2/18/09

BEGOT

At times I visit car clubs and attend their meetings, as the last post indicates I went to very large meeting of many clubs and had perfectly good time. It astounded me how so many clubs were offshoots or spin-offs of just a handful of clubs or possibly one or two.

So today we will check some of the lineage of a couple of these clubs and see if we can determine who came from what. Now it might get a little dicey because I don't want to name names, so bear with me.

First we will start with club "SR" they started out with just certain type of car and soon had some dissension as to what years and some members left and formed a new club, "SRA". Then later on another group left because of other reasons and formed "SRB". Then yet another group left because rules and regulation pissed them off and they formed "SRC". Now we could probably trace out more of the SR lineage but these are the ones that remain active and alive. So as you can see 1 club begot 3. For a total of 4

Now lets get on with another slice of heaven and check the lineage of another club, but this has a few more twists to it.

I call this one "ACC". They too started out with a certain type of car or age group but then expanded into other types and ages. This club got so big that it was over 200 members and growing in leaps and bounds. Then once the membership wised up to the fact that the club treasury was a mess as far as accounting and they had no say in how the club was run they organized a power play. So after a revolt in which the core of power decided it was time to leave and form a new club of enthusiasts,"ACC1".

"ACC" was still way to big and some of it's members from a geographical area were feeling a little neglected and started yet another club,"ACC2". "ACC2" got real big real fast and the founding members said whoa and formed another club we will call "ACC2.1". In the mean time "ACC" had stabilized itself by cutting down it's membership, thanks in a large part to "ACC2".

Now heres a twist, some of the members that left "ACC" to form "ACC1" had come back to "ACC", some from "ACC2" joined with "ACC2.1" and then left again after learning that you can only belong to "ACC2.1"

Meanwhile back at the ranch, "ACC" was giving birth to yet another brood of cubs and in 2 years time 3 more clubs came to be. First it was "ACC3" with a little belligerence and lot of attitude, then came"ACC4", an older crew with good things in mind. Then came a red headed step child that is all about fun and cars, "ACC5". 1 begot 6 for a total of 7. We also hear tell of a small club that could be the bastard of any of the above.

Hard to believe that just 2 clubs formed in their own way, for their own purpose and through clashes in ideology, politics and personalities ended up with 11 clubs.

How boring shit would be if all of us got along.

2/15/09

FINALLY

Today I got to listen to 20 or more representitives of every kind of car club, drag race association and gearhead gaggle you could think of. And not one bit about the damn political climate in Washington D.C..

Down in Bath at the American Legion Hall was the 3rd Annual All Clubs Social, hosted by the Rusty Nuts Car Club. With a social hour and pot luck dinner/lunch before the official stuff, gave everyone a chance to catch up with all the ones worth catching up with.

When the official stuff got going at around 1pm it turned into a great afternoon with more information than you really needed to know but then again we needed to know. A couple of times the presenters mentioned the economy and how it will affect getting sponsors. One group from the Midcoast area said volunteers to work were harder to get than sponsors.

Not only did the politics that seems to be the main subject of certain other Blogs become a non subject, but nobody cared if I was Democrat or Republican, because we all were car people and that should be what its all about.

All in all it was good time and politics were not present. Just as it should be.

2/7/09

Spock Was Right

After watching enough Star Trek to be the oldest possible Trekkie in existence, one thing comes to mind in the situation that has arisen again as it has in the past. This thing is more of a way of thought rather than a thing, but comes down to this quote, "do the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many". In this case I think not, as in the situation I will now explain.
In the 1970's a group of Street Rodders worked with the legislators and the State Police and came up with a criteria for inspection and registration for Street Rods. These Rodders made sure that the criteria included a stipulation that the Street Rod registration be free of the "Limited Use" label. With the advent of the Custom Plate in 2005 the same stipulation was used as it was for the Street Rod plate, no"Limited Use" label.
Enter stage left, the one, I'll call him Klang ( just to stay in the theme ). Klang comes from some part of Maine where everybody is wrong except him. He has in the past attempted to bring legislation out that would bring the "Limited Use" label to bear on Customs and Street Rods, thus eliminating the need for an Inspection Criteria. Klang uses a campaign of misinformation that only shows his thought process and not the big picture.
After a heated debate he usually hides when defeated but comes back later like he owns you. In the last sessions of the legislature he again was defeated by a ratio of 25 to 1 and was silenced until now. Klang has reemerged spouting the same drivel as before, stating that his way is the only way, that the street rodders that got the plate were wrong and need to rethink their efforts ya da ya da ya da. I as the editor am more than willing to listen to someones opinion as long as they in turn are willing to listen to mine. Klang is not willing to listen to anything or anyone for in his alien eyes they are misguided fools.
As this blog is being written I realize that maybe I have not stated the whole story, I have only berated Klang and not stated that at no time has anyone but his tight circle of friends been spoken to and at no time has anyone from the original group of Rodders been approached or their opinions been asked for, or for that matter any Steet Rodder at all.
In this case the needs of the many far outweigh the needs of the one, the Rodders that got us what we got, were the many that allow us to operate our vehicles when we want, how we want and where we want.
Klang is the sound of a cast iron frying pan hitting the one in the head.

Live Long and Prosper