SEPTEMBER 2016 | 3
CHINOOKOBSERVER.COM
WELCOME
MESSAGE
From the Beach Barons President
A
s President of the Beach Bar-
ons Car Club, I am pleased to
welcome you to our 33rd annu-
al Rod Run to the End of the World!
The Beach Barons Car Club has
100 members; only half of them live
on the Peninsula. Our members work
hard all year to get this field in shape
for the show. Because it is the coast,
we have our share of rain in the win-
ter. There are times our field is covered
with water and inhabited by a variety
of ducks, etc. When that water goes
down, the maintenance starts!
I don’t want you to think we spend
all of our time working on the grass.
As a club we usually do one cruise a
month where we go to lunch at some
nice restaurant within a 100 miles
from Ocean Park. One of the members
always has a trivia contest and that
adds to the fun and to the pocketbook!
We also have potlucks and began hav-
ing dinner before each meeting. This
really helps out the members who
work and had found it hard to get to
the meeting and get their dinner.
We also try to do our share in do-
nating to the local food bank and oth-
er nonprofits in the community. We
award two scholarships to local grad-
uating teens to give them help with
college.
Elsewhere in this paper is a good
history of our club. I hope you will
take a couple minutes to read through
the article.
We hope you have had a good trip
here and know you will enjoy your-
selves. By Saturday morning we will
have more than 800 cars on our field
that have been given very loving care
by their owners. You know you are
seeing a car enthusiast when you see a
man or woman with a rag in one hand
and a big bottle of polish in the other.
They are prepared at all times to give
their car that loving touch!
We hope you enjoy yourselves
and I wanted to point out some of the
things we have on the field for the Rod
Run.
If you are here on Friday, the Mer-
chants of llwaco are sponsoring the
Slow Drags. They are a lot of fun to
watch and even more fun to participate
in!
Points of interest
• ATMs: We have had several re-
quests for this and we finally found a
man who has placed two machines on
the field. One is at the green building
on the east side of the field near the
Shirt Booth and the other is near the
north entrance to the field.
• 2016 Rod Run shirts, hats,
sweatshirts. You will find these items
on the east side of the field at the booth
on the far end of the gray building. You
can’t miss it as there is a big sign hang-
ing over the window. Bob, Veronica
and their helpers are ready to help you!
• The Door Prize Booth is next
to the shirt booth. Door prizes are for
Rod Run participants only. In order
to buy tickets, you must be wearing
your wristband. Colleen is ready to
draw and sell tickets. You can see all
of the door prizes we have purchased.
Remember, you can’t win if you don’t
buy a ticket.
• The Registration Booth is also
in the gray building. This is where you
will pick up your tickets, etc. Corma
has a great group of helpers to wait
on you and chat a little. The members
and volunteers in this booth can tell
you anything you need to know about
registration, what the armbands do for
you, etc.
Out on the field
We hope you enjoy yourselves
and I wanted to point out some of the
things we have on the field for the Rod
Run.
• The Souvenir/Nostalgia Booth is
located at the south end of that build-
ing. That is where we have some 2015
shirts, pins from a variety of years,
etc. for sale. It is always fun to look
through the variety of pins we have
and possibly find the one you are
missing in your collection. Drop by
and chat with Phyllis, Janeen and their
Roadside spectators enjoy the show as vehicles cruise back and forth between Ocean Park, Long Beach and Ilwaco.
helpers.
• The Information Booth is lo-
cated on the east end of the field also.
The volunteers in this booth should be
able to tell you all about the Rod Run
as well as probably more information
than you wanted to know about our
Peninsula! Test their knowledge and
don’t let them know I sent you!
• We are having our annual Engine
Raffle and you can’t miss it, or at least
you can follow the roar of the engine
to find it. Only one dollar will get you
a chance on this engine.
• The Brick-It car is located in the
east area also. One never knows how
long the car will run, but it is worth
buying a ticket and trying your luck.
• We will again have someone
walking around the field selling our
50/50 Tickets. This is a fun raffle and
most folks participate. It can be pretty
lucrative too!
• This is our third year for the Swap
Meet. From experience, you know
you could find a treasure on one of the
tables or in a box. One man’s junk is
another man’s treasure! Check it out!
Duey and Mark will help you out here.
• Of course we are having our Pok-
er Run on Sunday morning, which is
only for participants. We limit the Run
to 50 to 75 cars and try to send them
on a mystery route where they have
five stops to draw a card to get the best
hand and win. As you can imagine, a
mystery route is really difficult on our
Peninsula as we only have two main
roads, but we try to make it a little dif-
ferent each year.
Lots of recognition
As you walk around looking at all
of the cars, you will notice blue gar-
bage cans with signs on them inviting
you to vote for your favorite car. Be
sure to take a ballot with you as you
walk around so you can vote.
Trophies are given out to the par-
ticipants at 2 p.m. on Sunday from our
covered stage. When we award the
trophy, we take a picture of the winner
with his trophy and a Beach Barons
member. We then have the top three
winning cars worked into the design
for the next year’s shirts, etc. It is one
way we show our appreciation to the
participants.
You have probably already noticed,
but we have a big variety of vendors
selling food or car related items. Even
if you can’t buy from all of them, stroll
around as many as you can. From my
experience, I can tell you that you will
always find something to eat that you
can’t resist!
We will also be having great en-
tertainment all day Saturday and
Sunday. We have our Beach Barons
member Stan, who is our official DJ
and on Saturday, we will have the Fab-
ulous Farelanes (yes, we have spelled
that right!) from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. They
will be playing on our covered stage so
bring a chair or sit on a hay bale and
listen to music from the past — 1950s,
‘60s, ‘70s and beyond. It is always fun
to remember what you were doing
when specific songs are played again.
Because we have made some
changes this year, we would really ap-
preciate your comments on our 2016
Rod Run. We have prepared a very
Short Survey and would like each of
you to fill one out. Your comments can
be anonymous and the surveys can be
left at the Souvenir Booth or any of
the manned buildings at the east end of
the field. We would really appreciate
your help with this.
The City of Long Beach is going to
run their trolley again this year. The
runs will leave the Beach Barons field
on Saturday at 9 a.m. and the last run
that day will be 4 p.m. On Sunday, the
first ride will leave the Beach Barons
field at 9 a.m. and the last will be at
1 p.m. The trolley will make no stops
between our field and Long Beach. It
is basically to get you to Long Beach
for shopping and sightseeing and then
back again.
In addition, the ladies have made a
list of activities and places to visit in
case you tire of looking at the cars. The
lists will be located in the Information
Booth and the Souvenir Booth.
Suggestions welcome
Participants and spectators
We want you to enjoy yourselves.
If you have any kudos, suggestions or
even complaints, please drop a note at
the souvenir desk. There are half page
Survey Forms in some of our booths
on the east side but you can write us
a note on anything! After you com-
plete the form, it can be left at any of
the Beach Barons booths. We want to
make our show better each year and
we can with your input. Thanks in ad-
vance.
Enjoy the Rod Run, thanks for
coming and look forward to seeing
you again next year!
Dennis Farmer, president; Stan
Sonntag, vice-president; Kay Ten-
nold, secretary; Robi Nelson, trea-
surer; Phyllis Knight, board member;
Jul Grandbois, board member; Dave
Hoch, board member; Sandy Smith,
board member.