Boyertown Museum Duryea Day 2005 (1/2) 35mai-03.htm

Duryea Day 2005 — The Story in Pictures
Part 1 of 2 — © Tue Sep 6 2005

CONTENTS

	About Duryea Day
	Cars
	Trucks
	Pedal Cars
	Tractors
	Hit and Miss
	Motorcycles
	Flea Market
	Twinkle the Clown
	Mitch Duryea
	Awards
	Thank You

Although the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles has its own collection of vintage vehicles, it takes one day every year to honor all wheeled classicalia.   And that's been occurring for 40 years now on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, in beautiful Boyertown Community Park.

Weatherwise, this Duryea Day was nothing short of stellar: with unseasonably low humidity, a pleasant breeze, and a mid-afternoon high of 79° — all on a background of blissed blue — tastefully embroidered with Cleopatric cotton balls.   I had to pinch myself to be sure I hadn't migrated to California's central coast again.   •••   One thing's for sure.   The chances of getting weather like this year, on another Duryea Day within the next 40 years, are one in a million.

Duryea Day, which was begun in 1966, is so named in remembrance of Charles Duryea, who manufactured automobiles in Reading, Pennsy lvania, just 15 miles from our Museum, between the years of 1900 and 1911.   In fact, he, and his test driver daughter Rhea, used the road up Mt. Penn to the Pagoda to test every vehicle they manufactured.   The criteria was: If it could climb the hill in high gear, it passed; if not, 'twent back to the shop for adjustments.

Point to pictures to see captions

Pictures with green borders yield enlargements

Point to green text for additional info

All communities are in Pennsy lvania unless otherwise noted

The following is our pictorial report on the 40th Annual Duryea Day Antique & Classic Car & Truck Show and Flea Market held on Saturday, September 3rd, 2005.

(at left, left to right) blue 1948 Plymouth Club Coupe, owned by Thomas McMichael of Denver; red & white 1955 Dodge Royal Lancer, owned by Sterry Keifer of Boyertown; white 1981 Zimmer Golden Spirit, owned by Harold Rubrecht of Birdsboro.

(right) maroon 1936 Pontiac Deluxe 8, owned by Mr. and Mrs. Gary Schuck of Chadds Ford.

(left) 1911 Cadillac 30 — 4 cylinder — owned by Joseph Conroy of Newtown, in Bucks County.

(right) dark blue 1953 Chrysler New Yorker Deluxe, owned by Warren Barcalow of Langhorne.

(left) light green 1909 Midland Model F, with brass radiator, owned by Walter Grove of Coplay.

Regular people have conversations over the dinner table. Car aficionados do it over — or, I should say through — a Model A Ford.

(left) white 1977 Porsche 911S, a la doggie, owned by Edward Roberts of Kenhorst.

(right) coral 1954 Ford Crestline Skyliner, with a white top, owned by Tom Brant of Bernville; and blue Corvette Sting Ray, 1964 or '65.

(left) baby blue 1922 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, owned by David Browne of Wind Gap.

(right) This man is grabbing the choke handle on his Model A Ford. Cars today have an automatic choke — but in the late 1920's and into the 1930's (when the Model A's were produced), and even up into the 1950's, it was customary to have a manual choke. When you pull the choke handle out, it cuts off the air from the carburetor of the engine, in order to make a richer gasoline mixture. This is generally necessary to start a cold engine. After the engine warms up, after running for a number of minutes, you must push the choke in, to "lean out" the mixture, or the engine will cough and die, from insufficient oxygen in the mixture.

(left) Kit car.

(right) black 1950 Nash Ambassador, commonly referred to as a "Bathtub Nash" — because it looks like a bathtub, upsidedown. This particular model — owned by Maynard Keller of Quakertown — has a back seat that converts into a bed, extending into the trunk area.

(at left, left to right) white 1959 Corvette, owned by Joe Richardson of Gilbertsville; silver Corvette Sting Ray, mid 1960's; pale yellow Ford Mustang, mid 1960's.

(right) purple VW, and scooter.

(left) 1950 Ford.

The name Crosley is triple famous — but in all cases — because of the same man. Powel Crosley, Jr. (1886-1961) was the first American to produce a radio that didn't cost several hundred dollars — nearly the price of a Model T Ford !

In 1921 — less than a year after the first commercial radio station in the United States went on the air — Crosley was already marketing the Harko Junior crystal set for a mere twenty dollars. This feat earned him the nickname, "The Henry Ford of Radio" — and by the mid-1920's, CRC was the largest radio manufacturer in the world. By 1925, his Crosley Pup sold for less than $10. ••• About 1933, Crosley introduced the Shelvador — the first refrigerator to also store food on the inside of its door.

From 1939 to 1952, he produced the Crosley automobile, and in 1949, introduced the Crosley Hotshot — America's first mass produced post-war sports car. It looked similar to the bugeye Sprite, manufactured by Austin-Healey, in Abington, England, from 1958 to 1960. ••• At right is a yellow 1951 Crosley Sedan Delivery truck, owned by Aden Meyers of New Berlinville.

(left) This green 1949 Dodge Express truck is currently owned by Dave Plank of Birdsboro. His father used it daily while working for the Railway Express Agency — as you can see by the emblem on the side of the bed. This vehicle was purchased at Ruano Brothers, the Dodge-Plymouth dealership in Birdsboro, which ceased selling cars in the late '70's — strongly precipitated by the fact that Hurricane Agnes wiped out about 30 acres of downtown Birdsboro in June of 1972 — including the long-standing Ruano showroom and service facilities at Main & Water Streets.

PART 2

CONTENTS