by: Dave Lemkay - ACCP Secretary
and as published in the Flying Quail, newsletter of the Antique Car Club of Pembroke
and the Quill and Quail, newsletter of the Model A Owners of Canada Inc.
Established in 1963 as the Model ‘A’ Ford Club of Pembroke (MAFCP), this club endures the test of time. Today, in 2013, a thriving Antique Car Club of Pembroke (ACCP) continues to be active with touring throughout the upper Ottawa Valley. Back in 1963, according to Don Stresman, one of the original members, an ad was placed in the Pembroke Observer calling out for owners of Model ‘A’ Ford cars to get together to form a club. This resulted in a series of meetings that, early on, saw the MAFCP become a vibrant group. As one might imagine, fifty years ago, there were all kinds of Model ‘A’s and, of course, many other makes of cars that were what we call today “barn finds”. Without sounding hokey, it's a fact that up in “the Valley” in the 1960s, before the onslaught of ATVs, there were a lot of these 1930s vehicles still in use – certainly on farms, at hunt camps or in bush lots.
In the beginning, the MAFCP was well organized largely through the leadership of an avid Model ‘A’ enthusiast Len Etmanski who took charge as president for the first three years. A club room was set up in the basement of Roy Wegner's plumbing shop, and with monthly meetings, tours, family picnics and a fall Road-A-O, where members performed skilled and often stunt-driving feats, the club was active. Once the “driving months” had passed, winter activities were the order of the day with horse-drawn sleigh rides, skating, snowmobiling and tubing parties, and these always culminated with a meal at a local rink or at members' homes. It's fair to say that touring and family events are the hallmark of the Pembroke club, continuing in this anniversary year, with “tours to everywhere”, the annual September Road-A-O and another tradition, the Christmas Shine, a year-end dinner and dance and well-deserved, sometimes hilarious, awards ceremony. The club newsletter; “The Flying Quail” has been mailed monthly to members and sister clubs since the late 1960s with costs partially supported from proceeds of a lively auction sale of unwanted treasures at the end of the monthly meetings.
Early on the MAFCP applied for and received charter status to the Model ‘A’ Ford Club of America and anyone perusing old copies of The Restorer will find Pembroke Chapter news in just about every issue from the 60s through to the 80s. Tours have been made over the years to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn and to Hershey in the USA, to Ford in Oakville and General Motors in Oshawa and to Muskoka, Lake Nippissing and the Thousand Islands for boat cruises. A number of members participated in the cross-Canada tours of the past, but mainly its monthly tours, in and around the Valley, that keeps the club occupied. Some ACCP members are regular vendors at Barrie and Sterling. Parades of any sort are always populated with ACCP cars and trucks. In fact Valley parades for years featured “Ike and Mike from the Wilno Hills” (AKA Don Stresman and the late Len Etmanski) who performed in a smoking, squirting, rag-tag 1928 Model ‘A’ Phaeton. The club also has a band of musicians aptly named the “Antique Car Tunes” tharoutinely performs at senior citizen homes across Renfrew County, playing familiar old-time music, often accompanied with old cars on display – another nice signature of the club.
While the membership was initially attracted by their interest in Model ‘A’s, there were some who also collected other marques. Over the years, the roster has included cars such as: Nash, Whippet, Maxwell, Hudson, Chevrolet, Packard, Mercury, Karmann-Ghia, Chrysler, Cadillac, LaSalle, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Buick, Austin, Jaguar, Morgan Mog, Willys Jeep, Terraplane, Plymouth, Dodge, Studebaker, other Fords such as Mustang’s, Fairlane’s & Thunderbird’s and Comet, International, Mercedes Benz and even a Messerschmidt! In this vein, the club was re-named the “Antique Car Club of Pembroke” in 1976 to accommodate this diversity.
Other things changed too. The club has evolved from the men-only meetings, of the early days, to a membership based on about forty couples today. It's interesting to note that in the fiftieth year, the club has its first female president, in long-standing member, Delores Lemkay and the Treasurer is Wendy TerMarsch, daughter of the late Calvin TerMarsch, a Model ‘A’ collector of note who had been ACCP treasurer for many years. The TerMarsch 1931 Ford Model AA Shell fuel truck is a fine mascot for the Pembroke club.
Recently the by-laws were changed to recognize, as honourary members, those who have been in the club over ten years upon reaching the age of 80. There are four or five couples in this new category, which also signals that the club might share the same demographic as other institutions, recognizing the need to attract new, younger members to keep the club vibrant. That said, it's ironic that, as the club has grown and members come and go, one common thread remains.
Of the fifty or more vintage vehicles owned by ACCP members, there are still about a dozen Model ‘A’ Ford cars and two AA trucks in the club – four being brought back to the area just in the last couple of years. In this vein, the Antique Car Club of Pembroke continues to honour its Ford Model ‘A’ heritage.
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