SUNDAY, AUGUST 9TH ON THE PORT ORCHARD WATERFRONT
T H E L A R G E S T S I N G L E DAY C L A S S I C C A R S H O W I N K I T S A P C O U N T Y !
CRUZ to draw thousands A Port Orchard institution returns for 28th year By BOB SMITH
rsmith@soundpublishing.com
Dan Lewandowski’s Dodge Ram monster truck, laden with an enormous Seahawks logo in its side, is scheduled to make an appearance at CRUZ 2015 Aug. 9. Courtesy photo
Twenty-eight years ago, a little car show took root on the shores of Sinclair Inlet in Port Orchard. These days, that little car exhibition — the CRUZ car show — is considered by many to be the largest-attended single-day event in Kitsap County. Hundreds of autos — tricked-out, modified, vintage and just flat-out dazzling — will once again line up for a beauty-pageant inspection by upwards of 30,000 visitors Sunday, Aug. 9 in Port Orchard. The event is sponsored by the local Saints Car Club — and has been for 18 years. Club members will no doubt be on site to ensure it runs smoothly.
“We have 65 members in the club, and all of them are expected to take part,” said Roger Jensen, Saints member and CRUZ event coordinator. “Their work doesn’t happen just on one day. We have people who’ve worked to organize it since November.” While Jensen says it’s difficult to break down where event visitors come from, he believes people who visit CRUZ come from throughout the nation. “We get a group of people regularly from Stockton, Calif.,” he said. “Visitors come from all over the state, as well as from Vancouver and Victoria, B.C.” SEE CRUZ 2015, PAGE 3
Restored Camaro is a calendar of life’s milestones From Virginia to Port Orchard:
“To teach me a lesson,” he remembers, “my dad had me sit on a can in the Virginia sun and humidity, and scrape the paint off the car with a razor blade to prepare it for a new paint job. It took me a couple of weeks to accomplish.” It was a lesson learned. Dickinson, Sr. owned the local “Big A Auto Parts” store in town, so after the accident, it was only natural that dad and son began the first of the Camaro’s many overhauls. Ken drove the car every day through high school, one year of college at Virginia Tech, and the first few years he was in the U.S. Navy.
Man’s birthday gift at 16 offers a timeline of happy times and sadness By BOB SMITH
rsmith@soundpublishing.com
The milestones in your life — graduating from high school, your walk down the aisle, the birth of a child or death of a loved one — are remembered not so much by dates but by memories. They’re recollected through remembrances shared with others, time spent enjoying a passion or a hobby. Ken Dickinson, a Kitsap County Sheriff ’s Office sergeant living in Port Orchard, can relive his good times and bad through his experiences with a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro convertible. A first love This car — every young guy’s teenage roadway dream — was given to Dickinson in June 1981 on his 16th birthday by his parents, Ken and Sandi Dickinson. If it wasn’t love at first sight with this $1,000 beauty, it certainly was a heavy crush for the youngster, who grew up in Lyndhurst, Va. But this love affair made in heaven took a heavy jolt early — one week after car and boy met for the first time. “I crashed it into a large tree stump at a campground in Virginia Beach and totaled the front end,” Dickinson said. The car had to be towed back to Lyndhurst where it underwent its first overhaul.
Ken Dickinson Jr. and wife Lorinda sit in their restored 1967 Chevrolet Camaro convertible. The car will be on featured display at CRUZ 2015 Aug. 9.
Off to sub school There was a bittersweet parting at his dad’s garage in Virginia in October 1985 when Ken was transferred to submarine school in Groton, Conn. Cue another crisis: One month after he departed, the central Virginia area experienced a large flood. His parents’ property, house and garage were submerged even before Ken himself took his first underwater voyage for the Navy. “My car was submerged in three feet of standing water,” Dickinson said. In his absence, the elder Dickinson drained the engine, flushed it multiple times and, ultimately, was able to save it. His dad dried the carpets and floorboard, but the vehicle still suffered some rust damage. Next came another rehab: replacing and repairing floor pans and other damaged body parts. The Camaro remained in his parent’s garage after he
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SEE CAMARO, PAGE 2