Hershey AACA Swap - Bucket List?

It's definitely on my bucket list right after winning the lottery!

one day...........

 

I haven`t been there for 18 years, (when it was still muddy or dusty). We drive all night, about 14 hrs., arrived wed morn at about 7, walked all day and you really sleep good that night. We stayed right on the grounds in a motor home with a vendor friend. It is much nicer on blacktop. The vendors are great to talk to also. You get a lot of info from them and alot of them are aged like me (63). Its like meeting old friends, but you never met them before. It was great and planning for next year.

 

My thoughts exactly....Thanks

Big Rich

 

Thanks for the story

Big Rich

 

I miss the fields....the Pate Swap Meet used to be in the fields/mud too. It had a lot of charm when it was like that, but could be a pain if it was over the top muddy.

 

I remember seeing guys in Hershey 15-20 years ago that were completely covered with mud on one half of their bodies where they went down in it. I never went there without at least one complete change of clothes for that reason. The dirt there must have a high clay content--Hershey mud is the greasiest I've encountered.

 

Clay, I don't think so. Where do you think the milk for the milk chocolate came from for the fist 50 years? Thats 100% COW SHIT

 

I've been going to Hershey since 1983 with my father, he's been going since 1968... We never miss a year! Crazy how we used to do those muddy fields in 2 days! Now we do it in 4

 

Finally, finally went(after several years of nagging by my friends). It was incredible! We went up on Sat, so unfortunately most of the swap meet was packed up, but still got to enjoy the showfield. Sensory overload big time! Personal highpoints were seeing the Muntz Jet and that factory fully chromed '36 Ford, along with the Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg/Packards etc, worth more than my life! Cool seeing the early Indian and Wankel powered Hercules motorsickles(yes, I'm a bit of a bike fan, too). Bought a little Batavus Mo-Bat 50cc bike to shine up and turn over. Will have to find some way of going for all 4 days next year, already looking forward to it!

 

It's on my bucket list. Long way to go but, shit, I've been to Bonneville twice, HAMB drags once, and I sure as hell aint finished yet

 

I can remember one mud/typhoon year in the '70's in which everyone seemed to be dressed in the same 3-garbage bag outfit: One bag on each leg, twisted tight like spats, one bag with arm and leg holes worn over body. It looked VERY much like a large scale reenactment of World War One...
Did you ever notice how much Hershey, even with decent weather, looked like a refugee camp before they paved it? Exhausted people carrying bundles of junk, staggering along between rows of battered vehicles housing more dirty, tired people, cooking fires here and there, pieces of destroyed machinery sticking out of puddles...
Attitude and perspective really must be everything!

 

That was a very colorful description....You should write a book about Hershey! (We always get there by 9:00am Wednesday. People know us by all the flathead goodies at our spot.) Can't wait until next year....

 

Connecticut...flathead stuff...booth of the '32 parts specialist, sold me a gauge, an 81 carb body and stuff, this year? Is he part of your booth family?? If so, I've known him for years but have no idea of his name...too much focus on the hardware!
On the refugee camp look, if you added in occasional incoming artillery fire to make it authentic...it would have absolutely no effect on the crowd. They'd just go around the craters, step over the bodies, go on looking for that deuce fender...

 

The book on Hershey has already been written. It's called "Hershey, World's Greatest Antique Car Event", by Rich Taylor. Thanks for reminding me, I need to look at it again.

 

Yes, The Good Old Days! Bruce left out the WWI Renault one man tank that rumbled up and down the isles that year. For years the Sunday after Hershey looked like the day after Gettysburg.

 

You're right '37. For years I drove over Sunday AM and went through the piles, probably some you left. Garbage trucks would be everwhere picking up fenders and wheels that were left behind. Now it's surgically cleaned by Sunday AM. Individual clubs, like the Vintage Chevrolet club, used to have their own show on Sunday too.

 

Funny, I think of all the West Coast swap meets they used to cover, you should try to get to Hershey at least once. You just gave me an idea for a new thread.

 

cant believe no one has shown a pic of these yet..

hershey is the only place to see stuff like this..

 

I remember the tank in 70. Sunday it was pulling stuck trucks out of the mud so the vendors could go home. That field is now full of roller coasters. The cranberry pants/white shoes and belt guys were in serious trouble when it rained at Hershey. Damndest topsoil in Hershey, the slightest moisture turns it into bottomless pits of 90 weight gear oil and dog poop. I'm 45 minutes away the the soil here is very dark and fertile but not nearly as gooey. Remember the dump trucks spreading stone as fast as they could, and crews spreading straw in the fields that are now the Giant stadium parking lot? 30 years ago the show cars were on asphalt and the flea market was on grass, now it's reversed.

 

I don't know if they were because I didn't get much time to leave my spaces to see much more that the Green field but the week before at Carlsile I saw a set of Bruster headlights. I wanted to ask about them for my "A" but didn't for fear I would buy them.
GEORGE!!

 

WOW! I didn't see those heads! They would go great with my new Roof intake (not the same style as that one)!

 

That chalk says $50, right?

 

Me no see DOT and I DO see a slash so I guess it's BIG $$$
GEORGE!!

 

Ahh yes the old days Plastic out houses FLOATING along side 2 seat T-birds and other fine cars. The Blue field with not only mud but hills to walk up and watching people walking by with the "Hershey Stripe", a but mud stain on there cloths were they took a necker. Looked like choclate from next door.
I do like being on the black top much better. I know I can drive away when I am ready.
GEORGE!!

 

Yep , $5000 !
Like someone said before you only see things like this at Hershey ! To go and walk through just to see the parts and cars that you have never heard of or have ever seen is worth the trip no matter how far you drive ! Just think of the people that come form other countries just to find that one thing they need to finish their project ! I love to go and look to see all the great cars and some I have never seen before . The ones that you never heard of or dreamed of is a huge plus for me along with the beauty of the ones that are restored or even the ones that are all original ! Then you have to wonder how did this car last all this time and still look like new ! there is no other place in the states like Hershey and I hope to see many more to come ! One of the best views is on top of the bridge . you can somewhat get an idea of how big this place really is . It's hard to really know of the size as you walk endlessly from row to row at parts you have no idea what they go to . Then at the end of the day when you think you can't walk or move anymore you look over in this pile of parts and see the one thing you have searched for all day to find ! Now that is what Hershey is all about ! If you have never been there , well you must move this show to the top of your Bucket list for next October 2010 .

RetroJim

 

But I don't need the intake, clearly the heads alone would be MUCH cheaper

 

For those that haven't been, here's an aerial view from 2006. More can be found here http://www.hersheyaaca.org/fm_information.html. It's configured a little different now, South of the Giant Center. More swap spaces.
Make sure to check out the earlier photo's 1965 - 70.

 

Here's an aerial view. For size reference, that structure centered in the photo about 1/3 of the way down from the top is a football stadium. Above that is a shopping mall. Top right is the chocolate factory. in the middle is Giant stadium.





Edit - Ralfs ya beat me!

 

Those Roof heads were rad, but they were cracked. 5K is a little steep for what were essentially two patterns and a workable manifold.

It was interesting to see how they were made though. They would be very easy to replicate...far easier than normal heads.

Cris

 

I remember being there in the monsoon and seeing Pebble Beach style cubic money cars getting splashed with mud by cars trying to get up enough speed to get up a slight hill. Looked like a mud bog! The owners looked like they didn't know whether to shit or go blind!