buick club of america v newsletter of the fireball chapter...

Newsletter of the Fireball Chapter Buick Club of America v Buick Club of America

MARCH 2020 VOLUME 30, ISSUE 3 PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE: fireballchapterbca.com

Director’s Words of Wisdom??

Bruce Armstrong, A Founding Member of the

Fireball Chapter As I was preparing this newsletter

I received a call from Bruce’s wife Marcia. Bruce had

fallen earlier in the week and broken his hip. He did

not recover from surgery. Our sympathies to his

family. More Bruce stories later in this newsletter.

And possibly the next few. If you have one, please

send it to me.

Annual Dinner The club gathered for our annual

club birthday and Valentine dinner on February 15,

2020. More about the wild evening later in this

newsletter.

Club schedule As we construct this year’s club

schedule there will be a listing on the last page of

the newsletter.

After a lot of discussion between Ed, Assistant

Director, and I, we concluded May was too busy to

try to schedule a club event. We will pick up in April

with a pot luck at the Hudson collection. He has

added to the collection with an interesting purchase

at the recent Barrett Jackson auction. He has also

added a new building and now has all his cars at the

farm location, many we have not seen for a few

years.

Addition to the schedule We have been invited to

visit a private car collection. We are reviewing our

schedule to see when this would best fit our

schedule and the owner’s. Stay tuned.

2020 Club Roster Linda plans to have the rosters in

the mail by the end of February. This project was

delayed by a number of late registrations. This year

the memory lane section will be missing. We will

post the club activity photos on our web site. This

will provide the ability to show more of the ACTION

at our raucous events.

Members on the Wounded List.

At the dinner we signed cards for Penny Pickard,

Walt Carlson and Bruce Armstrong. Since the dinner

I learned Jim Carlson has damaged some discs in

his back. Also to add to the Ryan household

problems, Tom has a detached retina. Please keep

these people in your thoughts. And be careful. Many

of us do not bounce back as well as we once did.

Walt Carlson up date. I recently spoke briefly with

Walt. He sounded very up beat considering his

medical issues. Could not find him for a while. He

has a new phone number (218-258-5555) Give him

a call or drop him a line.

March Club Gathering. Pizza meeting March 21 at

Latuff's in Plymouth. Gather at 2:00 for conversation

and great Italian food.

Keep up hope. Spring is

bound to show up.

Jim Image your mother having this

when you were young. She could

turn 360 degrees and speak to you

harshly, most likely with her hand.

Newsletter of the Fireball Chapter Buick Club of America

MARCH BIRTHDAYS

Wesley Ackerley Tom Bauer Doug Farmer Linda Paul

MARCH ANNIVERSARIES

none

THE GODS WATCH OVER DRUNKS AND OLD

PEOPLE

First you must know many of our friends think we

are a little off balance for driving 60 year old cars

on tours and trips. We have become quite

comfortable driving older cars and our daily

drivers will all qualify for the age limit in car

shows, all over 20 years old. After a few days in

the hospital I needed to see sunshine. That was

not possible in Minnesota in January. We

determined that Texas without our dogs, the last

one recently passed away, would not be as much

fun so we selected Northern Arizona for a major

rock show. A quick run for an oil change and 100

point safety check. Early in the morning we

jumped into our aging Chev Suburban and

headed out to find sunshine. On the second day

out I noticed we had a bad windshield wiper. As

luck would have it, there was a Chev dealer at

our next planned stop. Early the next morning we

checked out of the hotel and drove to the service

area. I requested some new wiper blades and we

went into the waiting area. Our wait time seemed

very long so I headed to the service area for a

time check. I was met by the service writer, not a

good sign. He and a tech brought me under the

vehicle, now on a hoist. Strange place to change

a wiper blade. They introduced me to a stream of

fluid. We would have the opportunity to install a

new water pump. It would take a while to

assemble all the parts required, they did not stock

classic car parts at this dealer. Back to the hotel

and reclaimed our room. As luck would have it we

were forced to stay in a suite at a hotel with a free

happy hour and super breakfast menu. With the

truck repaired it was off to our destination. The

gods were watching. It could have blown in the

middle of nowhere.

With our car out of commission, we had to rent a

20 year newer vehicle. An interesting story for

next time.


Annual Fireball Chapter

Birthday and Valentine

Party

Saturday February 15 2020

The Fireball Chapter, now celebrating its 30th

anniversary/birthday, met at the Lucky 13 Pub in

Plymouth for its annual dinner. After good old

Minnesota put on one of its I know how to make it

cold and snow demonstrations, the weather broke

giving us temperatures in the mid 30’s and no

snow storm. The room was set up with our own

beverage service and our arranger, Carol Farmer,

had beautiful plants for centerpieces surrounded

by chocolate kisses. There will not be a lot of

photos of the event since two of my cameras

failed and my cell phone did not like the lighting in

the room.

After some conversation the group settled in for

dinner. At this point your director took the floor

and talked about the chapter members who were

missing because of illness. At last year’s dinner

Walt Carlson fell on the way to the event and the

resulting medical problems caused the loss of

both legs. He continues to have medical

problems. Bruce Armstrong fell and broke his hip.

He is currently in the hospital and struggling to

recover. Penny Pickard fell roller-skating and

dislocated her elbow while Tom Ryan, her

husband, suffered a detached retina. Cards were

passed around for the group to sign to wish these

people well.

Following dinner Carol had arranged for live music

from Ruben, excellent guitar and vocal. This was

followed by your director once again taking

command of the floor to present awards to people

whose contributions to last year’s activities

deserved recognition. Norman Veness, Doug

Farmer, and Dick Kowalik were presented with

awards for excellent control of the show field

during the Heartland Regional. Bill Darrow for all

his hard work as Co-Chairman of the regional. Ed

Gunyo received an award for his work on our

2019 activity schedule along with Carol Farmer.

Bill Darrow and Dick Kowalik will receive awards if

they ever return from Florida.

Norman

Veness with

his special

trophy/

award for

show field

control.

Ruben the

entertainment for

the evening. Soft

pleasant guitar and

lots of stories about

various groups he

had worked with. He

does not like Bob

Dylan’s music.


NOW FOUND ON OUR WEB SITE

fireballchapterbca.com

Chapter mission statement

Registration forms for:

Buick Club of America

Fireball Chapter, Buick Club of America

2020 Heartland Regional

Event photos

2019 Heartland Regional

2019 Fireball tours

2019 Fireball meetings

Newsletters

Information on club officers

The 2020 Heartland Regional

application is now found on our web site

Mr. Buick Skylark Grand Sport

Early in the morning of

February 18, 2020 The

Buick community lost a

lot of knowledge about

Buick Skylark Gran

Sports. Bruce Armstrong

left us. Bruce was a

retired shoe salesman

and when he retired he

found a new passion,

Buick Skylark Gran

Sports. Bruce took this passion as a full time

career. He set out to own every spare Skylark

Grand Sport part in America and as many Grand

Sports as he could buy. At one point he had four,

one of each model with automatic or straight

transmissions, Stage one and Stage two. To

complete his collection he needed a Grand Sport

GNX with a standard transmission. One

appeared in the paper while he was in the

hospital recovering from some surgery. The day

he was release he grabbed Paul Hayek and they

drove to Duluth, purchased the car, and when he

should have been home recovering he drove the

car home. Bruce, being a retired salesman, loved

to sell. He had a going business selling GS parts.

To improve his inventory he had an arrangement

with the manager of the parts department at what

was then Win Stevens Buick. Whenever he was

notified a GS part was going out of production,

they would notify Bruce. Bruce would place an

order for as many parts as were available,

knowing it would be needed for restoration

projects. Neat idea huh, but it had a pit fall.

Bruce was notified of the cancellation of a

specific piece of sheet metal. He knew it would

be a great seller. He purchased all available

parts. The large purchases made the computers

at GM think it was a critical part and there was a

major shortage. GM put the part back into

production, flooding the marketplace. Took Bruce

many years to recover his costs on that one.

There are a lot more Bruce stories to be told.

Bruce served on the Board of Directors for both

Buick Club of America Gopher State and Fireball.

Always a willing worker and a fun person to be

around. He will be missed.


4947 Fairhill Drive S.E., Buffalo, Minnesota 55313

Website: fireballchapterbca.com

Input for the Exhaust Valve needs to be in the editor’s hands by the 25th of each month.

2020 Dates to Remember and Mark on your Calendar

March 21 Afternoon pizza meeting

April 24 Potluck at Hudson collection

May Fireball No club activity scheduled

May 3 Gopher State show

May 13-16 GS Nationals Bowling Green KY

May 31 All GM show

June ?? Visit local private car collection/dinner

June 22-25 Riviera Owners National, Kalamazoo MI

July 15-18 BCA National, Strongsville Ohio

July TBD Pot Luck at Prom’s

August 22 Car Show/Dinner, Remembering Dick and

Shirley Bury, held at their church.

September 5 Fireball 30th Anniversary Buick show

September 10-12 2020 Heartland Regional Chesterfield MO

Director Jim Jaeger

[email protected] 763-226-1193

Assistant Director Ed Gunyo


Past Director Rollie Toenges


Treasurer Carol Farmer


Membership Director Linda Paul


Website Administrator Linda Paul


Regional Director John McCarthy


2020 Fireball Board of Directors

FOR Sale

1961 LaSabre front bumper $100.00 1966 Skylark right front fender $50.00 1969 Skylark trunk lid $50.00 1972 Skylark or GS padded dash $200.00 Or make offer all, in great shape!!! Norman 952-500-1770 or normarven@aol

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