"The days are getting longer."

My father always used to say that, year after year, starting, of course, very shortly after the winter solstice. To us, his sons, what it really meant was that there’s always good reason to look on the bright side of things, even when they might seem at their bleakest. Like the onset of winter, for example.

Well, the days are getting longer around the AONE clubhouse, in more ways than one. The most obvious is that, though we’ve a few more snowstorms to endure, the snowdrops will soon be emerging, followed by the crocuses, followed by our treasured Alfas gracing (and tearing up) the byways. But the days are getting longer in a more visceral sense — our club, too, is beginning to blossom! Another strong turnout for our Winter Party serves to provide evidence of that fact.

There’s no getting around it — with no new Alfas having arrived on our shores for the past six years, we are inevitably becoming a vintage car club. There’s no reason to expect that our membership will grow in leaps and bounds, since there are no owners of new Alfas to fuel such growth. But there’s nothing wrong with that! We are what we are, and what we are is a bunch of people who know cars and appreciate the performance, sounds, smells, vibrations — grins-per-mile! — of our beloved Alfa Romeos.

As such, the year 2000 promises to be a terrific one for our club! Your Board of Directors will be meeting this month to begin planning the various activities being discussed for the upcoming season. Watch these pages, and you’ll see our event calendar start getting longer, just as the days themselves.