........................Good advice there, Gary. For the record, and although it's a very common mistake, it's Silver Spring, Md. not plural as printed in the text of the article. Good luck with the search. I think there's a few of the original members of the Ram Rods still around, hopefully they will see this and respond.
Just for some inspiration and a bump of your thread, here's the 1965 program from the Ram Rod's show.
I went to those shows in the mid-60's...saw the Bandit (which was fired up every hour! BOOM!)), watched Roth painting shirts in the back corner (Pffft! Pfft! Pfffitpfitt!), wished I could afford a shirt, saw all the magazine cars from the touring group and saw lots of cool local machines...life altering stuff. Does the club contain geezers and cars from that period still?
.................Sadly Bruce, I don't think so. The way I understand it, membership ballooned in the late 60's-early 70's perhaps with a lot of wannabes and hangers-on. At some point the original members decided to limit membership to a few dedicated racers and active car guys. Fast forward to the present and I don't think there is still an active club.
Another show memory, but in Lancaster, PA about the same time. These shows were a compound of a pack of traveling show cars, ones that were making noise in the magazines of the time, and local iron: Deep in the show, we encountered a group of 5 or 6 Amish teenagers ogling the shiniest pile of red metalflake and chrome they could find...they were having a great time, but were looking guilty as hell too. They kept looking over their shoulders like a pack of amateur shoplifters...I think if someone with a German accent had shouted "Hey!! What are you kids doing here!" they all would have had heart attacks on the spot. I wonder where those guys are now, and what they remember...you'd probably have to waterboard them to get them to admit they were there!
I met an original member of the club at a Christmas dinner last December. He even had his original club jacket with him. Unfortunately I don't remember his name.
Mr Lancaster: Would that have been at one of the "cow palace" shows? Really looked forward to attending them every year. I have always felt the Ram Rods had some of the classiest cars around. Wasn't the "Jolly Dolly" a Ram Rod machine?
Dunno...the nearby big show with the contingent of nationally known cars (programs I think as shown above) was in an armory, I think actually in DC...? They were before I could drive, so first part of '60's when Beatnik Bandit was hot stuff...my Father drove us, and stayed in the car working on his income tax...I had no real sense of what was where in the DC area before I could get places myself. I just remember the inside of the couple of shows I was able to attend. The one in Lancaster PA was handled logistically by a friend's family because he had an older sister who lived up there...again, I have no idea what building was or exactly where, but it was basically the same show as DC but with different local cars around the same batch of famous cars. That one was presumably within sneaking distance for the Amish kids. The program matches my memory, so I think that was the outfit handling the tour of national magazine cars...
The cow palace I referred to was on rt30 on the corner of Strasburg rd. In the heart of Amish country. I think the shows were put on by Lou Holtz , maybe in conjunction with the Vagabonds club? Is the Md. cow palace at the Timmie fairgrounds? Sure do miss those old nats east shows there as well.
.....Yes, exactly. I guess every little town with an agricultural history probably has a "cow palace"
I knew Bob Bernardon who built and drove Jolly Dolly, if memory serves I think he was a Gear Grinders club member.
For what it's worth I don't recall Bob Bernardon as a member of the Ram Rods, as I got a list of members every year as part of a trade deal for space at the World of Wheels, DC Armory. I do see some names on Facebook that are/were members, Len Cottrell, John Speelman, Bill Devro. (2 years to answer is not a record}
I'm in Maryland and can't find how to get to that site Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
At the top of the page the second icon from the left is "members" click on that and a list opens up with social groups, open that and scroll down the page. There seems to be some activity on the Maryland eastern shore page but the Maryland Hambers page seems to be blank or you have to know the secret word. In 1968 I was in Vietnam with a guy from Silver Spring named Rick Danzi he owned an orange 62 Impala that he showed as Moly Orange Crate in a few shows in that area. Somewhere In my stuff I have a photo of it in the DC show in the mid 60's.
............I'm at a loss as to why it is so difficult for folks to get logged onto the Maryland HAMBers Social Group. I actually thought that you were on there. We had a tough time a couple of years ago getting greasemonkey logged in but, finally accomplished it. If you don't mind, send a PM to him and maybe he can remember why it was so hard or send a PM to paulieninefingers as he moderates that social forum and is probably far more tech savvy than I am. Good luck. We need to get you on there..............Don.
.....................It's actually a very active forum. I don't fully understand why it appears otherwise. It's a mystery to me.
I sent an email to Len Cottrell with a link to the picture.He's in the club and knows its history pretty well. Hope he can supply you with the name of the cars owner. I'll post when I hear back.
Here's the reply I got from Len Cottrell: "Mike, your gonna love this answer. I didn’t recognize it because It was his 1st car before I got in the club. The members name was R F Bissell, east coast’s favorite photographer." Sorry I don't know of any other pics but now you have a name to work with. Good luck with the hunt.
I remember going to the Armory next to RFK Stadium a few times, probably late '60's, mid '70's. Both drove down and rode the Metro. They moved to the Dulles Expo center for a few years. And it seems I remember them in the Convention Center once, but I might be confusing that with the new car show. Back in the day I knew one Ram Rod, whose name I can't remember, who was a body man at Century Ford.
Hot Rod Mike.......I have a question for you, but your PM settings don't allow messages. If you see this, please shoot me a message. Thanks!
To All, My name is Gary Furstenberg and I'm a newcomer to this message board. I was good friends with Doug Fleharty who opened Douglas Speed-Sport on Fenton Street in Silver Spring back in the mid 60's and I along with Steve Novak were the first two employees there. Doug had a '61 Impala SS that was a dedicated drag car and we used to enter it in the Ram Rods Car Show. Any contact or pictures would be appreciated. Thanks.
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