Mass Cruisers June 2020 Newsletter

Cruisin’ at the speed of fun

Monthly Crusin

Page 1

Mass Cruisers Auto Club June 2020

Saturday Cruise

Nancy Bloom — Best of Show

Birthday Cruise-By Celebrations

CARantine Cruising Adventures

INSIDE: PRESIDENTIAL MUSINGS EDITOR’S NOTE CRUZIN’ AUTO SHOWS & EVENTS

We’re on the Web

Celebrating 29 Years of Cruisin’ Volume 29 Issue 6

www.masscruisers.com And Facebook

Cruisin’ at the speed of fun

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

Page 2 www.masscruisers.com

We have moved all monthly meetings to the Bass Pro Shops Conservation Room at 1 Bass Pro Place in Foxboro, MA beginning in May. Monthly meetings will still be held the third Tuesday of the month starting at 7 PM, guests and visitors are welcome to attend. Business meetings will be held an hour earlier, club members are encouraged to attend.

DIRECTORY

Page 2

PRESIDENTIAL MUSINGS

Page 3

Club Officers President: Larry Nyborn Vice President: Open

SATURDAY CRUISE

Page 4

Secretary: Lesley Corda-Majeski Asst. Secretary: John Guravage

NANCY BLOOM BEST OF SHOW

Page 5

Treasurer: Kevin Rushlow Asst. Treasurer: Rich Armando

BIRTHDAY CRUISE-BY CELEBRATIONS

Page 6

At Large Board Member: Steve Huntington

CARANTINE CRUISING ADVENTURES

Page 7

CARANTINE CRUISING ADVENTURES

Page 8

SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS

Page 9

CRUZIN’

Page 10

AUTO SHOWS & EVENTS

Page 11

Special Assignments Webmaster: Steve Vining

Managing Editor: John Buchanan Newsletter Editor: John Guravage Digital Graphics Editor: Open Facebook: Patrick Touhey New Members: Lou Valentine Sgts. at Arms: Rick Lawlor John Sturniolo Charity Coordinator: Open Food Pantry: Steve Fernald Bob Okerholm

By-Laws: Wayne Lestan MAAC Rep: John Buchanan Cruise Nights: Steve Huntington Sponsors: John Buchanan Fred Tierney Club Events: Rich Armando

Monthly Crusin

Cruisin’ at the speed of fun

Page 3

Presidential Musings

By Larry Nyborn

What's Your Story?

Have you ever thought about why you have that affinity for older vehicles? It doesn't even mean you have to own one. Just look at all the spectators that attend our Cruise Nights and all the comments/memories these cars evoke. I remember back at 6 years old I could identify all the different makes of cars on the road and still have that fascination today. (Guess I haven't lost my mind yet cause I can still I.D. the all!) Every antique/classic car owner has a story that goes along with the vehicle they own. Maybe it was for sale on a roadside or abandoned in a field. Perhaps the car was bought at auction. Some cars are handed down from a previous generation(s). So much time is spent in restoring/maintaining an auto that it feels like a member of the family. Sometimes a car is bought to recapture the one you had to let go or the one that got away years ago. Maybe when you were young there was a car you really desired but could not afford to buy....maybe you're in a better financial position to do it now. In my own case (I'm a little strange) I do not want to own; been there done that...a vehicle like I owned in the past but something different from the same era. The possibilities are endless. So, what's your story?

Larry

*** Editor’s Note ***

June is usually the month when all the new season’s cruise nights should be getting underway. This year? Not so fast. The Wednesday Fredrickson’s Farm Cruise in North Scituate, R.I. that Bruce Palmer D.J.’s did get underway on May 27 and it appeared the social distancing rules were observed without any problems. And some of DJ Car Guy’s cruise nights, also in Rhode Island, will be starting up in June. Check out the CRUIZN Mass page for those cruise nights. Outdoor drive-in movie theaters have been given the green light in Massachusetts and cruise nights are probably the closest equivalency, but we do not appear to be on the state’s planned opening phases which are primarily focused on business openings. Our own Bass Pro Shops cruise, however, is waiting on guidance from Patriot Place as we continue to cancel dates in compliance with Governor Baker’s planned opening phases.

What Cruise Director Steve Huntington has suggested is for club members is to use these upcoming regular scheduled Thursday cruise nights to cruise somewhere until we get back on track with our regular Bass Pro Shops schedule. The first one will be for the cancelled June 4th cruise and is an ice cream cruise over the back roads to Chucky’s Creamery in Cumberland, R.I. leaving from the Wrentham American Legion on Rte. 1A at 7 PM, the same place we meet to go for our annual season ending Wright’s Chicken Farm cruise in November. Steve sent the details in an email to club members and also asked for ideas to recommend similar destination cruises in case we continue to be in cruise event lockdown mode.

Chucky’s Creamery

Monthly Crusin

Cruisin’ at the speed of fun

Page 4

Saturday Cruise

By Diane Thornton

This was the headline on an Event I spotted on Facebook. Of course I clicked into it to see what was being floated out there in FB-land. Lucky me, the details said this was to be a “casual cruise down to Horseneck Beach…enjoy our cars while keeping appropriate social distancing.” Ah, Horseneck Beach! My favorite beach back in the good ol’days. Social distancing wasn’t even a thought back then! So this Facebook event made it that easy and I was signed up. Dale Williams, a former president of Mass Cruisers, was the host of the event. Now, Dale obviously knows how to use Facebook way better than me! From the first time I saw his invite I kept “losing it” when I wanted to refer to it! Between the clicks and pages and groups it would seem to disappear – I feel lucky when I would stumble on it and continued to watch weather and any changes to the plans.

The day arrived! Some of the Mass Cruiser members in attendance were Diane and Dave Thornton, Zeke and Rose Sawayer, Bob and Ann Hines. Other participants are familiar faces to our group: Dale Williams, Dave Sareault, Tom Walker (1949 Ford Lead Sled -- Cruiser of the Night, Oct. 25, 2018), Kyle Spicer (1952 Chevy Deluxe Gasser Coupe – Cruiser of the Night, April 25, 2019), Steve Peluso, Dave (a friend of Dale) and three young, future car guys in his beautiful 70s Javelin, Ray (a neighbor of Dale) in his pride and joy 1957 BelAir. There were more gentlemen who I did not recognize behind their masks, sorry to say.

Turned out the weather was perfectly fine – a little cool in Sharon, but comfortably warm when we made it to the Beach!

Everyone arriving at our designated meetup at Mick Morgan’s in Sharon was stoked to be able to make this trip and enjoy the perfect weather and camaraderie at proper social distancing lengths. Dale briefly filled us drivers to his plans to take the highway at first, but then cruise more leisurely roads when we arrived in Westport area.

It was time to go! Thirteen cars and 1 motorcycle fell into line and the group arrived about an hour later at a dirt parking lot across from East Beach. We had driven by the Horseneck Beach locked parking gates on our way to East Beach. The sun was out in Westport, the air smelled awesome and the ocean sounded ready for summer! Just what we all needed! All of our “corona car-demic” Saturday Cruise participants were really happy. Jumping out of cars and crossing to the water or putting heads under hoods of some cars…it was good to be out in the wide open spaces…until……the Westport Police showed up and asked us to vacate the premises. We did not have passes. He was booting other cars off the waterside parking spots too. Dale did note to him that the information he had been given when he had called during the week was that it was okay to park there because “the season” had not started yet. Enough said. The officer had his orders and they didn’t jibe with Dale’s info, so we saddled up and motored along to our next destination: Westport Winery!

Leaving the beach a little too early was quickly extinguished by the chance to visit the winery’s store and take in their beautiful vistas. The proprietors there were super nice and no one minded the maximum count requirement for the store.

We waited our turns and kept our distance and had our masks. Social distancing can be comfortable with such a nice crowd.

From this destination, some participants went separate ways. Zeke and Rose took a scenic road home. A group still following Dale went to get gas and then had some lunch at Lee’s Market in Westport before heading home. Dave and I and Bob and Ann sidled off to Buzzards Bay Brewery (very close to the winery) as I wanted to show them the hardscaping that was done outside their main building. (I had seen it before when I attended a Mass Cruisers trip to their Open House on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.)

I understand that there were ice cream side trips involved with more than one of the groups that split off after the Winery… good choices made by all!

I think the moral of the story is: Keep an eye on that Facebook app for a nice chance to bring the favorite vehicle out for a cruise! We are in weird times, but a nice event with proper social distancing still brings laughs and cars to look at! It was great! And Dale, great job, man. It was good to see you and chat for a bit, too.

Dirt parking lot at East Beach.

Proper social distancing being practiced by Dave and Rose. Left to right are: Ann and Bob Hines, Zeke and Rose Sawayer, and Dave Thornton.

Westport Winery. The cars had to park in two separate lots. The winery had an impressive curb side delivery going on and we didn’t want to be in the way of the turnaround for the customers. See that sky? Perfect!

Monthly Crusin

Cruisin’ at the speed of fun

Page 5

Nancy Bloom — Best of Show

By John Buchanan

Nancy Bloom has added another “BEST OF SHOW” award to her list of accomplishments, not for her three cars (1929 Ford Woodie, 1956 Thunderbird, 1969 Pontiac Trans AM) but for her awesome photography work.

Unless you are a recent club member of less than 10 years or have not attended any of the past October U.S. Route 6 Provincetown cruise weekends, you may not have seen very much of John or Nancy Bloom during the peak summer cruise and car show events, although they do attend as many Bass Pro Shops cruises as possible. That is, because in their retirement years, John, a former Verizon telephone lineman and Nancy, a former Franklin Public Schools technology specialist, had settled down in North Truro year round on the outer Cape Cod where John is the Assistant Harbor Master and Nancy a Photographer & Editor-at-Large for Yachting Times magazine making both retirees fully occupied during the boating season on the Cape and up and down the East Coast.

Each year on our Provincetown cruises we take photos of the sights along Route 6 as well as Provincetown which offers both spectacular sunrise & sunset photographic opportunities in this tight knit seafaring and artistic centered community. Every year the P-Town cruise provides us with opportunities to experience something familiar, different and unexpected. At last year’s cruise we had the unexpected appearance of the replica Santa Maria, Christopher Columbus’s flagship from Spain docked at the end of MacMillan Pier as well as boats from the 100 ship tuna fleet out on Georges Bank unloading their daily catch after the fishery was reopened, a rare happening in October. Then there was the familiar, sunset at the newly rehabilitated Herring Cove parking area and sunrise over North Truro from our host hotel rear deck & beach as well as the iconic Days beach front cottages on Historic Route 6, now 6A, on Cape Cod Bay. Although we’ve taken sunrise pictures against the Days Cottages before, we found the sparse parking along the road to be vacant during the Sunday daylight hours and attempted some shots using my Sea Foam Green 1961 Impala parked in front of one of the cottage, appropriately named “BLUEBELL”. Coincidently, when shooting the pictures, a flock of starlings flew down over my car when Nancy’s camera shuttered at the perfect time. An award winning photo was born.

The first I learned of the “BLUBELL” image’s success was when Nancy posted that it won second place against 100 entries on display at Chatham’s Annual Photography exhibit in February. That photo, which most photos undergo, received some post processing assistance from former club member Steve Mirabile. BLUBELL’s next stop at April 28 Cape Cod Art Association Camera Club exhibition garnered a First Place in Master’s Division.

Then, after some additional post processing work by Nancy using Lightroom to further enhance the Chevy’s color because it was parked in the cottage’s shade, a last minute submission was made to the Fine Art of Photography Tenth Annual Juried Exhibition & Competition in Plymouth with entries all over the world.

“BLUEBELL” was declared “BEST IN SHOW” with the following judges’ comments; “ Unanimously agreed upon as the strongest image in the exhibit, the use of light and color work together to accentuate the sense of moment!’ Enjoy the entire show online at https://plymouthguild.org/content/welcome-our-galleries Now my Chevy, named “Judy’s Dream”, has won some pretty nice looking trophies at a few local car shows, but never a Best of Show.

Monthly Crusin

Cruisin’ at the speed of fun

Page 6

Birthday Cruise-By Celebrations

By John Buchanan

Weekly drive-by birthday celebrations continue to grow in number while the COVID-19 stay-at-home advisories were pretty much being ignored by collector car owners who continue to CRUIZ under the radar. This month the ages being celebrated ranged from 2 to 104. That’s right, “Fast Eddie” Beaulieu, who is Westport’s oldest resident & “Boston Post Cane” award holder and a member of the Cuz’s Car Club celebrated his 104th year, and Steve Peluso’s grandson Wade, an avid collector of Matchbox cars following in his grandpa’s tire tracks, celebrated his 2nd year. And, there were any number of other celebrations that also included a Saturday May 2nd drive-by dual birthdays for Hunter & Nora that live across the street from one another in Whitman and the following May 3 Sunday afternoon filled with five drive-by birthday celebrations starting in Easton, on to Raynham, then Fall River and ending with two more in Warwick, R.I. The one thing about this recent change in our hobby where all weekly cruise nights and weekend car shows have been cancelled, car owners are finding this is a great way to get old reliable out of the garage and on the roads to make someone’s COVID-19 ruined event very special. It has getting to the point where at “Fast Eddie’s” gathering, a list of upcoming birthday drive-by celebrations scheduled for Rochester & Mattapoisett was passed out instead of the usual cart show or cruise night flyers.

Dedham Drive-By lineup for Steve Peluso

Steve Peluso's grandson Wade with dad

Happy birthday "Fast Eddie"

"Fast Eddie" Beaulieu 104 years young

Whitman happy birthday Hunter

Whitman Happy birthday Nora

Honk It’s my Birthday!

North Easton birthday girl Casey

Raynham birthday boy Benjamin

Fall River happy birthday boy

Warwick, RI happy birthday 1 year old

Warwick, RI happy birthday 40 year old

Cruisin’ at the speed of fun

Monthly Crusin

Page 7

CARantine Cruising Adventures

By John Buchanan

With all the weekend car shows and daily cruise night cancellations happening during the COVID-19 Pandemic STAY-AT-HOME advisories, it didn’t take long for auto enthusiasts to come up with some GET-AWAY-FROM-HOME cruising adventure ideas. Unfortunately for social media challenged car owners who have to rely on word-of-mouth notifications, they could be stuck attempting lone adventures over the suddenly emptied roads to deserted destination venues. As one example, Bob Knight has been leading Sunday afternoon cruises over the back roads from his Middleboro stomping grounds to Plymouth where collector cars can be seen cruising back and forth along the Waters Street past Plymouth Rock all afternoon. I joined Bob for his May 10 “Mother’s Day Stroll” which was sparsely attended for obvious reasons. However the take-out service at Wood’s Seafood and the Tavern on the Wharf were booming. The weekend before Bob said there were 40 cars that participated.

Plymouth Rock

Wood’s Seafood

Plymouth Bay Winery on Water Street

Diane Thornton described another such Facebook posted cruise adventure that former Mass Cruisers President Dale Williams posted that would meet at Mick Morgan’s on U.S. Route 1 in Sharon and cruise down to Westport’s Horseneck Beach.

Plan B parking area with the state lots closed

Plan B parking area with the state lots closed

Continued on next page

Rose Sawayer & Dave Thornton demonstrate social distancing

Cruisin’ at the speed of fun

Monthly Crusin

Page 8

CARantine Cruising Adventures

By John Buchanan

Continued from previous page

RICK'S OUTBOARD MARINE FAIRHAVEN

COLT STATE PARK CRUISE ENTRANCE

Rick Hodgkin’s CARantine III was already posted on our club’s Facebook page for Sunday May 24 of the Memorial Day weekend that began in Seekonk on Route 6 from the Speedway and met up with others gathered at an unused parking lot in Buzzard’s Bay. They then traveled over the Bourne Bridge to follow one of Rick’s previously detailed shoreline routes to Woods Hole then along Rte. 28 on Nantucket Sound to Hyannis then across the midlands Rte. 132 to Rte. 6A, the King’s Highway, along Cape Cod Bay to the Cape Cod Canal and back to the Bourne Rotary where everyone returned back home, or took off on another solo destination. They clocked 191 miles. Myself, I chose to do a 265 mile solo cruise that Sunday in the ’61 all the way to Provincetown taking back roads down and meeting up with fellow club members John and Nancy Bloom to pick up a canvas print of my ’61 Impala “BLUEBELL” Nancy had for me and to later get take-out clam rolls & fries at Moby Dick’s Seafood on Route 6 in Wellfleet for a harborside tail gate picnic.

Mac’s Shack1 – Wellfleet

Day’s Market North Truro w. ’61 Impala & ’54 Corvette

Moby Dick’s Restaurant owner Todd Barry

These cruise adventures for me harken back to the good ole’ days of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s when we drove our cars without a care in the world to anywhere our hearts led us. We are repeating these same adventures in the 21st century by driving similar vintage ole’ cars over the same pre-interstate back roads rejuvenating those long forgotten “without a care in the world” feelings during these very tense pandemic times.

Monthly Crusin

Cruisin’ at the speed of fun

Support Our Advertisers

Page 9

Monthly Crusin

Cruisin’ at the speed of fun

Page 10

Monthly Crusin

Cruisin’ at the speed of fun

Page 11

Cruisin’ at the speed of fun

Page 12

P.O. Box 217 Wrentham, MA 02093

Monthly Crusin