Operational Check and Photo Opportunity

By Ken Bounds

The best laid plans.  We planned to get everyone together who is assigned to the Operational Check at the Central National Meet on Saturday, July 12, to go over the process on members’ V-8s.  We also had Tom O’Donnell, our meet photographer, on hand to take shots of the vehicles against a scenic backdrop.  The weather all week was beautiful – about 80 degrees and sunny.  Saturday, of course, brought the threat of rain.

Several brave participants ignored the weather forecast and drove their Early V-8s to Roundhead’s of Lombard:  Ken & Carolyn Bounds – ’51 Mercury, Tom Buscaglia – ’51 Tudor, Stan Stack – ’53 Tudor, and Jeff Trilling – ’52 Pickup.  John & Este Scheve were rumored to have their ’37 Tudor in their trailer.  They were joined in modern vehicles by John Emmering, Terry & Kitty Freihage, Joe Kozmic, Gary Kelly, Joe Novak, Tom O’Donnell, Gary Osborne, and Len Vinyard.

Before we could really get underway, the skies opened up.  Not just a little shower; more like a deluge.  We tried in vain to go over our procedures in the trunk of the Mercury, but after about an hour everyone had enough and left. Our handouts were soaked, our clipboards were soaked, we were soaked.  We thank everyone who gave it the old college try and will re-group for a drier day.