Column for Marmon Newsletter
I REALLY am looking forward to the 26th Mighty Marmon Muster California. If you have never been to a Mighty Marmon Muster before, you should consider coming to this one. It is being held in a beautiful area of the country. I have not been there before, but every Muster that I have attended so far has been somewhere new for me, except for the one that Norby G, Dick S, and I hosted in New Hampshire.
When a Mighty Marmon Muster is held west of the Rockies, we really do not expect a lot of Marmons to be there. Most of the "workin' folk" in the club cannot take enough time off from work to transport their "old stuff" out west and back again and still be considered "productive" at work. The retired folks may have more time, but maybe not as much money or energy. So there probably will not be a large fleet of Marmons at the Muster this year (but I heard that B. Jaquery and I. Lirpa are planning to make a full size cardboard Big-8 to glue to the sides of a rental car, and will place a burning smudge pot in the trunk of rental so they can add the proper "ambiance" to our daily tours).
The members with no Muster experience may ask: "Why have a Mighty Marmon Muster without the cars?" Anybody that has gone to more than one would answer: "The people!"
Marmoneers are a great bunch. Snobbishness is almost unheard of, nobody thinks that any one else's Marmon is "better" than any other, ALL Marmons are great, even the ones that haven't run in a generation or two (but they probably will soon). Some (or all) Marmoneers also own other makes of cars (modern or otherwise) and nothing is held against them because of it, "your 2007 Bugatti is a nice car, but just look at that Marmon". We have members that haven't owned a Marmon before, and maybe some that have never even touched one.
Before my first Mighty Marmon Muster I had never been in ANY moving antique car before.
I drove my Grandfather's Marmon at the end of that Muster but that is a bit of Marmon Club History that morphed into a Marmon Myth.
Come to meet some wonderful people, see things you haven't seen before, have fun, experience the famous "Marmon Hospitality SuiteTM" and really see things you haven't seen before... (just kidding).
We have a very wide variety of personalities, backgrounds, income levels, and most importantly: accents! There are a LOT of different accents to be experienced there.
An interesting linguistic note: If you stand in the hallway outside of the "Hospitality Suite" you will hear a cacophony of different accents, but all of the laughing is done without any accent at all. Marmoneers seem to laugh with some mysterious universal non-accented laugh, producing a lot of it at high volumes. Personally I suspect that all of the Marmoneers have adopted the same laugh that I have always used, simply because it is so effective. It's okay with me, I am not planning to charge royalties, but when you hear somebody laugh without an accent, that's mine, I invented it. You heard it hear first!
To recap: Great people, great fun, Hospitality SuiteTM, universal laughs, food, tours, see things you haven't seen before, talk to people about things you haven't talked about before (it's called learning), you WILL sleep well at the end of each day. Don't be shy, we don't have cliques, you will be welcomed, you will not feel like the "new ones". Trust me. You will always remember it as the most fun that you had in the entire last part of June 2007. Really. See you there.
A note to my fellow Marmoneers: Beth and I will be traveling around North America until we figure out what we want to do when we grow up. If anyone would like to give us a tour of their hometown, we would love to visit. Don't be afraid, we provide our own accommodations. There will be a blog on the internet so you can see where we are and leave us a note: http://warrenandbeth.com
California or Bust,
Warren W
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tom schroeder said...
dear warren and beth, you surely are traveling to or through indiana. we would love to have you. you can park your van and stay inside, on the lake with plenty of things to do in the barn, and beth can relax with becky and joann.take a ride in one of the marmons and work on a marmon project or two . cant wait to hear from you
tom
April 18, 2007 11:43 PM