here is the Mighty Mo i believe you are all referring to: http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/f...4A506D-28DC-48BA-B30A-0474F22DA2A9}&size=orig
"Beater dome light"? OK. Tommy had a trans shop right next to my shop but sold out a few years ago. He moved to DE. I still see our mutual friend and business associate Dennis Cook who lives just about next door to Tommy though. They still hang out together last I knew. I say that because I don't know how Tommy is doing health wise. I ran into Boswell a few years ago where he was managing a shop for a dealer in Waldorf. I did not know Boswell from back in the day. I was just a kid when he was doin' the Mo and what not. We didn't talk much as we were both swamped with our work. I've got to pick up one of my engines today at Jan's (Precision Engine Machine). I'll ask if he knows how Tommy is doing. I think his (tommy's) son (one son died a couple of years ago) still frequents Jan's.
That was the one in Takoma Park. There was a little action there but the one that we can't find pictures of was the one in Hyattsville. The section of Hyattsville known as Queenstown. It was THE hot bed of car action in the area.
Did anyone try emailing the historic people in town? Towns and cities hold on to many bucket-loads of historic photos and many are willing to dig up pictures for you. i will keep digging.
Lot's of guys bought cheap beaters for daily driving. We were sitting inside as always watching the cars go by when one of the guys came rolling by and hopped out of the car while it was still rolling. He was half way across the parking lot waving to us as he came in when it slammed into the back of another guys beater. It was priceless. The whole place erupted in laughter. The shit was on from there on out. A beater war broke out with everyone intentionally running into the other beaters. Boswell started to hide his beater. Tommy said I sure wish I knew were he lived. I said I do. So Tommy grabbed a ditch digging pick and we headed over there one night. Tommy climbed up on the trunk and sunk the pick into the roof of Boswells 53 4dr DeSoto IIRC. leaving it there. The next day Boswell comes into the Mo with the dome light swinging from the wires. One shot and he hit dead center knocking the dome light off of the headliner. Dickey was upset because apparently his wife saw the whole thing and was all huddled up on the couch with his kids scared to death of a maniac in the neighborhood when Dicky got home. That was the end of the beater wars. A truce was called. It really cracked us up to see that dome light swinging from the roof. What an unbelievably lucky shot. Just another night at the Mo. I don't think that any pictures exist of the Queenstown Mo. I've seen all. the ones on this thread but nobody has any pictures of the Queenstown Mo. I keep asking hoping one will pop up.
Keep digging Farmer Girl! Some other leads would be: "Prince Georges Customs" which was the Rod Club right behind The Mo. "Queens Chaple Drive-in" which was also right behind the MO. There might have been some write ups in local papers since the place didn't always have a stellar rep with the local senior citizens. Ha! Ha! Now we're senior citizens and still dig loud pipes burnouts and rock and roll. Check the two Mo threads on the HAMB as some stuff has already been posted.
I'm on it! I just emailed the town in hopes that someone there might have photos. usually it can be pretty amazing to see what comes out of the woodwork from towns. Does anyone know any former employees who might have photos?
Back in 1965-68 near the southern portion of the airport property there was a drive-in restaurant called "The Mighty Mo". I loved going there because all the hot rod cars would be there. Next to the Mighty Mo, in a field, was a garage type building. I always wondered why it was in an empty field of tall grass. A bunch of the local hot rodders used the building for working on their cars out of the rain & weather. The place was known as "The Mo Shack" by the locals. It just appeared to be abandoned most of the time. After seeing the chart it looks like it might have been in the area of the airport FBO buildings."
It was spelled with a K if that matters.The red blob behind the shoebox is the shape of PG county. Vince Deucelear (spl?) was A PG cop that acted as a sponsor but we never saw him much. Tubby (Dave I think but he was always called Tubby) McGonagal (SP?) a DC cop, had more of a presence when I was there up until the garage burned down. Yes we had our Wed night meetings in what must have been the control tower.. a very small one story building. The hanger was the garage. Two huge doors on wheels and tracks that moved left and right to gain entry. Friends of The Mighty Mo and Hot Shoppes is a group on facebook if anyone cares.
That's the car Tommy. Manfred is my dad. I told him about this thread and he wanted me to put that comment out there. I went to dinner last night with my dad and a bunch of his friends, Bradley was there to. Thanks for posting your memory of the car.He talks highly of it and it will make his day knowing someone remembers it.He has a super nice 39 Chevy now that is never dirty and most certainly dust speck free!!!
You tell all those old Mo rats that we still talk about them. I recently heard that "blind Larry" passed away. I think he was part of their crowd too. I know he moved to Arizona about the same time. I bet that 39 is pretty quick too. Your dad had a rep for being quick. I KNOW that it is clean!! I was driving a 63 Catalina at the time and bought a 421 SD engine for it only a few blocks away from your dads old shop in Takoma park.. I think Bradley had something to do with Tommy Kivetts getting an L-79 67 Marina blue Chevy II. He won a lot of street races with that car. A big block altered wheel base 56 Chevy came over from S.E. Wash. and spotted Tommy a car length down at Blue plains treatment plant and put another 2 car lengths on him out of the gate and never looked back. I think Bradley turned him on to that car. Tell them all I said hello.
I finally found the only picture that I have of the Queenstown Mo. The guys name is Tony but I don't remember his Italian last name. I took this picture standing on the road along side of the Mo that leads up to the Kustoms garage behind the Mo. The inside and kitchen are just out of the picture to the right. The tele-trays are still in place. They eventually took them out and you had to go inside to order. The days of the car hop bringing your food were over. At least there is photographic proof that the place actually existed. The people that pulled into the parking spots were there for the food. The regulars backed in to see and be seen.
I may be able to help with his name. I'll ask around. Photos were sure rare back in our youth. These kids today will have a million of them. When it came to spending money on film developing or gas, you know which won out.
I never took a lot of pictures. That was a separate hobby for most. I think I took a bunch of pictures to take with me when I went away to the University of South Viet Nam between boot camp and departure. When this was developed I was in Okinawa. I can't remember if I took the film with me and had them developed there or not. I wanted to remember life at home. I, like most guys, was scared shitless of the unknown adventure in front of me. I didn't need any pictures at home. Taking pictures was a rare event for me. Thank god for the digital point and shoot cameras of today. I did buy a SLR camera in Danang at the PX. With the cell phone cameras there won't be any shortage of pictures in this era.
I was in the lottery waiting for my number to come up. My family urged me to join the Coast Guard because it would keep me out Viet Nam. Fat chance I would be accepted; all the congressmen's kids and connected folks had that stuffed. "the Navy then"! I didn't like the idea of 4 years plus 2 reserve. I sort of wanted to join the Marines but wasn't sure my knees would hold up to the rigors I had heard about. I was a regular at the doctors office having water drawn off of them from numerous injuries. I finally decided to let the chips fall where they may and let Uncle Sam decide where I was going, which would probably mean Army. I wasn't the least bit affraid. I was young and dumb and the lifestyle I was leading was more dangerous at home. I had already had my mettle tested under fire. If I had any concerns it was the weather. I wasn't much on heat and humidity. As luck would have it my number didn't come up. There wasn't much going on job wise so, I tried to join. But the recruiter said it would be a dumb career move because all the Viet Nam Vets would have seniority and rightfully so. He said unless I had some special skill they weren't taking anyone. As I remember it, the recruitment office was only open two days a week at that point. Viet Nam sure helped kill the Hot Rod scene of that era. you guys went off and left us with all those 4F Volkswagon driving hippies. Ha! Ha!
You guys with computer skills can post some of these for us. I have trouble getting them copied to here. More Mo pics here: http://mwdl.org/index.php/browse/index/1?sortId=&recordsPage=738
I like this one with a Henry J with skirts and a Chevy Suburban. This is a Hot Shoppe. It seems that the New Hampshire Mo was the only Mo that they took pictures of and most of them have already been posted on this thread. I keep begging for pictures. There is a Facebook group "Friends of the Mighty Mo" but none of them can come up with any pictures either.
I was searching this thread to see if anyone really knew who the original "Mighty Mo" was. My father (Navy) was inland with the Marines during the Korean war and often talked about bringing many a round in from the MO and the sound those shells made over your head.
Pressed ham on plexiglass. Tommy Kivets had a dark green 55 150 sedan that he cut out as much weight as was possible. He did not run a straight axle. The side glass was plexiglass with vinyl straps to raise and lower them. It had an A.I. fiberglass tilt off front end which was very rare on the street back then. The rear wheel wells were radiused. I seem to recall that it ran chrome reversed wheels with blackwalls of course. Two glass bucket seats with the snap on upholstery and no rear seat at all, no carpeting or jute insulation. Just the painted metal floor. The rear side plexiglass windows had the risers removed and as much of the sheet metal cut out as possible. We rode over to Wheaton plaza one night to try and scare up a race. Everyone talked a lot but nothing ever happened. He liked to tilt the front end forward and point to the welded block and the absence of side motor mounts. "See, it's a 301" I can't remember who had the shotgun seat but they were higher on the pecking order than me. I had the rear metal floor to bounce around on. No arm rests or window cranks to grab onto. On the way back to the Mo on University Blvd a couple of girls pulled up along side of us. Someone said something to the girls and the girl driver gave us the bird! That was not as common from a girl back then as it seems to be today. Tommy screamed "moon them, moon them " so for the first and only time in my life I dropped trou. By this time the light had changed and Tommy was trying to stay along side the girls. Speeding up and the slowing down as required. I was bouncing and rolling around on the floor with my pants down to my knees. I finally regained control and pressed my fat ass up against the plexiglass. We called it pressed ham back then. I figured I was one of a very few that had the opportunity to "press ham" on a plexiglass window. The 57 block was welded because of all the internal work done to it in order to run the stroker crank. It was easier to weld the crack than to redo another 57 block. I don't know how many cubes it was but it was more than 301. I'd love to have a Utube of me flopping around half naked in the back of that 55. On second thought I'm glad no evidence exists. Just another night at the Mo.
I bet the archives up there in College Park would have some pictures. Bewtween the Drive-in, the Airport, the Car Club and the Mo, there has to be some pictures and articles from newspapers. Most of the newspapers that were around at the time are gone and will only be at the archives. http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/college-park/ Maybe one of you retired guys will trek up there and save some Hot Rod history. "
I'm one of those young lads too, that wasn't around to experience the "good times of ol'". But, I do remember going to the old Hott Shoppes at Capitol Plaza in the early 80's(best little serving of pudding...on some occasions Mom would let me get two..or one and the cubed jello!) The reason why I'm chiming in...is that I recently was doing some research of the old Marlow Heights Shopping Center sign for a mural piece that my students and I are doing for good ol' PGC. I teach at Suitland High School in the Visual and Performing Arts program. And came across a blog or two about a "Mighty Mo's/ Hott Shoppes Reunion". This sort of brought me back to some childhood memories, and memories of my mother talking about Might Mo's. And her fond memories of cruising and hanging out. She grew up in Cheverly (off of Newton St.)and graduated from Bladensburg C/O 62'. So, I'm here to ask, When is the next possible reunion? and where? I'd like to surprise my mother one weekend and bring her to one.... I'm pretty sure it would make her feel connected again to a past that she would even tell us, was nothing that would ever be duplicated! And guys, let me just say; I've read about all of your messages....and my mother too has a pretty good memory. So, I know for sure she'd have some great story's to tell as well. Any info. would help me make an old lady(and I mean that in the nicest of ways), feel young again. Thanks, Mike
I think it is in October this year. This will lead you to the info you need. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=151512251530839 Interestingly the first actual Queenstown Mo reunion was put on by a couple of girls that were Queenstown Mo rats that thought up the idea. It was held in Cheverly. A few Mo rats went with their cars but it died out in a few years and then later on this popped up. I don't think the promoter was ever a Mo rat but that's OK. Depending on the dates, I may try to drum up some real Queenstown Mo rats to show up this year with their current cars. I went a few years ago and knew absolutely no one. I even brought the cowboy from the Mo sign and nobody seemed to care.
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