HEAVENS TO HERSHEY
By Ron Caruso

Marianne and I’s first experience at the 2007 fall meet at Hershey was both gratifying and astonishing.

We parked in the AACA Lot deep in the bowels of Hershey. This Lot holds 5,000 cars and there were 7,000 cars already parked when we arrived. I was scared when they took my 10 bucks and handed me a can opener and a shoe horn. We squeezed through the sunroof and headed for the fields of Hershey.

We are heroes at home telling the grand kids that we were going to the chocolate field at Hershey. Their youthful visions of Hershey Bar Trees and Silver Top Bushes popped into their imaginations.

We bought a program and I checked the field and Vendor area. I could get lost in an empty room, but this looked like a snap, after all my ancestors sailed with Christopher Columbus. Kites I think.

You stand in front of the Giant Center, everything to the rear is the Green Field. To the left, the Chocolate Field and to the right the Orange Field. It worked well until we wound up in the rear of the Giant Center and everything was in reverse. Oh where are you when I need you Chris.

They gave me a compass in boot camp at Parris Island on night maneuvers. I lead my platoon into mushy swamp, with those things they make suitcases and shoes from. My Drill Instructor kept yelling about a back azimuth. Gee! I thought he had a muscle strain.

It was a great time at Hershey, watching a Whippet run with its OHV engine with the petcocks on the head. A 1930 Austin, cute as a button, a 1938 Packard on a trailer from an estate sale its dusty massive body ready for a shine to show its patina below. Oh, it was begging to have its story told.

We were like two kids in a candy store trying to pack it all in. I thought it was cute seeing those Porto Johns all over the place. Well they were locked and it was tough holding it all day. I fixed them alright. I bought a pair of cheep bolt cutters and it was fine after that. Some folks complained but you can’t please everyone. Spectacular weather on Wednesday but Thursday was monsoon time. It rained so hard the ducks used umbrellas. It was like “Singing in the Rain” for us. It was still fun, you were pursuing your love affair with a car. Looking for treasures and junk. What a glorious feeling just singing in the rain.

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