President's Page February 2009

You never know who you’re going to meet that has a connection to old cars and in this case the ACCP. Skiing last weekend at Pakenham with Addie, I happened to go to the cafeteria for a snack wearing my new black ACCP hat. A gregarious fellow behind the counter piped up after seeing the hat to say: “my Dad belonged to the Model A Ford Club in Pembroke”, saying that he was Robbie Rantz, Bob’s son. For those of you a bit longer in the tooth, you will have fond memories of the Rantz family in their Model A on early tours and Road-A-Os. I gave Bob a call and he says that he has had some thoughts about the club and that he and Pauline will see about maybe attending the February meeting.

So “hats off” once again to Wayne Brohart for renewing our club identity with the snazzy black caps – as I have said before, we benefit from our calling cards in the form of the Flying Quail, the web site, our vehicles (with window decals) and our jackets and hats.


Congratulations to Don and Myrna Stresman who “hands-down” won the activity award for 2008. With perfect attendance at meetings and on club tours, the handsome plaque is theirs to showcase for the year. There were many others who had respectable scores and clearly, that is the mark of a healthy club. Thanks to you all for your commitment and participation. We look forward to a fun-filled and rewarding year to come.

So far this new year, we have attended the Dore Bay Country Club Spaghetti Feast and the old fashioned horse-drawn sleigh ride at Schmidts. The Antique Car Tunes have had a jam or two and the Risto delivery wagon restoration project is underway. Ahead on the calendar, we have prospects of some great tours! Already we have chatted about a summer tour to Ganaoque to tour the Thousand Islands. I would like also to suggest a day-long loop through Calabogie to Middleville, returning after a picnic lunch back through Pakenham to Burnstown and home via Renfrew. We could visit interesting sites, including the marble mine near Clayton, the historic Mill of Kintail, the waterfront park and the Waba Museum at White Lake and maybe early supper in Renfrew at Odie’s Kingburger that has that old drive-in atmosphere – this could be a great photo session too. Bring you ideas to the meetings and we can fine tune the details and lock in dates.

We have been asked by the Heritage Manor to consider bringing our vehicles on Father’s Day to assemble an impromptu afternoon car show. They feel that our presence there would be well received by the seniors, especially the men-folk, to be able to mingle and meet members and reminisce about their cars of yesterday. Of course, Father’s Day is a family affair for us all, but maybe in giving a little, we reap much larger rewards… we can talk about this at the meeting, as well as other suggestions you will have for tours.

Dave Lemkay