Excerpt from GCR car club’s newsletter:
GCR July 4 , 2016 Celebration
Not our usual 4th of July gathering. This one started off with a parade with all the red, white and blue among marching bands, decorated floats, profiled politicians and, the best part, classic cars winding through the Memorial area of Houston. Several GCR Members took part: Tahl Rozycki (’80 Chevy Classic station wagon), Dean Forbes (’56 Continental), Lee Brown (’62 Cadillac convertible) and our host, Robert Belt (’23 Ford Model T). In spite of Houston’s July heat, we all made it with minimal conversion of water to steam – and it was fun.
Then it was off to the Carriage Clubhouse for our car gathering and BBQ lunch. Ninety-three attended with most bringing side dishes to supplement the catered BBQ, and many arriving in their classic / antique car.
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The Carriage Clubhouse is a first order storage facility for classic / exotic cars. Several of those who keep cars there joined in and displayed their cars. Most notable was Jim Fasnacht with his one-off original 1929 Studebaker house car – one fabulous piece of work. Mr. Belt also had his 1913 freshly restored Little (precursor to the Chevrolet) roadster available.
Lunch was served in the air-conditioned conference room with our seating area being the storage area surrounded by parked collector cars.
Outside we displayed our collector cars with some Members offering up joy rides to others in their oldies. John Sweney / Mike Stargel tantalized many with rides in their fabulous 2007 Rolls-Royce Phantom Silver Edition – an experience that would make one want to throw rocks at their basic Chevy!
Acknowledgements were given to Members who brought special antique cars to the event: Oldest Car – Sean Ornduff (1929 Pierce Arrow), Furthest driven Julie Wagner-Palmer (1956 Hudson Hornet) and the Presidents Choice – Joe Vogt (1932 Pierce Arrow).
We had our usual $100 drawing for those who brought their antique car. That went to John Doerfler (1925 Dodge touring).
And, to our gracious host and owner of the Carriage Clubhouse, Mr. Robert Belt, we presented a special appreciation. A ‘Thank You’ note with our AACA logo was made large and framed with those attending signing the perimeter with their name and their collector car.
Mr. Belt received this saying that this will become a fixture on the wall of the Carriage Clubhouse.
Many thanks to those who brought side dishes, helped with the set-up / clean-up, made the camaraderie great, and in general made this a successful and fun event.