It's a little late, but it occurs to me that I never reported in on the Crawford Museum's Concours d'Ordinaire. This event was held on Sunday, August 11th at Lawnfield, the residence of James Garfield, in Mentor, Ohio. I was thinking about keeping the whole thing a secret because if word gets out and spreads it could ruin the event so don't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you. This is a neat event. Totally low key. A smallish bunch of car people gathered in the shade under the trees swapping car stories. The cars were a varied lot. A very eclectic collection. Everything from a couple of true classics brought out from the museum on down. Sixties muscle cars mingled with the odd and eccentric like a very rough but still running old Crosley. Back in my salad days I had a brief encounter with a Crosley Hotshot. It was a truly tiny two seater powered by a small four cylinder engine of perhaps 750 cc. I got to drive this lilliputian bolide because the owner was too young to have a driver's license. But I digress. The Crosley that showed up at Lawnfield in Mentor where the Concours d'Ordinaire was held was considerably older than the one I was acquainted with. The owner was more than happy to give a quick tour under the hood. The engine was an air cooled two cylinder. Sort of an American rendition of the infamous "deux chaveaux". An interesting feature was that the generator sat directly in front of the engine and was driven right off the front of the crankshaft. No intervening gears, shafts or belts.

A couple of other cars that I found interesting was a pair of Ford powered short track racers. The younger of the pair built perhaps in the late thirties or early forties was powered by what I recognized as a tricked out Ford flat head V-8. The older car dated back to the late twenties. I had to ask the owner about the powerplant which he identified as a hot rodded model A Ford engine. Both cars were in "as is" condition in keeping with the spirit of the event. They looked nice but definitely not like coddled show pieces. I couldn't help but think about how our late brother J.A. "Brownie" Brown would have enjoyed them. He had a definite soft spot for these old short track racers that used to race on quarter mile or even eighth mile dirt tracks at fairgrounds or wherever. I can certainly imagine that they must have provided some really exciting action. I mentioned earlier that we gathered in the shade under the trees at the former Garfield residence. That's an important point to me. My general impression of summer car shows is of unrelenting heat pouring up from acres of black asphalt with no place to hide. Not so at the Concours d'Ordinaire. It's a small gathering of perhaps forty or fifty vehicles. At that size and given the nicely wooded landscape at Lawnfield, there's room for everyone under the trees. Very comfy.

For reasons I don't necessarily understand, daughter number one, Maxine, decided to go along with me to this event. I think it was because the venue has historic significance making it, in her mind, a justifiable use of her time. I drove the MG and picked her up at her apartment out on Sperry road in Russell. I had consulted a map before leaving home and determined that Sperry road was a reasonable route up toward Mentor and so we proceeded northward. I then discovered what was not apparent from the map. Sperry road alternates between stretches of nicely maintained asphalt and stretches of barely maintained dirt and/or gravel. I didn't really mind. Dirt and gravel roads have an interest of their own, a sort of loose feel as if you were driving on marbles that can be fun if you approach them with the right attitude. So we headed north. Asphalt up to Mayfield, dirt from Mayfield up to Wilson's Mills, back to asphalt, back to dirt and so on. Part of our route went right through the Holden Arboretum. All in all a nice ride in the country on a lovely summer afternoon. It would have been a nice way to spend time even if we hadn't had a destination in mind. But we did accumulate a rather thick layer of dust on the way. This turned out to be a good thing. It qualified us for the "Praying for Rain" award at the show. They have lots of awards in this vein. I think about half the field ended up going home with a grab bag of useless stuff from the dollar store along with a certificate, suitable for framing but only if you are willing to open yourself to the ridicule of friends who might actually read it and ask what it's for.

I had a fine time and hope to do it again but don't tell anybody what a good time I had. If word gets out attendance might start going up and that would be bad. Next thing you know it would get too crowded and they would have to relocate it to some treeless lake of asphalt and start having serious judging of serious classes and a serious awards ceremony and that, in my mind, would just ruin the whole thing. So keep this under your hat. Mum's the word. It's a car show for people who don't normally like car shows.