As for younger members attracting them to a stock car club is difficult. It just doesn't have the interest to the majority of younger people. Look at the other similar clubs. Like the CLC. If you think back to the group of people that joined us Friday night at Gettysburg. There were not a big number of under 30 people in that group of about 100 cars that showed up. Hand full is all I saw. The key is when you find one interested showing them the value of being in your group.
I think back to when I was in my 20s I doubt if I would have been involved for more then a walk threw Of the show field. The majority of us have a connection to the cars in some manner. that is what gives us the desire to keep them origional.
Have to agree with you here Ed.The 2 ambulances that I own are very special to me since they are the exact make,model,year,and style that I started working on when I was 18 and fresh out of high school...(1972)....so that would be MY connection...:thumbsup:
I agree on "stock car clubs" - in fact I would take it one step farther. All "car clubs" have been damaged from an increasing "un-technical" society. It's surely been difficult for me to get past even basic maintenance consisting of dropping off at a shop. But, I don't see the PCS as a "car club." I have near-zero interest in other cars.
Every week at the San Antonio Fire Museum, similar fire museums, and in the garages of dedicated Society for the Preservation and Appeciation of Motor Fire Apparatus of America (SPAAMFAA) members nationwide - young (and older!) folks who never saw a antique fire engine in service spend their time and money to preserve them and share them with the public. These early apparatus certainly have little in common with the massive equipment of today. However, these folks do so because of feeling a connection to tradition, history, and the legacy of being a fireman. I am sure the military and the various historical organizations surrounding nearly every time period requires me to say nothing more to prove my point.
Why must it necessarily be any different for EMT/Paramedics? The above feelings are why I now am the custodian of four antique ambulances - although I have only worked in a "monster medic" ambulance. While I did not see the local "car club" participants who showed up during that evening in Gettysburg, you omitted the local EMS crew that drove by the the show and was blown away by the spectacle. The "National EMS Museum" organization has proven itself ineffectual with 10 years of fundraising and now not even a "virtual museum." Sadly, an apparent plurality of younger ambulance service providers seem to know little more than "Ghostbusters" and that modern EMS supposedly came from a Federal government tired of "body snatchers in modified hearses" letting folks die in the street. For funeral directors - I'd suggest we have an easier time when hearses still exist in similar form to what they always have, and it's not uncommon for "older" cars to be still in service.
It's been a turn-key operation for the PCS to exist since it was created. Cars were plentiful and cheap, just coming out of service. Their operators - like Mr. Fischer here - were more than happy to buy them for the sake of preserving a past they lived. I am so glad to have met the Pinners, but wish I had gotten into this earlier and been able to meet Mr. Cassens and those who built my Hi-Boy too. Today, PCS has a window of opportunity - growing shorter year by year - where those who actually ran a call with these vehicles (the ambulances in particular) can share this with younger generations and understand why these cars are worth more than scrap steel. Previous generations of firemen did so, and that is why motor apparatus that is 90 years old still rides out in parades to this day under the care of "under 30 people." We can either chose to be THE historical society for ambulances and funeral cars similar to SPAAMFAA, or we can watch an increasingly rapid decline and the loss to the crusher of what the Society worked for since its inception. Please know I have indeed brought up some simple ideas with the PCS leadership team and have offered my time to help execute them.