Transcript
Page 1: Upstate Update - unybca.com

Upstate Update The Upstate New York Chapter News

JUNE 2020

Announcements

Chapter Leaders

Director:

Tony D’Amelio

[email protected]

Asst. Director:

Ed Allmond

[email protected]

Treasurer:

Ken Malette

Secretary: & Health and

Wellness committee:

Rosemary Malette

[email protected]

Membership :

Chris Timber

Newsletter:

John DeFiore

[email protected]

N0TABLE: Jim Spencer is selling his 1962 Electra Convertible: White with red interior: Contact Jim directly at :

AROUND THE CORNER

June 6 &7th– Sharon Springs Flower and Garden Festival CANCELLED

June20th - Cruise Into Summer 12—NEW LOCATION- GOLDSTEIN BUICK GMC 1671 Central Ave, Albany. August 22nd- Chapter Picnic—1- ?pm. Roth Residence at :275 County Rt 32, Valatie, NY 12184 Flyer with further details to be forthcoming.

DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE Tony D’Amelio Director

Greetings fellow Buick Club members!

I hope everyone is safe and well. It seems that things

change by the hour lately, but we will all get thru this

one day at a time.

We have cancelled our Cruise-Into-Summer 12 this year but the

Picnic, at this time, is still in the planning stage. The picnic loca-

tion has moved this year to Jim and Stacey Roth’s home in

Valatie. The date will be August 22nd, 2020 with a picnic flyer

with directions and contact information to be sent to you as we

get closer to the date.

I look forward to getting together again and enjoying the cruisins

and car shows as we all do, but for now we have time to fix and

clean and spend some extra time (and money) getting our cars

ready for a ride.

This Memorial Day weekends looking like a Great Time to go for a

ride, so get your mask, get some gas (prices are down) and go for

a ride, go get some ice cream and most of all be safe.

Hope to see you all soon! Tony

HEALTH AND WELLNESS NEWS: Greetings friends: This function is to help spread the news affecting our members. Things like special events, announcements, illnesses, and other events all qualify. So if you want us to know about these things, e-mail your announcement to me at: [email protected] And please notify me asap if you want your name removed from the Birthday e mails.

845-331-8940

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Meet The Members: Russ and Susan Bushnell

Russ: I first started reading car magazines working in my father’s grocery store in Brattleboro, VT. I have

always been interested in cars and am thankful my parents employed a couple of teenage boys to

“babysit.” As a result, there were many hours spent with my head under the hood of their cars! I went to

college for Behavioral Science (I have a BA in BS!) and worked in the field at several institutions before

leaving to eventually become the Director of Purchasing for the Woodstock (VT) Inn and Resort. I played

basketball until age 51 until I felt as though I were slowing the younger guys down.

My first collector car was a 1964 Triumph TR4. I drove it for two years, then gave it to my brother who drove it for anoth-

er two years prior to passing it on to someone else. The front end damage it had when I acquired it never did get fixed.

My next collector car was a 1956 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan (four door). It was a west coast car and came from the factory

with a 312, 225 horsepower, Thunderbird V8. I completely rebuilt the brakes, the suspension system and an idler arm

that was worn, got it inspected and running, but after losing my garage space, I felt it was best to sell it. . Fortunately, it

sold for $300 more than I paid for it, which despite the time, effort, and parts, I considered ALL profit – the best part of

the old car hobby!

Susan: I grew up in Brownville, Maine (near the northern end of the Appalachian Trail) and remember being the only one

in the family who loved watching what few races were on our black and white television. I remember riding in “the old

truck”, a 1932 Ford Model B that my Dad outfitted with a water heater, cut in two, then welded into a plow. What a big

deal it was when, at age eight, I got to drop the plow in our long driveway. Incidentally, “The Old Truck” is now the only

unrestored vehicle at the Hemmings Museum in Bennington and yes, they took the plow off! As far back as I remember, I

also was proud of being able to identify cars by brand, model and year. Is it me, or are they mostly now modified marsh-

mallows? My Dad taught me how to drive and, growing up in the Maine woods. And I still don’t get too close to the right

shoulder because in Maine, in the spring, the soft shoulders would pull you right in!

I had a corporate career with an independent distributor for Whirlpool called Eastco out of Westwood, MA. This brought

me to Vermont where I met Russ 38 years ago and we’ve been married for 36 years. From 1993 until 2010, I taught Fami-

ly and Consumer Science, Health, and Business Entrepreneurship at Rochester Middle and High School, until early retire-

ment. I now teach piano to a dozen students ranging in age from 6 to 80! It’s never too late!

I have always loved to drive and fortunately, Eastco furnished their District Managers with a car every two years. As soon

as Russ and I met, Russ started helping me pick options for the cars like paying the “huge” amount of $45 to have an

F1sport suspension put on my Monte Carlo and my Eurosport and being the only one in the company to opt for the Quad

4 Pontiac Grand Am while everyone else opted for their plain Ford Taurus.

Russ and Susan: The first collector car purchase we really shared was our 1972 Buick GS con-

vertible. At the time I wasn’t feeling well and hurt a lot when I’d move but despite that, we went

to the Rutland Car Show where we first saw her. We were instantly drawn to the GS shape. It

reminded Susan of the first time she went over 100 MPH, which was in a GM “A” body. Granted

it was a Chevelle, and during a ride home from band practice, but she was hooked!

We kept going back to the Buick but didn’t close the deal. For the next two weeks, we talked about it with lots of regrets.

Two weeks later, while at the car corral at the Stowe show, we spotted the same Buick and this time there was no way we

were going home without it. It was $1,000 less than at the Rutland Show and we ended up driving it home! At the same

time, we met our restorer and great friend, Bill Baylis, who told us how impressed he had been with the car. That is the

story of “Beauty”, as we called her. Little did we know the role Beauty would play in Susan’s cancer journey!

It turned out that in August of 2002, when we purchased Beauty, the grapefruit-sized tumor in my abdomen had started

to metastasize to my liver. ( Continued on page 3 )

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( Meet the Members continued)

This was revealed to us in blood tests results many months later. Long story short, in the midst of extreme chemo treatments

(I was only able to finish 6 of 8 the first round), Russ would wrap me up in a blanket on warm days in April, just about carry

me to Beauty, and away we would go with the top down, north and south on route 100 in Vermont. Eventually, I had to have

Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN), which is IV feeding, in order to give my destroyed digestive system a rest. The impetus for

eating on my own and getting rid of the TPN, was to be able to go to the 100th Anniversary of Buick, in Flint, Michigan, in

Beauty. One week before we left, TPN was stopped, and we were delighted to be able to drive Beauty to the 2003 Meet and

show. It was at this show where we first met many of you.

We owned Beauty for fourteen years and put 20,000 miles on her, making so many wonderful memories and meeting terrific

people. But, although Bill had helped us keep the mechanicals up to snuff in Beauty, it truly needed a frame-off restoration,

which was more than we could do. Through Bill, we found a buyer. Once again, Russ believes we “made” money on the sale

as we got $6500 more than what we paid for it. For Susan though, considering all the joy and good health Beauty brought us,

I agree! That car brought us much good fortune!

This brings us to the present. Through the Buick Bugle, we advertised for a mint condition, mid-90s Le Sabre and in a short

while we received a call from Sigourney, Iowa. This resulted in the purchase of our present 1994 Buick Le Sabre, which is ab-

solutely LOADED with every possible option (except a moon/sun roof). The seller who

was the original own- er said, “They leaked back then”, He knew this because he had

been the service man- ager of a now defunct Buick Dealership. We made our offer

which included having the car serviced

and new tires put on. A down payment

was made. Then, about a month

later, Russ and I flew to Des Moines,

where the seller picked us up,

chauffeured us to his home, and completed the purchase of what we now call

“Black Beauty”. The sale included a plethora of point of sale advertising, doc-

umentation, and parts, all for less than we paid for our original 1972 GS.

Black Beauty had already won a Senior Gold award earning

396/400 points at the Ames, Iowa Buick Nationals in 2010. Last summer we finally broke open the original

carpet floor mats for the first time! We had hoped to have Black Beauty judged this year in Ohio, but now

we are just thrilled to enjoy the luxurious rides and fabulous stereo system!

We’ve met the most interesting and wonderful people through the car hobby. And, we wish we

could be more active in UNYBCA, but health issues and distance (2 hours +) serve to prevent

this. So while we are happy to share our “story” we want you to know we love hearing YOUR

stories! And, by the way, Susan is also very happy to say I’m now an almost 18 year cancer survivor and Buicks had a lot to

do with it! Ed Note: Pictures were taken in

Whitehall, NY. The hillside home is

Skene Manor, which is now a muse-

um. Find further information on the

web at:

https://www.skenemanor.org

This may be a worthwhile day tour in

the future.

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New Kid in Town: Here are a couple pictures of Cruisemaster Ed's latest acquisition.

It is a 1967 GS400, one of 2140 convertibles made that year. The car was

found by member Ted Sweet in West Hazelton, PA. It

features a 30+ year old restoration, bucket seat interi-

or and the one year

only Star Wars air

cleaner. It is a good

quality driver that needs a little detailing to make it even better.

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Homeward Bound 2014 (Day 2 &3)

This day would take us farther South on the West Coast High-way with a visit to one of the two famous Redwood tree parks. Then turn inland a bit headed to our nights destina-tion at San Rafael, CA, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. With a one day layover we visited Stinson Beach and later the Golden Gate Bridge, both of which were practically obscured by the incessant fog!

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Above: Bay Bridge .

Middle: Stinson

Beach ride

Bottom: Golden

Gate Bridge

Regarding the Gold-

en Gate; the fog

shrouded the bridge

to thickly that we

did not even see it

Homeward Bound 2014 (Day 2 &3) continued

We drove right past and, when on top of the hill behind it, we looked over the

edge and saw the bridge below us. Then we drove to the foot of the bridge

and captured these photos.

Far right: California Sunset

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