Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Classics

A Classic 1955 Packard Clipper

1955-packard-clipper.jpg

Damsel took this photo of this classic 1955 Packard Clipper a little over a week ago. Neither of us remember seeing this car at any of the car shows or rallies that we have attended recently. The car appears to have the original paint job and when you click on the image to enlarge you may see some pitting on the hood (or maybe dead insects, I can’t tell). Besides that, the car looked very nice as the owners drove by along Wickenburg Way near the Maverik Gas station. You may notice our inflated local gas prices in the background which have gone up another $0.20 or so per gallon in the last week. Let’s Go Brandon!

Website Upgrade News

As I stated before, we have started the migration to the upgraded PHP and WordPress packages on our personal family site, VernaBob.com. The site is now running the new stuff and, as I feared, our old custom theme we used has some deprecated code and is incompatible with the new platform. As a result, I am using a stock WordPress theme and it will be that way until I can find the time to customize it. Some of the convenient features I used for posting are no longer available and I have to do a lot of the repetitive functions by hand rather than clicking a button.

So, I will be upgrading this website in the next few days and you can expect to see some major differences in the way the blog appears. I would appreciate any feedback you may have as to what you’re seeing and if anything is “broke.” I will try and get a “Stars and Stripes” theme going over the next few weeks, as time permits. Meanwhile, we will be functional with the new PHP and WordPress packages. This will be the last post under the old PHP and WordPress.

06 Nov 2021 by Classics Photography Retirement Technobabble

A Classic 1957 Chevy Step Side Pickup

57 Chevy Stepside Pickup

Damsel snapped this photo of a classic ’57 Chev step side that we spotted in the Post Office parking lot yesterday. This nice old truck has seen a lot of TLC since it was very bright and shiny, almost like new. It was parked next to another 1960’s vintage Chevy pickup. I don’t recall seeing either of these at the Classic Fly-In and Car Show we attended a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps they were just passing through. The 60’s truck had Oregon plates so maybe the owners are snowbirds or something. Click on the image to enlarge.

CB&D Announcement

In other matters, we need to upgrade our WordPress to a later version in order to be compatible with the newer PHP software on our ISP. Pursuant to that, you might tune in and see a stock format template rather than our custom Stars and Stripes template, so be prepared for that until we can regroup and get the template compatible with the new WordPress we’re going to install.

22 Oct 2021 by Classics Cyberspace Nostalgia Photography

2021 Wickenburg Fly-In and Car Show

1975 Bellanca Citabria 1958 Chevrolet Apache Fleetside Pickup Truck

The Damsel and I deliberately got up at the crack of dawn this morning to attend the 26th Annual Fly-In and Classic Car Show held at our local airport. This should have been the 27th Annual show except that last year’s event was canceled due to the pandemic DEM Panic.

The show was well attended by quantities of classic cars and fly-in aircraft plus the folks driving in. There have been bigger shows in the past, but this one was pretty good. Nobody was wearing the face diapers mandated by some not-so-free places so it seemed like the past shows we have attended.

The images above are (1) a 1975 Bellanca Citabria and (2) a 1958 Chevrolet Apache Pickup Truck. These were two of many aircraft and cars on display and my favorites of the show, although it was hard to pick just these two since there were so many cool displays. The Citabria, formerly manufactured by Champion Aircraft Corp., is among my favorites since I learned to do aerobatics and got my flight instructor rating in a Champ Citabria (airbatic spelled backwards). The Chevy just looked clean and had a cool paint job. Click on either image to enlarge.

09 Oct 2021 by Arizona Classics Nostalgia Photography Retirement

Classic 1950’s Chevy Tractor Truck

1950’s Chevy Tractor Truck

I was thumbing through some of the photo archives and ran across this image of a vintage Chevy truck. Since we recently posted one of a similar Ford truck, I thought to share this classic here in the interest of providing a classic competitor of the day. Click on the image to enlarge.

The Chevy truck was parked in the lot of one of our shopping centers near the west side of town. I took the photo in October of 2012, about a year and a half after we moved here. I actually took two photos of the truck with the intent of making an anaglyph 3D image. I have had the hobby of making 3D pictures for many years and posted them on our other blog. You will need a pair of red/cyan glasses to see the result here.

02 Aug 2021 by Bob's 3D Stuff Classics Nostalgia Notions Retirement

A Classic 1955 (or so) Ford V8 Utility Truck

Ford Truck

In the old Minstrel blogging days when the site was still active, I would post Classic cars and trucks from time to time. We now post classics on this blog, but it has been a while. Part of the problem is the cancellation of some of our main car show events due to the DEMpanic pandemic. Hopefully, this year we will get back to normal with the shows.

Regardless of the absence of car shows, we see classic cars and trucks around town either on display like the truck above or on the road being driven by the owner. We see them but sometimes the camera isn’t ready. This time, however, Damsel was ready and captured the classic truck on the lot of our local Ford dealer as we passed out of town on our way for an appointment with the optician to get a new pair of prescription eyeglasses for her.

Click on the image to enlarge.

09 Jul 2021 by Arizona Classics Nostalgia

38th Annual Toyz 4 Totz Cruise and Car Show

Damsel and I went to our usual first Sunday of December event which is the Cops Who Care and Remember When Cruise Wickenburg Run for the benefit of local kids at Christmas (see poster below). We packed in a couple of unwrapped toys to donate to the cause even though we didn’t participate in the cruise. We consider it a photo op and an enjoyable trek down memory lane.

As usual, Damsel took a lot of photos but these three caught my eye to post here today. There were several Jeeps (Mfg. Willys) on display at the show. The first two images below are of a very clean (and new-looking) Jeep. I recall driving the Navy version of one of these for the Division I served in at NAS Point Mugu in the early 1960s and this one reminded me of that vehicle.

Clean Jeep Front View Clean Jeep Interior Modified Jeep

Well, as you can see, the third image is of a slightly modified Jeep. I didn’t get to talk to the owner, but the card in the window said it had a “blown big 8 cylinder block” for the engine. I had an urge to ask him to start it up so I could hear the unmuffled sounds of the eight chromed exhaust ports. I resisted and was satisfied to have the photo of the beast. Click on any image above to enlarge.

cops38th.jpg

06 Dec 2020 by Arizona Charity Classics Nostalgia Notions

Armed Forces Day, 2020

Pair of AT6 Aircraft

In the past, we have posted about Armed Forces Day on this blog. Our old home in K’Stan was located in a community that actually had an Armed Forces Day parade annually and we blogged about those back then. Well, today, there probably aren’t any parades out there because of the dreaded COVID-19. That’s a loss for them for sure.

The lack of parades, however, did not deter the intrepid airmen piloting the two North American AT6 Airplanes shown flying in formation above our Wickenburg home today. The resonant sound of the radial engines overhead brought us out of the house this morning and what a sweet sound it was to hear.

I managed to capture the above image of the high-flying planes as they passed over our place with the new 400mm lens. They were quite high, perhaps eight or ten thousand feet AGL. The planes made several passes over the area which was a delight to see these two nostalgic beauties as they transited the area.

We see that there have been several organized fly-overs in various places around the country, including the Phoenix area, but unfortunately not visible here. It is not known by us if this was an organized fly-over or just a couple of vintage AAF Trainers out for fun. Regardless, they were awesome.

We wish our Military Men and Women Godspeed on this Armed Forces Day and pray for their safety in harm’s way. May God bless them and their families on this day.

16 May 2020 by Aviation Classics Everyday Heroes Military Nostalgia Photography

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