Looking gray and dismal outside. I don't care, though. I plan on watching tv and working on genealogy notes. Might paint some rocks too. And nap. I've felt tired since I woke up. I did get a Town Kid blog written for the Leader website. "You can't go home again".
Found an interesting article written by Patrick Sullivan when I google imaged Rakers Car Club. Think I'll share it here..
The Rakers Car Club was started in 1957 by Port Townsend
High School students Vic Olson, Gary Ried, Glen Benton and Jim Seastone. Raker
members usually hung out at Joe’s Corral or CUSAKS, both of which were eatery
stops along the normal cruising circuit. Club meetings were usually held at the
designated local quarter-mile strip out by West Hastings or, on occasion, in a
building on Washington Street, the site of the Bishop Victorian Hotel.
The Rakers Car Club disbanded in the late 1960s, when
many members had either gone into the military, moved away, married, or started
a family. By April 2001, the original members had finished raising their
families, retired, or rekindled their passion for cars — and the Rakers Car
Club was reborn. Membership is currently approaching 100 with members located
in Washington and Idaho.
The following are some original members of the Rakers
and, to our best knowledge, the car by which each member is most recognized.
We’ve included links to a few photos of the original cars.
Members
Vic Olson
Gary Reid
Glen Benton
Jim Seastone
Jesse (Duke) Miller
Roy Brooks
Skip Lewis
Al Fossum
Don Mitton
Dave Kilmer
Mike Castellano
Ron Mitton
Dick Dull
Ray Brooling
Robin Bergstrom
Sam Swanson
Rick Buse
Bill Eldridge
Glenn (Buz) Neet
Stan Kaylan
Karl Jacobson
Karl Sebastian
Larry Marshlain
Herb Evanson
Tom Moss
Fred Robbins
American hot rods and the teenagers who drove them often
had a less than sterling reputation in the mid to late 1950s. A lot of it was
guilt by association due to notorious motorcycle gangs, and the simple
misconception formed by the glut of Hollywood B movies that glamorized a
renegade hot rod lifestyle.
But for teenagers in Port Townsend and Chimacum growing
up in the ’50s and early ’60s, hot rods were simply an expression of love: true
love for wrenches, gear ratios and flathead V-8s.
“We didn’t want any trouble,” said Vic Olson, who was an
original Rakers Car Club member in 1957, and helped rejuvenate the club in
2001. “We just loved cars. Maybe we liked to drive too fast, but that was all.”
Car club history
The Flywheels was the first Jefferson County car club,
formed in 1955. Its logo was a bumblebee atop a flathead V-8 engine with
prominent carburetor and pipes, with large wheels on the rear and small wheels
on the front.
“That was a time when hot rods were happening,” said
Robin Bergstrom, who helped design the Flywheels’ club plaque, and now owns
Bergstrom Antique Autos in Port Townsend. “We were watching the cars as they
were coming up from California. That’s where all the hot-rodding was being
done. We’d see a ’32 Deuce that would be in town and our eyeballs would fall
out of our head. That evening we’d be working to try and get something to look
that way.”
The Rakers formed in late 1957, and eventually merged
with Flywheels members. The Rakers logo is patterned after a 1939 Ford, “raked”
with a low front end and higher rear end.
The Rakers specifically made efforts to combat any
reputation of being a hot rod gang. “Courtesy cards” were printed, and when
members would stop to assist motorists in trouble, a card would be passed.
“Hot rod clubs had a bad name at that time,” Bergstrom
said. “But we were all about an insatiable desire to be around fast cars, not
to get into any trouble.”
For the most part, the Rakers did stay away from trouble.
In fact, some of them turned their early interest in turning wrenches into
successful business careers as mechanics, equipment operators and ferry
engineers. Some of those same people, and others like them, have now joined the
club.
Hang outs
Jefferson County teenagers have always longed for a place
to “hang out.” For the car club set in the ’50s and ’60s, it was pretty simple:
go to a street corner garage or a hamburger joint.
Skip’s Union 76 station at the corner of Tyler and
Lawrence streets uptown Port Townsend was a popular garage. Skip Lewis let kids
use tools and garage space to add “Mickey Mouse” whitewalls to their hot rod
tires, or perhaps clean their spark plugs in hopes of gaining a few miles an
hour or motor performance. In 1960 there were 12 garages in Port Townsend, and
many of them were home to a hot rod or two. Other favorite garage hang-outs
included Ed Lee’s custom car shop on Hastings Avenue, and Dollar’s Garage
downtown. In the ’60s, H.J. Carroll provided the use of the Bishop Building’s
street level rooms as a clubhouse. A few chairs, couch, refrigerator and TV
provided a hangout. Wednesday evenings, the Port Townsend High School shop was
opened for car club members to access tools and garage space.
Rakers participated in parades, and even hosted dances.
In 1964 the club convinced two recording groups, The Viceroys and The Wailers,
to play for dances at the American Legion Hall. The groups were skeptical that
coming to Port Townsend would cover their costs, but each dance drew about 400
people. Other times, some people made trips to the Chicken Coop dance hall just
across the Jefferson County line into Clallam County.
Going fast
Obviously, young people who liked to build fast cars had
to prove to themselves —- and others — just how fast those automobiles might
be. Some people used Airport Cutoff Road (now State Route 19), or the portion
of Rhody Drive near present-day H.J. Carroll Park.
More popular was the straight stretch of Hastings Avenue
outside the city limits. Ordained as the official “Quarter Mile” by 1961, it
was in fairly routine — although clandestine — use through the early 1970s.
Members note that in those days there were few vehicles
on local roads, and it was easy on some evening to have a half hour or more
with no other vehicles in sight. The Rakers today do not advocate or promote
drag racing on streets or highways. Olson is proud to say he has never been
issued a traffic ticket of any type.
Rakers and others interested in hot rods those days might
attend the drags in Shelton or Arlington, with the Bremerton drags starting in
the early ’60s.
A few pranks
The Rakers were never considered a “gang,” just a group
of guys who loved cars. That’s not to say some members weren’t involved with a
few juvenile pranks — most of it born from the boredom of living in a sleepy,
dead-end town. These were not Rakers “sanctioned” activities.
About 1958, a young man hooked a chain from a light pole
to the rear end of the police chief’s sedan parked uptown. When a hot rod sped
by, the chief jumped in his patrol car and took off — and tore loose the car’s
rear end.
In the early 60s, one club member drove his ’56 Chevy on
the sidewalk (then void of benches or trash barrels) from the present day ferry
terminal almost to the police station. Keep in mind, this was a time when,
after the downtown taverns closed on a Saturday night, a person could lay in
the middle of Water Street and not be a bother to anyone until sometime Monday
morning.
“There was so little activity back then we had to create
our own excitement,” said Bill Eldridge, an original Raker from the Chimacum Valley.
“We never hurt anybody, but we had fun.”
Club membership
As the local men got married or moved away for a job or
for military service, car club membership changed. “I got married in 1960 and
that took care of the car club,” Olson noted. That’s one reason why today’s
Rakers is a family club, with spousal participation encouraged.
The Rakers dissolved in the late 60s — none of the active
members now remember exactly when or how. But many of those same members still
carry their love for automobiles — and wish they still had their original hot
rods.
Today in the United States, there is a growing number of
organizations and businesses catering to those who buy, drive, collect and sell
hot rods and classic automobiles.
That interest in cars and car clubs led to the Rakers
being rejuvenated in April 2001. Owning a classic car is not required — simply
a love and appreciation for chromium steel. The Rakers meet once a month in
Port Townsend. Even more importantly, the club provides a network of safe
advice for people working on their own car projects.
“Back in the ’50s I never would have imagined how popular
those old cars would become, and that’s one reason car clubs are so big again,”
Olson said. “Working on old cars is a disease, and no doctor has the cure.”
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