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It's Showtime !!!


   

 

What A Great Oktoberfest Show!!!

What a show we had on the 27th of September! Everything went extremely well, with the weather holding out, the cars in great shape, and from the number of smiles present, looked like everyone had a great time! Quite a variety of cars were on display with 29 registering. There were lots of standard bugs and Super Beetles, two Things, a nice custom Ghia, a bus, a drag race chopped Ghia and  Ghia coupe plus a few type IIs (2 split-window buses and a bay window pickup).  We even had Stokes employee, Patrick Miles, enter his beautiful 2000 VR6 GTI with more "Zoom-Zoom" than a truckload of Mazdas!  Along for the show and looking for a new home, was a 1967 Bug for sale on a trailer ($1500). Not sure if a new home was found, but there were plenty of folks looking and wanting…!

And speaking of wanting, everyone had their eyes on the “Best of Show” trophy, but only one would drive home with it. The lucky driver ended up being Donny Martin from Florence with his ‘73 Bug. Donny is one of our newest members, joining the club at the first of the year, and making a good first impression at the show.Way to go, Donny!. 

Next in line for winning in the Best Custom category, was Lynn Ammons of Irmo. Her pristine green ’68 Bug with an auto-stick and rumble seat trailer looked like a cool million bucks. And we’re quite confident she wouldn’t part with it for a cool mil! (Or would she…?). 

The Happy Days Kid’s Choice Award went to Deana Crews of Ellabell, GA. Her ’71 Beetle sports a beautiful “Herbie” paint job, which any kid from nine to 90 would love to have in their driveway. (I could’ve sworn I saw Dean Jones riding with her as she drove off with her trophy…!).

Continuing with the lineup of champions, Eric Flowers of Summerville took Best Stock with his nice ’72 Super Beetle. Takes a lot of work to keep things looking like they did when they came from the factory, and it’s evident Eric works to keep it looking that way.

This year’s Dealer’s Choice Award went to a cool, laid-back member of another local VW club here in Charleston--the Full Moon Bus Club. David Bennett of Sullivan’s Island took home honors for his Type II, 1957 split-window bus. Two other buses from the FMBC were present and we’re always glad to see them at the show! We didn’t have any oval or split-window bugs this year, but maybe next year if Bill Fielders gets motivated enough to finish restoring his classic ’57 Oval…!. 

With the five main categories won by really outstanding cars, everyone who participated was a winner as well. We presented “Participation” prizes and dash plaques to all owners, recognizing each one at the podium for their efforts in keeping the “Bug” phenomenon going. We had tons o’ door prizes donated by members and from discounted items purchased at Advance Auto Parts, Bacons Bridge Rd, Summerville, and  games for the kids there, who really had fun.! 

Some of the folks attending traveled quite a distance to be at the show, including our “President Emeritus” Jim Lantry from Virginia. Jim was the one who brought the club into cyberspace by starting the LCVWC website, and passed the torch on to Bill Fielders who now manages it. Now we can say we are truly a “world-wide” club! Thanks Jim! We had a car from Tennessee, several from Georgia, and others from all over South Carolina, now if we can just get some from Germany, the UK, Brazil, Mexico…!

The emcee for most of the day was our very own “Mister Microphone”, Charlie Tupper!! Being the ever-so-quiet and reserved person that he is, Charlie did an absolutely fantastic job presenting and keeping things lively and going. Charlie brought “Bessie”, his find-of-a-lifetime, 1962 un-restored bug to the show. Steve Novak from Sag Harbor, New York, came down for the show as well; he helped Charlie get the car together in NY earlier this year, and they brought her to her new home in Charleston.. If we had a category for “Putting in the Most Elbow Grease in a Short of Time” Award, Bessie and Charlie would be a shoe-in for it! A big round of applause goes out to Charlie for his outstanding efforts in making both the show and Bessie come together and run smoothly!!

And right up there on the list of folks who made it all come together is our wonderful club president, Inga George. Inga contacted people, coordinated projects, made phone calls, ordered signs, picked up food, drinks, brought her own grill, picked up trophies and did more than we have room for on this web page to make this event happen. It did, and it was a hit! Thanks and another big round of applause for Inga!!

Others who deserve recognition are our Patriarch and Matriarch of the club, Joyce and Tater Atkinson. Joyce was unable to attend this year’s event, and we’re hoping next year she’ll be back to coordinate, entertain, and just plain have fun! Tater worked the registration desk as he does almost every year, pitching in where needed, and as always, kept the spirit of the show lively. Jody Lindler played traffic cop, lining up the cars, getting them where they were supposed to be, and made sure nobody got run over!  Bill Fielders did a lot of "run around" work right up to the last minute as he was getting ready to deploy back to Kuwait (again)... He arranged for trophies, dash plaques, initiated contact with Stokes VW and kept the "fire burning" in all of to make sure this year's show happened. Like a nervous new daddy, he paces in his tent in Kuwait while we all ate brats and burgers and admired each other's cars on a beautiful September day in the low country.  He received a "Participant's Trophy" even if he had none of his fleet of VWs in the show this year, because without his enthusiasm...there would have been no show.

And last but certainly not least, the great folks at Stokes VW who support us year after year, providing facilities, shirts, trophies, and lots of enthusiasm. Without them our show would not be the successful yearly event that so many people look forward to.  Not many dealerships would halt a revenue source (Service Department) for a day to host a show for a local club. A special thanks goes out to Mitch Thompson, General Manager, and Mitch Jones, Service Manager, for everything you did for us this year!!!!

Many people helped to make this a show to remember, from the participants to the vendors to the spectators. If you’re name isn’t here don’t worry, you’re efforts did not go unnoticed. We’re already thinking of bigger and better things for next year, so if you have ideas you’d like to see, join the club, bring them to the meetings and make yourself heard! Thanks so much to everyone who came; it’s YOU who make the difference!!!

See you at next year’s show!!!





 

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