January 2017 Mass Cruisers Auto Club Newsletter

Mass Cruisers Auto Club Crusin’ at the speed of fun

The keys have been passed.

Ed Beatty is the Mass Cruisers President for 2017.

We’re on the Web

Celebrating 25 years of Cruisin’ January 2017 Volume 27 Issue 1

www.masscruisers.com And Facebook

MONTHLY CRUISIN

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Contact us by snail mail: P.O. Box 217, Wrentham, MA 02093 Or by email: HO350@comcast.net

We’re on the Web! www.masscruisers.com

Our clubhouse is located at 124 Main Street, Norfolk, behind the Dunkin Donuts shop and across the street from the police station. For more information please call: 781 551-0520. Visitors, guests and those interested in joining the

Mass Cruisers Auto Club are welcome to attend one of our monthly meetings held on the third Tuesday of each month in Norfolk.

Directory

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Presidential Emissions

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Buzzards Bay Brewery Cruise

By Diane Thornton

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Cruisers Latest Charitable Donations

By Wayne Lestan

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43rd Annual Daytona Turkey Run

By John Buchanan

Club Officers President– Ed Beatty Vice President—Diane Thornton Secretary—Patrick Touhey Asst. Lesley Corda Treasurer—Wayne Lestan Asst. Kevin Rushlow

43rd Annual Daytona Turkey Run (continued)

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Webmaster—Steve Vining

Cruisers Donate Cuddly Donkeys to Wrentham Fire Dept.

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Newsletter Editor—Paul Saulnier

Support our advertisers

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Facebook Admin. – Patrick Touhey

Blanchard’s Auto Salvage for Sale

By John Buchanan ----------------13th Annual Nostalgia Festival And January Events

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New Member Liaison—Don Cole

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Sgts. at Arms—Rick Lawlor & John Sturniolo

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contact the newseditor@masscruicers.com for information about newsletter advertising options

Charity Coordination – Frank Bryant By-Laws – Roy Rossman MAAC Rep — John Buchanan

Special Events Cruise Night—Steve Huntington Car Show—Rich Armando Club Events Calendar – (open)

Monthly Cruisin

Past-Presidental Emissions

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At the December 17 Monthly Meeting club members unanimously approved a By-Law change increasing the term for officers from 1 to 2 years with the President & Vice President being limited to two consecutive terms, but will still be able to serve up or down from those previously elected positions beyond the two term limits.

Ed Beatty, a 23 year member of the Mass Cruisers takes over as President in January 2017 with Diane Thorton retaining her role as Vice President as well as Treasurer Wayne Lestan and Secretary Patrick Touhey. In addition, an Assistant Treasurer Kevin Rushlow and Assistant Secretary Lesley Corda were appointed to provide back-up assistance to help Wayne and Patrick. These two vital positions have become more complex as the club has grown and, with computerized data bases now the norm with handling club business, it becomes important to have relief coverage when needed as well as helping hands.

With my tenure as President these past two years over, I can now agree with others that have also served in past years, the experience of representing the Mass Cruisers at events and in the hobby itself has been both rewarding and a blast. It has also been a pleasure working closely with our club officers, board members, functional group chairmen and clubmembers to maintain our active event schedules and activities which make the Mass Cruisers one of the respected premier car clubs in New England. Leaving the role as Club President will allow me to focus on checking off some more non club event bucket list items, most of which involve CRUIZN at the SPEED of FUN in my ’31 & ’61!

Here’s WAVIN’ at Ya. John Left. 2017/18 Officers L-R: Leslie Cord, Asst.

Secretary; Patrick Touhey, Secretary; Wayne Lestan, Treasurer, Ed, Diane Thorton V.P., Kevin Rushlow, Asst. Treasurer.

Right. Dec 17 2016 Meeting – John Buchanan presides over his final meeting.

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Buzzards Bay Brewery Cruise

by Diane Thornton

The Saturday after Thanksgiving hinted at a slight chance of showers, but there was only sunshine and fun in Westport at Buzzards Bay Brewery's Stroll. After meeting up in Norton, the intrepid brewery strollers (Steve H. and Diane) stepped off to start the cruise! The brewery had plenty of parking on their field. A huge heated tent was set up with an acoustic singer and, of course, a pour station!

The brewery has gorgeous stone walls and very unique outside seating areas. The weather cooperated and there were a ton of other "strollers" there. The glorious fire pits had comfortable seating all around.

Inside there was an assortment of farm fresh food - even oysters were being shucked while you waited! Local artisans were selling their wares, also. I did some Christmas shopping there!

A bus was available to scoot over to the open house at Westport Rivers Winery.

Steve and I chose to drive over and lucked The fire pits at either open house blazed away! into another field for parking -- a lot more cars at this later time of day! The winery had tents with seating and crafts for the kids. Alpacas were in attendance also -- not just a favorite of the kids! Fire pits were blazing on their lawn/field that overlooks a portion of the vineyard. Plenty of friendly visitors were more than willing to chat and share stories. A wonderful sunset happened right across the vineyard -- imagine they get to see that view all the time!

A pleasant trip. It seems to me the two establishments have fine tuned their yearly open houses. Last year was very nice, but this year was full of activities! A relaxing take!

This brewery friend finished his beer before Steve!

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Cruisers Latest Charitable Donations

by Wayne Lestan The Mass Cruisers Auto Club has for the past twenty-five years has been fulfilling its charter by conducting various automotive hobby events and social gatherings for its members to display their collector vehicles, exchange ideas and make acquaintances with other auto enthusiasts. Our most recognized effort over the past eight years is the Thursday bi-weekly Bass Pro Shops cruise nights held at Patriot Place in Foxborough from April through October. In addition, monthly club meetings are held at their Norfolk clubhouse and an annual car show is held each August at the Wrentham Crackerbarrel Fairgrounds where some of the finest driving machines in Southeastern New England compete for awards. These events along with numerous social gatherings aimed at just plain old enjoyment of the automotive hobby, make the “Mass Cruisers” a great organization to be part of.

Although not charted to be a philanthropic organization, the Mass Cruisers recognize that events like the Bass Pro Shops cruise-in car shows provide a great opportunity for local charities to communicate their missions and share this event’s good fortune. This year, the club’s charitable efforts resulted in providing more than fifteen thousand dollars in donations to local charities. The “Lend a Hand – Bring a Can” drive organized by club member and Norfolk resident Ralph Chadsey collected three tons of nonperishable food and six thousand dollars from collector car owners attending the Bass Pro Shops Thursday cruise nights during the 2016 cruise season. and were distributed to area food pantries in Attleboro, Foxboro, Norfolk, Walpole and Wrentham. The non – perishable food deliveries are made the day following each cruise while the cash donations were delivered in two installments, $300 in late August and final checks for $900 each in early November.

Cash donations to other charities, which are coordinated by club member and Norton resident Frank Bryant, were also made to Rodman Ride for Kids, Care Packs For Troops, the Rhode Island Veterans’ Home, Stoughton Amvets/Brockton Veterans Hospital, The Arc of Bristol County, Epiphany School, Pan Mass Challenge, Mass Hospital School for Children, Boy Scouts Troup 32 and others.

On the behalf of the “Mass Cruiser’s” Ralph Chadsey presents a check for $900 to Rev. Peter Hoglund for the Norfolk Food Bank

On the behalf of the “Mass Cruiser’s” Treasurer Wayne Lestan presents a check for $900 to Janet Fasanello and her co-workers at the Walpole Community Food Pantry.

Left. On the behalf of the “Mass Cruiser’s” Ralph Chadsey presents a check for $900 to Valerie Addison for the Foxboro Food Bank Right. On the behalf of the “Mass Cruiser’s” Ralph Chadsey presents a check for $900 to Frank Peppin for the Wrentham Food Pantry.

On the behalf of the “Mass Cruiser’s” Ralph Chadsey presents a check for $900 Holly Hix for the Hebron Food Bank

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43rd Annual Daytona Turkey Run

By John Buchanan

T

he 43rd Daytona Turkey Run was held November 24-27, 2016 at the legendary Daytona International Speedway.

During this four-day classic car show, we saw more than 6,000 classic, vintage, muscle and race cars for show and sale, a 2,000 vehicle car corral, a massive swap meet, and in the evenings, joined in all the revelry at the Bellaire Plaza on A1A where many cruise on in after each show day.

Of course this is also the 4th Annual Thanksgiving Day get together with hosts Bob & June Smith on Thanksgiving Day with fellow Mass Cruisers Ralph Chadsey, Bob Woods, Bill Ruel, Jack Lane & yours truly along with fourteen other Florida snowbird buddies of theirs for a sit down Turkey Dinner at Woody’s BBQ in nearby Holly Hill.

Hurricane Matthew had also left its mark with some waterfront resort hotels and restaurants still closed for repairs. But, the weather was perfect for the Turkey Mass Cruisers Group from L. to R.: Jack Lane, Bob Wood, Bill Ruel, Run and former race car driver & owner Mike & Ralph Chadsey, John Buchanan MISSING Bob & June Smith Jack Lane and I had the convenience of a press golf cart to drive through the 150 who were saving a parking spot at Bellaire Plaza infield acres. Filled with thousands of cars and hundreds of swap meet vendors we took pictures and absorbed the scope of what is the largest event of this type in the country.

We also had the opportunity to go to the top of the recently restored grandstand with other press photographers to take pictures of the entire show field, something I haven’t been able to do in the previous three years due to construction.

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43rd Annual Daytona Turkey Run (continued) Distilling the 500 still photos and 12 videos, I’ve put together a 5 minute slide show video that will hopefully stir your juices enough to put the Daytona Turkey Run on your own Bucket List. It was on mine and has now become an regular annual trip that I can extend to also visit with relatives and former high school buddies that are now permanent Florida residents.

Most creative ride: Custom Medieval Helmut from New York

My favorite band: “Go Get Gone” Rockabilly band

My favorite ride: 1954 Custom Buick Skylark Convertible

Strangest Hot Rod: Rat Rod Prison Bus Low Rider When not eating ice cream or performing his duties as the Cruisers’ official press Secretary and photographer, John was taking videos for Show and Tell back in Massachusetts.

But you don’t have to wait for the premiere to out box-office the latest Star Wars episode:: https://vimeo.com/196126722 https://vimeo.com/196180245

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Cruisers Donate Cuddly Donkeys To Wrentham Fire Department Lou Valentine & Bob Wood delivered a box of 50 donated cuddly plush donkeys November 20, 2016 on behalf of the Mass Cruisers to the Wrentham Fire Department to be used in the town’s program that places new stuffed toy animals in the town’s Police and Fire Vehicles that are used to calm a child found in stressful and sometimes at-risk situations.

These new plush donkeys are for the child to keep and love. Receiving the donation for the WFD is Fire Chief James McMorrow.

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Blanchard’s Auto Salvage For Sale

By John Buchanan Word came through the NERCLAC that Blanchard’s Auto Salvage in Wilton, NH was FOR SALE and we’d better get up there before another one of these fast disappearing New England boneyards that haven’t crushed the old iron is history. We planned for a December 3 pick at a closed Connecticut body shop, but the owner hadn’t yet confirmed the date so we changed directions and headed North with a few tool bags in the back of our trucks.

It was cold but a clear and comfortable day to walk through the 35 acres and search out the old timers for possible parts & photos. This time of year, the wood stove in the trailer office is cranking out heat and where Wendy Blanchard, always the gracious host for our club’s Junkyard Junkets, confirmed that the salvage yard is for sale but that she was still going to be actively selling parts from her collection through eBay. Rick Lawlor was the only picker to come up with a needed part, the accelerator linkage out of a 1956 Ford. New member Steve Fernald was also looking for potential spare parts for his 1979 Chevy Silverado restoration project with Steve Huntington and John Ricker helping him with the hunt. Meanwhile John Guarvage was searching out any mid ‘60’s Chevelle’s that would have Rick Lawlor & Steve Huntington point out useful spare parts worth salvaging. We wrapped up our visit the Zeke’s Auto & Truck Sales sign which is with brunch stop at the iconic Red Arrow Diner in Milford, NH, located in the front of Blanchard Auto Sal- a “Diners’ & Dives” pick, before heading back home. vage.

The word back from our original CT body shop pick is that May or June may be the best available time to schedule that one.

Meanwhile we will be looking to dig into our bag of past salvage yard visits to come up with one for the Spring Junkyard Junket. So, stay tuned.

For more on the Cruisers cruisin ‘ for those hard to find parts for their rides and projects, click on the link below. https://vimeo.com/194921806

Rick salvages the accelerator linkage from a 1956 Ford after fellow club members searched their tool bags for a six-point 3/8 box end wrench.

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13th Annual Nostalgia Festival

January Shows & Events

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January 2017

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Member meetings are held the 3rd Tuesday of each month at the Norfolk MA clubhouse.

P.O. Box 217 Wrentham, MA 02093