Ryan - Great Blog! ... it typifies what I love about the H.A.M.B.! Kevin S & Jillian - Awesome work on the reproduction jacket! djtwigsta - Very nice photography! Thelost40 - Cool story! ... I'll dig through my archives of '50s Automotive periodicals ... I seem to remember an article with a picture of a Road Rebels club car at an East coast drag strip (perhaps Sanford, Maine).
Thelost40 - Here's a lead for you ... the Defenders CC (of Wellesey, Massachusetts) used to race at the Sanford Dragway in the mid to late '50s ... here's a few pics of the Defenders' cars: NOTE: all images from the "Gamaliel Bradford High School Class of '58 - Gary Lapham" webpage ... just click HERE.
Thank you. I had never heard of the Defenders. I will have to ask a few of the guys I know who around back in the day if they knew them.
Thanks for looking.. The Road Rebels was a common name. There was actually a club a few towns over from Medford with the same name except it wasn't spelled with the apostrophe s though.
Great history and story there Ryan and thanks for sharing. It reminded me of our club in the late 50's when we had shirts and jackets and then I thought where the hell are they? I cant remember what happened to them but I do know how to get a hold of some of the old members I think.
Great story Thanks for sharing with us Doreen.Ryan another reason why the HAMB is such a great place.Kevin & Jillian you two do awesome work an are good folks to do business with.....you guy's just brought history back to the present.
Jill and I are grateful to have had the opportunity to collaborate on this project. It really is fulfilling to have such an appreciative client...Thanks Doreen!
Great post Ryan! I had the pleasure of meeting Doreen's dad in the early 1960's.Went to his house in Medford with another local hot rodder(Carl "Bunny" Beatrice).Seems to me I did some striping for him but I can't remember if it was on the 40 or something else. I was in the Navy when I heard Paul had been killed;a very tragic story.A short time after that Bunny also passed away from leukemia. Paul also had a younger brother(Tony)who had a kick ass 34 cabriolet with a Pontiac V-8 in it.Another Medford hot rodder by the name of Tim Carroll owned it for a long time until he passed away some years ago.Don't know where it is now.Tim and his brother John built that chopped 55 Ford gasser/custom with the injected Lincoln motor that was on here awhile back. The town I grew up in also had a club(the one Doreen referred to in her story)called the Road Rebels.Strangely enough I had never heard of the club in Medford which is less than 15 miles away. Anyway good luck Doreen in finding out the story on the club.I had talked to a couple of friends from Medford about it(Frank Palmisano and Vinnie Depaolo)and I guess they had spoken with you already.
Cool jacket, cool story with a really cool ending. Like others have said Doreen, your pops would be mighty proud of you. You can definitely see that you are your fathers daughter.
Thanks Kevin, seeing all the responses here has been amazing. Thank you Ryan for letting me tell the story!
On my search for the Road Rebel's I was also able to find my Uncle Tony's Cabriolet/turned Roadster that Timmy Carroll bought. It is still in the family, Tim's son now has it in his garage. My avatar picture is my dad's 40. Is that the one you striped?
Pretty cool story,very well written. I can tell from it you have a great desire. Best of luck in finding everything about your Dad's club and maybe even reviving it!! By the way really nice jacket. Muncie
Doreen, best wishes for running down some info, sure great to have another female hotrodder among us, and a cute one I may ad, and I bet those nicely toned arms can twist a wrench. The jackets are super fine, the Silvas are really on the game. I have a chain stitch gal here but she does limited work these days, not many chain stitchers left. Keep on keepin on! ~sololobo~
The Jalopy Journal
