Besides his love of the vehicles produced by the late American independent
auto manufacturers, Pop has a thing for limousines and hearses. His
first years working in New York City were full of bumps and bruises
because of it. As his head kept swiveling to watch another long shiny
black limo glide down the block, Pop kept smacking into the skinny
poles that hold up street awnings. The vivid picture of a snooty chauffeur
in Saratoga Springs, New York, chastising a small boy for daring to
touch the padded top of a custom Cadillac limousine, still haunts
his dreams.
Finding limousines on today's Internet is much less hazardous. These
wonderful photographs are from calendars produced by the Tri-State
Chapter of the Professional Car Society. Pop found the old ones, with
black & white photos, on eBay and then bought copies of the full-color
2003, 2004 and 2005 calendars. Hopefully, the new calendar for 2008
will arrive in Beach Bum Cove soon and more pages of photos from the
2008 and earlier calendars will be added to the Photo Galleries. While
many of these great vehicles reside back east, Pop was pleased to
find several California cars in the 2005 calendar. These include a
1978 Superior Cadillac Ambulance owned by Mark Fariss of Chula Vista;
a 1976 Superior Cadillac Crown 3-way Hearse owned by Hewy and Ruth
Wick of Hemet and a 1975 Miller Meteor Cadillac Side Loader Hearse
owned by Dan Scully of Apply Valley. Many thanks to Chuck Snyder,
now President of the Tri-State Chapter for his generous help in providing
material for this on-going pictorial.
Calendars
for 2008
The Professional Car Calendar 2008is now available.
The cost is $12.00 each plus $2.00 shipping. A limited
number of the calendars for 2006 and 2007 (color)
and some earlier years in black & white are still
available. For ordering information, contact Chuck
Snyder.
Membership
To join the Tri-State Chapter send dues of
$10 per year to Chester Zygowski, TSC PCS, 3660 Allendale
Street, Pittsburgh PA 15204. You must also be a current
member of the national Professional Car Society.
Dues for the national are $24 per year…you can join
both at once by sending $34 to the Tri-State Chapter
and they will forward your payment and information
to the national. To learn more about the national
organization, contact the Membership Director at PCS
Membership, 5405 Heritage Lane, Kingsport TN 37664-9506.
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Tri-State Chapter of the Professional Car Society
The Professional Car Society is an organization dedicated to the preservation, restoration and appreciation of professional cars. A professional car is defined as a custom-bodied vehicle that is either horse-drawn or based on passenger car styling and specifically designed for ambulance, funeral or livery service. Included in this class of vehicles are ambulances, flower cars, funeral service cars, hearses, limousines or cars that combine two or more of these functions, such as combination hearse-ambulances, sedan-ambulances or invalid coaches.
The Tri-State Chapter covers
Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Western New York but has
members from other areas as well. It was granted a charter by the
National Board of the Society in January of 1990. The chapter produces
a quarterly publication called The Livery, an eight page color newsletter
covering club events and member's cars, and providing interesting
facts and information on professional cars in general.
The Tri-State Chapter's
new calendar for 2008 is now available. (See sidebar)
The Tri-State Chapter is always looking for photos to feature in
future calendars. If you have a car that you would like to see in
their calendar, contact Chuck
Snyder.
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