Summer Dreamin': Mrs. Turner's

Summer is definitely over.  Been that way for a little while now, and it's getting to the point where you think about last summer, and about the things that will keep you feeling warm until the spring thaw.  I'm not one who bitches about the weather much, or who feels hemmed in when it's not 70 degrees and sunny outside.  The Northwest is a beautiful place to live year 'round, and there's always things to do regardless of the weather, but usually, outdoor auto-related events ain't one of them.  Therefore, one of the things that keeps me warm through every winter is the thought of Mrs. Turner's Friday Cruise-In starting up again in May. 

I live across the street from A Diner called Mrs. Turner's, which is one of the oldest establishments in the downtown Puyallup area, and every Friday from roughly Memorial Day through Labor day, they host a cruise-in and back lot barbecue.  The owner/operators are classic car enthusiasts and put this deal on mostly for the fun of it, and so that their friends who have old cars have an excuse to dust 'em off and come visit once a week.  As you'd expect, you do see a lot of the same stuff, and as it's open to absolutely anyone so of course you'll see stuff that isn't really to your taste.  But the variety also makes it kind of fun, too.  Over the years, I've seen everything from old survivor Model T's, COPO muscle cars, Ardun powered roadsters, pastel tweed-clad tilt column street rods, vintage European race cars, and even a complete stem to stern reproduction of KITT from Knight Rider.

Here's some of the photos I've collect from a few years of summer Fridays across the street at Mrs. Turners...

The owners built this little Texaco Service station 'cause they needed someplace to store all the stuff they need for the cruise in:  Tables, barbecue, easy-ups, etc.  Helluva way to camouflage a storage shed.

This 1928 Pontiac pickup has been owned by the same family since new.  It was purchased as a work truck by a local berry farmer and has served as such ever since. 

The original owner's grandson now drives the truck occasionally, and has fitted this old motorized bike on back.

Can you say...

...ARDUN?  Delicious.

Ever seen a Dodge La Femme before?  Me neither.  They were one of the only cars ever to be marketed specifically to women.

The afore mentioned KITT replica gettin' the terrycloth glove treatment... 

And like I said, stem to stern, no stone unturned.

 This is the owner, Starla's T-Bird

Solids and Spokes Invitational

Clayton's big-ass birthday party, a.k.a. The Solids and Spokes Invitational was this past weekend in Santa Cruz, California.  As it was his 40th, I didn't think I could pass it up, and boy, was I glad I didn't.  Tons of great friends attended, old and new, tons of bitchin' cars, a good lil' reliability run including a stop at Bruce Canepa's wonderland, topped off with a BBQ at the Slaughter residence.  And by BBQ, I mean great food, beer, ACDC cover band that rocked hard, and 60-foot car drop.  Don't know what a car drop is?  There's photos below...

 Friday night, a few of us met up at Clay's to catch up before the big shindig on Saturday.

Mr. Clayton Slaughter, at home in the workplace...

Galli Sr. rockin' a 40, thanks to Jr.  The 5 window is theirs, and the story behind it is... well, just one of those stories.

In short, it goes like this:  Son Mikey was being taken out to dinner for his birthday in Boulder Creek.  While waiting to get in to the restaurant, Mike spots something under a tarp adjacent to the place.  After many trips back and forth, he eventually succeeds in convincing his dad that it is indeed a '32, and it looked untouched.  The car's inheritor eventually caved to their requests for purchase, and they bought the car and took it to Mr. Vern Tardel.  Vern did most of the work, (swapped the B motor for a flathead V8, suspension, steering, etc.) to get it where it sits today.  Much of the car is as they bought it, including WWII gas rationing stickers.

Neely Farrel and Alisha Slaughter, still smilin' after spending countless hours of setting up for this shindig.

The next day, at the start point, about 35 cars showed up for the reliability run.  Both quality and quantity impressed.

John Forbes' monster... It's a good thing that the roads we were about to drive were pretty much in his front yard.  It'd be pretty challenging to pilot his rig blind through them twisties, but after all, John has worked for Bonney Doon Fire Department for long time.

Greg Lazzarini's ol' racecar.  He's meeting up with the builder of some years ago soon, so I'm eager to find out more about this beautiful old coupe.



This was Lars Mapstead's first cruise in this car, and he said it drove quite nicely.

The Galli '32

The first time I saw Mark Nelson's 5-window, it was a primer grey daily driver that he'd built in like 2 weeks or something.  Pretty cool daily driver I thought, well it's still driven daily, but it's a whole lot nicer now.

Pachi and Nikki drove this beautiful little (roofless) roadster all the way from Winnemucca to Santa Cruz the day before the run, drove the run on Saturday, then drove it all the way back on Sunday.  I suppose that if I'd built something this nice I'd be prone to spending as much time in it as possible, too.

On Bonney Doon Road...

Hot rods takin' over the Canepa complex...

Bruce Canepa's showroom and museum goodies...

Yeah, that is the real So-Cal Coupe.

Canepa's Shop, right side...

...and left side.

And... the storage room.  Let's see... which one today?  How about B-3?

This is the So-Cal/Canepa LSR car which had been wrecked at Bonneville, but not that you could tell now.

Okay, so I don't know the whole story or anything, but someone told me that this Dusenburg sports the chassis #001.  Ummm....

After we left the Canepa compound, we headed up to the Slaughter ranch, where it was BBQ, beer, a little rock and roll, and dropping a car from a 60-foot crane, all in the company of friends and family.

The car drop:  Thanks tons Charley Chesleigh for donating your ol' racecar.  It's in a better place, now...

 This'd be the car Curt Williams' dad built and raced at the famed Half Moon Bay strip way back when.  After his dad's sad passing, Curt and Clay revived the coupe and Curt drives it much as his dad left it.  And why would anyone change it?

I'm glad they're all laughin' it up, as they seemed frustrated by Sid's roadster Thursday night.



Midtown reunion:  L to R, Tosh Woods, Lee Faraola, Craig Meakin, Curt Williams, Zeb Nevins, Clayton Slaughter

Lars brought this little jem for us to drool on, too.  It's a '27 model T with an injected Ardun flathead, wrapped in actual signed VonDutch pinstriping.  I believe it set some records at Bonneville and the dry lakes before a drag outfit bought the car and ran it with some success.

Next day:  Curt pullin' his coupe into the garage.

All in, and just before it started raining.

I had one helluva time.  Thanks, Slaughters and everyone else who made this such a great time.  If  you happen to get an invite for this event next year, I'd strongly suggest you attend.  A good time will be had by all.