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Jerry Perkin's Antique Motor Collection
April 23, 2005
The
Club members gathered at the Bagelry at 9:00 on April 23rd
to swap stories and get ready for a short 35 miles day of touring and
dining before the rains came. We all left at 9:30 sharp and toured
down Studebaker road and then connected with the south-bound Pacific
coast Highway so we could wind up in Huntington Beach without a lot of
cross traffic.
Ken and Gerry Olsen arrived in their brand new 1926 Fordor Ford Sedan.
They had a little fuel supply trouble traveling at speed on
P.C.H.
And they had to stop to richen up the mixture and then caught up with
us right away. That was the only flaw in their maiden voyage. Not a
flaw in that car though. The upholstery is a work of art and ken told
us that Michael Spaziano had had a hand in it. Michael is a very
talented member and we missed him and Danielle as well as Michael Jr.
and Ashlyn, because this was a wonderful tour for children. Scooters
are always fun and the restaurant was filled with antique toys for
girls and boys as well as big folks.
We drove right to the Perkins place and parked in a quiet alley behind
their Home. We were presented with two double garages chocked full of
gasoline powered scooters and other two and three wheeled methods of
locomotion. When you walked through the garages you entered a large
lawn in the back yard and various scooters were parked so you could
walk all around them while reading identity tags on each one. Jerry
Perkins has almost 200 of these things so each one has an I.D. tag
that also contains starting and running directions as well as
historical information. Many of the machines are presented as found,
because it would be a shame to take the patina off of them. The rest
of them are either restored or in excellent original condition. It is
sort of like the old woman who lived in a shoe . . . .
The garage on the East side appeared to be the work shop and it had
the usual tools along with a milling machine, a lathe and a lot of
other smaller technical things in cupboards and stored on shelves. A
couple of the scooters were on lifts for ease of maintenance. It is
difficult to explain each machine in a short article such as this one,
so we will do a lot of explaining with the captions for the
photographs. All in all, Jerry Perkins has over 50 scooters at his
home and the rest are in storage.
One of his scooters is of an unknown brand and he thinks it is a
prototype machine from New Zealand. It has the original paint, it runs
and the lights work. He calls it Grandpa.
After the scooters were exhausted, we headed off for a short jaunt
over to Alice's Breakfast in the
Park. Yes there really is an Alice and she bakes her own bread
daily. The place is unbelievable Alice cuts potatoes in very thin
eighth of an inch thick slices and fries them in butter until they are
golden brown, but you may have fruit if you are on a health kick.
Still, they are the best raw fries you have ever tasted. She has her
own secret recipe for hot cakes and waffles. Her French toast is made
from the bread she bakes that very morning and her ham, bacon and
sausage comes from dedicated pigs. I can't explain what it all tastes
like, but you will just have to go there and smell it and taste it for
yourself.
The Club picked up the tab and everyone was pleasantly surprised. That
is your Swap Meet at work and don't forget to donate some time to the
Swap Meet as this is our only fund raiser of the year. . Alice loved
our cars so much that she posed by Jim Davis's Roadster and we are
going to give her a copy of this Magneto
News. After breakfast in the park, we headed for home. Everyone
had a good set of directions for getting to the even, to lunch, and
also for getting home. It is nice to have well organized safe touring.
Thank you Will Campbell for a job well done. And thank you for not
letting the rain start until well after we all got home.
Members and guests attending were: Roger Berchtold, John Bowman and
son Andrew, Joe Brun, Tour Director - Will Campbell Jim Davis and
Austin, Lonnie Gibson and Zoe Harris, John and Julie Ginesi, Frank and
Mary Harris, Ken and Gerry Olsen, Steve Rini, Bob Schwinck, Will
Uppman.
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