by Frank Maldari
AONE Director
Up until the week before the party, with the temperature in the 50’s and no snow in the past 300+ days, most of us we were wondering if we made a mistake by taking our cars off the road for the winter. Well, the snow and cold finally arrived to make the Winter Party true to its name!
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This year, we returned to the Josiah Smith Tavern in Weston, Massachusetts, the scene of many an Alfa gathering in years gone by. With a strong showing of around 30 members from as far away as Maine and Vermont, we had an opportunity to renew and make new friendships, and recollect on the past year’s events. The get-together also allowed the club to recognize Dave Pratt with the Founders Trophy. This award, presented by Tom Lesko, was given to Dave for his dedication in helping to revitalize the New England chapter. Among Dave’s contributions are serving as editor of our newsletter, Webmaster of www.velocissima.com, hosting Directors’ meetings, updating the club logo, making a new club banner, and commissioning the production of club decals and coffee mugs. Quite an accomplishment. Unfortunately, Dave had to drag himself out of bed to graciously accept the trophy and pass his flu onto the rest of us. Just kidding — a job well done, Dave!
No AONE party is complete without door prizes, and this year they included Alfa baseball hats, key chains, plaques, books, coffee mugs, etc., etc. Needless to say, everyone went home with something, so if you missed this one, plan for next year now!
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With plenty of food and beverage under our belts, our evening’s guest speaker, Gene Ritvo, treated us to a superb video documentary of the recent Pebble Beach Concours. For those of you who are not aware, Gene is a professional photographer and his work is featured in museums and sold to automotive companies for promotional purposes. Gene has owned a number of Alfas and is also a past president of our chapter. The history, natural beauty of the Pacific Coast, and the California climate combine to make Pebble Beach the ultimate concours. Unfortunately, for this event, the overcast skies and threat of rain made the job of documenting the event difficult. Nevertheless, Gene was able to capture and narrate some excellent video and audio footage, especially the sound of the racing Mercedes revving up its engine. Do you think this guy wore out his clutch to keep it from stalling? The video featured many cars, passionately restored by their owners, such as Packard, Cord, Duesenberg, the featured mark Auto Union (a.k.a. Audi), and the show winner Daimler. Of particular interest for us was the beautiful black Alfa 8C2900 Supercharged Cabriolet. As Gene commented, the trend at concours is toward black cars, which is unfortunate. If the Alfa was red or maroon it may have stood out from the other black cars to win. As it turned out, the 1932 Black Daimler won, which is a pity since the Alfa was a much more elegant car and a truer restoration.
The final video presentation was of the Concours Italiano, also held in northern California. For this event, the weather cooperated and provided an excellent opportunity to see all Italian-built autos — Alfas, Bizzarinis, Fiats and (of course) Ferraris. Included was the Maserati owned by the former Shah of Iran, complete with the unique grill treatment.
Finally, the party broke up at 10:00, giving us plenty of time to get home to our hibernating Alfas. Until spring arrives, why not settle back, drink coffee out of our Alfa mugs, and read back issues of Velocissima online (and in color, I might add). A special thanks to all the members who showed up and brought something. See you at the next event!
[Editor’s note: I was quite surprised and very pleased to have been given custody of the AONE Founders Trophy at the Winter Party on January 15. To see my name engraved on the same piece of metal with those of DiMatteo, Miga, Bolivar, Gagne, and Thomsin is a true honor. I love doing things for the club because I share your love of our marque, and it’s a joy to be associated with such a great bunch of people. I’d like nothing more than to see more members get juiced up and take an active role, so we can keep the trophy circulating! Thank you, Members and Directors!
Also, a big thanks from everyone to Winter Party organizer Frank Maldari, who arranged the hall, procured door prizes, and did everything that needed to be done to make the event the smooth and fun affair that it was. Nice work! - Dave]
