Remembering 2001… 40th anniversary of the 1800, and other ruminations… 

by Goran Freske,"Temporary Editor" of 1800 NEWS 

   Locked out of our meeting room at the Auto Museum - not a very auspicious way for the SDVSA to start the New Year 2001! The 8 members who challenged the cold and windy January weather had to seek refuge in the Balboa Club building to conduct our General Meeting. In contrast, the OCVSA-sponsored Tech Session on January 21 was a great success. About 35 eager Volvoites overran Bob Workman's European Auto, and walked away with newfound knowledge of all aspects of Volvo maintenance and service, gleaned from Bob, and veterans Art Banks and Bill Webb. Sadly, in late January, Harry Stevenson was taken from our ranks after a long illness. We are sorely missing Harry's dry wit and active participation in the SDVSA.

   February's 1800 NEWS featured a masterpiece of Volvo news reporting by our inimitable Jeff Perry. Seems like La Jolla wanted to improve their social status by making a tribute to Volvo! If you missed it in the newsletter, you can look it up on the SDVSA web site, www.sdvsa.org, along with over a hundred other articles from past issues of 1800 NEWS. Our event for February was lunch at Ruby's '40s style restaurant, located at the very end of Oceanside Pier. What we lacked in participation, we more than made up for in cozy camaraderie, while outside the winter storm tried its darndest to set the whole restaurant afloat! 

   Del Skoog attracted 13 cars - eleven of which were Volvos - to her now famous Temecula Valley Winery Tour on March 25. Again, Del did an outstanding job of planning the route and selecting the wineries, making this another memorable tour. She even drove the right car this year!

   It was a real shame that more of our members did not participate in Mark Jankowski's very interesting (North) East County Tour on April 24. The route was great, and the weather was…provocative, to say the least. Made our Volvos almost feel they were back in the country of their origin. April was also the month that Jeff Perry took over the publishing of 1800 NEWS. It marked an immediate improvement, especially in picture quality and formatting. 

   For a first in the history of the SDVSA, we finally joined the exhibitors of the 36th Annual Fallbrook Classic Car Show on May 27. Although the two 120 wagons, one 1800S, and an 1800ES, did not garner any awards, two other members of the SDVSA did. Royce Dunn won "Best of Show" with his 1930 Graham, and Darwyn Lumley took fist in his class with his 1946 Lincoln. You probably did not realize we had that kind of class in our club - did you!

   Our annual trek to the Menghini Winery in Julian was on the agenda for June. We started to encourage other car clubs to join us several years ago, and this time the SAAB Association from L.A. and a tiny contingent of the Austin-Healey Club of San Diego put in appearances. Four DeLoreans, on an independent tour, also decided to partake. All in all, we had a collection of 25 show cars. 

   Gene Bellegarde's well-known Volvo Swap Meet took place at Crown Point in Mission Bay Park on July 22. There were lots of treasures to be had. Bud Hartwell brought out his storehouse of mostly new parts for the 1800 and 120 series. Bud even sold some parts to a couple of lady classic Volvo owners who came down all the way from Hollywood!

   August was a busy month for all collectible Volvo owners. The SDVSA participated in the "Back to the '50s Car Show" in La Mesa on the 9th. The more ambitious Volvo freaks traveled to Monterey for the "40th Anniversary of the 1800" Show at the Laguna-Seca Race Track, for a rendezvous with the most famous 1800 of all; Irv Gordon's '66 S with 1,969,450 miles on it at that time. And onward and upward some went - all the way to Vancouver, Canada - for the VSA/VOCA West Coast meet. Whew!!

   Once again, Jeff Perry took charge of the North County Wine Tour, which was our event for September. Jeff put the emphasis of "spirited driving" rather that "spirits", as we stopped at only one winery, Schwaesdall, after a hair raising drive to Ramona via Highland Valley Road.

   A fabulous all Volvo car show was held on October 14 at Swedish Speed in Perris. Dave Hunt and his OCVSA were the sponsors and did an excellent job of coordination with Mark Yarbrough and Ralph Victorio, proprietors of Swedish Speed. There were plenty of awards for every imaginable class based on model and special features, and the door prizes just kept coming.

   But….a nursery tour? Again, this was a first for the SDVSA. Mark Jankowski figured it would be nice to have everyone see the November colors of the vegetation at the higher elevation of San Diego East County. He planned the route as only he can, with the end of the trail at Simpson's Garden Town Nursery in Jamul. There was method in his madness, for Simpson's features nice picnic grounds - and several "museums" of classic vintage cars and trailers.

   In 2001, as in the previous 20 years, the SDVSA Holiday Party was a traditional unqualified success! Once again, Bud and Christine Hartwell invited us to their elaborately decorated house and incomparable "Car Barn" (story and pictures on pages 5 and 6 in this issue). We had many hearty laughs that day, especially during the "White Elephant" gift exchange, which was a welcomed relief from the somber note on the latter part of 2001. 

   Speaking as the "temporary editor" of 1800 NEWS, and for all the 75 current members of the SDVSA, we wish to express our gratitude to all the people mentioned above for their dedication to the cause of making the many club events happen. Genuine thanks also go to all the officers, listed in "the box" on page 3, for their efforts behind the scenes to make our club viable. Jeff Perry deserves a special mention for his tireless efforts in making our newsletter more readable and interesting, and as the host of our web site. As part of which, we also want to thank new contributors to 1800 NEWS, such as Lara-Mia Phillips, Allan Miller, and Dave Barton. Dave Hunt should also be mentioned as THE person who keeps the SDVSA, and his own budding OCVSA, on the national Volvo map by interacting with the National VSA. Last, but certainly not least, everyone of our members who participated in some form deserves a pat on the back. The club in its present form could not exist without you. Keep up the good work - and your membership!