Dale Moss
South Hoosier street-rod
club has been revving for 30 years
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How many cars does he have? Put down 15, Charlie Meyer said.
A sheepish expression suggested more.
Meyer cannot help himself. He used to win drag races. He remembers obscure parts numbers from a bygone stint at an auto dealership. He now repairs U.S. Postal Service vehicles for a living and, for fun, stays active in the South Hoosier Street Rods club.
Meyer, of Georgetown, is one of four surviving charter members of the club; a 1940 Chevy was his entry in 1975 and remains an enduring love.
"It's changed a lot since," he said of the beauty, one of however many in his care.
The club is apparently the oldest of its type in Indiana south of Columbus. The oldest member once was 30; now its youngest is 50.
Guys brought their children to hot-rod runs -- gatherings -- like the one it will sponsor Sunday. Grandkids are now in tow.
And members had to tinker patiently, perpetually, to make their cars look and run right. Purchasing instant perfection was not an option, much less the preference.
"We couldn't go to 1-800-Buy A Part," said John Walden of Palmyra, another South Hoosier original.
They still rely stubbornly on their own ingenuity, calling on one another for help with the inevitable problems. They are quick to teach what they have learned over lifetimes.
"I've never had to go outside the group to figure something out," said Steve Glotzbach of New Albany, another charter member.
Yet they relish the camaraderie even more than the expertise. "If you're a car person, this seems like the thing to do," said Butch Straw of New Albany, the president.
This is the Rotary for gear heads, a social club for those over the top about matters under the hood.
"We were a bunch of friends who happened to have cars," Walden said. "We all kind of grew up together. Some worked together."
The club asks no one to join -- current membership is 10 -- yet a few do sign up from time to time, including Roy Boling of Salem. He celebrated his recent retirement by buying a 1947 Ford and by hanging out with others who best understand why.
There's Melvin Beach of Georgetown, who remembers that in the 1950s he couldn't wait for the latest monthly Hot Rod magazine. Or Dale Lafferre, also of Georgetown, whose garage is loaded with what he and the others politely call "project cars."
A much younger Lafferre souped up a bicycle with a motor from a Maytag washer. Such stories are common among club members. No wonder Boling feels at home.
"I was an old hot-rodder," he said, "like these guys."
NASCAR is white-hot vogue. Like Harleys, street rods are snapped up by yuppies in middle-age crisis. Lafferre looks for abandoned, old cars every time he's out in the countryside but finds far fewer.
Glotzbach and others say they were just ahead of their time.
"We were into cars before cars were cool," Glotzbach said.
They could exploit their head start -- and peddle cars at a premium -- but do not. They follow their passion instead. The attachment is emotional, deeply so.
"I couldn't let mine (a 1937 Chevy) go for what somebody would be willing to give," Glotzbach said.
They build and rebuild, tear down and jazz up, and no car probably is ever flat finished. Walden likens it to a house that must be maintained over time.
"The feeling we're looking for is self-gratification," said Lafferre, the fourth South Hoosier charter member.
Street rods are 1948 or older. They need not be modified but most are -- with a range of contemporary amenities. These cars are to be driven, after all, not mothballed.
"It's a 2005 car in a vintage body," Beach explained.
Like Meyer, other members raced until it got too expensive or they got too settled, or both. They miss driving fast, and a few cannot turn away from their need for speed.
They built a racer -- its engine from a 1947 Buick -- with which they set a vintage-class record last summer at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Walden recalls precisely, with pride, the triumphant 154.245 miles per hour.
Thirty years ago the new South Hoosier Street Rods promoted a new hobby with its initial rod run. Sunday's anniversary should be no less spectacular. Glotzbach expects street-rod types from all over, 100 or 125 cars. And the club deserves to salute its survival, as well.
"Thirty years ago, we didn't know hot-rodding still would be around," Glotzbach said. "Much less us."
Dale Moss' column runs Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays on the Indiana page. You can reach him at (812) 949-4026 or by e-mail at dmoss@courier-journal.com. You can also read his columns at www.courier-journal.com.