The Annual New England Meet

September 15, 16 and 17, 2006
Hosts: Connecticut Model A Restorers Club (CMARC)
Windsor, CT
Our club's official website is:  www.oilleak.org

by Bruce Marshall

The weather cooperated and delivered a splendid weekend of Model A touring, renewing old friendships and forming new acquaintances at the 50th annual New England Meet held, this year, in Windsor, CT.  Most of the group from our club arrived at the host hotel on Friday afternoon around 2 PM after a scenic tour through the Blackstone Valley of Massachusetts and then south through beautiful north central Connecticut led by Wayne and Susan Champagne.  At noon we stopped for a quick lunch and the required shopping side trip but then it was on to Windsor.

The host hotel was the Marriott Courtyard and I must say it was a class A
(no pun intended) facility with a pool, exercise club, spacious public areas
and great guest rooms.  The staff was very helpful and friendly and by 2:30
PM everyone was checked into their rooms and we then claimed our
registration
packets from the CMARC (Connecticut Model A Restorers Club) folks.  Out in
the parking lot, our
President, Tom Zappla, had trouble trying to start his Deluxe Phaeton and we
had to push start it to get it going.  Tom drove it to the repair tent and
they determined (as suspected) the starter Bendix was broken.  Tom had a
spare Bendix with him but it wouldn't slide onto the starter shaft (gee,
this
stuff never happens).  I had a spare with me that worked fine and eventually
Tom's car was all fixed up by the CMARC repair crew.

At 5 PM we had a very light dinner in the hotel bar consisting of a couple
of appetizers (excellent) and then it was off to the Ice Cream Social.  The
theme for
the evening was a 50s "sock hop" and they had a DJ and many of the attendees
were in poodle skirts, pegged pants, leather jackets and there were all
kinds of 50s hair
styles.  There were also a couple of Elvis wanabees in attendance notably
Bruce Adams from the Long Island club.  We thought the ice cream sundaes
were rather "lame" for the price charged and after some dancing and music
absorption we exited around 9 PM.  Before packing it in for the night, Wayne
Champagne, Bob Wright and I figured we would drive over to a local gas
station and fill up so we wouldn't have to make a dash for gas in the
morning before the Grand Tour.  What seemed like a good idea turned very wet
when the rain started to really come down and most of us got soaked going
from our cars back into the hotel.

Saturday dawned bright and beautiful as the cars lined up for the 35 mile
tour to the air museum near Bradley Field.  The cars were a little slow
getting out of the hotel lot but eventually everyone got out and on their
way to a simply magnificent tour through some wonderful parts of rural
Connecticut.  The New England Air Museum had some pretty interesting stuff
inside and
outside including a DC-3 and a gigantic seaplane that had been totally
restored.  We then enjoyed a box lunch (I had the rubber chicken sandwich)
and then we went around an voted for the Best of Show, Best Woodie, Best
CMARC car etc., and turned in our ballots.  The ride back to the hotel took
us on a more direct route down route 75 for about 6 miles.  Most of us
wanted to get back to attend the Hubley Derby to cheer on Susan Chamagne her
1930 blue roadster.  There was static judging and then the real racing
started.  By the time the sawdust had settled, Susan had been deemed the 1st
place prize winner in the stock, unmodified class.  Her car took on all
comers and zoomed to the checkered flag!  As if that was enough excitement
for the afternoon, I then helped Craig Martin install his recently rebuilt
Zenith carburetor on his 1930 roadster.  The install was a success and
Craig's car is running like a Model A should.

The Saturday night dinner was well attended with the gentlemen dressed in
suits, tuxedos or jacket/tie and the ladies were resplendent in appropriate
"evening wear."  They had a nineteen piece 1940s orchestra that played a
variety of great dance music.  For the meal, I had the broiled shrimp and
scallops with saffron risoto and Cookie had the pasta primavera ($35 each).
The pasta wasn't bad but the seafood dish was some seafood suspended in a
big clump of risoto.  What was I thinking anyway ordering seafood in
Connecticut?  Those who had the prime rib dish ($41) had to ask for steak
knives to cut through the meat!  One person claimed that they could still
see the marks on the meat where the jockey had whipped the horse!  The apple
cobbler for dessert tasted like it was right out of cold storage.  Hey, the
Caesar salad was pretty good!  So, the meal wasn't good but the band was
great with many folks staying until 10:30 PM.

The Sunday morning brunch started about 9 AM with coffee, tea and juices
followed by two buffet lines (they needed three lines) where we had eggs
Benedict, pastries, scrambled eggs, bacon and some cereal and fruit ($21.50
pp).  After breakfast the judging, Hubley Derby and "Hard Luck" trophies
were awarded first.  The guy that got the Hard Luck trophy had been hit by
no less than two modern vehicles over the weekend!  Jo Johnson then was
introduced as the chairman of the 2007 New England Meet and proceed to give
eveyone an overview (sales pitch) of what to expect in 2007.  For those of
you reading this who have been on the Space Station for a while or living on
planet X, let me remind you that your own Minuteman Club is hosting the meet
next September in Sturbridge, MA.  We fully expect more that fifty (50)
registrations from our members so let's mark down the dates of September 14,
15 and 16 now so there are no excuses next September!  We need you and we
need your help to make this meet a success.  Hotel rooms can be reserved now
at $112 per night by calling the Sturbridge Host Hotel at 508.347.7393
(mention the Model A Ford New England Meet)  So, while Jo was speaking, I
ran a PowerPoint (computer talk for "slide show") presentation that tried to
visually "wow" the crowd while the few Minutemen in the room (read between
the lines folks) passed out a slick brochure that Ms. Johnson had put
together a few days before.

The raffle prizes were then awarded (a looong process), the grand prizes
were awarded (rebuilt engine and some other stuff), the 50/50 raffle was
drawn and then everyone left for home.  The day was glorious and the ride
back delightful with no car problems - after all there were only five (5)
cars in the column (read between the lines again).  We arrived home at 7:25
PM and I have to say that despite the banquet food it was a very enjoyable
weekend overall.  How can you not have fun touring in your Model A?