A buddy gave me a baggie full of pins and such. This jumped out at me when I dumped them out.I know some members past and present are on the board so figured I would post it up. Over 40 years ago.
Danville Dukes of Danville, CA - can buy reproduction club plaque from speedwaymotors.com , etc I think
I can’t say when the Dukes club started but I think that pin is from 198? Some notable members were Gary Meadors, founder of GoodGuys, Tom Walsh, hot rodder and land speed racer and Bill Burnham, rodder and columnist in some hot rodding publications.
Hello, We used to collect different pins from the time we were given some political pins during the 50s presidential elections. We were responsible for going house to house to get people out to vote in the neighborhood polling place. We would act as “babysitters” if needed, since we were wearing our political party chest pins for that election. Yes, we got paid and were also given the responsibility of working in the kitchen of the assembly hall just down the street from our Westside of Long Beach house, for more pay. Who could say no to that. (The Lion’s Dragstrip rear gate was just down the street.) Our job was to make coffee in two large urns and they gave us a couple of cartons of coffee in mass. We had no idea how to make coffee in those tall chrome urns. A nice lady told us to pour a couple of bags where they were supposed to go and fill the container with water. It does not matter how it tastes, those folks in the auditorium hall are totally drunk and won’t care and drink it anyway. While they were drinking our coffee, we had a contest to see how many different kinds of buttons and chest pins we could collect. Since we were preteens, we had no idea that those pins were so important to others. Later on, we used them for our BB gun targets. We were anti-political back then as little kids!!! Ha! Those early pins started us on a collecting binge with stickers, pins, buttons and the like. When the box got too full, then they were relegated to target practice. Jnaki Later on as teens, since those late night drag racing episodes and dusty desert racing days, we turned to small collectible pins from various places we traveled. If and when we were able to get one of the So Cal dragstrips, that was a catch. Then one day many, many years later, a friend sent me this collection of local So Cal dragstrip collectible pins from all of the top dragstrips in the area. It was a surprise and we are forever grateful. One of 10 Collector’s Pins (Old Dragstrips In So Cal) The collector’s pin array was made by Jack Gillett (current Sidewinder owner) and instantly hit home. Thanks, Jack… Original Lion’s Dragstrip Cacklefest…
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