Director’s Thoughts, March, 2018

Your Elected Director, Sally Getz

“Free Spirit” Chapter Meeting Minutes, February, 2018

Meeting called to order @ 7:33 pm by Director Sally Getz. All were “Welcomed” to the meeting. 12 members & 1 guest in attendance.
Motion to accept January meeting minutes as printed in the February newsletter, Dolores Kennedy, seconded by Dave Brady, so carried.
Treasurer’s report –January report given by Sally Getz, motion to accept Shirley Schaffer, seconded by Sandy Reiniger, so carried.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

A. Historian – no report
B. Kempton – YES, there will be an October 28, 2018 show! Sally, finally, received the 2017 security/property damage deposit back from the KCRC manager.
C. Membership – monies were collected from those who forgot their badge D. Newsletter – printing costs did not rise for us! WHEW!! Still waiting for 2 advertisers to renew their ads in our monthly newsletter.
E. Programs – no report
F. Publicity – no report
G. Technical – no report
H. Ways and Means – 2 raffles to go off in March!

I. OLD BUSINESS: Sally to man a table during the upcoming Hamburg Swap Meet, Hamburg Field House, March 4, 2018, to promote the upcoming NE PA ALL BUICK REGIONAL.
A date will be discussed as to when the books will be audited.
II. NEW BUSINESS: Debbie/Dave Brady & Sally attended an Emmaus event community meeting with the intent of discussing the possibility to holding some type of car event in the borough of Emmaus. 2 options were discussed: an event in July called “Car Collector Appreciation Day” or holding a car event @ on the grounds of the Emmaus High School (in place of Kempton Community Recreation Center). Sally also presented that the “Ontelaunee Park”, New Tripoli, is available to hold a car event. These places and ideas were discussed w/ the membership during this meeting tonight. The outcome = continue w/ Kempton for this year, then take this time to thoroughly research ideas for holding a 2019 show.

Sally shared information on someone selling a 15” Buick wheel, cylinder heads & a transmission. Anyone interested, please contact Sally.

Sally received a second NE PA BUICK REGIONAL registration! Also received a phone call from a interested person, Sunbury, Pa, asking for info on this event. He saw our ad on a web site about car events!

Shirley gave a brief synopsis about Paul. The main thing is that Paul is home! Drop him a GET WELL card, or give him a buzz on the phone!

Motion to adjourn, Shirley Schaffer, seconded George Grossman, so carried @ 8:30 pm. Respectfully submitted, Sally Getz, Substitute Secretary

Chapter Badges

Please remember to wear your chapter badge that has your name on it. Wearing it to the monthly chapter meetings is a must, or you will owe $1.00 to Dolores Kennedy. Also, please wear it to the periodic chapter events, thus everyone can get to meet/greet you if you are a new member. If you do not have a badge with your name on it, please contact Dolores Kennedy & she’ll be more than happy to see you receive a badge!

Everyone Is Welcomed!

Now that 2018 is finally here, I am extending a “WARM WELCOME” to any member who would like to send me information, articles, etc. for in the monthly newsletter. I am open to ideas, articles, clippings, stories, etc. If you would like to share something with others, feel free to send your information to me via e-mail, U.S mail, phone call, visit, or however you want. If you would like to hear from a group or person of an organization, make this year a fun-filled year!

Northeast PA All Buick Regional, September 20-22, 2018, Lehighton, Pa

WOW! Can you believe we are in 2108 already? It just seems like yesterday we just got started in 2017!! The time is going by quickly, don’t you agree? This means it is now, only 6 months away from the 2018 NE PA ALL BUICK REGIONAL!! Can you believe it? I am so excited of being a part of this Buick chapter in hosting such an event. For you, the members, is what makes this chapter the GREATEST!!

A NE PA All Buick Regional will be held @ Lehighton, Pa @ Phifer’s Ice Dams, September 20-22, 2018. There are 2 local hotels, 1 = 0.5 mile & 1 = 1 mile away. The PA turnpike is only 1 mile away for those who travel! View the web site, www.buickfreespirit.org, to be kept in the loop about this exciting event, & to register your BUICK(s)!!!

CLASSICS & CRUISERS ON HAMILTON COMING JULY 21

Car enthusiasts should mark Saturday, July 21 on their calendars! That’s when classic cars will be making a return to Downtown Allentown. At a late morning news conference at PPL Center today Mayor Ed Pawlowski, flanked by a 2003 Thunderbird, a 2002 35th Anniversary Limited Edition Camaro, a 2012 Lamborgini Performante’ and a 1962 Mercedes 190 SL, announced that during the July event, Hamilton Street will be closed from 6th Street to 9th Street, and lined with classic and muscle cars of many makes, models, and time periods.

Organized by the City of Allentown Department of Parks & Recreation, Allentown Police, America On Wheels Museum, Friends of the Allentown Parks and the Allentown Chamber of Commerce, “Classics & Cruisers on Hamilton” will re-live the days when Hamilton Street in Allentown was the hub of gathering to park and show off your vehicle. People came to Allentown from all over to gather along Hamilton Street to enjoy camaraderie and a mutual interest in cars and in the city.

The car show will directly benefit two Allentown-based non-profits: America On Wheels Museum and Friends of the Allentown Parks.

“America On Wheels Museum is fueling up with excitement to be a part of the team that brings cruising to Allentown. We take great pride in entertaining and educating the public on the unique vehicles that will attend this event,” says Linda Merkel, Executive Director of America On Wheels Museum. “We couldn’t think of a better place than downtown Allentown, Hamilton Street, with many wonderful restaurants.”

“This is an exciting event which showcases the rejuvenation of Allentown’s downtown area, bringing tourists to our many fine restaurants and, of course, to relax and enjoy Allentown’s wonderful parks,” stated Karen El-Chaar, Executive Director with Friends of the Allentown Parks.

Registration opened today for the 2018 show, both online https://fotap.wordpress.com/2016-great-events/classics-cruisers-on-hamilton/ and at America On Wheels Museum. The cost is $20.00 per vehicle in advance, and $25.00 per vehicle after July 15, 2018.

Sponsorship opportunities are available. Interested businesses or organizations should contact James.Stanko@allentownpa.gov or Christy.Alvord@allentownpa.gov or call 610-437-7757.

The State Should address Our bad Driving Habits

We have become a nation of bad drivers. Young & old alike ignore the basic rules of the road. How did we get to this point? Why do motorists suddenly turn rude & ignorant when they climb behind the wheels of vehicles? We can debate if the younger drivers are learning their horrible habits from their elders or the older drivers are taking their cues from the younger generation. Are the people taking more risks because they know that the odds of being stopped by the police are slim? Many law-enforcement departments are undermanned, & traffic stops seemed to have been pushed to the background as officers deal with other pressing issues, such as illegal drug activity, assaults & much more.

With our police keeping watch over our roads, driving regulations seem to have taken on new interpretations, such as:

• Obeying posted speed limits is for wimps.
• Turn signals? The devices must be optional equipment on many makes & models of cars/trucks
  It’s better to keep the other drivers guessing. This also helps sharpen the reflexes of motorists who are following the mindless drivers who don’t use signals.
• Motorists who are to yield to oncoming traffic take it upon themselves to pull right onto the highway, causing those who have the right of way to jam on their brakes. How chain-reaction accidents are avoided is a miracle.
• Rolling stops have become the norm. Some drivers don’t even pretend to stop-their foot never touches the brake pedal. The few seconds gained by not coming to a full stop presumably will come in handy sometime during the day.
• Drivers may erroneously believe that right turns @ the intersection take preference. They don’t! During law-enforcement periods, municipal police departments & the state police focus on red-light running, tailgating, steer-clear violations & speeding, according to the website, www.patroltrafficsafety.org, the PA Traffic Safety Enforcement Resource Center.

Perhaps PA should retest drivers @ set intervals – say every 5 or 10 years – just as a refresher. The exams would reintroduce motorists to the rules & regulations of driving on PA highways. It certainly couldn’t hurt!

Immutable Laws

• Law of Mechanical Repair – After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you’ll have to pee.
• Law of Gravity – Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible place in the universe.
• Law of Probability – The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.
• Law of Random Numbers – If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal; someone always answers.
• Variation Law – If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now.
• Law of the Bath – When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone will ring.
• Law of Close Encounters – The probability of meeting someone you know INCREASES dramatically when you are with someone you don’t want to be seen with.
• Law of the Result – When you try to prove to someone that a machine won’t work, IT WILL!!!
• Law of Biomechanics – The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.
• Law of the Theaters & Sports Arenas – At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle, always arrive last. They are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, beer, or the toilet and who leave early before the end of the performance or the game is over. The folks in the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies and stay to the bitter end of the performance. The aisle people also are very surly folk.
• The Coffee Law – As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.
• Murphy’s Law of Lockers – If there are only 2 people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.
• Law of Physical Surfaces – The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet or rug.
• Law of Logical Argument – Anything is possible IF you don’t know what you are talking about.
• Law of Physical Appearance – If the clothes fit, they’re ugly.
• Law of Public Speaking – A CLOSED MOUTH GATHERS NO FEET!
• Law of Commercial Marketing Strategy- As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it OR the store will stop selling it!
• Doctors’ Law – If you don’t feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there, you’ll feel better. But don’t make an appointment and you’ll stay sick.

Car buffs will enjoy reading this one!

Q: Who opened the first drive-in gas station?
> A: Gulf opened up the first station in Pittsburgh in 1913.

Q: What city was the first to use parking meters?
> A: Oklahoma City, on July 16, 1935.

Q: Where was the first drive-in restaurant?
> A: Royce Hailey’s Pig Stand opened in Dallas in 1921.

Q: The 1953 Corvette came in white, red and black.
> The 1953 ‘Vett’s were available in one color, Polo White.

Q: What was Ford’s answer to the Chevy Corvette, and other legal street racers of the 1960’s?
> A: Carroll Shelby’s Mustang GT350.

Q: What was the first car fitted with an alternator, rather than a direct current dynamo?
> A: The 1960 Plymouth Valiant

Q: What was the first car fitted with a replaceable cartridge oil filter?
> : The 1924 Chrysler.

Q: What was the first car to be offered with a “perpetual guarantee”?
> A: The 1904 Acme, from Reading, PA. Perpetuity was disturbing in this case, as Acme closed down in 1911.

Q: What American luxury automaker began by making cages for birds and squirrels?
> A: The George N. Pierce Co. of Buffalo, who made the Pierce Arrow, also made iceboxes.

Q: What car first referred to itself as a convertible?
> A: The 1904 Thomas Flyer, which had a removable hard top.

Q: What car was the first to have it’s radio antenna embedded in the windshield?
> A: The 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix.

Q: What car used the first successful series-production hydraulic valve lifters?
> A: The 1930 Cadillac 452, the first production V16

Q: Where was the World’s first three-color traffic lights installed?
> A: Detroit, Michigan in 1919. Two years later they experimented with synchronized lights.

Q: What type of car had the distinction of being GM’s 100 millionth car built in the U.S.?
> A: March 16, 1966 saw an Olds Tornado roll out of Lansing, Michigan with that honor.

Q: Where was the first drive-in movie theater opened, and when?
A: Camden, NJ in 1933

Q: What autos were the first to use a standardized production key-start system?
> A: The 1949 Chrysler’s

Q: What did the Olds designation 4-4-2 stand for?
> A: 4 barrel carburetor, 4 speed transmission, and dual exhaust.

Q: What car was the first to place the horn button in the center of the steering wheel?
> A: The 1915 Scripps-Booth Model C. The car also was the first with electric door latches.

Q: What U.S. production car had the quickest 0-60 mph time?
> A: The 1962 Chevrolet Impala SS 409.

Q: What’s the only car to appear simultaneously on the covers of Time and Newsweek?
> A: The Mustang

Q: What was the lowest priced mass produced American car?
A: The 1925 Ford Model T Runabout. Cost $260, $5 less than 1924.

Q: What is the fastest internal-combustion American production car?
> A: The 1998 Dodge Viper GETS-R, tested by Motor Trend magazine at 192.6 mph.

Q: What automaker’s first logo incorporated the Star of David?
> A: The Dodge Brothers.

Q: Who wrote to Henry Ford, “I have drove fords exclusively when I could get away with one It has got every other car skinned, and even if my business hasn’t been strictly legal it don’t hurt anything to tell you what a fine car you got in the V-8”?
A: Clyde Barrow (of Bonnie and Clyde) in 1934.

Q: What car was the first production V12, as well as the first production car with aluminum pistons?
> A: The 1915 Packard Twin-Six. Used during WWI in Italy, these motors inspired Enzi Ferrari to adopt the V12 himself in 1948.

Q: What was the first car to use power operated seats?
> A: They were first used on the 1947 Packard line.

Q: Which of the Chrysler “letter cars” sold the fewest amount?
> A: Only 400, 1963, 300J’s were sold

Q: What car company was originally known as Swallow Sidecars (aka SS)?
> A: Jaguar, which was an SS model first in 1935, and ultimately the whole company by 1945.

Q: What car delivered the first production V12 engine?
> A: The cylinder wars were kicked off in 1915 after Packard’s chief engineer, Col. Jesse Vincent, introduced its Twin-Six.

Q: When were seat belts first fitted to a motor vehicle?
> A: In 1902, in a Baker Electric streamliner racer which crashed at 100 mph. on Staten Island!

Q: In January 1930, Cadillac debuted it’s V16 in a car named for a theatrical version of a 1920’s film seen by Harley Earl while designing the body, What’s that name?
> A: The “Madam X”, a custom coach designed by Earl and built by Fleetwood. The sedan featured a retractable landau top above the rear seat.

Q: Which car company started out German, yet became French after WWI?
> A: Bugatti, founded in Molsheim in 1909, became French when Alsace returned to French rule.

Q: In what model year did Cadillac introduce the first electric sunroof?
> A: 1969

Q: What U.S. production car had the largest 4 cylinder engine?
> A: The 1907 Thomas sported a 571 cu. in. (9.2liter) engine.

Q: What car was reportedly designed on the back of a Northwest Airlines airsickness bag and released on April Fool’s Day, 1970?
A: 1970 Gremlin, (AMC)

Q: What is the Spirit of Ecstasy?
> A: The official name of the mascot of Rolls Royce, she is the lady on top of their radiators.
Also known as “Nellie in her nighty”.

Q: What was the inspiration for MG’s famed octagon-shaped badge?
> A: The shape of founder Cecil Kimber’s dining table. MG stands for Morris Garages.

Q: In what year did the “double-R” Rolls Royce badge change from red to black?
A: 1933

Trivia…
Ford, who made the first pick-up trucks, shipped them to dealers in crates that the new owners had to assemble using the crates as the beds of the trucks. The new owners had to go to the dealers to get them, thus they had to “pick-up” the trucks. And now you know the “rest of the story.”

Calendar of Events

MARCH 2018 “HAPPY ST. PATRICK’s DAY!”
4 – Hamburg Swap Meet, Hamburg, Pa
6 – Monthly meeting, Starlite Diner & Lounge, Allentown, Pa. Dinner @ 6 pm, business meeting 7:30 pm.
22-25 – LV Auto Show, Bethlehem, Pa.

APRIL 2018
3 – Monthly meeting, Starlite Diner & Lounge, Allentown, PA. Dinner @ 6 pm, business meeting @ 7:30 pm.
7 – Spring 2nd chance Auction & market, AACA Museum, Hershey, Pa
15 – America On Wheels Turns 10!!
18-22 – Spring Carlisle, Pa.
29 – Sticks & Slicks Show, Grantville, Pa. 717-215-1755

MAY 2018
1 – Monthly meeting, Starlite Diner & Lounge, Allentown, Pa. Dinner @ 6 pm, business meeting @ 7:30 pm.
5 – Allen Township Fire Co Car show, Northampton, Pa
5 – Petting Zoo of Construction Trucks, America On Wheels, Allentown
6 – GM On Display Car Show, Macungie Park, Macungie, Pa

CARS/PARTS “FOR SALE”

1939 Buick Special (41) 4-DR Trunk back Sedan, unrestored original car, Straight 8, manual transmission. Runs well! Rebuilt engine & components, brake system, drive train, transmission. Upgraded carb, electronic ignition, oil filter, NEW exhaust system. WW tires. Pics available. $16,500/negotiable. Ken Davis, 610-489-1649. kwmcdavis@verizon.net.
1962 Buick Skylark Conv. Overall GOOD condition. Various NOS chrome installed. Runs/drives nice! Transmission, rear, top & rear window good. Dave’s Int. restorations, 525 Chestnut St., Emmaus, Pa 18049
1965 Buick Electra 225 4 dr, hardtop, Black. 62,634 original miles. 465/340 HP V8 engine. AM/FM radio. UNRESTORED, ALL ORIGINAL CAR! Garage kept! Needs transmission & exhaust work. $8,000.00. 610-377-6130.
1967 Buick Special Deluxe Sport Coupe 2 dr, Forest Green exterior w/ black interior. 68,305 original miles. 300 engine, V-8. AM/FM radio. Spinner wire wheel covers. UNRESTORED, ALL ORIGINAL car!! Garage kept! Runs good! $8,500.00. 610-377-6130
1972 Chevrolet Caprice 2 dr coupe, Brown. 75,800 original miles. Garage kept!! AM/FM radio, Comfortron, Alloy Wheels w/ locking lugs. UNRESTORED, ALL ORIGINAL CAR!! Garage kept! Needs brake work. $8,000.00. 610-377-6130
1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Convertible 2 dr 350 V-8. Bronze exterior w/ Saddle Brown leather interior. Garage kept! $25,000.00. 610-377-6130
1976 Chevrolet Impala 2 dr. Green w/ tan Landau top w/ tan leather interior. 92,092 original miles. UNRESTORED, ALL ORIGINAL CAR!! Runs GREAT! Garage kept. $7,000.00. 610-377-6130
BUICK BUGLES – 30 years of “Buick Bugles” FREE for the taking. Must take ALL! 610-248-1638.

In Search Of

1948 Buick Special 2 door back chrome. Doug @ 570-573-0948.
1967 Buick Electra Conv. 610-730-4599, dwebster80@gmail.com