Andy We have all heard the news that our friend and fellow Model A’er Andy Brancato recently passed away. I have known Andy for about 20 years, and every mo-ment of that time has been memorable. When I first came to Bakersfield, before I knew Andy, I drove to Burbank every day. I used to drive past his house daily, and there was always an airplane in the pasture behind his house. Little did I know that I would ever get to know him! That pasture was Andy’s airport, he flew for years, but NEVER had a pilot’s license In the early years of our friendship, we traveled a lot together, we went on almost all of the CCRG Grand Tours. We also traveled with the club a lot. Andy was always up to some mischief, usually something that would warrant an elbow in the ribs from Anna.

The Model A Ford Club of America - Bakersfield Chapter

J u l y 2 0 2 0 V o l u m e 6 0 I s s u e 7

Upcoming Events: * = Club Sanctioned Event

www.bakersfield-mafca.com

The Model A Ford Club of America, Bakersf ield Chapter, the first chapter, is dedicated to the preser-vation of the Model A Ford and its era. All are wel-come. Information in the newsletter may be bor-rowed from other publica-tions. Credit will be given when known.

Meetings are held the first Monday of the month at 7:00 p.m. at the Rasmus-sen Center, 115 E. Rob-erts Lane.

P.O. Box 1616, Bakersfield, CA. 93302

· July 1, 2020 - No General meeting in July.

· July 4, 2020 - Making plans for the 4th (See info on Page 3)

· *August 3, 2020 - Gen-eral Meeting at the Ras-mussen Center - 7:00 PM.

· Sept 18, 2020 - 18th An-nual All Ford Show in Orcutt. (See flyers on Pages 7, 8 & 9)

· Sept 19, 2020 - 10th An-nual Model A Day at the Gilmore Museum.

· December 3-6, 2020 - MAFCA National Awards Banquet - Ft. Worth, Texas -

CANCELLED

Inside This Issue

S

Birthdays & Anniversaries

2

Information & Andy Story

3

Business Directory

4

Andy Story

5

Gail’s Article - Trip to Davis’

6

All Ford Registration

7, 8 & 9

You will note that this newsletter looks much different than normal. Ron had very little new informa-tion, and I knew that I would need a lot of room when it came to writing an article about Andy. One of these days I hope this stupid Pandemic is over, and we can get back to normal - Dan

2020 Board of Directors

President Ron Black (661) 331-9844 RonBlack30A@yahoo.com 1st Vice President Mark Sheffield (661) 619-8522 marsheff@aol.com 2nd Vice President Debbie Launer (661) 747-4911 dlauner@aol.comj Secretary Joanne Johnson (503) 298-9395 moosecreek_@msn.com Treasurer Sharon Davis (661) 393-3317 modelagal@aol.com News Editor Dan Foulk (661) 393-2795 bmaclub@hotmail.com Member At Large Eddie Moran (661) 703-0904 eddiemoran415@gmail.com Webmaster Dennis Patrick (661) 565-6464 DWP2699@gmail.com Past President Mike Martin (661) 912-6287 martinmikepaul@gmail.com

Committee Chairmanships CCRG Dan Foulk (661) 393-2795 bmaclub@hotmail.com CCRG Eddie Pruett 661) 619-7330 phillippruett@sbcglobal.com Historian Kirk Ritter (661) 393-4422 kirkritter80@gmail.com Property Rick Davis (661) 393-3317 modelarick@aol.com Nominating Rick Davis (661) 393-3317 modelarick@aol.com Raffle Curt Nicks (661) 399-2017 cnicks1@bak.rr.com Roster Sharon Davis (661) 393-3317 modelagal@aol.com Sunshine Sudy Pruett (661) 392-1668 eddiepruett@yahoo.com Telephone Annie Duckworth (661) 399-2375 Vests & Jackets Linda Jackson (661) 393-2353 snickers@atginternet.com Photographer Gail Malouf Harger (661) 809-7184 gailmalouf@gmail.com

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Sudy Pruett, is our Sunshine Representative, she needs to know when members are ill, have surgery, or are in the hospital. Also let her know about new Model A’rs (babies), marriages, and other important events.

Sunshine

Good morning Model A friends. It seems like forever since we have been together, and it may be a long while before we can have a proper meeting. I have been to the coast for a few weeks enjoying the nice weather. My good friend Andy Brancato has lost his struggle with Cancer. I am so very sad for Anna and his family. Our First Lady, Julie Black, has lost her mother at the age of 98. Joanne Berry’s sister, Susan, passed. I also wish to tell you about a long time club member, Ernie Albitre. Ernie has never completely recovered from his bout with Valley Fever. Because of that and other health issues, he is now living in a rest home. As you can tell, this has not been a very good month. Your prayers are needed for these families. Please take care of yourselves and stay safe.

July Anniversaries

3 - John & Kay Alexander 12 - John & Beth Hustead 27 - John & Chiko Maricich 30 - Chuck & Vickie Parker

July Birthdays

1 - Rick Rogers 5 - Curtis Nicks - Mike Davis 6 - Don Carothers 7 - Beth Hustead 10 - Stu Slattery 12 - Elia Wisehart 15 - Eddy Besenfelder 29 - Sharon Davis

Please Read!

"Our Raffle is a voluntary and entertaining way of having the members pay for the Rasmussen Room rental, as well as to fund other cash award activities in the club such as member present, driving your Model A to the meeting, etc.”

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For instance, note in the previous picture where he is in relation to Debbie, he had to be up to something, he par-ticularly liked to pick on Debbie! In another picture from a tour, Andy appears to be getting handcuffed by a couple of Sheriff’s deputies, they really weren't, Andy was making a show of it. That was Andy for you! Andy would swear almost every other word, you got used to it. My Mother always said that some people could swear gracefully, Andy was one of them, when he swore, you really didn’t notice it much. Another time, Andy and I happened to be talking about propane, I was relative newcomer to Bakersfield, and had never had a home that used propane before. I was com-plaining because the propane vendors would let you use their tanks, but then make you buy your propane from them, and charge whatever they wanted for it. Andy said I needed a tank of my own, then I could buy my propane from whomever I wanted. I said good idea, all I need to do is find one for sale. About 2 weeks later, Andy showed up in my yard with the darndest looking rig I had ever seen! He had his pickup, and was pulling a two wheel trailer made from an old pickup bed, with a kingpin trailer con-necter in it pulling about a 30 foot dual wheel truck trailer hooked to the kingpin hitch in the trailer. Behind the truck trailer was Andy’s forklift, and on the trailer was an 1100 gallon propane tank, which Andy gave to me. We are still using that tank, I have to fill it only once a year!! What a Guy! Then he set up a collaboration of us to all buy the propane from the same vendor, and thereby get a price break. In 2010, The Model A National Convention was in Van-couver, British Columbia. A group of us from Bakersfield decided to go. We mostly had RV’s, so it was quite a con-

voy. Andy had been warned about not taking a gun into Canada, several times. Andy had become separated from the rest of the group, and was traveling with Gary Stanfill. The guards at the boarder asked him if he had a gun, he replied that he did not. They did a cursory inspection, then asked him again if he had a gun. Andy replied that he did not have a gun, “but by God, did have a permit to carry one in 48 states”! The result, they x-rayed his coach, and Gary’s as well, delaying them several hours, Gary was not happy! They also x-rayed both coaches upon their return to the USA. Further down the road on our return trip we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese store in Tillamook, Ore-gon. We toured the cheese factory, then went to the retail store, it was packed with people. While in the store, Andy lost Anna. He looked all over for her, finally he spotted her looking in some of the display cases, he walked up behind her, and goosed her! The problem was, it wasn’t Anna. Boy, was that ladies' husband mad at Andy!

INFORMATION · July 4, 2020 - Making plans for the 4th.

Tentatively planning on everyone to our house. We can provide shade, toilet and a big swimming pool. Watch for further de-tails via email on July 2nd. Those inter-ested who do not get email, call Debbie Launer at (661) 747-4911. Drive your Model A!

Dan

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Business Directory

Page 4

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In August of 2005, hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast of the US, particularly New Orleans. I was still working, for an IT Consulting company that had projects all across the country. My job was managing all of the Project Managers who managed those projects. It didn’t make a lot of difference where they lived, they managed the projects remotely anyway. It just happened that one of my Project Managers lived in Slidell, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. Katrina flooded their house, and ruined every stick of furniture in it, but did not knock the house down. My employer wanted to do something to help this lady and her husband. Somehow, it came about that I had a motorhome that they could use until they got their house repaired. My company was willing to hire a driver to drive it down there, but I was reluctant to let someone else drive my precious motorhome. I told them I would drive it. Shelby was working, so couldn’t be the 2nd driver. Brainstorming, how about asking Andy to drive? It was done, and in a few days we were on our way. When I would sleep, Andy would drive. Little did I know, that my motorhome would do 90 miles an hour! But it did, several times when I would wake up, we were doing 90. I’d say jeez Andy, slow down a little, so he’d back off to 85. When we drove into Louisiana from Texas, it was mid-morning, and time for us to stop for breakfast. Louisiana at that time was sort of like our country has been during this pandemic, sort of shell shocked. Although there was no damage in that part of the state, there was not much going on, not many people around, everything was very slow. We found a roadside res-taurant and went in, not many people in there. Our waitress was a young Southern Belle, very pretty, and sweet as pie. She brought us our menu’s, then came back to take our orders. She was going through her list of questions, and she asked Andy how he wanted his eggs? His answer to her was "Cooked”! It absolutely floored her, at first she had a shocked look on her face, then she started to laugh, we all laughed together, we made a friend in Louisiana that day! Andy scared the dog out of me one time, we were coming out of a gas station, where we had to cross the lane going to the right so we could get into the far lane going left. The side of the lane going left had the shoulder on it’s side cut away, so there was about an 18 inch drop off from the pavement down the side of the blacktop. The turn from the gas station was sharp, so there couldn’t have been more than 1/3 of the tread on the front tire still on the blacktop, the rest of the tire was sticking out there in thin air!! I about had a heart attack! Andy looked at me like I was nuts!. Well, we made it. In all my life, I have never seen destruction like Louisiana after that storm, My employee had a full sized tugboat in her back yard, blown in. Three months later, Andy and I went back and got my motorhome, which I still have. The only event of that trip, was coming home. We slept in Albuquerque at a Flying J. The next morning, we left early, by nightfall we were in Needles. I wanted to get home, so I said I’d drive. After a while, I started to get a little sleepy. I had a whole collection of Floyd Cramer CD’s. The motorhome had a 7 stack CD player in it. I filled the CD player, and turned it up as loud as it would go. Andy looked at me and said “That’s Floyd Cramer”, not another word all the way home, Andy was home by mid-night. Andy was Rough, Tough, Gruff, Independent, Stubborn, and Smart. But he was a pussycat if you needed something! Andy once drove all the way from his house to mine just to help me get my Allis Chalmers started, all it needed was a shot of either! MAN, I’m gonna miss him!

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Story and Pictures complements of Gail Malouf Harger

E leven Model A’s and two modern cars from the Bakersfield Model A Club

took a little day trip today. It was great to get out after several months to enjoy our cars, our friends and the beautiful scenery. We left Bakersfield and started up the hill to Glennville, where we stopped for a few refreshments and fresh air. We then left for the climb up Greenhorn Mountain on our way to Lake Isabella. We enjoyed some wild flowers, creeks and beautiful scenery on the climb. Rick warned us before hand about the curved road and steep incline and 13 degree drop going down into Wofford

Heights. Model A’s do not have power steering and they have mechanical brakes, so we stopped about half way down to let our brakes cool off. We then stopped at Rick and Sharons for our picnic lunch, which had to be in-side since the wind was blowing so hard. Dan presented Rick and Sharon with their pins representing 40 years of membership with MAFCA. Dan has been carrying the pins around with him since February waiting for the time we would be together again. I had to get some shots of our beautiful Kern River on our way down to Bakersfield. There were a lot of people along the River. Sure hope they stay safe as the River is named killer Kern for a reason. Beautiful but treacher-ous.

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Model A Ford Club of America, Bakersfield Chapter

MY OTHER CAR IS A MODEL “A”

P.O. Box 1616 Bakersfield, CA 93302

Model A Ford Club of America, Bakersfield Chapter

MY OTHER CAR IS A MODEL “A”

P.O. Box 1616 Bakersfield, CA 93302

Back Page of the current Capital “A”s Newsletter - Very Nice!