January 2006

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

www.ms-sra.org

msraweb@astreetrodder.com

Editor: Al Mashburn

 EDITOR’S NOTE:

Several of y’all have enjoyed reading the Vicksburg Cruisers’ newsletter in the past and I hope I can do a good job here writing this one. I have some BIG shoes to fill after Jack had written this one for so many years.

 LOTS OF PARADES

On December 3, 2005 there were several parades during the day. I cruised over to Clinton that morning to be in the one there with several MSRA members and others. It was a lot warmer this year than last. We met at the McDonalds on Springridge Road and were about in a mini parade going over to the staging area with about 12 cars in our group. After the parade, we went to a parking lot to take the decorations off of our cars. Then we spotted a donut shop. Like Steve says, “The cars are just a way to get to the food.” A couple of us decided to go to Vicksburg for lunch and then do the Vicksburg Christmas Parade. But, as soon as we cruised into the Cracker Barrell parking lot in Vicksburg, one of the cars had no brakes! Got it stopped with no damage done. The owner of this car asked if this was going into the newsletter and I did not answer him. I won’t tell you who’s it was just that it has a cutout flamed hood. So we got out the tools and started trying to figure out what happened. The brake pedal came off of the rod so even with the pedal to the floor, there were not any brakes. After that was fixed, we ate lunch. We wanted something to do during the afternoon while waiting for the other parade to start, but we were thinking about finding a shop tour or something like that. After we ate, it was time to head over to the assembly area for the parade. That was when this same car started overheating. Can’t do a parade like that so I went to the Vicksburg parade and the rest headed back towards the Jackson area. As it turned out, it was just a problem with his sending unit. The Vicksburg parade was fun too as we had about 7 cars in it from the Vicksburg Cruisers. Then we had a cruise night at Bumpers afterwards. See…the Vicksburg Cruisers are getting just as bad as the MSRA….”the cars are just a means to get to the food.”

 DIXIE RUN UPDATE

The Dixie Run on Father’s Day Weekend in 2006 right in the middle of a shopper’s paradise on Hwy 25 at Airport Road. Ryan Automotive Supply will be the main sponsor of this event. The Sleep Inn will be the host hotel. Lots of prizes are going to be won including a certificate for a Crate Engine! NOTICE the other change in this event: It will start on Friday at Noon and will end on Saturday night so folks can spend Sunday with their families since it is Father’s Day.

 ROD RUN REUNION

I decided to go to this event this year and had a fun time. I cruised down to Pensacola in my ’40 Chevy along with Leon & Cheryl Gifford in his Pickup and Rounman in his ’48 Suburban. Several neat looking street rods were down there and I took several pictures of the event.

 CONGRATULATIONS TO CHICKEN WILLIE

Our own NSRA rep, Chicken Willie, made it to all 13 NSRA events in 2005. The other day I got a magazine in the mail and the next day another one came in. I ended up looking at both of them on the same night and saw Chicken and/or his street rod in about 6 pictures between the two magazines.

 VETERAN’S CRUISE

The rain caused this event to be moved one week ahead, but it still turned out to be a good time. Several MSRA members cruised out to Smith-Wills Stadium and were joined by the Corvette Club members plus a few more people came out. At the first place, the VA, because there was construction going on, the parking lot we were in was shrunk down in size so even though there weren’t as many as last year, we did fill up the parking lot. It tried to rain on us on this day, but we only felt a few drops. The MSRA members cruised over to the State Veteran’s Home on the other side of town. During the event, we collected $200 from the car owners and then the money was split between both places. The Veterans that came out to look at the cars enjoyed seeing them.

KLASSY KRUZERS FUN RUN

The members of the MSRA that were at this event brought back the participation award with nine cars. These folks, the Klassy Kruzers, really know how to put on fun rod run. The weather was very nice this time and the fall foliage was at peak up there in Crossett, Arkansas and along the route there and back.

NEW OFFICERS FOR 2006

The elections were held at the December meeting at Golden Corral and here are the results:

President – Gene Robertson

Vice President – Eric Knight

Treasurer – Dit Bryant

Secretary – Lori Jackman

Board of Directors: Jimmy Creel, Chuck Bryant, & Paul Westwood.

NOTE: Usually the outgoing president moves to one of the board of directors positions, but this time Steve decided that he is going to be busy with being the rod run chairman and to let more people be involved, he will not be on the board. Thanks, Steve for serving as our president for 3 years. Thanks also for the following for serving as club officers the past year: Marie Phillips, Bennie Boggs, Bobby Goff, & John Tramell.

 CLUB CHRISTMAS PARTY

Thanks to Patricia & Joe Byrd, we had a location for the party since one of the hurricanes took out the Raymond Lake Lodge where we normally would have been. I don’t think Joe’s shop is big enough…I mean he had 6 cars in there and there was still plenty of room for us! I would like to thank the club for the plaque I received for MSRA Street Rodder of the Year. I feel honored by the way this club has “adopted” me.

2006 EVENT SCHEDULE IS FILLING UP

Take a good look at this schedule of events on the left and pick ya out one or two or three or…just go to all of them! This is only half of the year. The rest will be coming soon after the State Planning Meeting in Jackson on January 7, 2006.