So many memories. Racing our flathead 6 Fords on Telegraph Canyon!!! Spending the nights on the beach at K 38 1/2. Junking his old car by setting it on fire in Mexico and pushing over the cliff. Bringing tortas, beer and a toothbrush and sleep on the sand.
Drinking that really bad green beer at the Long Bar in TJ....
Seeing how many people we could squeeze into the trunk to get into the Big Sky Drive in.
Thanks guys from Alex D-F. I was a closet car guy in JH and HS and beyond. Just couldn't indulge it then. I managed south of the border just a few times. It seems a lot of guys have good memories about down there. It looks like many of the guys and some of the grils were able to try on all of these good times out of sight of their parents and the Vice Principals of the world. Lagging behind, I did get that TJ opportunity a few times and managed a few tortas and tacos, some beers at the Long Bar. But I really did not enjoy taxi drivers that wanted to hook me up with their sisters. Honest. Getting dragged by my friends into a tawdry place to watch, "free French movies," was something that made me very uncomfortable. I had no idea that Gary was into cars, but being a combination of a bit too young and at the same time a late-to-very-late bloomer with a relatively short leash out of the homestead meant that getting much beyond Chula Vista was something for later. I've actually attempted to analyze my own interest in cars as this point. Back then it was being overwhelmed by the fastest stop-light races or quarter mile race or time or, most of all, watching one of our students do "wheelies," down 3rd. (Thanks, Gary F.) Time has a way, now and then, of asking us to look back on our own history or that of our contemporaries or even that of our planet. It can be dry or interesting or even daunting. It can be very serious when our own survival as a nation is inovlved somehow as with contemporary politics and the wars of the present reflexted in those of the past. I think cars supply that mobility that reached a high point all over the world with a unique item that allowed people to get around. They also grew with the times in their competence and reflect the human inventiveness and spirit.
That's not all cars are for me. They are also, like motorcycles, rolling art. They can range from the very obtainable or cheap to themost expensive items on the planet. They can invoke memories and cause nostalgiac waxing and waning of the mind. They can be preserved or rebuilt better than knew or to any one of a number of standards. They can be placed in a museum or be the focal point of showing up at cars and coffee in many places. They can be the locus of clubs and meets of all kinds. They create all forms of competition with so many classes in so many locals that these can no longer be easily quantified.
At the most expensive end (some call it the highest end, but that is a subjetive call, really) cars are an exceptionally rich man's sports with rules made by those with the money with competitions that take place in the most expensive locations with ticket prices and invitations available only for those on the automobile A-List, for the most part. Pebble Beach for example.
I don't know what Gary Fiebig would do if he were given another 50 years on the planet with his cars, but a lot would be open to him. With the advent of alternative fuels, their will be more avenues of car driving and collecting down the road of time.
Age in and of itself is not a bar to interest in the automobile and so as any class has that opportunity, the class of '63 can find an opportunity to rally around some sort of gathering involving cars as well. Have their own car show. For those not fond of being outside of the, "in crowd," any gathering of our class or the years surrounding it should be broad and all inclusive. That way, no one has to be excluded from coming to enjoy the cars, even if they don't have a car or at least one they do not want to share or show.
Shows do not have to be static, and many of them include rallys of all kinds. Furthermore, promoting the idea that the car hobby is at least open to everyone, even if there's no interest, is an annual car show where people bring in pretty much anything to see if they can win a, "lemon award." Everything in between the extremes is available.
In many cases, car shows have things to eat and wonderful venues to walk around an do things other than stare at cars, nearby. Some of them include wine tasings or access to the beaches, or swap meets if your beloved car needs a part.
Yes, I did not know Gary then, but I'm glad to hear that he spurred me to write this piece to everyone who visits this site. Now I shall confess here and now that I'm not a big organizer. But among our class mates are those who are experts in every field. For example we have sculptors and artists among us and experts in finance and experts in being layed back and musicians and lawyers and doctors and who knows what else. Securing a spot which can often be had for free is the most difficult part. Handling on-site logistics for bathrooms is next with food availability another item of importance. That's why the parking lots around shopping malls or pizza parlors in mini malls often get the car or why the local burger drive-in such as in American Grafitti, are so popular as gathering points. Awards are not even necessary, but some people like them and if that is part of a car gathering, one must charge an admission fee for the entrants and sometiimes a very small admission fee for those in attendance. Plus, some people actually like, "period music," at these car shows. That's optional. I actually don't care for it all that much, but this is just sort of brainstorming.
Another great thing about a car gathering, unlike a beach party, is that you don't need to worry about getting into a bathing suit, nor about getting sand off of you at some point. You can just wander around and strke up conversation with people.
OK. So I used the memorial to Gary as another brainstorming idea. Gary might well have approved. woops. As usual I've written too much and for too long. Love all my class of '63 grad mates as we have that in common as where we graduated from in what was then our little growing town. -- Alex Ford
Dan Dennison
Gary Fiebig
Richard Cook
So many memories. Racing our flathead 6 Fords on Telegraph Canyon!!! Spending the nights on the beach at K 38 1/2. Junking his old car by setting it on fire in Mexico and pushing over the cliff. Bringing tortas, beer and a toothbrush and sleep on the sand.
Drinking that really bad green beer at the Long Bar in TJ....
Seeing how many people we could squeeze into the trunk to get into the Big Sky Drive in.
Those are still vivid memories.
Alex Duckworth-Ford (Alex Ford)
Thanks guys from Alex D-F. I was a closet car guy in JH and HS and beyond. Just couldn't indulge it then. I managed south of the border just a few times. It seems a lot of guys have good memories about down there. It looks like many of the guys and some of the grils were able to try on all of these good times out of sight of their parents and the Vice Principals of the world. Lagging behind, I did get that TJ opportunity a few times and managed a few tortas and tacos, some beers at the Long Bar. But I really did not enjoy taxi drivers that wanted to hook me up with their sisters. Honest. Getting dragged by my friends into a tawdry place to watch, "free French movies," was something that made me very uncomfortable. I had no idea that Gary was into cars, but being a combination of a bit too young and at the same time a late-to-very-late bloomer with a relatively short leash out of the homestead meant that getting much beyond Chula Vista was something for later. I've actually attempted to analyze my own interest in cars as this point. Back then it was being overwhelmed by the fastest stop-light races or quarter mile race or time or, most of all, watching one of our students do "wheelies," down 3rd. (Thanks, Gary F.) Time has a way, now and then, of asking us to look back on our own history or that of our contemporaries or even that of our planet. It can be dry or interesting or even daunting. It can be very serious when our own survival as a nation is inovlved somehow as with contemporary politics and the wars of the present reflexted in those of the past. I think cars supply that mobility that reached a high point all over the world with a unique item that allowed people to get around. They also grew with the times in their competence and reflect the human inventiveness and spirit.
That's not all cars are for me. They are also, like motorcycles, rolling art. They can range from the very obtainable or cheap to themost expensive items on the planet. They can invoke memories and cause nostalgiac waxing and waning of the mind. They can be preserved or rebuilt better than knew or to any one of a number of standards. They can be placed in a museum or be the focal point of showing up at cars and coffee in many places. They can be the locus of clubs and meets of all kinds. They create all forms of competition with so many classes in so many locals that these can no longer be easily quantified.
At the most expensive end (some call it the highest end, but that is a subjetive call, really) cars are an exceptionally rich man's sports with rules made by those with the money with competitions that take place in the most expensive locations with ticket prices and invitations available only for those on the automobile A-List, for the most part. Pebble Beach for example.
I don't know what Gary Fiebig would do if he were given another 50 years on the planet with his cars, but a lot would be open to him. With the advent of alternative fuels, their will be more avenues of car driving and collecting down the road of time.
Age in and of itself is not a bar to interest in the automobile and so as any class has that opportunity, the class of '63 can find an opportunity to rally around some sort of gathering involving cars as well. Have their own car show. For those not fond of being outside of the, "in crowd," any gathering of our class or the years surrounding it should be broad and all inclusive. That way, no one has to be excluded from coming to enjoy the cars, even if they don't have a car or at least one they do not want to share or show.
Shows do not have to be static, and many of them include rallys of all kinds. Furthermore, promoting the idea that the car hobby is at least open to everyone, even if there's no interest, is an annual car show where people bring in pretty much anything to see if they can win a, "lemon award." Everything in between the extremes is available.
In many cases, car shows have things to eat and wonderful venues to walk around an do things other than stare at cars, nearby. Some of them include wine tasings or access to the beaches, or swap meets if your beloved car needs a part.
Yes, I did not know Gary then, but I'm glad to hear that he spurred me to write this piece to everyone who visits this site. Now I shall confess here and now that I'm not a big organizer. But among our class mates are those who are experts in every field. For example we have sculptors and artists among us and experts in finance and experts in being layed back and musicians and lawyers and doctors and who knows what else. Securing a spot which can often be had for free is the most difficult part. Handling on-site logistics for bathrooms is next with food availability another item of importance. That's why the parking lots around shopping malls or pizza parlors in mini malls often get the car or why the local burger drive-in such as in American Grafitti, are so popular as gathering points. Awards are not even necessary, but some people like them and if that is part of a car gathering, one must charge an admission fee for the entrants and sometiimes a very small admission fee for those in attendance. Plus, some people actually like, "period music," at these car shows. That's optional. I actually don't care for it all that much, but this is just sort of brainstorming.
Another great thing about a car gathering, unlike a beach party, is that you don't need to worry about getting into a bathing suit, nor about getting sand off of you at some point. You can just wander around and strke up conversation with people.
OK. So I used the memorial to Gary as another brainstorming idea. Gary might well have approved. woops. As usual I've written too much and for too long. Love all my class of '63 grad mates as we have that in common as where we graduated from in what was then our little growing town. -- Alex Ford