The Cal-look Lounge

Jim Sarge Edmiston and Jim Holmes please sit us down and tell us some good stories about the Odyssey Rallies and/or any other old DKP drives....

The Cal Look Kids

Yes, yes, please tell us Guys...!!!

Frank

Hmmm....Unfortunatly for me, I was on my Viet Nam "Odyssey" when all those rallies took place, so I'm not much help.  Since you mentioned Jim Holmes' name, my memory always goes back to the navagational rally where we all wound up in a residential neighborhood (imagine 150-200 VW's blasting around YOUR neighborhood while YOU were trying to relax on a Saturday evening  >:() for a short time...NOT GOOD.  Some guy comes running out of his house waving at Jim to stop for a second which Jim did.  When Jim rolled the window down expecting to hear how cool it was to see soooo many VW's parading around, the dude clocked him in the face...OUCH!! :o :o :o

Wow.   :o :o Imagine a DKPIII version of that same story. Sure to be some lead involved and I don't mean Zeppelin.

When I think about going to rallies back in the day, two things always come to mind.  The first is arriving at the Montgomery Wards parking lot in Fullerton to sign up.  You couldn't just cruise in and park...you had to do a BURN-OUT!!  The second thing was the mayhem in the Shakey's Pizza parking lot after downing many pitchers of brew at the end of the rally  ::) :o ;D  I still have wife inflicted claw marks on my right arm to remind me of the "fun!" ;D

and what about this one sarge  ::)
dkp st valentines day massacre  ;D ;D

Couldn't tell you about the rally, Fabs...my brain hurts trying to remember all that stuff ::) ;D  I do remember designing that dash plaque though... ;)

Car navigational rallies were like a VW "Classic" or "Bug In" crammed into a 5 to 7 hour Saturday night.  The DKP group met at the clubhouse before the "event" and rules were laid out by the current president....everyone was to line up and caravan to the Montgomery Wards parking lot in an orderly fashion.  By the time we got there, the "rules" had flown out the window and much racing, arm-waving, yelling, laughing, up-out-of-the-sunroof-driving and changing of positions had taken place.

The "Mass", as Doug Gordon was affectionately called, and his bus were requested to direct traffic when we all got to the parking lot.  This meant stopping the oncoming traffic on Harbor Blvd. so all the DKP cars could make a proper DKP "entrance".  There was to be absolutely NO racing of any kind in the parking lot.

So...each car turned left in front of Doug, paused momentarily after the driveway, and proceeded to light up the tires and raced full throttle for as long as possible before reaching the mob of cheering people.  After signing up for the rally, we were released one at a time and told to follow all the posted speed limits and traffic laws.  Everyone raced full-speed out of the lot, screeching tires with every gear shift.

I remember one particularly rowdy after-the-rally meeting at Shakey's (Pizza Parlor).  There must have been quite of few of us who had gotten hopelessly lost on the rally and were forced to drive directly to Shakey's and get a head start on drinking the "beverages" of the evening.

I can't quite remember what started it, but after all the passing out of the prizes for the winners, cheering, clapping, screaming and laughing, someone threw a crumpled napkin (or something) at somebody.  Everyone else immediately got into the "spirit" of the moment and a full-fledged food fight, plus whatever else was "throw-able" began.  The entire group jumped up and moved to the walls of the room....trying to avoid the horizontal hailstorm of debris.

While this was going on I happened to notice one lone figure still sitting at a table towards the middle of the room, elbows resting on the table, arms and hands holding up his head.  Occasionally, something would bounce off his head, he'd lift it up, open his eyes and grin.  This was Whit Haydon's way of celebrating, and ending, each rally.  Thus, the phrase "Whit-faced" was born.  Usually his older and somewhat wiser brother, Doug, would rescue and take him home.

But before anyone left there was always that really special moment when Ron Fleming would step up on a chair or table.  The crowd would eventually become silent and Ron would yell at the top of his lungs....GIVE ME A "P"!!!! and all the DKP guys would yell back "P"!!!  And on it would continue, until he got through to "S".  Then, "WHAT'S THAT SPELL???"...."PANZERS"!!!.  "WHAT'S THAT SPELL???"...."PANZERS"!!! 

That yell always gave me a thrill I've yet to forget.  What an outrageously fun night it always was.

 8))

ok we have to award "Best Post Ever on Cal Look Lounge"  right here.

Holy smokes, I just got the chills reading that!!!  8)

thanks!

WOW...my knees are weak and there's a tear in my eye.  Beautiful post, shorty and welcome to the Lounge!  Let me be the first to buy you a beer 8) 8) 8) ;D

Great Story... if it was the Shakeys on Orangethorpe near Harbor, we (DKK) trashed it in the same way after a rally several years later. Brent Kooiman's GF at the time found that you could wing Mojo potatoes like a Frisbee with deadly accuracy!

Great post !!! thanks for sharing Shorty!!!  Welcome  :)

Posts like that are why I visit the Lounge.
Thank you Shorty !
 :))

this is quality reading.that dash plaque the fuckin mutts ;)

Thanxs for That Post Shorty...!!!

But am I the Only one not to know who You are...  ::) ??? ???

Frank

welcome shorty and thx for sharing the story with us
rgd
fabs

Having read Shortie's post over and over again this afternoon got me to remembering one of those Shakey Pizza endings that got way out of hand.  "Somebody" louded off to a young man who was in the Marines and the smack talk quickly got out of hand.  The Marine left for a while and when he returned, it was with a dozen other Marines intent on kicking some VW ass.  Fortunatly, cooler heads (Ron Fleming) prevailed and got the situation back to normal....talk about buzz kill! ::)

well one night after a rally the DKK boyz and another club were have'n a little wet napken fight that turn for the worst, I went into the bathroom and tore the paper towel dispenser off the wall and brought it back to the table and started dunking handful's of paper towel's into our pitcher's of beer and we were winning the battle till I hit some chick in the head that was'nt playing in our little war. GOT chased out the back door were I was hiding in the fricken trash bin, well the X wife was not happy either about her jack-ass war hero. GOOD times

That's a memory that I had forgotten! Thanks for the refresher!  ;)

my kind of meeting.

You would have fit right in... except you would have been what... about 12 y.o.  :D :D

hey let's keep this at least PG rated around here.

Rallies are the best!

As some of you migth have seen we throw a yearly big rally, the Bugtour. But a few years back we were doing some Kross Town Traffics, a short guided drive through Ghent's city centre ending at the local drive-in MacDo, the closest thing we have to an American Diner.

We had a turnout every time of around 40 cars, including some very fine lookers and classics from time to time. Contestants were free to show up at the covered parking lot to join and after around an hour of chatting, we all took of. Using a plan or explanation on how to drive is really a challenge for some. The first time I took of as one of the last cars leaving, halfway the run I came onto a 5-armed crossing which you just had to cross, and out of all five streets cars were heading towards me. I guess my plan was not so clear driving around an ill-lit evening.

I promissed again and again to start organising again. With the buzz of bugtour still kicking I again feel for doing it. Especially since Turtle is going to host a Brussels XTT, I will do the Ghent one again, maybe host a Bruges one and maybe someone is willing to do the Antwerp one? Let's make it a summer to remember and do a tour of Belgium.

Never had after parties as raunchy as yours though. Never too late for a first time.

Hey Sarge...so how DKP cars actually completed the Rallys?  ...or did they just skip the rally and go to the end and eat pizza!!

Gee, I NEVER thought of that.... ::)  ;D  As well as I remember, we did the rallies.  Nothing better then getting mixed up right out of the gate and having to jump out and unscrew the speedo cable...jump back in, drive a mile (or however much you "estimated" your screw-up was), pull back over and screw the cable back to the speedo and get going again.  I also remember getting into a lot of arguing matches with "The Navigator" (my wife)  :-X >:( :o

You NEVER did that on ANY of your rallies....COME ON!!! ::) ;)  Art Alvarez has a nice collection of dash plaques and I have some old flyers someplace in the house I'll try and scan.

hahahaha   ;D kafercup and I got hopelessly lost in east Anaheim one year on Berg Rally... I think my contact lenses drying out didn't help matters at all.

You want to talk lost? Back in late 90's, the last few die hard members of our VW club up there in Bay Area setup and participated in what was known (tongue in cheek) as the "Yellow Sheep" rally, which took place on a very dark, foggy night, in the maze of levee roads that make up the San Joaquin Delta. We had the bright idea of making a cardboard template of a sheep and spray painting bright yellow sheep on the pavement, signaling the driver that the next intersection was a point to change direction. (but the driver wouldn't know which way unless they chose the "correct" direction and they saw another yellow sheep). Between the fog and the small size of the sheep nobody saw a thing....  we had a bunch of really pissed off people hopelessly lost!

Man, i remember both of those :)

The Berg Rally was a blast!

The infamous yellow-sheep rally was definitely an interesting experience.   :D :D

Here's one of DRA Rally Flyers.

Cool flyers, Ed 8) 8) 8)  Here's a couple of DKP oldies...

I love the very idea of navigational rallies, then add the mystique of DKP 1, the "anything goes" aura of the era and then the awesome fliers.... man I am down to be part of re-birth....

Sarge your fliers remind me of the San Fancisco (Haight Ashbury) bands fliers.... "mouse" I believe was the name of the feller that made a lot of the Dead's posters of the same ilk.   Very very cool artwork, Sarge!!!  8)

Thanks for the props, Jim 8)!  Wish to hell I'd kept more of those old flyers.  I had none for a long time until my sis blew me away by handing over a few she'd rat-holed away...surprise SURPRISE! :o ;D

I liked writing rallies better than running them... thinking of ways to screw people up.  :D :D

How come VW rallies dont go down anymore? Well aside from the Berg rally, what else is there??

I know DKP was thinking about putting one on. Bill asked me if I had any old rallies he could look at for ideas. I can't remember if they ever did it or not though.

DKP did the "Dude, Where's My Car" rally a few years ago and we had a pretty good turn-out.  The only problem was that there were very few air cooled cars that actually did the rally...seems like the winners were in a Chevy truck or something ::).  Unfortunatly, the days of loads of VW's and VW car clubs (the stuff you need for a good rally) are pretty much over.  My $.02

What if there was an incentive to run an aircooled car??

I think you're right Sarge. Not only that but hasn't the world gotten a little uglier than it was in 1968? I have nightmares of a group of rowdy VW guys blowing by a group of undesireables...  and things getting uglier from there. Gosh, I remember back in 1989, my friend and I got into a (what I thought was) friendly gear grabbing contest with some lowered POS mini truck through Livermore up north. Well, turned out inside the mini truck was a trio of coked-out, drunk white-pride cowboy dumbshits that started firing beer bottles at my car. Scared shitless, we redlined every gear to outrun the goons, but we ended up sliding off the road into a ravine, the mental midgets caught us and put a coupla twelve packs thru my windshield and quater windows. It could have gotten worse, as my friend at the time was kind of wacky and carried a bayonet with him everywhere he went.

of course, you guys had Manson and his harem to worry about I guess.

Hey, what were ther rules of these rallies? What did they look like?
We do kind of navigational rallies ourselves ( as a club) from time to time, but they seem to be organized differently...

Could you tell us (the young guys) more about the rallys? Seems like a lot of fun.

Like you don't get a beatin' if you win the rally in an aircooled car???  oops, did I type that out loud?

 :o ::) ;D

LOL well I had a better idea. If the rally is based on closest mileage to the predicted distance, you could halve the distance for air cooled cars! nice and simple!

During the heyday of OC VW Clubs, there were rallys almost every weekend during the summer months, and at least one a month during the winter.  These were open to VW's only.  I'd say the average turnout was 150 to 180 cars.  DRA's first rally was a big sucess for us as we had about 220 VWs.  Out Second rally was about 240 VW's.  No one kept records, but I'm pretty sure that was about the largest turnout for any VW Rally.

Most were navagation, so the object was to get close to the correct time and milage, and hitting every check point. 

Overall, these were pretty social events.  Probably the best place to meet the other VW Clubs, (there were 10to 15 Clubs in Orange County alone).  Most of the OC rallys started at Orangefair Mall in Fullerton.  Big parking lot, and they never gave us much grief about the burnouts, as it was customary to do one when each club made it's enterance.  The rallys, (for those of us who actually ran them) were always a blast.  Most ended at a Shakys Pizza, or something similar, for Throphys and Club cheers.

As much as I enjoyed the Bug In, and Carlsbad Drags, I realy have to say that the Rallys were up there too.  They don't seem to get as much history "print" as these other events, but I'd rate them just as good.

Anyone participate in the PUDS rallies in the mid 70s?
I think Mike from A.H. hosted them?
I missed a check point by not going to the very end of Carbon Canyon,
Busses doing bump wheelies in the parking lot.
Cal bugs with 2nd gear burn outs.
More beer and pizza!
 

Those old flyers very cool, so diffierent from todays internet, texting cell phone gen.