<VV> The Great Western Fan belt toss, Conclusion

[Dave Thompson]

I returned to the fairgrounds to relieve the security and take on the night
watch.

 

The security guy was glad to see me and was gone before I was able to unload
my midnight snacks. I wandered over to the awning where my chairs were and
changed the radio to my favorite station. The night was dark due to the
overcast and the temperature was brisk sweatshirt weather with a whisper of
wind. I sat back and enjoyed the radio as they played the end of side two of
Pink floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon"; a classic favorite of mine. After a
while, I got bored so I went over to the boxes from the "giveaway table". I
rummaged through and found some back issues of the Corsa Communique monthly
magazine. I spent a couple of hours reading under one of the only lights
that were still on. Every once in a while, the animals in the farm barn made
some noise and the donkey brayed. I thought" I'll bet that ass will keep me
awake all night".  The wind picked up for a while and all of a sudden there
was a great CRASH and WOOSH from under the California Corvairs awning. I
rushed over to find that a box of miniature die-cast model cars had slipped
off another stack of boxes and spilled out over the ground. As I put the
cars back into the box, I came upon a model that I had been admiring on
eBay. I tucked it into my pocket thinking"I'll pay Jeff for it tomorrow". It
was after 2:00 am by then and I thought I'd try to get some sleep. I
returned the magazines to their box, went to my car, curled up in the back
seat, got comfortable and quickly fell asleep. 

 

I woke to Chris Pincek, our club president knocking on the window. It was
about 6:00am. I got out of the back seat, stretched and wiped the sleep out
of my eyes. There was a group of people re-setting up the "headquarters". I
helped where I could and then walked over to get a cup of coffee and a
donut. By 7:00am it started to drizzle. A few Corvairs showed up and we
arranged them in a somewhat circle. There were no more than a dozen. It
continued to rain harder and harder. We all huddled under the awnings and
talked about a variety of things. When Jeff showed up I told him about the
box falling and paid him for the car I pocketed. I loaned my 10'X10' easy-up
awning to Larry of LS Corvair Parts to help protect his stock.  Eventually
he decided to pack up. My wife, Apryl and our best friend Martha showed up
and I sent them off to the swap meet with some money. It was decided to take
Larry's lead and pack up the headquarters. By 10:00 or 11:00 the rain had
subsided and the breeze pushed the clouds inland. Things dried up and it
turned out to be a beautiful day. Apryl and Martha showed up just as we were
finished packing. Martha left and Apryl and I covered what was left of the
swap meet. When we returned, there was only my Spyder and one other Corvair
at each end of the lot. We found a few "hangers-on" at the cantina and
joined them for a drink. When I returned to my Spyder I saw that the guys
had wiped her down for me. Even with her so-so pain job, she looked
beautiful all alone in the middle of the lot. We left and were home by 4:00.


 

Even though there were some things that tried to spoil the weekend, I
ignored them and had the time of my life. I got to see some great examples
of our favorite cars and trucks and met some great people. This was my first
'Toss and it will be in my memories for the rest of my life.

 

My Vairy best to you all,

Dave Thompson

Westminster, CA