It's that time of the year! (AACA Fall Meet, Hershey, PA 10/10-13/2012)

[GMTruckGuy74]

So... who's going? I'll be there two days again this year (really enjoyed it last year), Friday 10/12 and Saturday 10/13. Staying across from the AACA Museum at the Marriot Springhill Suites. This is my 23^rd year - can't wait

[balthazar]

I would really like to, tho work has been crushing lately. I already had to pass on Carlisle. I'll have to see...

[GMTruckGuy74]

So, did anyone else from C&G make it to Hershey this year? Weather was breezy & dark cloud covered for a bit late Friday morning & early afternoon, but the sun popped back out and big white puffy clouds chased away the dark ones (no rain). Saturday was b-e-a-u-tiful day, starting out cold in the AM (first frost of the year in that region) but quickly warming up with a very slight breeze. Lots of nice cars & trucks at the show on Saturday, very satisfying yearr. On to the pictures (I took 377 of them, but won't overkill the thread)...

[GMTruckGuy74]

[GMTruckGuy74]

[GMTruckGuy74]

[GMTruckGuy74]

[GMTruckGuy74]

[GMTruckGuy74]

[GMTruckGuy74]

[GMTruckGuy74]

*My son is infatuated with "Christine", in any color!!

[GMTruckGuy74]

[GMTruckGuy74]

That's the final bacth I uploaded to Photobucket. I've also got pictures of restored gas pumps, signs, toys, etc. Any interest in seeing those???

[GMTruckGuy74]

In case there's interest, here's other stuff that I saw that caught my eye...

Edited October 15, 2012 by GMTruckGuy74

[GMTruckGuy74]

For you Steelers fans, my son was lucky that the Jostens ring vendor was nice and let him wear the latest Steelers Super Bowl ring:

Edited October 15, 2012 by GMTruckGuy74

[balthazar]

Lots of nice pics there, R!

See any B-59s?

[caddycruiser]

Looks like a great time.

One of these years if I ever am not working on a Friday or Saturday, I'd like to try and visit.

[G. David Felt]

WOW, that sure was an awesome event. Thanks for posting all the photo's, that was very cool.

[GMTruckGuy74]

balthazar - yes, I saw a '59 sedan on Friday in the car corral section as we rounded a corner of an aisle. I was saving the car corral for Saturday, though due to a late start and extended time in the show car area I did not get to see all of the cars for sale this year (which was a first for me). As such, no picture. Of course in the show car field there could have been more; I spend most of my time there in the truck section way in the back. Because of the late start to our day, most of the cars were leaving the show field at 3:00 PM, so walking back to the vendor fields we were able to see more classic cars than I normally see (the crowds usually make taking pics a hard thing, so I tend to skip the heavy traffic areas).

caddycruiser - when I tell non-automotive people about this show, I relate it to being the automotive-equivilent of the NFL's Super Bowl. You will see just about anything automotive related there. I see and learn about car things every year. From '89 to '10, I went on Saturday only. Starting about '08, most of the vendors do not stick around for Saturday anymore - I've overheard many conversations that blame the economy and the Saturday-only car show for the vendors not sticking around on the last day. Last year I went on Friday and it reminded me of the good ol' days, but I noticed this year a lot of vendors were closing up around 2-3 PM on Friday. Maybe I better start going on Thursday too in the future

dfelt - thanks, it was a great adventure! Every year I take so many pictures and usually don't post them, or if I do it's usually just a dozen or so. I made a decision going into the show Friday that I would post as many pictures as possible this year to share the show with as many people I could. Maybe it would inspire others to attend for their first time. 23 years (24 shows) for me know and hopefully many more to come. Funny thing is from my time spent here I think of fellow posters when I see cars & trucks I know they like! I've been here way too long

[GMTruckGuy74]

When I saw this collection of Oldmobile emblems, I instantly thought of the many Olds fans here, namely Oldsmoboi and OldsGuy. These are the things I love to see at the AACA show in Hershey. I look at the obscure and interesting things for sale, even if I have no intention of purchasing or the money to purchase. This year I finally decided to talk to the vendor that sells the restored gas pumps (he's there every year for as long as I can recall) and I learned a ton about the pumps that I would likely not have (thanks to Cort/knightfan for encouraging me a couple of months ago to talk to people about the things that interest me).

[balthazar]

The guy with the emblems on the upright wire frames I know from Englishtown, I know I have his card somewhere in my stack. I want to say his name is 'Stere'.

The emblems in the cases I believe is another regular @ E-town, if so I bought an excellent Invicta emblem from him.

[GMTruckGuy74]

Yes, his name is Stere and I got his business card (last year I bought the '55-'57 GMC hood emblem from him that eventually I will ask you to sand blast for me ). He used to go to Carlisle too, but says he doesn't make enough there to justify the trip out anymore. I'm glad to see he goes to Englishtown, maybe I'll go to the Spring show then in '13 if he finds me the '41-'47 General Motors Truck emblem I inquired about.

As for the Olds emblems in the caes, can't say much about the vendor. Walked by his space and the case caught my eye, took the shot and continued on my path.

[G. David Felt]

I wonder if GM, Ford, etc ever look at their old emblems and realize that they could update the current emblem by using a bit of the past. I think that they have some awesome emblems that were lost compared to the bland ones being used today.

[GMTruckGuy74]

Emblems are becoming a thing of the past. Foreign cars have removed any emblem from the side of the car for over almost a decade and a half now; GM just started a few years back (my '06 Envoy has "Envoy" emblems on the front doors but they were removed starting in '07). Trucks have had their nameplate on the side (door or front fender) for years and most of all trucks sold new today continue this tradition. But I think GM went crazy in the late '80s and '90s with emblems while the Japanese got rid of them and now the American companies are following suit. I do agree with you that today's emblems are really bland - look at the current Chevy GMT-900 trucks & SUVs - block style, separated letters. Then look at the classic '70s Scottsdale and Silverado Emblems, stylistic with flair. A vendor I looked at had a whole bucket of brand new '90s GM emblems in their packaging for $5 each - but none pulled at my heart strings to part with cash (Grand Prix? ABS? V6 High Output?). Rather, I spent some dough at other vendors with classic emblems that did pull at my heart strings and had reverance to my childhood. I can't see 20 years from now me looking at many of today's plastic emblems/letters and wanting to part with my cash for them

[GMTruckGuy74]

Which to you shows "emotion", and which doesn't?

Edited October 17, 2012 by GMTruckGuy74

[G. David Felt]

Emblems are becoming a thing of the past. Foreign cars have removed any emblem from the side of the car for over almost a decade and a half now; GM just started a few years back (my '06 Envoy has "Envoy" emblems on the front doors but they were removed starting in '07). Trucks have had their nameplate on the side (door or front fender) for years and most of all trucks sold new today continue this tradition. But I think GM went crazy in the late '80s and '90s with emblems while the Japanese got rid of them and now the American companies are following suit. I do agree with you that today's emblems are really bland - look at the current Chevy GMT-900 trucks & SUVs - block style, separated letters. Then look at the classic '70s Scottsdale and Silverado Emblems, stylistic with flair. A vendor I looked at had a whole bucket of brand new '90s GM emblems in their packaging for $5 each - but none pulled at my heart strings to part with cash (Grand Prix? ABS? V6 High Output?). Rather, I spent some dough at other vendors with classic emblems that did pull at my heart strings and had reverance to my childhood. I can't see 20 years from now me looking at many of today's plastic emblems/letters and wanting to part with my cash for them

Very true, most of todays names and emblems are bland and boring and have no emotion.

[Drew Dowdell]

Roger, could I trouble you to upload these to the photo galleries? You can bulk upload 10 at a time I believe. I made you an album

[Camino LS6]

Very cool Roger, thanks for posting all of these.

Looks like there was a fine El Camino delegation.

[GMTruckGuy74]

Roger, could I trouble you to upload these to the photo galleries? You can bulk upload 10 at a time I believe. I made you an album

I used my Photobucket account to display the Hershey pics, is that okay? If yes, in the future I'll use the album you made for new additions. If you want the Photobucket pictures put into the album, I'll make that change.

[Drew Dowdell]

No problem in using both, but there is no bandwidth restrictions for C&G like there can be with photobucket. I don't mean you need to replace the pics in this thread... just upload them to the gallery also.

[GMTruckGuy74]

Gotcha!