Off to Hershey!

October has been a busy month already – starting with the trip to Michigan, and then  quickly turning to the AACA – Antique Automobile Club of America – Fall meet in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

“Hershey” has become an annual rite of passage for me…  I first attended with my parents and grandparents in 1982 at the age of 10 – and was BORED TO TEARS!  I could not possibly have cared less about the whole thing, and found the antique cars only mildly interesting…

My next trip was in 1984 at the age of 12.  By this time, my father had purchased a Model T speedster project, which the previous owner referred to as a “Speedster in a basket”.  It turns out that the basket was missing several key items, and Hershey was the place to go to find them.  By describing what we were looking for, and seeing that we were on a really dedicated mission to find this stuff in one day, I was really pulled into “the hunt”, and it was a fun day.  And, we did actually find most of what we were looking for!

NOTE:  I think the “Speedster in a basket” got me accustomed at an early age to building cars out of nothing but a pile of parts.  So, I guess you can blame that for some of the messes I’ve dragged back to the shop lately – and to my wife’s dismay, back to the house over the past 30 years!

Sadly, soon after Hershey in the Fall of 1984, my grandfather passed away, and that also brought an end to the speedster project – something he and my father were working on together.  So the antique car thing was over for the Hadleys for a while, and we did not attend Hershey in 1985.  Then, in the Spring of 1986, something happened that would not only take me back to Hershey that Fall, but every single year since without exception:

In May of 1986, I got “the Jag” (in a basket, I might add…) – I was 14 and a half…

So in the Fall of 1986, we were right back up to Hershey, running around like crazy trying to find as many of the missing components as we could – and there were ALOT!  I imagine that any one of the larger British ccar or even Jaguar swap meets would have been a much better option for that, but we didn’t know about any of those – we just knew about Hershey, and it was big enough so that there was always a little of everything – including E-Type parts.

If you haven’t been to Hershey, you MUST go!  There simply is nothing else like it on the earth.  I guess there are others that are KIND of like it, but Hershey is FIVE TIMES the size of Carlisle, Iola, Chickasha, or anything else, anywhere!  I have been there many times on Saturday for the actual show itself, but the big draw for my father and me has always been the flea market.  It is HUGE!  There are over 10,000 10×30-foot spaces, adding up to over 14 MILES of flea-market “row” if you weave your way throughout the whole thing.

It has taken place on the second weekend of October on the grounds and parking lots and surrounding fields of Hershey Park since 1955.  This year was my 30th year at Hershey, and I have done it every way it can be done – day trips, overnight in the truck, sleeping under the truck, in a tent, in a camper right in the flea market, staying in a hotel – you name it!  We have dragged TONS of parts to sell some years, and have gone other years with nothing but a pocketful of cash.  I even bought an E-Type at Hershey one year!

Here are some photos of Hershey this year and last year – both of which had perfect weather.  I took more photos last year, but never had the chance to blog it.  We’re backed up in the shop, and didn’t really have the time to spend up there wandering around, but as I’ve said many times, “the world stops for Hershey” – hey – you’ve got to have some traditions in your life!