Restoration of a 1958 Cadillac Extended Deck Sedan » Events

Cadillac/LaSalle Club Inter-Regional Meet

Steven — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:47:28 +0000

[ujicountdown id=“CLC Regional Meet” expire=“2012/04/28 10:00″ hide = “true”]Saturday, April 28th from 10:00–2:00, the New England Region Cadillac LaSalle Club in conjunction with The Lower Hudson Valley, NY Cadillac LaSalle Club are sponsoring an Inter-Regional Meet at the Connecticut Trolley Museum, 58 North Road, East Windsor, CT. It’s a “rain or shine” event and as long as the weather is OK, we’ll be there.

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Three for Three

Steven — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 14:31:27 +0000

As expected and pretty much what we have been dealing with all year, Saturday’s finale at the Knights Of Columbus was rained out. Looks like that is going to be it for that group this year, schedule conflicts indicate it is not going to be rescheduled, too bad, it is a fun time and a great group of people.

However, Sunday the weather gods were smiling on us and we were able to participate at the Holyoke soldiers Home finale event. We love this place because all of the funds go into the residents activity fund accounts. These guys and gals put everything on the line for us, it is the least we can do to help support them now.… Attendance was a little short as this show was running the same day as the Pathfinder Regional show out in Palmer and many of our friends chose to head out that way because it was a much larger show. Mary Lee and I will do everything we can next season to help build attendance for this show.

Did I mention we managed a “Top Twenty” award? Makes us three for three…

The coming week, we plan on attending the Brimfield Antique & Classic Car Show at the Heart Of The Mart field on route 20 in Brimfield on Saturday the 1st and Sunday plan to attend the Wheels & Whiskers Classic Car Show at Mestek Field in Westfield, MA.

Hope to see you there.…

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Rotary Show & Hadley Cruise Night

Steven — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:35:04 +0000

It’s not often we get a stretch of 3 good days in a row, so we took advantage of all of them. The season is almost over and soon it will be time to put the “Gray Lady” down for her long Winter slumber. After a nice trip out to Boston on Saturday, we faced the dilema of having to choose between the Manchester On Main show, the Simsbury Fly-In and Classic Car Show or our local Chicopee Rotary Classic Car Show, sponsored by our bank the Chicopee Savings Bank. We opted to stay local and support the local charaties, so off to the Chicopee Rotary Show we went.

We entered the 1951 — 1961 production car division and managed a second place award! We don’t have the award yet, they had a professional photographer there taking photos and will do a photo plaque in place of a trophy, I’ll post a photo next week sometime when it is delivered. Interesting factoid, the photographer, Bud Shubach, a local pro was the same person Mary lee and I hired to do our wedding more than 32 years ago! It is a small world.… They also did a nice air bag deployment demonstration, using 4 different set-ups, two of them turned out to be duds!

Having a never say die attitude Monday brought another fine day, not wanting to miss it I decided to attend one of the final cruise nights of the season up in Hadley. Mary lee opted out as she was exhausted after our grueling weekend schedule. Sponsored by the Hadley Young Mens Association and held out in the farm country off route 47 near the Connecticut River, a great time was had by all, good food, great DJ and a nice turnout of about 60 cars. We were honored to receive the “Best Of Show” award, the only award given that night. Thank you to the Brickyard Drifters, you put on a very nice event, and while we may not be able to get back for your final show, we certaainly will see you again next season…

If the weather holds we plan on attending the season finale shows at the Knights of Columbus on Saturday and the Holyoke Soldiers Home on Sunday, see you there.

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Hurricane Irene

Steven — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:09:30 +0000

Well it’s been quite the year here in Western Massachusetts. Horrible Winter with record amounts of snowfall, collapsing roofs, school closures, major trouble all around. Then summer arrives and we are greeted by a June 1st Tornado causing a great amount of property damage, with several people killed. The summer continued with great amounts of rainfall, we had one of the wettest seasons anyone can remember and last week we experienced the fringe of the Earthquake that shook Virginia, it was a freaky experience to say the least, I can’t imagine what it really would have been like if the epicenter had been closer than the 500 miles away that it truly was.….

Yesterday we were targeted with Hurricane Irene and fortunately we escaped unscathed, we had very little winds and no more than 3″ of rain here, though just less than 20 miles away they are dealing with severe flooding, power outages and trees down. During the storm, our backyard pond was visited by this critter, he doesn’t look to happy. Of course the nasty weather caused us to skip the Deerfield Lions Club event in Deerfield, MA as it has for the majority of our summer weekends. When we return from Bermuda on the 9th our schedule gets chaotic, the Manchester and Simsbury, CT shows along with a local Rotory event are all scheduled on the same day due to weather reschedules. The Shriner’s show rain date is also here, so we are going to have to decide what we can and cannot do, bummer, they are all for good causes. Ahhh weel, it could be worse..

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Friday On Wheels — Pittsfield, MA

Steven — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:46:49 +0000

This evening we traveled up into the Berkshires to Pittsfield, MA for the “Friday On Wheels” event. Great weather, great ride, really nice area of Massachusetts. North Street downtown was closed for several blocks for us to display our cars. Got there around 4:00PM and was directed to park across from the church on whose lawn the stage was setup. Two different blues bands played for us live, food vendors everywhere and a great late summer evening. Not sure how many cars were there but it looked like hundreds, crowds looked like they could easily number well over a thousand if not much more!

I was pleased that the ’38 LaSalle that got skunked in Agawam two weeks ago won the Berkshire Bank award, that car deserves to be a winner! I’m not sure who the top 20 winners were because we were so spread out they had no award ceremony for them, they just delivered them to the vehicles. No award for us this time, but it was a great night out. Tomorrow we are planning on the “Tuned By Tuna” show in Springfield, but the weather looks shaky and though it is a rain or shine event, we won’t be there in the rain.

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Cadillac Day, Stoughton, MA

Steven — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 11:50:58 +0000

Saturday dawned with a heavy cloud cover but forecast was for no rain until late in the day, so what the heck, off we went to Long Cadillac out in Stoughton, MA for “Cadillac Day” sponsored by the New England Region Cadillac LaSalle Club. We left about 8:15AM and motored East down the Massachusetts Turnpike for the 60 mile trip, arriving in a little more than an hour. This was the longest trip the “Gray Lady” has taken since we have owned her, and it went without a hitch!

Upon arrival, we were invited to display in the designated 1950’s era showroom, staged for this event. We shoe horned her in, joining a gorgeous 1958 Black Sixty Special and a beautiful 1959 Red Convertible already there. These 3 cars stuffed that room to the gills, these new buildings sure were never made for cars of this size! It was really cool to see her standing on the floor and imagine that this was how it used to be 53 years ago, it was a once in a lifetime photo event. Thanks to all for a fun day! Special thanks to Long Cadillac for hosting the event and even supplying lunch for all of us. Too bad they are so far away, these are the kind of people I’d want to do business with when buying a new car. In the market for a car, and in their market area, see these guys I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Attendance was somewhat dampened by the threat of rain, but there was a nice selection of cars ranging from 1930’s through the 70’s. It was great to see such a collection of vintage Cadillacs in one place. In my neck of the woods, we are lucky if we see 1 or 2 at a time, I’m guessing there were about 35 vehicles represented here, this was a real treat and we are already making plans to attend the Fall Cadillac Day September 17th, hosted by Cadillac Village in Norwood, MA., sponsored again by the New England Region Cadillac LaSalle Club. See you there!

Factoid of the day.…. You are probably not going to believe this, but our 125 mile round trip used only 8 gallons of fuel! A 5,000 pound car, 300 horsepower high compression motor and 15+ MPG absolutely amazing! This was our first straight highway trip of any distance and our first opportunity to check the mileage, I was expecting around 10 MPG and so was very surprised. Really looking forward to our next long haul. The only issue we experience on the highway is people coming up alongside us, rolling their window down and trying to carry on a conversation at 65MPH! What a hoot.…..

The “Crusin’ On Main Street” event in Manchester was rescheduled to next Sunday due to bad weather today. This sets up a real dilemma for us next weekend, now there are 3 events on August 14th, Manchester, CT., Vernon, CT., and the very large “Tuned By Tuna” show, right here in Springfield, MA. Looks like we will be staying local at the Springfield show, but we really did want to go to Manchester. Also on our schedule this week is the Berkshire Bank Foundation “Friday On Wheels” Classic Car Show in downtown Pittsfield, MA., where they close Main Street to display the cars, have 2 live blues bands scheduled and will attract hundreds of cars.

See you there.….……

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Friday Night Cruise

Steven — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 11:34:09 +0000

Looking to change things up a little and with an eye towards shaky weather, I took a shot at attending the Agawam Cruise Night sponsored by the Valley Cruisers. The weather was marginal at best, with some large dark clouds floating around. My route to the show took me over the Memorial Bridge in downtown Springfield, and as I was navigating over the span I couldn’t help but notice the angry looking storm clouds to the southwest, it made me very nervous. This was the same bridge featured in many you tube videos when the tornado struck Springfield on June 1st.

Well, I experianced no rain, but the threat of bad weather keep many away. The event was very sparsely attended, and I felt kind of out of place as most of the attendees were club members. No awards tonight, but it was fun to get the “Gray Lady” out and roll her around a bit. Our weather has been awful and event after event have been rained out or rescheduled. Our busy upcoming weekend looks to be a washout again. We are scheduled to be in Stoughton, MA at Long Cadillac for “Cadillac Day” sponsored by the New England Region Cadillac LaSalle Club and then Sunday in Manchester, CT for the “Crusin’ On Main Street” event which can attract upwards of 2000 cars. Time will tell.

Fingers crossed.….

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What A Wasted Weekend

Steven — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:07:48 +0000

It has been a slow week, wanted to do cruise nights on Tuesday and Friday, but weather managed to nix both of them. Tuesday was just to hot to bother, and Friday again saw the threat of severe thunderstorms. good thing we canceled Friday because a very severe band of storms ran through, with trees down, large hail and very heavy rains.

My schedule is so messed up! I completely forgot about a show I wanted to attend in Stafford Springs, CT on Saturday, which was a beautiful day by the way. Business and Board meeting committments have really messed with my mind, it’s not like me to miss a great day for a show!!

Sunday I had the opportunity to attend “Cars Of The World” in Warwick, RI or a big show on the Connecticut shore, I opted to skip both in favor of a local show to benefit the Shriners Hospital and children’s cancer charities. While it was for a good cause, it was a terrible day. I won’t name the show, in an attempt to protect those who are doing the right thing, for all the right reasons in a very bad way.…. It was sunny and very hot when I arrived to find we were parking on an asphalt lot, great, hours in the blazing sun, with no shade in temps that were 90+ Low budget DJ and not a lot of activity all contributed to a few hours of my life I will never get back. The topper was when they announced the top 10 awards and best of show. The majority of winners were all Chevrolet, I’m told, just like what happened last year. The stunner though, was the best of show, a car that shall remain un-identified, it was not a Chevrolet. It was a convertible, metalflake purple, that was painted in his garage for $300.00, had rusted bumpers and an original shredded interior that was holier than a cathedral on Easter Sunday!!!! In fact, not 20 minutes before the award I was talking with the owner of the car who was admiring our paint job, when he was telling me how they painted it. OMG, what were they thinking, OK I get it, you want to give your buddy an award, so put him in the top 10, but “Best Of Show” are you kidding me. We will send a check next year because it is a really good cause, but there is no way we’ll be attending again, I’d have more fun taking a nap! Photos show a couple of beauties that were awarded nothing and completely overlooked. The ’33 Lasalle was an obvious standout in that field and did not even get in the top 10!

Hopefully, the coming week will be better, we are really looking forward to “Cadillac Day” sponsored by the New England Region of the Cadillac LaSalle Club and Long Cadillac out in Eastern Massachusetts on Saturday. Sunday will find us down in Manchester, CT where they close 1 mile of Main Street and could attract hundreds if not thousands of cars. Fingers crossed for better weather.

Talk later.….

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Holyoke Soldiers Home Cruise Night

Steven — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:33:44 +0000

I was happy to be able to attend the Holyoke Soldiers Home Cruise Night, Saturday from 4:00–7:30PM. This event scheduled only 4 times a year is a benefit fundraiser and all of the funds generated go directly to the residents. What a great way to honor those who put everything on the line to defend us!!! I was impressed with the facility, never having been there before (shame on me). I’ll admit it is not the best venue for a show, kind of hot out there in the parking lot, but they do have a great pavillion out in back, the food was terrific and we as car owners need to do everything in our power to assist, encourage and participate in the remaining events. Their next scheduled cruise is going to be August 20, and a final one on September 25th. Please mark your calendars and make every effort to attend, your efforts will bring a smile to many of the residents and help to put some money in their accounts.

Shortly after I arrived, Bob Simpson, a Holyoke resident arrived with his Kaiser Darrin and parked right behind me. Bob was a weekly winner with that car at Buttery Brook on Friday night, where I failed to get a photo, I didn’t miss the second opportunity, so here it is. The new Superintendant of the Home and I had a great conversation and it turns out he is a car guy too! He has a ’53 MG TD and as it turns out, I have the same car on the floor of my garage in pieces as I have begun a frame off restoration on it…

Please mark your calendars and lets try to help boost the attendance at their next event, it’s a great cause and the least we can do to help those who have been there for us.

See you there? (I’m going to keep pestering you…)

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Buttery Brook Cruise Night

Steven — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 17:15:49 +0000

Mary Lee and I returned from Maine yesterday at around 3:30, unpacked, dusted off the “Gray Lady” and went up to Cruise Night in South Hadley. Being a show winner at the first cruise night of the season Memorial day weekend, we were directed to the “Winner’s Circle” an area reserved for past show winners and assigned tag number 10 to identify us to all who would vote for the winner tonight (all entrants to the show were given a ballot and asked to vote for their favorite in the Winner’s Circle). So, while it was the judges who got us to the top, it was the participants who would determine the real winner. We were followed in by other past winners, a ’65 Mustang, ’57 Corvette Convertible and a ’54 Studebaker Pickup, along with a whole bunch of others competing for the weekly prize.

After the weekly winners were announced at the end of the night, one of which was a very rare Kaiser Darrin, they held the customary raffles and with a very close vote, someone said it was by only one vote separating the winner from the runner up, we were announced as the winners of the “Winners Circle” contest!! After the trophy presentation and photos, we could finally kick back and relax, after what was a very long day that started at 5:00AM in Casco Bay, Maine. Nice to be there, but glad to be back here too.…

The rest of the weekend will be busy as well, with all of the rain we have been having, I’m not going to miss an opportunity to go out and play with my toy.… Tonight we will be at a Cruise Night at the Holyoke Soldiers Home in the “Paper City” and tomorrow will find us at the car show on the Belchertown Common, sponsored by the Belchertown Cruisers, which is a fundraiser for the Juvinile Diabetes Foundation.

Hope you are having as great a weekend as we are, till next time.….…

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