Vern Parker Article
Feb. 6, 2009
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| Image of Annie at the Tallac Historic Site, South Lake Tahoe, California, used with Vern Parker's article. |
Lynn has a moment of fright this morning when wife Jeanne exclaims "Oh, oh!" from the kitchen. Lynn wonders have the pipes burst; is a window broken; is the neighbor's dog in our back yard; is the roof leaking? "What's 'oh, oh'?" Lynn asks. "Look at this!" Jeanne says while pointing to the newspaper.
To his delight Lynn sees a big picture of Annie and an accompanying article on the cover of the automotive section of the Tri-Valley Times (Contra Costa Times). Yahoo! Annie is getting some national exposure through a syndicated article by Vern Parker, Motor Matters. Later, after a quick internet search, Lynn also notes the article online at Philly Edge.
Motor Matters is an automotive content provider, creating articles of interest for the media. Apparently Vern Parker specializes in stories on antique cars and their owners. His articles appear weekly in Lynn's local paper, a feature that he looks forward to reading every Saturday morning.
About a month ago, Lynn submitted a photo of Annie and some background information to Vern for consideration as a future article. In mid January, Vern gave Lynn a telephone call and they chatted for some time. While he hoped that Vern was interested in writing an article, Lynn didn't know if that would happen for sure until today, a pleasant surprise.
Of course, Lynn was looking for the bit of ego rush that would come from such an article seen by friends and family. While he's considered sending Vern a note for some time, the thought that got Lynn to act was the realization that such a broad exposure might help illuminate some of Annie's early history. While his knowledge of Annie since 1949 is very good, her early history and ownership is still a mystery. Hopefully anyone reading the article with such knowledge will contact Lynn and share that information.
On Saturday, the day that the article appears in the local paper, Lynn receives two phone calls from complete strangers in the area. One gentleman is interested to learn more about the car so that he can discuss it with his son. Lynn and the 86-year-old man spend a good hour or more on the phone. They discover many common threads in their past (both are retired from a nearby national scientific laboratory; both went to graduate school in Pittsburgh, PA).
The second individual requests that Lynn and Annie participate in the 2010 Livermore Rodeo Parade, begun in 1918. In fact Lynn has had a long-term goal of participating with Bugsby in the parade but has been too busy with other activities to spend much effort in pursuing this goal. While Vern's article has precipitated an invitation for Annie, Lynn suspects that this year's experience in the parade could likely lead to a future invitation for Bugsby.
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Last updated: Feb. 7, 2010