[DeTomaso] Spontaneity Pays Off!

[Mike Thomas]

While my wife is enjoying the wilds of North Central Wisconsin (Cable area,
to be exact) visiting her sister, my calendar is pretty much my own.
Realizing that Sunday was expected to be much nicer than the morning washout
the day before, I looked around for a car show to go to, and wouldn't you
know it: Bickford Ford in Snohomish, WA was having their 75th anniversary
All Ford show today

I spent a couple of hours cleaning up the car on Saturday evening, and got
up this morning to cool pre-autumn air, broken clouds and the promise lots
of sunshine.  Snohomish is about 60 miles north of my home in Covington, so
I was out by about 8:00 on relatively open freeways and two lanes.  The
brisk morning air rolling in through the windows, I was passing through some
great farmlands with the last traces of morning mist cloaking the occasional
herd of cattle or sheep.  Snohomish is a modest-sized farm town just
Northeast of the Seattle area, and there are some great car shows there
throughout the summer.

Bickford Ford has been around long enough that the street in front of the
place also carries the family name.  I arrived at about 9:15 and the lot was
almost full.  Some beautiful stuff showed up today, from pristine Model T's
and A's (every Ford guy has to love a little T & A, right?), a mint 1947
4-ton cab over flatbed, hauling an equally mint 1947 2-Ton stake truck.  All
sorts of Mustangs, Galaxies, '30's-'40's coupes and converts, a little bit
of everything in the 144 entrants.

Oh, and I was the only Pantera.  Lots of great questions, all sorts of
people that come up to me and told me about the Pantera they used to own, or
friend owned, or that they saw in high school, etc.  Great reception.  Well,
when it all wrapped up, I took another one for Team Pantera: 1st in class
for all Fords, 1971-1990.

Hardware is always good, and it made the drive home that much more fun.

Mike Thomas
Panteras Northwest