("Jay Honeck" wrote)
[snips]
Classic cars. More importantly, the cars of his youth. He and his wife
were founding members of a Packard Car Club, and they now traveled the
country attending car shows and forums.


As we all finished breakfast, Rudy looked us over with a gleam in his eye,
and asked the kids if they'd like to go see "an old, 1928 Packard." Not
sure how to respond, they looked at me with questioning eyes, and I
responded with a wary "Sure!" Soon we were ambling out to the parking
lot in Rudy's wake, trying to keep up.

In all the years we had flown to this airport cafe, we had never, ever
been off the airport -- so the parking lot was a strange, new world. Much
to our amazement, there sat a real, live "Bonnie & Clyde" gangster car,
complete with hood ornament, running boards and a place to hide your Tommy
gun! As we neared this amazing old vehicle, Rudy was absolutely alive,
answering our non-stop questions ("How fast will it go?" "How big is the
engine?") and gleefully showing us the bizarre and amazing features of
his 77 year-old gem.


Connie, the gal from the theater who came to OSH last year - 2004, was a
member of the Packard Car Club. They used to travel around the country in
their Packards - I believe one was a 1951.

Flashback to 1977 or 1978 at Woodbury High School's parking lot (Twin
Cities - St. Paul side) ....100's of Packards showed up one day. I was
working as a lifeguard at the school pool that day. They were having a big
rally. 100's of these beautiful classic cars staged at our school during the
day - don't recall if they were *in* from Chicago or heading *to* Chicago?

Me on the phone to Pops:
"No, I don't want to drop everything to go look at some old cars."
"They're Packards, 100's of them - mostly black."
"I'll reschedule my afternoon and be there in 20 minutes!"


Montblack