Must say again, we certainly were welcomed as a group (and individually, I'd say) by
The Genuine Chevy GMC Truck Club of Kansas City. They set up the area, including a huge "Welcome" banner. (pix) And, found
this picture among the bunch in Cletis' story. If you "mouse over" the face, you'll see their Stovebolt name.
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The attendance was great. Over 40 Bolters (who responded via the website) were there. There were quite a few Bolters who were members of the Chevy GMC Truck Club also attended.
FIRSTSSo, wow, 2007 was a year of firsts for
The Stovebolt Page!
It was the first time to have shirts and a flag. This was the genesis of the purple.
(2 pix)
First for the Tape Toss. Dakota donated (among a bunch of other prizes), boxes and boxes of electrical tape. This was not only fun to toss out to the audience, it came in mighty handy for at least one of our Bolters:
"I cut the fuse holder out of the wire and twisted the wire ends together. Fortunately, someone had donated dozens of rolls of electrical tape to the Stovebolt cause and they were passed out at the show like candy." ~ Cletis [ Taken from
Cletis report on the Reunion ]
Speaking of Dakota and prizes -- Dakota donated a huge pile of good stuff to hand out as prizes. Other than a "thanks," we had no way to really express our appreciation (plus, he is sweetie
). So, I made him a "rag bag" to hang in his shop or garage. John had one and it was perfect for handling a bunch of rags in various sizes. (pix)
The best pictures showing the prize distribution are the
ones Scott Ward [
s160.photobucket.com] posted in the Bolt Bucket.
Back to
FIRSTSI believe Scott is correct. This was the first year for us to go to Jack Stack’s for Bar-b-q. Everyone liked that idea when we put it up in the Forum. (pix -- btw, first person on left is Don McLendon; on the right is Mike Taylor) We took up several tables put together but ran out of "floor" space, so some of our group ended up in booth. That was some good eating.
Speaking of food still
Paul Schmehl had a birthday that weekend, and Linda Schmehl (Paul's wife) arranged to have a cake delivered for Paul's birthday and to celebrate the Third Annual event. That was very nice (and I think Paul was surprised!). And, yummy.
(pix)
Back to
FIRSTS again.
To our delight, Jim Carter invited us to breakfast that Friday morning. We talked about the hobby among other things. That breakfast sit-down became a regular part of our visit from then on. We invited Jim to join us that evening at dinner and say a few words for the Stovebolters. He was as close to a celebrity as we had to meet face-to-face at the Reunion.
A down to earth guy, Jim would venture over to the Stovebolt area and talk shop. Always a treat. John and I made a reciprocal visit to the Jim Carter booth. The picture below is of Ol' Trucks (Mike Taylor) who had been a big help with the event, and other things. He's the fellow who set up all the trips to Carter's. (See that first trip
in the 2006 Reunion thread.)
Speaking of visits:
Being a member of the Baltimore-Washington American Truck Historical Society at the time, John arranged a private tour of ATHS headquarters located right there in KC MO. We were surprised at what they had in their Zoe James Library. Our contact shared so much info, plus the plans they have to go digital and make that info available to the public. They had a sizable collection of old truck memorabilia and an enormous collection of old truck literature dating back to the first trucks made.
"Many of us were blown away, thinking we could spend weeks in there just reading some of the literature. We could only stay a couple of hours because other things were planned back at Riverside." ~ Cletis
Speaking of Dakota
Coming in from South Dakota -- An old trucks goes from an It Ran When I Parked It candidate, to ... It's Alive ... and at the Reunion.
That's next!
