2019 Club Meet By the Numbers

This year is the 21st time I've been to the West Coast Crosley Club's annual fall meet, and after all the years I've learned a few things.

Number 1. The people are The BEST

If you have spent any time around Crosley people, you have probably noticed that they are a special breed - car people who are not quite like most other car people. There's no posturing, there's no dumb machismo/bravado and there is very little showing off. I mean c'mon; how are you going to "show off" with the lowest budget cars ever made (excepting King Midgets - and I'm not sure they really count as cars.) Club member Nick Shelley's daughter accompanied him to a meet a few years back and afterwards said, "Dad, I've gone to a lot of car stuff with you, but this one was totally different; it was more like a family reunion than a car show." Crosley people are unique, in the best possible way.

3 p.m. Time to hit the Friday potluck

In the old days, I'd ALWAYS arrive as early as I could at the Friday potluck so I could get a first look at the cars in the parking lot. Like most people, I don't get to see that many Crosleys on a regular basis, and I wanted as much time as possible to scope them out; it was exciting to see what old favorites and new curiosities would be on hand. I soon learned that the potluck was also a good place to find out who would have spare parts for sale the next morning - one year I got a scoop on a batch of Braje speed parts left over from a member's project when he mentioned at the Friday dinner that he had brought them down to sell. 

The Monterey Peninsula Inn is a great spot for the Friday night meet-and-greet; nice parking for the cars, and a firepit if it gets chilly after sundown. As usual, there were a couple of cars I'd never seen before, including a beautiful grey Hot Shot and a crazy CC wagon with a Chevy V8 that Mike Blackburn had recently bought off Ebay - it was a far cry from the very-stock panel wagon he usually brings to the meets!

There was a good-sized crowd on hand, and I was excited to meet the Drake family from Ohio, who had made the West Coast Meet the centerpiece of their trip to California. Turned out that Andy Drake had stumbled across my internet ramblings about Crosleys many years ago so it was sorta like meeting an old penpal or something. Nice folks!

I kibitzed and ogled cars til the stars came out, then it was time to head back to my hotel room to decompress and get ready for the big day tomorrow

to be continued...