President's Message - 2005 in Review
Dear TBSB Members:
Another year has gone by so fast that I can’t believe it. Your TBSB club has had an activity each month with various levels of member participation. In January we met for a business meeting at Rich and Virginia Twohy’s; in February we had a great lunch at Irma and Jon Mandel’s and visited the White House exhibit at the Nixon Library; in March we saw the fascinating Art Astor Collection; in April we toured the Edelbrock Manufacturing facilities in Torrance; in May we had a club business meeting at Jary & Murray O’Toole’s (T-) Bird house in Palos Verdes; in June we had two activities, we toured the Palos Verdes Historical Museum, and we (except Bill, who was sick & Bobb) did the fabulous Beverly Hills auto show, ‘Concours on Rodeo.’
In July we had three activities, we met at Ricky & Ronnie’s Drive-in in Harbor City, we were invited to bring our cars to the Palos Verdes Bowl for a photo session, and we participated with the Earybirds in a tour of Joe’s Garage in Irvine; in August we had the TBSB BBQ in Rolling Hills Estates; in September the Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance featured the T-Bird for its 50th anniversary, we were well represented, and the following weekend Prestige Thunderbird had their annual picnic; in October our club meeting featured the renowned speaker and automobile restoration expert, Dr. Richard Steiner, who gave us a detailed and interesting talk on the purchase, restoration and selling of antique cars; in November we had a cruise-in at Ricky & Ronnie’s Diner and a tour of the newly opened and beyond belief Bob & Phyllis Burchett Museum in Harbor City; in December we met in Palm Springs for three events, the Thursday night street fair, the Palm Springs Follies, and the Palm Springs Air Museum with its old cars and old airplanes.
Your current elected officers have completed two years of service and since there has been no objection and no suggestion of a replacement, they plan to continue on for another year if it is possible. Several items should be noted: Jary O’Toole has been the treasurer of the club since its inception about 15 years ago and just had knee replacement surgery; our Secretary Louise Arce and our Newsletter Publisher Joe Arce are planning on spending several months in Mexico this summer and will probably not be active in our club activities while they are away; Bobb Murphy is being fitted for Dialysis starting within the next few months and may be capable of only limited activities; and I am preparing for back surgery.
We are planning a business meeting to be held at Virginia Twohy’s home in Palos Verdes Estates on February 26, 2006. Please mark your calendars with this date as your input, suggestions and ideas are very important to the continuation of our club. I have asked Virginia to take over the Newsletter and we will return to using the US Mail to distribute it. We will need an idea person to replace Joe while he is away, to keep our activities interesting and pertinent to our club interests. We will all need to provide Virginia with interesting tidbits for our published newsletter. We need greater participation in our club activities or we need to change our activities to be more appealing to our members. These are some of the items on our February agenda.
An article about TBSB appeared in the Palos Verdes Peninsula News on Saturday January 7, 2006. As a result, I received one telephone call from a lady who lives near PV Drive East requesting information about getting her T-Bird repaired. I provided Mitch Reed’s telephone number and address and sent her information about our club.
It’s important that we add new members to our club and to continue to grow. If our membership stagnates so does our club. If you know or meet people with little birds or even people that don’t have one yet but are interested, please invite them to join us for one of our meetings or other activity. Perhaps if they observe the camaraderie between our members they will want to become a TBSB too.
I hope to see all of you at Virginia’s on February 26 as a special treat is planned. Virginia is opening her garage with Rich’s T-Bird parts collection to our membership to help yourself in memory of Rich. Come and pick a part that you need or just get something to remind you of Rich Twohy.
Yours truly,
Bill Combs and Bobb Murphy
January, 2006