!). The tires are unfortunately are old and not worth saving, but I bought this set for the wheels, which are vintage Brazil repro Porsche 356. Anyway, they're already out getting the tires taken off, "as we speak"... And then, today, what do you know, the fresh new 155R15 Vredesteins for the '54 "aux" wheels showed up! And boy do they look sweet. The accompanying picture at the right is a close-up of the manufacturer's logo, which you can click directly on (or HERE) to bring up an enlarged view. And then I have another hyperlinked picture of what the stack of four look like,"as-delivered" today by the friendly UPS man. Excitement! So, lots of fun ongoing in the wheels and tires world for sure!... And then we have some important "teasers" to bring you up to date on as well this evening, related to the world of local old car events and cruise nights. The first relates to the Xavier High School "EJK Car Show" in Middletown, that I unfortunately wasn't able to attend this past Saturday (5/30). One of the prime movers of the event, and a relative of the late Eric J. Kalber's, Danica Levesque, sent in a nice word-review of the Xavier car show--that would work GREAT along with any photos from the event that anyone might like to supply us, perhaps for a feature page here at the SAAC site? (hint, hint!). So, if you were there, at the 2009 Xavier/EJK show, and took any decent old car pictures, please consider sending them along--thanks! And we are so happy to hear that the event was such a big success!... And finally, the last "teaser" for this evening is a new Wednesday night weekly cruise night happening in Northford, on Route 22, at the "Amato's" restaurant (just south of Northford center), that we've only heard "word-of-mouth" about at this time, but about which we're efforting more concrete info--but if you know something about it, and/or have a printed flyer for it, or whatever, please consider sending us along some info (by e-mail or by snail mail: SAAC, Box 3353, Stony Creek, CT 06405)... Over and out once again for now!

*5/31/2009 - Well, weekends can't be all as old-car-filled as we'd like them...and so I don't have too much exciting to report on at this time, with the beginning of June staring us down tomorrow. First thing on Saturday morning, though, I did drag the latest project wheels outside, along with all my painting gear, and did get the second color (black) sprayed on them, so they've had a lot of time since then for the paint to cure--which is good, since the tires are supposedly arriving this coming week. I haven't tried stripping off the masking tape yet, but here's what they look like as of the black being sprayed... But then I got involved in a house project that pretty much ate up the entire rest of my weekend, including negating my ability to make it up to Middletown for the Xavier High School Car Show, which I'm not happy about. I would be very interested in any electronic photos from the Xavier event, along with any accompanying commentary, and perhaps we can put together an SAAC feature--please write to me, and attach some photos--thanks! I am a Xavier grad and support the cause that the show benefits--the Eric J. Kalber Scholarship Fund... But I did manage to get some updates done this weekend to the Calendar page, including adding the big VW event in Harwinton on Sunday, June 21st...and...a preliminary notice about an Antique Car Display at the Great Connecticut Traditional Jazz Festival, on Sunday, August 2nd, in Wallingford (unfortunately the same day as Belltown, but fortunately not the same day as Time Machines in Guilford). I admit that I had sort of given up on the Jazz Festival for this year, especially since I had been hearing how the new Wallingford location (the Mountain Ridge Resort, not far off of the I-91, Exit #15) wasn't as expansive as the old Sunrise Resort in Moodus, etc., so this was a pleasant surprise indeed. Right now all I know is that an Antique Car Display is going to happen at the Festival on that day (8/2), but no other details beyond that have been provided to me at this time... And finally, like I was talking about below, I did manage to get some photos from both of the Memorial Day old car things I attended (the Branford Parade, and a bit of the Hamden/Quinnipiac Car Show), and so this weekend, amidst my chores, I also got together a feature page with some of the shots and notes from the Hamden show, which admittedly was a hurried affiair for me, but still worth documenting. So, please do check out the new feature on the 2009 Hamden Quinnipiac Car Show by clicking on the hyperlink, or on the small photo at the upper right, which is another of my shots from the day. And, as always, please do write me with any errors, typos, omissions, etc., that you may find on the page (especially since I really haven't had the chance to properly proof-read through it yet myself)--thanks!... And now I can get to work on getting a Branford Memorial Day Parade feature together... Over and out for now...

*5/25/2009 - Wow, this was a busy day--but also a good day. As noted below, the Hamden/Quinnipiac event had gotten pushed to today. But then there was also the Lyme-Old Lyme Lions event that I also had never been to, that was scheduled for today. But trumping them both was the commitment I have made as an Assistant Scoutmaster with our local Troop, to helping out where I can, including marching in both the early-morning Stony Creek Memorial Day Parade (that's a hyperlinked picture from the parade that you can click on), and also the later-morning Town of Branford Memorial Day Parde--helping to represent our Troop in both. This meant that I couldn't drive an old car in the Branford Parade, but what a nice turnout of old cars there were! I don't have a count, but I did take pictures (here are two that I uploaded and hyperlinked: the line-up of staged cars from the rear, and the line of cars from the front as they entered the parade), and will be putting something together eventually for the SAAC site--meanwhile, if anyone who participated with their old car in the Branford Memorial Day Parade wishes to identify themselves (name, car, home town, would be sufficient), it'll make for a much more interesting feature (always nice to have some identification to go along with the pictures of the nice old cars). The pre-parade ceremonies at Branford were crowded and standing fairly far back with our Troop, I missed a lot of what the speakers had to say--thankfully that was not the case at the Stony Creek ceremonies that took place in the cemetary, about mid-way through the Stony Creek parade. Listening to what the distinguished leaders had to say about how we remember and honor our military veterans, both living and dead, and how they sacrificed so greatly, really hit home with me. I will remember today's ceremonies for a long time... An unexpected monkey wrench in my plans for today (I had still been thinking about driving Diane's Pinto up to Hamden to take in the last hour or two of the show) arose, with my folks up in Middletown calling to ask my help with a couple of things. That still left open, however, the possibility of buzzing up to Hamden in my modern car--on my way to Middletown--and stopping in to check out the scene, and handing out some Time Machines flyers. That went great, I'm happy to report. I was in and out of Hamden in about an hour flat, and handed flyers out to *all* of the cars that were there (which looked to be about 75% of capacity to my eyes--probably due to the fact that today was the rain date, and also that I didn't get there until about 1pm (so many people had obviously already left--in fact, I passed Lou Panico in his Riviera in Route 22 in North Branford on my way--Lou was already heading south at that time). And while I ran around the field, I also checked out many nice cars, and saw a few folks I knew also (like Orlando Amato, Bob Steller, Bill Hanks, and others). In all, I'm glad I made it--even for that short time! The accompanying image at the upper right is one I snapped while standing at the Q.U. building adjacent to the car show field, and looking north out toward the cars. I liked the fact that the American flag was prominent in the view, which ties in well with my thoughts about our country's Veterans who gave all, for all of us. Click HERE or directly on the image to bring up a larger view of that shot--and also here are two more "general" shots from the show that I liked (click on the hyperlinks): An overview from the east end of the field, looking west, and some colorful miscellaneous cars in one of the rows... Hope your Memorial Day was a good one, and thanks again to our Military Veterans.

*5/24/2009 - Well, I looked at the Weather Channel on TV and saw what looked to be some ominous signs for later today, in the form of approaching rain clouds--and sure enough, checking the CT Classic Chevy Club's web site (http://www.ctclassicchevy.org/) this morning, I read that the big Hamden/Quinnipiac antique car show was being pushed to its rain date, which is tomorrow. Not sure we'll be able to make that one now, since we have a lot of Memorial Day observances in our own town tomorrow, including marching with our Boy Scout Troop in both the early morning Stony Creek parade and the later-morning Branford parade. A number of old car people have written to ask details about participating in the Branford Memorial Day Parade, so I take that as a good sign--and I've been referring folks to check out the details on how to participate, that are posted on our Calendar page (and you'll need to scroll down to 5/25/2009 on that page). And speaking of Memorial Day, let's also try to keep in mind the reason for the holiday: To remember and honor our country's soldiers who've given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom... But even with the iffy weather, I'm happy to report having been able to get up to Wallingford yesterday evening, to check out one of the F.O.R.D. Club's cruise nights at On Track Karting's parking lot on North Colony Road (Route 5). Even though I got there late, there was a nice selection of cars, and I had fun checking 'em all out, and also handing out some Time Machines flyers, and snapping a few pictures. It was a pleasure running into our friend Jack Danovich there also, who is one of the dedicated F.O.R.D. club members who make this good stuff happen. One car in particular that I had fun checking out and chatting with the owner of was a beautiful late '70s AMC Gremlin X, "Levis" edition. I've seen it in local shows now for a few years, but had never chatted with its owner, Stan Baker, who is extremely knowledgeable about the car. If you click on the picture at the upper right (or HERE) you'll bring up a larger overall view of the car, and then you can also click on another hyperlinked picture of Mr. Baker posing with his beautiful vintage AMC. As always, I'd like to be able to present more shots from the event at some point, but for now, thanks to Jack D., and all the F.O.R.D. club people who made it possible!... Please enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend, and Thanks to all of our Military Veterans.

*5/22/2009 - Happy to report that I've managed to make some more continuing progress on my latest antique VW wheels restoration project. If you remember from my last installment, on 5/13/2009 (see the applicable section below), I had a "priming mishap," on one of them, that totally screwed up the nice prime job that I had done up to that point--and then I also acquired another good "raw" (needing restoration) one, that I thought would be nice to include in with this group. After our local sandblasting friend Nils Michaelson got finished re-doing the primer mishap one, plus the "new" additional one, I picked them up on Wednesday afternoon, and immediately got them primed (with spray-bomb primer) when I got home. And as it turned out, I had some time after work yesterday to actually drag out all my "painting junk" (hoses, paint gun, paints, reducers, measuring cups, stirring sticks, etc.), and I'm very happy to report that I was able to get the first color (L87 Pearl White) applied! Click HERE for a picture of the group as they now appear. Next step, after the Pearl White cures a bit more, will be to mask off the centers, and then spray L41 Black on the outers, plus all the other parts of the wheels. Exciting to make more progress here!... And the other thing that I've been working on the past couple of days is getting a feature page together to document the fun time we had this past weekend at the Shore Line Trolley Museum's antique car show over in East Haven. I finally have a "first draft" finished, with lots of words and pictures from the day--and you can click HERE or on the image at the upper right (which is a scan of the official dash plaque from the event) to take you there! Please, as always, don't hesitate to let me know about any errors, omissions, mis-spellings, what-not--thanks! Hope you enjoy the feature and thanks again to all the Trolley Museum folks who made it possible!

*5/19/2009 - One of the things that I decided I had to get done before I could work on a review of the Trolley Museum event for the SAAC web site was to first get a review page together spotlighting a local-area newspaper article that appeared last fall, in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the Ford Model T. One of my co-workers usually brings the day's copy of the Connecticut Post newspaper to work, and on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008, I noticed a very interesting-looking front page feature in the Post, featuring two full-color accompanying images--both related to Model T Fords. I didn't really take the time to read the article, but I did ask my co-worker if I could have that issue of the newspaper when he was finished, and I kept the paper in a pile of "not to be thrown out" stuff on my desk for several months. It was at the East Haven Trolley Museum car show this past weekend when having saved that issue of the CT Post finally came in handy--and caused me finally to read and study it. It turns out that one of the beautiful antique cars that we saw driving into the Trolley Museum car show was a 1914 Ford Model T that had been featured in the CT Post article, owned by Mr. Charles Gagel of Orange (along with his daughter Victoria). The car, though not originally a fire car, was reportedly fashioned by Mr. Gagel, who happens to be the chief of the Orange Fire Department, into a replica of what a fire chief's official vehicle would have been "back in the day," complete with official-looking "Orange" markings done in gold leaf, on top of gleaming "fire engine red" bodywork. The car even had a cool CT EA "vanity" plate reading, you guessed it, "ORANGE." As my son Matt is a fire department explorer, he was also extra-interested in checking out Mr. Gagel's car. The '14 T of Mr. Gagel is an amazing jewel of an antique, and we'll be sure to include a picture or two of it in our eventual review of the 2009 Trolley Museum car show. For now, however, you can review the Connectiut Post article in which it was featured (along with many interesting historical facts about the Ford Model T automobile), by clicking HERE or directly on the accompanying image at the upper right, which is one that I snapped this past Saturday in East Haven. Over and out for now!

*5/18/2009 - The "glow" from the first-ever Trolley Museum antique car show continues! Here are excerpts from note we just received from our long-time MG-driving old car friend Bob Howard, dated 5/18/2009: "...Hi Steve, Thanks for putting the word out about the Trolley Museum event Saturday. I found the Time Machines flyer in my car but never saw you there (ditto that, Bob--I saw your MG there also!). Four of us from the MG club attended, Bob Lavezzoli with his MGA, John Day with his MGB, Dana Rindge with his MGC and I with my TD. We arrived in the morning mist as cars #20, 21, 23 and John came a bit later. What a good time we all had. Right away a fellow was organising a tour of the barns. Sorry that I did not remember his name for you, but he owns a 1950 Studebaker that he had in the show. We had a great tour of the barns and later a gearhead's tour of the repair shop. One of the operators assured us that 600V dc will not run down the rope connected to the trolley slider (we believe him, but did not test it ourselves) and others explained enthusiastically all sorts of other things about these wonderful beasts. I still haven't figured out the Sprague controllers, but am working at it. The coffee and food were good and fairly priced. A good time was had by all of us. Bob..." Great to hear, Bob, and again, sorry that I missed you also--I did capture a couple of views of those magnificent antique MGs arranged on the field, though, so when I get our review page going, I'll be sure to include a couple of samples--along with reprinting your very positive review--I'm sure the organizers will love to read what you had to say!... And then, relating to the image at the upper right, I am very pleased to report that my daughter Sarah and I made it out to the "Rita's/TNT Seafood" cruise night in Branford this evening for a little while, and had a wonderful time checking out all the cool old cars that were gathered. The day had been somewhat cool and overcast, but by the evening, a bright and warm afternoon sun lit everything up, making for a really inviting scene. We drove our '68 Bug, and though were were only able to stay around for a little while, we maximized our picture-taking opportunities, and also distributed some Time Machines flyers. You can click directly on the accompanying image (or HERE) to bring up a larger version of one of the pictures we took. Thanks to the organizers for a really fun old car cruise that's right in our back yard!

*5/16/2009 - Wow, what a great time out at the Trolley Museum Show in East Haven earlier today! This was a first-time event and I totally enjoyed it! What made it especially cool in my view was the very unique theme and venue--antique autos on display right along side of antique trolley cars--all staged in an actual trolley yard--and with antique trolley cars rolling by actively while the event was going on! I remember attending the Simsbury Fly-In and Antique Auto Show two years ago and I would say the uniqueness and excitement of it affected me similarly. I can't say enough about how much we enjoyed participating! My son Matt came along with me this time (we drove our '68 Bug; Matt also helped me hand out Time Machines 2009 flyers too), and he said he really enjoyed himself as well. Of course I took some photos too, and I want to work up a feature page with some of those, along with further descriptions of our experience of the day. Other highlights for me included finally meeting Bob Steller of the 'Round Town Cruisers (organizers of the Monday night White Hills Plaza Cruises in Shelton), who was there with his magnificent Packard rod--also chatting with local 'Creeker Dave Pooler who had his cool Ford Woody Wagon on display. Along with the "teaser" picture I elected to insert here at the upper right, showing a super-cool '55 Packard Clipper driving into the show, as a vintage trolley rolled by in the background (click HERE or directly on the image to bring up a larger, higher-resolution version), I have a couple of other "overall scene" type shots hyperlinked that you can click on, including: Cars toward the front of the field, cars toward the rear of the field (note the trolley barns in the background), and more cool old cars with the front of a vintage trolley at the right foreground.While we were there, amidst the cool oldies music that the DJ was spinning, there were also some upcoming event announcements made, one of which in particular caught my attention--that being a Monday night cruise at the "Rita's" ice cream (& "TNT" seafood) restaurant, right on Route 1 in Branford. I had seen a small sign out in front of the restaurant a few days ago which seemed to be advertising a cruise night there, and so, on the way home from East Haven today, I made sure to take Route 1 and check out the sign in front of Rita's more closely--sure enough, there appears to be a cruise night happening there on Monday, May 18th, so we may try to check that one out (being Branford-ites ourselves). Click HERE for a view of that sign, and HERE for an overall view of the restaurant (which is located just a few feet west of the Branford Ford dealership, and also not far off of I-95 Exit #55). I also browsed the Special Interest web site when I got home, and sure enough, the Rita's cruise night is also listed there. So, I added it to the Cruise Nights section of our Calendar page today, along with another cool-sounding Tuesday cruise night in Essex, that our friend Scott Macgregor recently sent us a snail-mailed heads-up about (thanks again Scott!)... Good rest of your weekend--over and out for now...

*5/13/2009 - Added one more image (an overall of view a beautiful '32 Ford hot rod) to the Morgan car show review page this evening--and also one more new event to the Calendar page (a new June 13th Durham event we just heard about)... And relating to the accompanying image at the right (on which you can directly click to bring up a larger version--or HERE), I also got the wheels back from sandblasting today (reference the 5/6/2009 update below--and thanks again Nils Michaelson!), but due to an error on my part (incompatible primers--I didn't have quite enough of the original stuff and tried to touch up with a different primer that I had on the shelf: MISTAKE!), I only have four that are ready for paint right now. The "good news" however, is that not only am I going to take the one I "screwed up" back for re-blasting, but I also just acquired, on Monday of this week, one more good restorable one--thanks to our good friend Tom Matulis! So, once I get that "new" one re-clipped, I'll take both it, and the "primer mistake" subject over to Nils Michaelson's and ask that he get 'em blasted at his next convenience. I figure when I drag all my painting junk out, I might as well have all six wheels ready to go. Additional hyperlinked images I just posted from today's progress include: an overall shot of all six (the four good primed, the one "priming disaster," and the "new" Tom Matulis one) laid out, plus detail views of the "good" four only, a close-up of the "mistake" wheel, and a close-up of the new "raw" wheel from Tom M.... Oh, and I also ordered tires today--some 155R15 Vredestein radials from an authorized Vredestein tire dealer web site, which, I found, could save me almost $100 on four tires, shipped to me, compared to the "collector" tire dealers. Not that I don't appreciate what places like Coker and Universal offer, but in this case, it was a "no brainer" to save the bucks... Over and out for now!

*5/12/2009 - Wow, I'm still thinking back to the car show this past Saturday in Clinton, and what a fun time I had there. The experience was such a positive one in so many ways--including the enjoyable drive I had out there and back in my old '68 Bug. And now I can't wait to put more miles on the car, to take advantage of the improved steering and overall control afforded by the new steering damper that I installed later that same day. Anyway, inspired by all of this, I decided to try and get a review page together about the 2009 Morgan Car Show--and I've been working on it in my spare time the past couple of days--on up to the point, as of this evening, of completing a first draft. Naturally, I emphasize those words first draft, since I always end up finding lots of my own mistakes and typos after I've had a chance to objectively look at the production--but nevertheless, I do wish to invite you to view it, and please also do not hesitate to contact me with any errors, mistakes, omissions, what-not, that you may find, and I will be glad to get back and fix it as best I can. The page address is: http://home.comcast.net/~shorelinesteve/MORGAN09/Review.html - and that's of course an active hyperlink that you can click on to take you there--or you can also click directly on the small image at the upper right, which is a small-scale scan I made of the cool dash plaque that I received in return for participating in the 2009 Morgah show with my '68 Bug. I again wish to congratulate and thank all of the Morgan School Students for organizing and running this fun old car event, and also their advisor Mr. Cole for all the thoughtful guidance he provides to the Morgan Transportation Technology Program... Well, now that we have an all-new Feature Page completed, it also reminds me about all the old ones that have yet to be "resurrected," in the wake of our losing our AOL web site hosting this past fall (due to their unilateral business decision--and no fault of our own). I suppose a good first step for me toward that project will be to get our Photo Pages Index (the directory on which all of our individual Feature pages are listed) going again, so that'll be first on my agenda (followed by beginning regenerating the individual Feature pages, whereever possible). Thanks again, as always, for your patience!

*5/10/2009 - I'd be remiss if I didn't wish all mothers a "Happy Mothers Day" today. And how nice that Mother Nature served up a beautiful sunny and clear day! We're lovin' it!... In local old-car-related news, I'm very happy to report I made it out to the Morgan Car Show yesterday (5/9/09) at the Morgan School in Clinton, and had a positively great time. I didn't stay the entire time, but did take the time to check out all the cool cars and chat with many nice folks. I met super old-VW-enthusiast Matt from Westbrook, who was therewith his grandfather Jerry--what a nice young man--and super-interested in old VWs--he has his own '70 Bug already, even though he's still a few years away from his driver's license. As I had driven my old '68 Bug there, Matt was very interested in checking out the features of the car, and comparing to his '70's features. I really enjoyed chatting with him and his grandfather--that's a real positive sign for the future of the old VW--and old car hobby in general. Another super person I met for the first time this year was Mr. Cole from the Morgan School Transportation Technology program--what a good man, and what great things he does with the students--my hat is off to Mr. Cole! And last but not least, the Morgan Transportation Technology Program Students, who did a superb job running the entire event (and collecting nonperishable food donations for those less fortunate at the same time). I took some pictures and will eventually prepare a report, but for now, I'd like to say GREAT JOB Morgan School Students and Advisors! The accompanying "teaser" image I've decided to include here at this time is a picture of one of the many very cool cars that participated in this year's Morgan Show--it is a 1971 Opel GT, done up in full "pro street" treatment--and by clicking directly on the picture (or HERE), you can bring up a larger, overall view of this super-impressive little car, which is reportedly owned by Wayne Curry. And here is one more hyperlinked picture showing Mr. Cole (in the hat) chatting with Matt's grandfather Jerry (left), and Matt (right), all standing near my Bug... Since I've had my latest new/old wheels & tires set on the '68 Bug this year , which are a "stealth" wide setup (5.5" wide Porsche 914 wheels painted to look like stock '68 Bug wheels, and fat 185/65R15 Michelin radials), I noticed a bit of shimmy that seemed to come and go sporadically around 45mph. I decided to order a new steering damper, since I've never replaced it in all the years I've been driving the car. And since I had the part in hand already, I decided to replace it yesterday afternoon. I'm happy to say the removal of the old (complete with exterior wetness from leaking fluid--a sure sign of needing replacement), and installation of the new (a proper stock-specs unit that I purchased from aircooled.net), all went smoothly, and my test-drive afterwards indicated that I had solved the problem (though I'm probably still also going to get the tires spin-balanced--which I've yet to do also)... And beyond that, please also do check out our Calendar page , where we've just posted a couple more new car shows and cruise nights as of this evening... Over and out for now!

Table of Contents (latest updated items in red - Warning, most, if not all, of these links DO NOT WORK at this time--sorry for this inconvenience)
CALENDAR (Our selected listing of upcoming Shoreline-area antique auto events)  (Last updated 11/9, 11/14, 11/15, 11/17, 11/19, 11/24, 11/29, 12/9, 12/30/2008, 1/6, 1/9, 1/15, 1/24, 1/27, 2/3, 2/7, 2/13, 2/17, 2/19, 2/24, 2/27, 3/7, 3/11, 3/12, 3/16, 3/21, 3/24, 3/26, 3/30, 4/1, 4/7, 4/16, 4/22, 5/6, 5/10, 5/13, 5/16, 5/18, 5/22, 5/26, 6/4, 6/6, 6/10, 6/11, 6/18, 6/23, 6/25, 6/29, 7/2, 7/6, 7/10, 7/16, 7/22, 7/23, 7/27, 7/30, 8/3 8/6, 8/17, 8/19, 8/24, 8/28, 9/4, 9/9, 9/15, 9/16, 9/22, 9/28, 9/30, 10/22, 10/26, 10/29, 11/4, 11/10, 11/12, 11/22/2009)
PHOTO PAGES INDEX (See & read about recent local antique auto activities!)  (Last updated 5/12, 5/19, 5/31, 6/10, 6/11, 6/25, 7/2, 11/8/2009)
CLASSIFIEDS PAGE (local old car-oriented ads: for sale, wanted, & unclassifiable)  (Last updated 11/18/2008, 2/19, 2/27, 6/23, 7/10, 8/19, 11/15/2009)
RESOURCE GUIDE (local places for parts, service, restoration, what-have-you)  (Reactivated January 2009; latest updates as of 2/10/2009; please send us your recommendations for inclusion on this page)
LINKS PAGE   (Last updated 11/17/2008, 1/9, 8/19, 11/15/2009)
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS PAGE (Selected news items of interest to the old car hobby)  (Last updated 7/27/2007)
EDITORIALS PAGE (Voice your thoughts on the old car hobby) (Last updated 9/15/2002)
CONNECTICUT AUTOMOBILE LICENSE PLATES  (Last updated 10/14/2005)
CONNECTICUT PINTO REGISTRY (Last updated 4/20/2007; regenerated as of 1/20/2009; last updated 1/24, 9/4/2009)
OUR ANIMAL APPRECIATION PAGE (Last updated 11/29/2008, 1/29, 2/4, 2/5, 6/11/2009)
JARVIS CREEK CRITTERS (Our own animals) (Reactivated January 2009; latest updates as of 2/7/2009)
FYI (This brings you to our important disclaimer, etc.)  (Last updated "quite some time ago")
GUEST BOOK (This brings you to links where you can either "sign" or "view") (Last updated "quite some time ago")
SHORELINE ANTIQUE AUTO MESSAGE BOARD (A new message board has been activated as of 11/11/2008)
ENJOY THE CT SHORELINE ANTIQUE AUTO EXPERIENCE (This brings you to our little tribute to our local Route 146 Scenic Road...) (Last updated 11/17/2008)

FYI

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: The information provided electronically, on paper, or otherwise is strictly for entertainment purposes only with no guarantees of any type, expressed or implied. Participation in any activity is strictly voluntary and done at one's own risk. The Shoreline Antique Auto Connection web site and it's author expressly disclaim all responsibility for any & all damages or claims, however caused. Observe all safety precautions when engaging in any activities with antique or modern automobiles. Obtain proper coverage from qualified insurance professionals for any type of activities, auto-related or otherwise, in which you may wish to engage.

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Shoreline Antique Auto Connection - P.O. Box 3353 - Stony Creek - CT - 06405 - USA

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ABOUT THE BELOW LOGO: The photo that is the background basis was taken by me from behind the wheel of our 1950 VW Beetle, on Sunday, May 11th, 2008 (click on that hyperlink--or HERE--or on the logo below itself--to bring up a larger, unmodified copy of the original picture), not long after I had gotten the car reactivated after a long period of garage dormancy. The photo location is of course, Leetes Island Road/Route 146 (heading westbound--back toward Stony Creek, of course!), just slightly west of the Sachem Head Road/Sam Hill Road intersection, and where a large tidal pond empties and fills via a culvert under the roadway. It becomes apparent why Route 146 is an official state-designated "Scenic Road"--its 12.2 total miles, stretching between Branford and Guilford, was officially designated on May 29th, 1990 (ref: http://www.ct.gov/dot/cwp/view.asp?a=2094&q=305520).

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