lower columbia classic car club 1 8/9/2021
TRANSCRIPT
LOWER COLUMBIA CLASSIC CAR CLUB 1
8/9/2021
PRESIDENT DOUG GILLIES 503-468-0006 / VICE PRESIDENT JIM PURDY 503-458-5742 /
TREASURER BURT YOUNG 503-338-8719 / SECRETARY NICKI ANDREWS 360-642-3998 / BACKFIRE EDITOR ROSS GETCHELL
503-440-3291 / WEBMASTER ROBI NELSON 360-623-3816 [email protected]
I hope everyone is having a good summer as the weather
has been very nice and the tourist crowds aren’t too bad.
It’s been fun being able to drive the classics around and
getting back into the old routine. The gathering of car
enthusiasts at the county fair grounds, July 31 was well
attended by club members for an event put together on
short notice. Club member Tim O’Bryant helped organ-
ize it along with several others, which came together nice-
ly. They are thinking of making it an annual part of the
fair and if they do, it would be a fun day for the club to
participate in as a group.
A big “thank you” to Fred and Ann Mestrich for hosting
our July meeting at their home. Ann put on a great BBQ
chicken dinner as an added bonus, and everyone in at-
tendance enjoyed it. Our attendance cash drawing went
un-claimed for the third straight month and everyone who
is in for this month’s drawing is in line to win $75.00. So
come to the meeting feeling lucky! Our August meeting
will be held at Burt and Cindy Young’s, 673 SW Cedar
St., Warrenton, 7 pm on August 19. *Remember to bring
your chairs. We will be discussing the by-law changes
and possibly voting to adopt them. (All members re-
ceived copies last month and have had at least 30 days to
review the documents.)
Our membership has grown with 11 new members joining
us in the last couple of months. Membership chair Diane
Matthews is working on getting them all our club infor-
mation as soon as she can. As the Constitution and By-
laws are being revised, they will not be included in the
new member information and will be shared with all
members when approved. A big welcome to our new
members: Lee Cordner, JR and Sherrie Kelley, Bob and
Debbie Lennon, Randy Mosher, Dave and Christine
Warner, Jim and Randi Sharpe, and Joe Rees. Welcome
to the club! We look forward to seeing you at our meet-
ings and club events.
We still need 2 more volunteers to do security at the Rod
Run in Ocean Park in September. If you are interested
Fred Mestrich is heading it up, so call Fred or me (503-
468-0006) and find out what we need.
Another upcoming club event is the Inter-club picnic at
Bruceport Park on September 26. It’s an annual picnic
where we invite other clubs to attend. Ann Mestrich has
agreed to chair the committee so if you are interested in
helping with the cooking and serving, please let Ann
know.
As far as car shows go, I know quite a few of our mem-
bers are heading to the show in Joseph Oregon the week-
end of August 28-29. Another event closer to town on the
same weekend is in Shelton Wa. at the Old Iron Work
Park, sponsored by the Test of Time Car Club. More in-
formation on this show will be at the meeting on the 19th.
The club project Riviera is very close to being ready to
sell. Thanks to Fred leading the way, it is running pretty
well. However, we still need to address a potential mouse
nest on one side of the exhaust.
I hope everyone is feeling well and we look forward to
seeing you at our meeting or any other events. Doug
LOWER COLUMBIA CLASSIC CAR CLUB 2
8/9/2021
PRESIDENT DOUG GILLIES 503-468-0006 / VICE PRESIDENT JIM PURDY 503-458-5742 /
TREASURER BURT YOUNG 503-338-8719 / SECRETARY NICKI ANDREWS 360-642-3998 / BACKFIRE EDITOR ROSS GETCHELL
503-440-3291 / WEBMASTER ROBI NELSON 360-623-3816 [email protected]
July 15, 2021
The July 15, 2021 meeting of the Lower Columbia Classic car club was called order by President Doug Gil-
lies at 7:12 pm. A thank you went to Ann and Fred Mestrich for the great dinner this evening. The board
members were introduced - President Doug Gillies, Vice President Jim Purdy, Treasurer Burt Young, and
Secretary Nicki Andrews.
Visitors were Jim and Randi Sharpe.
Steve Jordan made a motion to accept the minutes of the June meeting as printed in the Backfire. Motion
seconded and passed.
Treasurer Bert Young gave the financial report.
Committee reports:
Sunshine - Judy Jordan reported that Ross and Patty Getchell are grandparents again. She also reported
on sending cards to several members.
Membership - Diane Matthews did not have anything to report.
Swap meet - Fred Mestrich reported that he will schedule a work party to go through the container.
50’s Cruise - Doug Gillies reported that we are on Camp Rilea’s calendar. Steve Jordan reported that the
artwork is ours. We need to go through our records to find the carried over sponsorships and entries.
Website - Robi Nelson needs pictures of our cars to post on the website.
Backfire - Ross Getchell reported that we need more sponsors.
Educational Outreach - progress is coming along on the Riviera. We discussed taking it to the Beach Bar-
ons Swap meet.
Old Business
We have received the contract from the Beach Barons for security at the Rod Run in September. We will be
paid $750 for working two nights - Friday night and Saturday night. Fred Mestrich reported that the Friday
night slots have been filled but he is in need of people to fill the Saturday night slots. See Fred if you are
interested in helping.
By-Law Revisions - The revisions have been handed out and mailed to all members. Voting to accept these
revisions will take place at the August meeting. There was some discussion.
Inter Club Picnic - Ann Mestrich reported that we have secured Bruceport Park for September 26th. Steve
Jordan will send out invitations to the different clubs. President Doug Gillies explained the picnic for the
newer members.
New Business
There will be a car show at the Astoria Fair grounds July 31st.
Car show in Rainier, Oregon August 1st.
Randy Mosher announced there will be a memorial for Barb Mosher Sunday August 1st at the county park
in Chinook, Washington from 1 - 4.
The August 19th Lower Columbia Car club meeting will be at Bert and Cindy Young’s in Warrenton.
Polk Riley spoke about a long sleeved black club t-shirt. If you are interested please contact him.
We were reminded about the ice cream social at Mike and Diane’s home July 18th at 1:00 pm.
Steve Jordan announced that he has a few club jackets.
Meeting adjourned at 8:05 pm.
Nicki Andrews
Secretary
LOWER COLUMBIA CLASSIC CAR CLUB 3
8/9/2021
PRESIDENT DOUG GILLIES 503-468-0006 / VICE PRESIDENT JIM PURDY 503-458-5742 /
TREASURER BURT YOUNG 503-338-8719 / SECRETARY NICKI ANDREWS 360-642-3998 / BACKFIRE EDITOR ROSS GETCHELL
503-440-3291 / WEBMASTER ROBI NELSON 360-623-3816 [email protected]
By Jim Wood
It's been about a year since I updated you
on Polk and Patricia Riley's '26 Model T
hot rod
build. These
things do go slow-
ly, especially when
getting parts in
this last year has
been difficult. So,
when you can't
buy one, you
make one. Fortu-
nately, Polk has
the skills to make
a lot of things to
put this Model T hot rod together. All the
major mechani-
cals have been
completed and
mainly the interior
is left to fin-
ish. Polk is also
using his carpen-
ter skills to fab
new flooring and
interior piec-
es. Polk has had
the help of a few
club guys, me, Bill
Cook, Jim Purdy, and Fred Mestrich.
Each has given not only their help, but al-
so knowledge and parts they had on
hand. Model T's
had wooden bows
with a canvas type
material cover for
a top. Bill has ex-
perience with this
type of top on
boats, so he and
Polk were able to
figure it out. Lots
of wooden pieces
from a kit that did
not fit didn’t
help. Fortunately, their woodworking
skills both Bill and
Polk possess has
proven great re-
sults. Jim Purdy
owns a Model T
and has a lot of
knowledge and in-
fo. Fred had ide-
as and talents to
which helped
greatly. Polk used
his art and printing
skills to make an
awesome headliner that may be the high-
LOWER COLUMBIA CLASSIC CAR CLUB 4
8/9/2021
PRESIDENT DOUG GILLIES 503-468-0006 / VICE PRESIDENT JIM PURDY 503-458-5742 /
TREASURER BURT YOUNG 503-338-8719 / SECRETARY NICKI ANDREWS 360-642-3998 / BACKFIRE EDITOR ROSS GETCHELL
503-440-3291 / WEBMASTER ROBI NELSON 360-623-3816 [email protected]
By Jim Wood
light of the
car. Guaran-
teed to make
you
smile. Like
most builds,
there are al-
ways those
design hur-
dles to over-
come. Polk
is only a
week or two
from being able to fire this old Ford up
and cruise his parking lot! Polk lets me
be a part of his project when I can and I'm
having a lot of fun. I can't give you a date
yet, but hopefully before the year is out,
we will see Polk and Patricia tooling
around town in their Tall T hot
rod.
Jim Wood
LOWER COLUMBIA CLASSIC CAR CLUB 5
8/9/2021
PRESIDENT DOUG GILLIES 503-468-0006 / VICE PRESIDENT JIM PURDY 503-458-5742 /
TREASURER BURT YOUNG 503-338-8719 / SECRETARY NICKI ANDREWS 360-642-3998 / BACKFIRE EDITOR ROSS GETCHELL
503-440-3291 / WEBMASTER ROBI NELSON 360-623-3816 [email protected]
FROM THE BACK SEAT “THE GAL’S PAGE”
“BETTER THAN A BLENDER” By Diane Matthews That’s what my good buddy, Kathie, said when Mike gave me rally car driving lessons for Christmas! Far be-yond that, it was my best gift, ever! If you don’t know me, I love fast! Downhill skiing, spinning down a moun-tain pass on my bike, cutting through rolling waves in my kayak, rafting the rapids of the Rogue River, any-thing that’s got a thrill or speed or both, wheeee . . . . count me in! So when Mike saw Jay Leno on TV, racing a hot little Subaru STI around a dirt and gravel course in Snoqualmie, WA, he thought, “It’s near us, Diane would love doing that, I won-der . . . “ And Christ-mas day, there it was, my official Dirt-Fish t-shirt and a certificate that read “Enjoy the experience. Wheeeeee!” You might have heard me, I was hooting and hollering and hugging Mike for dear life. July 11 was my lesson, the waiting was hard but gave me time to consider. I wasn’t worried but did realize I was not going to be the youngest student there! In fact, when he gave it to me that was the first thing I asked, would my age matter?!? Mike told them I’d be 75, not a problem, in fact they had some lady in her 80’s who came every year (I gotta meet her!) I counted the days till DirtFish. The lesson began with a 20 minute instruction and Q & A period. There were 9 students, 4 women (4!) and 5 men. Instructor Kevin gave us some pertinent driving tips. One that resonated with me was the 100% rule. You’re usually using at least two of these operations,
steering (cornering), braking or accelerating; sometimes all three. If the percentage of what you’re doing adds up to more than 100% (for instance, you’re applying about 40% brake and accelerating at 70%) you will find yourself either in the weeds, cone crushing or . . . yike! Session over, we grabbed our serious-looking helmets and headed outside to pick our instructors and get into the cars. My instructor was Sean. He turned out to be the most
patient, calm young man on the planet but when he drove? Well, it was like his tail was on fire!! Wheeee!!! He showed me how to get in through the roll cage, click into my safety harness and where my hel-met mic hooked into harness. Then he drove me once around the course (named The Bone Yard . . .?!?! ) He
took me through it at a “reasonable” speed but, at the first corner, I thought we were going to blast right through and miss it! My mind screamed “too fast, too fast” but believing Sean knew his stuff, I took my foot off the “floor brake” and relaxed. Whoopee! we flew through that corner and sped down the straightaway for the next one, I was in heaven!! Halfway through the course, the four cars regrouped, reversed direction to go back the other way. As we sat waiting for our turn, I asked Sean if he would be talking again about the cor-nering, braking, applying the gas, etc. He said yes, thank goodness because I hadn’t heard much over the wheee’s and wa-hoo’s! My gosh, what super fun!! Then it was my turn to drive. I reacquainted myself with a stick shift and off we went. Sean talked me through most of it. “Gas, brake, gas-gas-gas!, quarter
LOWER COLUMBIA CLASSIC CAR CLUB 6
8/9/2021
PRESIDENT DOUG GILLIES 503-468-0006 / VICE PRESIDENT JIM PURDY 503-458-5742 /
TREASURER BURT YOUNG 503-338-8719 / SECRETARY NICKI ANDREWS 360-642-3998 / BACKFIRE EDITOR ROSS GETCHELL
503-440-3291 / WEBMASTER ROBI NELSON 360-623-3816 [email protected]
turn, more steer, rally feet”. These were all aimed at me getting through the corners as quickly as possible and get on the gas as soon as pos-sible! The first few corners were a lot of learning and, though I hit no cones, I didn’t exactly light up the course. But once I figured out “rally feet”; left foot on the brake so you can use the gas at the same time (really?!?), I got faster in the turns. So fast that there was some fish-tailing out of a few corners but, wrong as that was, it was kinda fun too! I shared my car and instructor with another driver. While he drove, I was out of the car for a bit. This gave me time to take in all I’d been taught and watch the other students too. When my turn came again, I was much more aggressive and waited on braking till Sean told me, even though most of me was yelling , “Brake now! Brake now!” When I wait-ed, I really got to fly through the corner and though every instinct told me differently, came out right-side up and pointed down the course, heav-en!!! I did take out one candle (straight lane markers) but no cones! I was pretty proud of that but now I wonder if I pushed the limits enough!! Next time!! My lesson was nearly over but first the thrill ride. Sean took the wheel and we headed for another course. Roller coast-ers have nothing on this ride! Wow, we wheeeeeled (get it?) through turns throwing dirt and gravel clear to
Snoqualmie Falls, (I’m sure of it!). We started with a hell-bent-for-leather charge to the start, a 180 degree slide turn that put us at the exact start point, in other words; if there’d been a dime there, Sean would have stopped on it! From there we hauled down a path of brush and trees, behind old mill buildings (they were a blur!), and raced through a water hole, wheeee! As he drove me back to the office I asked if there were any
openings for 75 year-old women instructors? Sean actually seemed to consider it, “Why not, can’t hurt to ask”. Oh boy, getting paid to drive like that? WOW!! And here’s where I say how great it was to be treated equally by everyone I en-countered. No “woman-driver”, no rolled eyes at not getting the clutch quite right or that one time I skidded off course! Age didn’t matter either. They were very helpful but it was up to me to wriggle in and out of and handle the car. I’m sta-
tistically considered “elderly” (really!) and that comes with a whole grocery list of “don’ts” and “can’ts”. DirtFish never got the memo. You paid your money, you get the same as everyone else. You’re there to learn how to drive fast on a dirt/gravel course and they were going to teach you, period. And they did . . . wheeeee!!!! I know a DirtFish lesson is not everyone’s idea of “best gift ever” but, if it kinda tickles something in you, if your bucket list has room
for one more “must-do” think about rally driving, you’ll have the time of your life! ‘Way better than a blender!!!!!!
FROM THE BACK SEAT “THE GAL’S PAGE”
LOWER COLUMBIA CLASSIC CAR CLUB 7
8/9/2021
PRESIDENT DOUG GILLIES 503-468-0006 / VICE PRESIDENT JIM PURDY 503-458-5742 /
TREASURER BURT YOUNG 503-338-8719 / SECRETARY NICKI ANDREWS 360-642-3998 / BACKFIRE EDITOR ROSS GETCHELL
503-440-3291 / WEBMASTER ROBI NELSON 360-623-3816 [email protected]
Historical and/or Hysterical Pictures
Of LCCC Club Members, Friends, and Family
(ps: send in pictures of your fun times to The Backfire Editor and see them
posted here to share with everyone!)
Club
Meeting,
BBQ,
Birthday
All
Same
Night
Jim
Varner ‘s
Display
At
The
County
Fair
LOWER COLUMBIA CLASSIC CAR CLUB 8
8/9/2021
PRESIDENT DOUG GILLIES 503-468-0006 / VICE PRESIDENT JIM PURDY 503-458-5742 /
TREASURER BURT YOUNG 503-338-8719 / SECRETARY NICKI ANDREWS 360-642-3998 / BACKFIRE EDITOR ROSS GETCHELL
503-440-3291 / WEBMASTER ROBI NELSON 360-623-3816 [email protected]
FOR SALE LOT & ANNOUCEMENTS
BACKSEAT ARTICLES 2021
January-Dorothy Gillies, February-Patty Getchell, March-Judy Jordan, April-Dorothy Harmon, May- Valerie Purdy, June-Katie Scarborough, July-Sonia Wood, August-Diane Matthews, Sep-tember-Nicki Andrews, October-Lorraine Berard, Nov.-Kathy Sasso, Dec.-Melba O’Bryant
A sincere apology goes to Paul and Louise Kallstrom from me, Diane Matthews, membership chair. I inadvertently left them off the 2021 roster (am blaming my computer!) To reach them call me at 360-465-2320 and I will give you their phone number. They are still in the same place so, if you have an old roster, the address is the same. Again, I am so sorry Kallstroms.
Well Wishes, JIM PURDY & FAMILY, DEBBIE LAKE & FAMILY,
DOROTHY GILLIES, CAROL WEBSTER
Sending good wishes to all of you who I don’t know about, please let me know so I can send you a card if you need one. I think we can all use a little pick me up sometimes! Thanks, Judy
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS, JOE REES, JIM & RANDY SHARPE
I have a 1949 Chevrolet car engine, a 216 cid with a 3-speed trans. and a third member complete. I want to donate it to a club member for free or whatever they wish to donate to the club or charity of their choice, in our club’s name. It has 72,000 mile on all pieces and to my knowledge no rebuilds. When I got it, it was in the car and ran & drove fine but I just had to change it all out. ( more hp ). Anyway, I hope someone will save it from the scrapper. 503,791-3804 Ask for Bill
Mark September 26th down for Inter-club picnic. Same
location, Bruceport Park Washington, Covered area.
LOWER COLUMBIA CLASSIC CAR CLUB 9
8/9/2021
PRESIDENT DOUG GILLIES 503-468-0006 / VICE PRESIDENT JIM PURDY 503-458-5742 /
TREASURER BURT YOUNG 503-338-8719 / SECRETARY NICKI ANDREWS 360-642-3998 / BACKFIRE EDITOR ROSS GETCHELL
503-440-3291 / WEBMASTER ROBI NELSON 360-623-3816 [email protected]
STEPHEN GAYDOS 8/25
MAGGIE GIBSON 8/13
DOROTHY GILLIES 8/10
JO HENDRICKSON 8/8
JUDY JORDAN 8/4
RON LARSEN 8/2
DARRYL NIEMI 8/27
JIM PURDY 8/12
PATRICIA RILEY 8/12
MIKE SASSO 8/22
MARK STUNKARD 8/22
SUE STUNKARD 8/17
LINDA UPHOFF 8/20
LAURIE WILLEY 8/14
ATKINSON 8/15
CORKILL 8/28
GETCHELL 8/21
LAU 8/15
MARTIN 8/9