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1st Southeastern Regional R.O.A. Meet - Savannah, GA
By Keith Felderman, Georgia Coordinator
Savannah Georgia, what a pretty town. The old Oak trees, the cobblestone streets, and the Spanish moss hanging from the trees and made for a special weekend for the first ever ROA Regional Meet.
The idea for this meet started after I had my first meet as a Regional Coordinator with the Georgia members. We had a good time and I wondered if we could have something on the east coast I then contacted the Southeast RC’s about the idea. Randall Crain (NC), Andy Anderson (AL), Bob Wannall (FL) and Larry Lovell (TN) all thought we could pull this off if we worked together. And we did. Larry handled the T-shirts, Andy took care of getting us door prizes and goodie bag stuffers from AutoZone, Randall was my Ace-in-the-hole he designed the logo for our meet along with taking care of the awards, ballots and other things too numerous to list. Rev. Bob Wannall had a conflict with that weekend but I told him he still had a job to do. His job was to speak with the Big Guy and make sure we had good weather for our car show, and, he came through for us! These guys all deserve a pat on the back for their help with this meet. I would be remiss if I didn’t also thank the National ROA for their advice and support.
We wanted to have 20 cars originally as our goal but that was quickly switched to 30 and I thought we could get 40 if we really hyped the meet. Well, in the end we had 37 Rivieras and over 80 people attended. Based on my own observations and the comments from others we packaged together a blockbuster.
Friday we kicked things off with registration at the hotel by getting everyone their TWO goodie bags and meet T-shirts. We supplied free finger food, chips, dips and drinks for everyone from 4-8 pm. Quite a few folks stayed for a few hours meeting old friends and making new ones while talking about Rivieras. It was neat to see a doctor talking to a mechanic talking to a retired veteran talking to a salesman. All different people sharing one passionate interest – The Riviera!
Saturday morning, and for that matter Friday night, was time to get your car clean and ready for the show at The Crab Shack on Tybee Island. We wanted to get a photo of everybody’s car at the same spot in the hotel parking lot so that after the self-judged car show we would put the winner’s picture on their award plaque. After getting the photos we lined up from the 99’s to the 63’s for our caravan from the hotel through downtown Savannah and out to Tybee Island. I must say I was in a great position for this to happen. When the 90’s cars started the 80’s cars lined up and (this is my most memorable moment of the meet) the 70’s and 60’s cars started their engines. Oh baby, was that a thrill to hear the growl of the engines increase from a purr to an angry growl as they all zip out of the parking lot and down the road past me. I literally had Goosebumps!
Next stop Tybee Island but first, a short story about the drive. There is a draw bridge on the way out to the island that all must cross. It seems that our first generation Rivs were coming to the bridge about the time that the flashing light and crossing arms were about to come down. Well, they didn’t want to be late so they all gunned it and just made it across in time. The last car may have gotten a little air going over the center of the bridge. Who said our cars can’t fly?
At the Crab Shack we lined up our cars in order of the different classes for voting. Man, what a site to see all those clean sharp cars together. I really enjoyed seeing everyone marvel over everybody else’s car and to see the public who were just showing up for lunch walk around and appreciate our babies. We all had our meet T-shirts on so we looked like a giant bee swarm eating seafood. After the show was over everyone went in different directions to seeing Tybee Island and take in the sites of Savannah.
We then met back up at the hotel at 8:00 pm to listen to Ed Gunyo speak on the history of the Riviera and also on the history of the ROA. He was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone there. Thank you Ed!! After he was through we gave away the door prizes. We were very fortunate to have a door prize for everybody in attendance. Not one extra one not short one but the exact amount. Whew, that was lucky! Pat Curran’s son said”… that the goodie bags alone were worth coming for but now that there was doors prizes that this was awesome!” And then to top his weekend off, he and his dad won first place in the ‘63-‘65 class. I told Pat that it looked like we may have a new Riviera fan for life and he replied”…with out a doubt!”
Sunday morning we gathered over at the Perkins restaurant for breakfast and to hand out the awards to the winners. David Messinger, who owned the restaurant, had asked us the night before to park on the backside of the building so he could keep the main parking area open for his regular business. Well when I got to the Perkins all the Rivieras were parked all over the rear parking area along with one semi truck & trailer. I was running a little late when I went into the dining room I realized that I had forgotten my camera in the car. Well when I got to my car there was the trucker walking around the cars with a big smile on his face. He asked me if we were having a meet and I told him that it was yesterday and that we were about to give away the awards. He said that when he came out to the parking lot he thought he was dreaming. He was in awe of all the Rivieras. He then stated that he thought he saw one of them in the Riview. Yep he was a member that just happened to stay in the right place and at the right time for that to happen. Neat, huh? Anyway, after that we finished breakfast and gave out the awards to all the various class winners we also gave an appreciation certificate to the Messingers for all the help they gave us in organizing this meet.
In the end I feel that this will be the first of many Regional Meets to be put on by our great club. Ok guys and girls on the west coast it’s your turn next year. Let’s see if you can out do the boys from the Southeast. And I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who came to our meet. You are the people that make the ROA great!! |
