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Weekly News June 20, 2010Description
Please note that the “Weekly News” is one day early this week. Also, the “News”, starting next week, will be in a new format called Constant Contact and will be sent from the F.A.H.P. office instead of from my personal computer. This will allow for a more attractive presentation, possibly with illustrations occasionally, and will have the provision for you to “unsubscribe” if you’d rather not receive it weekly. I’ll still be attempting to write an anecdote, and may repeat some of the earlier ones if the well runs dry. Tom
Arthur A. Fink (c.1878-c.1960): If Fink had been a character actor in Hollywood, the configuration of his face and overall shape would have put him in top demand. Hired by my father to report the Yorklyn trapshooting tournaments to the press, he was on hand annually during the “shoot” for at least twenty years. Like a few of the shooters who wanted to “rough it”, he slept on an iron cot under a big tent or in the clubhouse and took his meals in the dining room on site. He never drove a car, but hitched a ride from his home in Reading, PA, with one of the several shooters who attended from that area. He always wore a black suit and a shirt that started off white, but may have lasted him all week.
Despite his peculiar appearance, he knew the sports editors with the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and other papers well, and had the know-how to get bold headlines reporting the shooting events at Yorklyn. While the winners were featured, the score of everyone who shot in a particular event could read his or her score in the paper. Like others of his generation (and of my father’s), a flowery style of writing was his stock-in-trade. Examples: “at the hilltop traps overlooking the vast Marshall acreage”, “Steve Crothers, the Chestnut Hill crack (meaning crack shot)”, “popular trade man (meaning a shooter who worked for a gun or ammunition company)”, and “missing only one of the elusive clays”. With all these flowery descriptions, he was extremely accurate nonetheless. At the end of the week, he wrote the account of the 4-1/2-day tournament for the “Sportsmen’s Review”, the magazine of trapshooting published weekly in Cincinnati. With the two-finger method, he used an old typewriter located on a discarded desk in a small building we called the “engine room” next to the clubhouse, but he was fast. This building housed a 1917 Packard Twin Six motor hooked to a direct current generator which powered the 1000-candlepower lamps on each side of the traphouses that illuminated the clay targets for night shooting.
Al Cartwright, sports editor for the News Journal papers, who had started his career with the old Reading Eagle, told me this story about Arthur Fink. The latter kept reporting the scores of baseball games in a local league around Reading, and his readers looked forward each morning to finding out how the previous day’s game turned out. Games were not yet broadcast on the radio, all were daylight games, and only a few working people had an opportunity to attend a league game so they had never seen the players. Actually, there were no players, no ball teams, and no league. Fink had made the whole thing up, and got away with it for some time!
Steve Bryce, accompanied by his son, drove the Model 76, and Butch Cannard took the Model 87, to the Helicopter Museum today to participate in the annual Fatherfest event there. Although it was a hot day, both cars ran very well and their occupants enjoyed the show.
Tuesday evening, June 22, is our second “Ice Cream Run” to Woodside Farm starting at 6:30 P.M. Take advantage of these long days to enjoy the area’s best ice cream, and a drive of about 12 miles taking an indirect route. On the first run on June 10, we had six cars and about 25 people. This time, a sheet is on the bench in the garage containing the names of those who want to participate. So far, it looks like about 3 or 4 cars including Bob Wilhelm’s, as Bob plans to join us at Auburn Heights shortly after 6:00, and has room for several passengers. Our target times are to leave Auburn Heights not later than 6:30, and leave Woodside Farm not later than 8:15 for the return. If you can’t sign the sheet but still want to go, please call Steve Bryce (302) 234-0789, E-mail stevebryce@verizon.net, OR Susan Randolph (302) 239-2385, E-mail admin@auburnheights.org.
Bill Schwoebel has reminded me that the Auburn Valley locomotives have not been properly cleaned since their use on June 6. This week, those involved with the railroad are asked to remedy this situation.
Three phone calls from Mike May have informed me of the success of the Bourdons and the Mays in Don Bourdon’s 1911 Stanley Model 85 on the Red Rock Tour in Wyoming and Colorado. After driving from their start at Estes Park, they have been to Yellowstone National Park, then southward across western Wyoming, and are now zig-zagging over the many passes in western Colorado, at elevations from 10,000 to 12,000 feet. On their last day on June 25, they will travel over Trail Ridge Road and cross the Continental Divide in Rocky Mountain National Park at nearly 12,000 feet, before descending to Estes Park at 7,500 feet elevation. There are about 30 cars on the tour, with models through 1914, but the Bourdon-May car is the only steamer. Kathryn May and Nancy Bourdon have occupied the back seat, rain, wind, and cold. The front seat occupants represent top management.
Our next FAHP event is the July 4th parade in Hockessin. Each year, we take several cars, line up at St. Mary’s Catholic Church or on the lawn of the former Walker’s Greenhouses before 2 P.M., and drive to Woodside Farm for ice cream after the parade. As in the past, we hope numerous drivers will take several cars and their passengers to participate in the parade. Details will follow in next week’s “News”. On July 10, those going to the Eastern Steam Car Tour at Rockport, Maine, will be leaving Yorklyn for the opening banquet on the 11th. It is expected that our Stanley Models 87, 76, and 725 will be going, along with Kelly Williams’ 1910 Stanley speedster. Keep in touch with Bill Schwoebel or Steve Bryce for details.
On Saturday, July 24, we have been invited by Lou Mandich to participate in the antique car day at the Strasburg Railroad. It’s a great event! More later.
Tom
