Friend Bought a Harley

Hey! This news to guys compares to a female exclaming to her friends, "I'm pregnant!" A friend of mine told me the news after church Sunday...."I bought a Harley!" Hey, that's cool. This afternoon, he found an excuse to tell his wife so that he could ride it over to my house. The thing is pretty nice. It's a 2003 100th Anniversary edition Wide Glide. The thing has a lot of aftermarket chrome including some Screaming Eagle II pipes.

My friend is certainly happy with his new purchase and is trying to squeeze a few more rides out of it before colder weather hits. It's kind of amazing the number of individuals with Harleys in our congregation. Let's see... Donnie G., Troy and Melanie S., Mike and Jennifer D., Lee G., Bob U., Brad and Carla H., and now Billy R. I'm thinkin' I need to get a bike of my own (see bobber posting) and we could have an outing with members of our church. (How cool would that be?)

Lowbrow Art

An interesting phenomenon that has recently began to creep into the art scene is something called "lowbrow art". Lowbrow art is nothing new, artists like von Franco, and Ed Roth created lowbrow art in the 50's and 60's. Lowbrow artists do not create art for the sake of art critics, but rather create for the sake of art. Alot of the art includes tikis, kustom kulture, cars, etc. You can find examples of lowbrow art by typing "Lowbrow Art" in your google search engine. Here are some interesting examples that I found.

Somewhere, buried in the dark recesses of my mind lie some artistic abilities. When I was younger, I really enjoyed drawing, painting, etc. In fact, my parents sent me to a couple of art workshops when I was a kid. At one point in my life, I considered going to school to be an art teacher. Although my plans changed, one of my favorite electives I took in college was an art class. Maybe someday I will find the time and the means to explore that creative side of my brain again.

Josh Agle a.k.a "Shag"

O.k., those of you who are into the kustom kulture scene may have heard of this guy. If not, at least you may have seen some of his work. Josh Agle (a.k.a. Shag) is famous for his tiki lounge/lowbrow artwork.


His art has even been used by several magazines and musical artists including Brian Setzer as CD cover art. Shag's paintings usually depict a VERY colorful late 50's early 60's scene. Typically, they might include tiki bars, ski lodges, and/or cocktail lounges. His art brings to mind the likes of secret agents and beatniks. Shag uses lots of purples, blues, greens, reds and oranges in his work.
You can find examples of his work by googling Josh Agle or Shag. I've included a few here. I recently found a copy of one of his pieces that includes modern advertising...ie McDonald's, Coca-cola, and Subway. (see below) I think his stuff has a certain "coolness" about it. What do you think?
I encourage you to leave your thoughts by using the comment feature in this blog.

Alot of Cool Bobbers

Driving home from a middle school football game this afternoon, I went through a small Ohio town known for it's Pizza joint/bar. I was amazed to see a group of what I would guess to be close to 150 - 200 bikes lining all four corners at the intersection of the US highway and the road that intersect at the place. As I passed through the town, most of the bikers were mounting their rides and strapping on their helmets. It wasn't too long after that, I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a string of motorcycle headlamps for as far as I could see.

This experience got me thinking about bikes again. When I got home, I got online and registered to win the Sunoco/Orange County Chopper/NASCAR bike that will be given away in December 2007. I also went to email and did a search for "bobber". Here are some photographs of the bikes that I saw that are in the "style" that I would prefer. Hope you enjoy them!

The Man, the Myth, the Legend...

The other day, I got a messege from Verizon on my cellphone. It said that I had used over 95% of my internet storage space for pictures I had taken with my cellphone camera.

So...tonight, I got online and went through them and deleted about 50+ pictures. I had forgotten about a lot of them.

Anyway...I ran across this one. Probably the first time I tried using some of the custom features on my phone...ie. the Sienna tint.

This is my dad wearing one of his car shirts, driving my eldest son and I to a car show. On this particular day, it appears that we didn't take the '47 Chevrolet, but it doesn't matter. I'm really thankful that my son has had the opportunity over the past 16 years to spend many Saturdays with my father. I'm also appreciative that my father instilled an interest in cars in me. I can remember a lot of the many cars my father has owned. I have a lot of great memories of him "tinkering" in the garage with some "project". (my guess is that mom must be much more understanding of this "obsession" than my own wife.) I can also remember planning some family trips around the Hot Rod Nationals (ie trips to Memphis, TN and Columbus, OH).

Thanks Dad...for all that you do! I love ya!

My father-in-law's motorcycle

My father-in-law has had this Honda for years. I believe he told me it is a 1967 model. The problem is he could not get it running. He had a neighbor that moved in

10 years or so ago. The neighbor told him he thought he could fix the bike, so he took it, and it sat in his garage until a couple of summers ago. When the neighbor moved, my father-in-law went over and found his bike among the neighbor's "stuff".

My friend who I've 'blogged' about several times told my father-in-law he thought he could get it running. What the neighbor couldn't do in 8 or 9 years, my friend was able to do in an afternoon. He then cleaned the bike up a bit, put a low gloss, metalflake grey paint job on it, and added a few tribal decals. The result is not the prettiest thing to look at, but it is fun to ride around on a Sunday afternoon.

Fort Recovery, Ohio Fall Cruise-In 2007

After our morning outing to Bradford, Ohio, my father, eldest son, and I traveled to Fort Recovery, Ohio in the late afternoon. Fort Recovery puts on a fantastic Fall cruise-in right along the streets of downtown. This year was no exception. There were several great looking cars and trucks spanning a variety of genres...(muscle cars, restorations, classics, hot rods, 4-wheel drive trucks, and rat rods).

Once again I tried to capture a few pictures of some of the more interesting cars (at least to me!). The weather was great, but Fort Recovery has some downtown sewer drain issues! Occasionally, you would get a 'whiff" that would curl your toes when you walked by a street drain. WOW!

At any rate, it was another great show and a great day spent with my father and son. Hopefully some day soon I will be able to drive my own ride to some of these shows...but until then, I will continue to enjoy the rides of others.

Well, it's my guess as October nears its end, the days of summer car shows and weekend cruise ins are coming to a close. Many owners will be preparing their cars for a safe winter's rest, not to be seen again until the coming of June. Until then, I will continue to look for car related items to 'blog' about.

What would you do with a spare $15,000??

Since sweet ride is currently listed on eBay. The guy has "no reserve" on it, but the starting bid has been set at $15,000.00. To me...this is a joke. How can you say there is no reserve if no one can bid on it unless they bid $15,000.00?!?!

This thing is definitely sswwweeeeet!. Right in line with the styling that I'm "into" at this point in my life. This is the type of car I enjoy seeing at car shows. I like the "rats" too, but I would rather see a retro-styled rod that someone has taken the time to complete the body work on. Don't get me wrong....no trailer queens for me, just a nice "bare bones" driver.

More pictures from Bradford

I've been trying to upload some more pictures from our day at the Bradford Pumpkin show for some time. For some reason, I occasionally have trouble with this feature on Blogger. My guess is that I'm trying to upload a lot of data using a phone line. My brother-in-law, who lives next door recently bought a wireless connection package. I am concerning purchasing the hardware I need to tap into his system. He claims it has a 1000 ft radius....we'll see.

At any rate, I will try to get a few more pictures loaded if I have to upload them ONE AT A TIME! I hope my "faithful readers" appreciate the time I'm putting into this blog. (I know my wife doesn't! Ha!)

Bradford Pumpkin Show Cruise-In 2007

Well, as the fall chill begins to set in, another year of cruise-ins and car shows winds down. Today, my father, oldest son and I traveled to Bradford, Ohio to the annual Bradford Pumpkin Show Cruise-In. Bradford is located on the edge of Darke and Miami counties in Southweastern Ohio. The Pumpkin Show is Bradford's annual town fair with many events happening through the week.

This morning at 8:00, the temperature was 40 degrees. By the time my son and I left for my father's house at 10:45, it was 48 degrees. By the time we got to Bradford, it had turned into a nice fall day (as long as the sun stayed from behind the clouds).

After the Bradford show, we headed back to Union City and visited one of the small museums in town. Although I grew up in UC, and my father has spent his entire life there, neither of us had ever been to the museum. It was an interesting place. Sponsored by the local Historical Society, it consisted of several rooms filled with materials that were either on loan or had been donated by locals. It was filled with material that told the history Union City Ohio and Indiana.

There were several photographs, including information about a vehicle company that used to produce cars in Union City in the early 1900's. The "Lambert" was produced in the first ten years of the 20th century right in my hometown!

There was also lots of information about the Union City Body Company, Sheller-Globe, and other factories that are no longer in operation.

Since a lot of Union City's history centers around the railroads that run through the center of town, there was one room devoted to local railroading and trains. Another room housed several military uniforms and information about Union City residents who have served in foreign wars. (One interesting side note...a plaque containing the names of those who had served in WW II included the names of my great aunt and great uncle.)

Overall, this morning was a day well spent with my father and son. After our trip to the museum, we planned an afternoon outing to another nearby car show in Fort Recovery, Ohio.

Something New...

In an effort to keep this blog from becoming dull, I'm always looking for new ideas and things to try . I've experimented with a couple of different looks (i.e. backgrounds, text color, fonts, layouts, etc.) since my first post. I've even made a couple of posts with recorded narration.

The other day, I was standing in my favorite book store: Books-A-Millon, drinking an iced coffee and thumbing through some of my favorite mags. I noticed that one of the "latest trends" is the old school/hot rod/rat rod/rot rod magazine. New magazines in this genre seem to pop up everytime I revisit the book store. I would guess they now carry 4 to 6 different titles in this same genre.


Some of them, are printed on flat-gloss low quality paper. Many of the pages contain black and white pictures. This gives the magazine a edgy, grass-roots kind of feel....and isn't that what the whole old school hot rod/rat rod/rot rod thing is about? (I saw an ad in one of these magazines for an upcoming car show. It had a disclaimer at the bottom...something to the effect of no Boyd-queens, billet, etc.) These guys are into cars and are fed up with the high-dollar trailer queens featured in Street Rodder, etc. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy looking a Boyd-queen over when one happens to roll out of it's enclosed trailer at a local cruise-in. But to me, the point of owning a car is to ENJOY it. And when I say ENJOY it....I mean being able to take it out on a weekend or Saturday morning and DRIVE it. Not having a care about bug juice or paint chips from road debris.

Owning a hot rod should be a stress reliever. After a long hard week at work, I guy should be able to relax while working on or driving his rod. Some of these guys get SO uptight worrying about dings, scratches, paint chips, etc....not to mention they spend MUCH of their time (IF they do bring it to a show) polishing, buffing, cleaning, etc. GOOD NIGHT....TAKE A CHILL PILL BROTHER!

At any rate, I've messed around with the format of a few pics I took in the past couple of months. I think it brings a whole new quality to this photographs and gives a whole new appreciation for these cars....ENJOY!

Additonal pictures from Aesthetic Finishers Open House in Piqua, OH

Ran across some additonal pictures from the AFI open house. It was a fantastic day and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to go next summer.

I'd like to personally thank the owner of AFI, Bill Coomer. I sent an email to AFI the other day with a request for some tee-shirts for a program for At-Risk students I run at the Middle School were I work. I was very grateful when an AFI employee named Crystal promptly answered my email and told me that Bill thought my program was great and they would be glad to donate some tee-shirts.

I drove to Piqua yesterday and picked up SIX middle school-sized tee-shirts in a variety of styles. THANKS BILL AND CRYSTAL!!! My students will love them!

My Friend Is At It Again!

O.k....my friend/neighbor is up to his old tricks again! I stopped in the other day to see his "latest" find.

It's a 1955 Chevrolet stepside pickup. The story is that a guy was building this himself. By the looks of things, he was doing it right. Anyway, due to health reasons, he was forced to sell it. My friend once again was in the right place at the right time.

The owner had begun a frame-off restoration. The frame has been powdercoated and the OEM cab-mounted gas tank has been replaced with a new tank mounted under the bed. Under the hood, the truck has a chromed-out 454 Big Block backed by a 400 automatic transmission.

The guy has smoothed the firewall and the dash. Most of the body work is also complete. My friend told me that everything to complete the truck came in the deal...including the stainless steel strips and oak flooring for the bed and all the glass and window kits to make the door glass a single piece. The truck is also set up for an aftermarket air conditioning unit that was also included.

My friend is going to have a local body shop paint the truck. Then he plans to take it south for to his winter home in Florida. There he plans to finish the truck out and cruise during the warm winter nights in the Sunshine State.

After returning from our trip to Fairmount and Gas City, I took my father and son over to see the truck. My friend hopped in and started it right up. The thing sounds pretty "wicked"...I have to chuckle when I imagine what all the "blue-haired snowbirds" will think when he rumbles through their Florida retirement communities. (ha, ha!)