Been over that bridge many, many times, but not as far back as this picture shows. The signs in the street say WARNING High Water. Guess the Anacostia must have flooded the area just North of Peace Cross!
Yes sir. Malcom Durham's, Automotive Specialties and Champion Automotive at different times through the years. We'd cross it to get to Neils auto parts on Kenilworth ave with all the old 30s-40s parts. I took my drivers license test at that building and I registered for the draft there too. One of my favorite pictures from the Washington post was a picture of Peace cross flooded with a 20s T Ford with it's 21" wheels fording the flood with all the 50s cars lined up on the other side and unable to get through. I can still see that picture in my head.
I had forgotten where I registered for the draft until you mentioned that. My number never came up. I talked to a recruiter about joining but they were only taking people with special skills. The lifestyle I was leading at the time had bullets whizzing by my head here at home anyway. I worked at Chesters Corvette Shop for a very short time in that area. I was a regular at Routt's Cycle, Gene Thompson's on occassion, Karma Cycle on occassion, Neill's Auto Parts, and still have an account at D&D Tire. I remember when they brought the guy into Hyattville Station that shot George Wallace.
......I got a free ride to the Hyattsville Station once in a black International paddy wagon. Don't want to get this thread too off target so the rest of that story will go untold
I remember showing a few cops how they could flip the Mopar air cleaner lids upside down and get more air flow. Next thing ya know all those big Mopars were making that big BAHHH-WHHAAA sound.
......and that's always worth a little free "tune-up" advice. Plus, a few of those P. G. cops were "closet" hot-rodders themselves back then. No names will be mentioned here to protect the "innocent".
Vince Deucelier (spl?) was a Pg cop and sponsor for the PG Kusoms. I don't know the early Kustom's history but I feel sure that having a police officer as a sponsor had a lot to do with the club getting the hanger and club house for 1 dollar a year rent with the Md. Nat. Capitol Park and Planning Commission. Tubby McGonigal. (spl?) was a DC cop and always around as an adviser. We had a club outing one Wed. night at the 75&80 test and tune Wed night. I blew my 383 Chrysler in my 38 Chevy coupe and Sonny Willet blew his Hydro behind his Olds powered 34 Chevy sedan. On the way home down rte 70 some clown kept riding along side of the car to look at it and Tubby kept speeding up while towing the 34 Chevy on a trailer to get away from him. The idiot would speed up too. Pretty soon the siren was blaring and both he and the idiot were pulled over for speeding. The cop went to the idiots car first and after a while came up to Tubby's car The cop says this is your lucky day you were doing close to 100 MPH towing the Chevy but the other idiot was a cop so I'm letting you off. Tubby didn't have the heart to tell him that Tubby was a cop too. Tubby's tow car was a 65 Malibu HT with an L-79 327 350HP and 4.11 gears. I pre-dated the lottery. It was a sure thing when I registered if you passed the physical....I passed.
......Does anyone remember a Gold '40 Ford Coupe that sat inside a fenced in area behind the Kenilworth Mobil Station that was on the opposite side of Kenilworth Ave. from Neil's Auto Parts? It would have been in the late 60's or early 70's. It belonged then to Wayne Weimer who turned wrenches in that station on the corner of Kenilworth and the street that goes on through to Hyattsville (the street name escapes me but it came out at the base of the Bridge/Overpass into Hyattsville as seen in the earlier post). Maybe Edmonston Ave?? If anyone knows any history on this car or Mr. Weimer I would appreciate it. The car had (and still does) a SBC and Muncie 4 spd...........Thanks, Don.
The car may have been there as late as the Late 70's-Early 80's and may have had some history in the Monrovia, MD. area. before that.
the street you talking about is decatur.the gas station sat at the corner of dectuar and kenilworth ave..on the other side of the street down some was neils,next to them was d and d then phillps 66s.then the light
...Thanks. I believe you are absolutely correct. I guess it was Edmonston Rd. that ran kinda parallel to Kenilworth Ave. past the Salvation Army bldg. and yes Neil's was a little farther North, towards Riverdale Rd. and East-West Hwy. Also the station may have been an Exxon back then and later became a Mobil. My memory is not what it used to be.
hey i dont know if anybody is intersted i got a dvd that was from cecil county dragway back in the 60s and there is a shot of the jolly dolly making a pass.it also neat to see the old time drag cars of the era
Well, I've seen some old friends have posted about the Mo, so I may as well kick in some recollections, as well. In some cases here I use only initials, but most of the old bunch will know who I am writing about. In 1964-65 I worked as a Mechanic at Auto City Volkswagon in Silver Spring, and had just bought my first of several 57 Chrysler 300s. I worked with Dave Wilson and Jack Weller who immediately corrupted me with an invitation to hang out at the New Hampshire/410 Mo. For some reason we also spent time at the Topps Drive-in about 4 blocks toward D.C.. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if it was not just a Hot Shoppes. Anyhoo, I was able to meet such interesting slices of life as Fast Eddy, Randy Rawhide and Jimmy Hall. I remember one night when Jimmy fogged the entire lot with some atf sucked through the vacuum system on his 54 Ford. Manager was not happy. I think the place eventually closed, so we started gathering at the Queenstown Mo. It was during this time that I became a member of the Prince Georges Kustoms. This was great. Had a place to work on the car, and meet with like-minded people at the Mo. Couldn't get any better. Tommy M. and I used to comb the wrecking yards on Rt. 1 all the way to Baltimore, and also down 301 and out at "Dollar" George Wise's. I remember Richard Jones (deceased) and his 33 Plymouth Roadster and knockout 60 Cad coupe with the Skylark wires. Jimmy Hall's 65 Impala coupe, and his GTO. Mustang Sally, Tony Pogano and Debby. Jim and Milly McC and the big Chrysler; the New Years parties at their place nearby. Jim McC showed me how to paint, and he was also into three-wheelers. Richard Jones had a real nice Triumph bobber that he was riding near the Tick Tock when he got hit and had his leg broken. Randy B. aka "Spock" and his nice 56 Bel Aire. Those were great times. I knew it was over the day I rode down to the club to get some of my Chrysler parts. Really didn't notice the place was gone while I was driving up to it. My 58 300 D was gone, as was, I recall, Tommy's Willys, and some of Jim McC's and Richard's motorcycles. Things were never the same. I still see Jim McC and Dave Wilson on occasion. Also ran into one of the Kivett brothers at a big annual show in Charlott Hall several years ago. I got together with Dave Wilson and Pepper Wysong at a boat show in Fla. last March. There are several photos from that era that I will try to gather up and post. Charley Q.
Don't know how I missed you when you joined in the fun of the HAMB in May, but let me welcome you now. Thanks for bringing this thread back to the surface again. You guys were a little ahead of me (I'm 61 ) but I know Tommy and always enjoy spending time with him and listening to the stories. Hopefully more folks will now see the thread and chime in with more stories from those days in P. G. County. Though I went through the Mo a few times without stopping, I spent countless wasted hours hanging out at the Capital Plaza Hot Shoppes.................................................Don.
Chuck please post any pictures of the Mo that you might have. This is the only picture taken at the Mo from that era that I've been able to find. ( I took it) It's so frustrating for me because I have no proof of the cool cars that were at the Mo in the late 60s. I'd love to see a picture of Jim & Millie's 62 Chrysler with the candy colored panels over the silver flake. It made a lot of shows back then but nobody seems to have a picture of it. Richards 33 was actually a convertible with hydraulic power windows and seat from a Buick I think. Richard and I were walking around Hershey. Richard saw a 33 conv. and said I've got one of these at home. The restorer said no you don't there are only 3 east of the Miss. Richard said well there are 4 and mine has power windows!. I almost bought that car after the adapter for the wheels broke and crushed the RF fender. At that time I thought where would I find a front fender for a 33 Plymouth? 800 dollars for a 33 Plymouth conv with a 394 Olds, power windows and a crushed rf fender was a little heavy for that time.
Charlie Q, I see you are in Saint Leonard. Me too. What are you driving these days? I grew up a few blocks from the Mo. Some guys used to hang around the K Mart in Prince Frederick in recent years but I don't see them there anymore.
...................That cruise night @ the K-Mart is very "hit-or-miss" and seems doomed, but I've heard that folks may try to get something going in Dunkirk when the new Philly Flash opens soon.
I see you are in Saint Leonard. Me too. What are you driving these days? I grew up a few blocks from the Mo. Some guys used to hang around the K Mart in Prince Frederick in recent years but I don't see them there anymore.[/QUOTE] Clik...I was up there around 2000. Used to drive a copy of a 36 Auburn Speedster by builder Glenn Prey. That used to be a pretty good gathering, but I think the tuner bunch messed it up by raising hell behind the K-Mart. The meet moved across 4, but really no room or ease of access. CQ
In 2000 I was cruisin my big block 502 Boss Hoss two wheeler around. A botched inner ear operation has me back to cars. I often run my 56 Olds or my 70 Impala down to Solomons if I want to cruise close to home. Quite a few hot rodders cruise through but few stop. It's more like when we used to troll through Rt1 in College Park back in the day. I went up to the Friday night cruise-in at Chesapeake beach the other weekend but space is limited and there are too many dog walkers and weirdos. Sometimes I run up to Marley Station. They have the best cruise-in around. Sometimes 500 cars on a good night. I lived in Avondale just up the street from the Mo but was just getting old enough to drive when it closed. I used to sneak down to scope out the cars. I had a 56 merc about that time but it needed a trans and long story short it never hit the street. I used to go to the drive-in there once in a while to watch the B biker movies and hot rod movies.
There was a Red Henry J gasser style car that made an impression on me as a kid and gave me the bug. We lived in Kaywood Apartments at the time and the car was parked over on Russell Avenue there once in a while. It was red, had blue sliding Plexi windows. It sat high in the front. This would have been mid sixties I guess. do you remember the car? I'd love to find a pic of the car. I'm building a Henry J gaser right now. Slowwwwwwly. It's very rusty and will be on the rotisserie for a while.
You know this IS CRAZY!!! I read your post and even though we are 1000 miles maybe apart we had a similar place and the same buildings, same people, same BSing going on at nite. Same car hops we waited until 11:00 when they got off to try and drive one of them home!!! Same drag racing going on and I'll bet your police cars sat across the street waitin!!! We had a motel where they waited across the street. The Red primered Henry J had an old Dodge or Chrysler Hemi in it and sat across the street from Central High school at a service station. We ate bragged our butts off on Fri and Sat nites but we went ot the drags to settle the beef and prove who could get-r-done on Sunday. The boys from Ft. Leonard Wood were there too! Our place was the Sky Ranch at College Street (old Route 66) and Kansas. I grew up 2 blocks from there and was sittin in my 28 Model A sedan in 1960. At 14 years old (driving illegally) That's another story. The town... Springfield Mo. A long way from you all! I TOLD you it was CRAZY!!!! Joe in Mo.
Clik...I don't remember the Henry J with the Cad engine...Doesn't mean I never saw it. Here's a little Mo Rat trivia: We used to call our beaters "Johnsons" because under Pres. Johnson that was all we could afford. That was more a snide jab at the Pres. than the truth. Just about everyone that was a gearhead had two cars. I can only speak for myself, but jobs were plenty back then and paid pretty well. My beater, er Johnson, was a stunning (not) Parkwood wagon. Paid 50.00 for it from Dave Wilson.
I don't know if it had a caddy engine or not. All I remember was that it was red, sat real high in the front, had blue sliding plexi side windows, cut out wheel wells and was parked on Russell Avenue in Kaywood Apartments. I only saw the car there once or twice. I don't know if it was ever at the Mo or P.G. Customs shack. He could have just been visiting for all I know. It's a shame we all didn't take more pictures back in the day.
Back on page 11 Tommy mentions Vince Ducellier and Tubby McGonegal. Last I heard of Vince he was in the Ches. Beach area. That was around the mid 1980s. To the best of my feeble recollections Vince was more of a liason between the Kustoms and Prince Georges County. Technically the grounds where we had the clubhouse and shop were designated as a "boy's club" (Think Dead End Kids). Tubby was directly involved with car-related activities; a gear-head and probably the "old man" of the bunch, although I doubt any of us saw him as such. Just one of the guys. I remember Tubby as a sincere guy whose job as a D.C. policeman probably reined him in somewhat regarding "un-sanctioned contests of speed". Funny how some things remain vivid in the memory: For some reason I remember when Tubby accidentally ran over his own dog, Lump one night following a late club meeting. That really got to him. C.Q.
The Jalopy Journal
