Present on Zoom was our faithful, if distant member, Perry Allen.

 

 

Josh Lipuma brought along his apprentice, Peter Sherill and one of our speakers brought his grandson, Will Smith and a knowledgeable friend who also knows just about everything about Model A Fords, Frank Eliot.

 

 

 

 

 

Our President, Harry Fegley talked about last Monday's Board of Directors meeting.

Among other things, Harry mentioned that he has divided up the sixteen major projects of Monaco South among the Board Members, who will be responsible for overseeing the projects and reporting on what's going on to the rest of the club. He said that the Board had decided to ask Ron Thomas, Denver Police Chief to become a "Friend of Optimism" which is, essentially an honorary member. Harry also read an e-mail from Claire Young thanking the club for honoring John. Pat Bush explained that, with the donations from club members, he made arrangements for 50 trees to be planted in Rocky Mountain National Park in John's memory.                                                 

 

 

 

 

Michael Chavez is busy arranging for the Thanksgiving dinner at the Boys Club and Girls Inc on Thursday, November 21 (The Thursday before Thanksgiving. Although all details are not yet available, plan on sharing that evening (from about 4:00-7:00 p.m. serving the more than 800 hungry kids, and parents who might not otherwise have a Thanksgiving dinner. This one of the highlights of the MSOC year. Don't miss it!

 

 

Jim Easton, Brian Williams, Michael Chavez and Alan Pierce invite you to join the camaraderie that goes along with delivering Thanksgiving food to needy families on Saturday, November 23. We will start out with hot coffee, hot chocolate and good cheer at the Legion Hall, then we will all go to Safeway to pick up the food, which we deliver to 80 families throughout the Metro area. Bring family and friends to help but remember to leave enough room in your vehicle for the boxes of food you will be delivering! (Pictured here Tom Mauro, Michael Chavez and Tom's family at last year's event.)

 

Tom Kramis says Tree Lot is under control. There will be a meeting of the Tree Lot Committee on Wednesday, October 23 beginning at 3:00 p.m. in Phil Perington's office. He did not order big (I7-8 ft.) Douglas Firs, since they dry out to fast. Marketing campaign is kicking off with Denny Dressman and Mark Metevia leading the charge.

 

 

Frank Middleton shared the list of places to find new members, including "The Men's Room", which drew some comments from the audience. Here is the compilation of those places:

Dan Rodriguez reminds us to save the date of December 7 for the big Holiday party, which will be held at Valley Country Club. And you don't even have to bring food! Frank and Dan are hoping to have members demonstrate their entertainment talents, like singing, playing and instrument, stand-up routines, etc. Dan promises a fun evening, so put it on your Calendar and get an early start on the Holidays.

 

 

Gary Jerman, adorned with his headlamp, tells of his great adventure in trying to extract the little rubber tip of his girlfriend's hearing aid from her ear canal. After trying himself for a period of time Gary decided that he needed professional help. At the Urgent Care facility, Gary explains, it took almost the whole staff to finally extract the tiny piece from her hear. One conclusion was that Gary should find a younger girlfriend.

SPEAKER                                                                 

Today we had two speakers, both belong to The Model A Club of Colorado and both are experts on the model A. Frank Elliot first talked about the early days of Henry Ford, who started off working for Thomas Edison in the early 1900's. Ford was interested in building a revolutionary automobile and worked from home, building a chassis in a shed. (He had to knock out one wall of the shed to get roll the chassis out. He also built the engine on his kitchen table. The first model was a truck-in 1903. By 1909 Ford had gone through the alphabet to the letter "T". at the time he produced the famous Model T Ford, which was mainstay of Ford Motor Company until 1927, when Henry produced the now famous Model A. (This was the second iteration of the Alphabetic naming which started in 1903).

Vern Sybesma picked up the story from there, explaining that it was first produced on October 20, 1927, but not introduced until December 2. This new Model A was designated a 1928 model and was available in four standard colors. By February 4, 1929, one million Model As had been sold, and by July 24, two million. The range of body styles ran from the Tudor at US$500 (in grey, green, or black) ($8,872 in 2023 dollars) to the town car with a dual cowl at US$1,200 ($21,293 in 2023 dollars) In March 1930 Model A sales hit three million, and there were

nine body styles available.  

 

Model A production ended in March 1932, after 4,858,644 had been made in all body styles. The Model A was the first Ford to use the standard set of driver controls with conventional clutch and brake pedals, throttle, and gearshift. Previous Fords used controls that had become uncommon to drivers of other makes. 
Vern also mentioned there was a Ford manufacturing plant at 920 S Broadway in Denver, built in 1914 and later sold to the Gates Rubber Company. Thanks to Frank and Vern for a very interesting presentation!                                                      

Pick the Seven of Spades out of a deck of 49 cards and the pot of $30 is yours! But no! No big winners today, as Dan Rodriguez and David Peck both attempted to draw the seven but failed. Better luck next week. Everyone else opted for a cup of money!