Thursday, September 24, 2020
The Calgary Downtown Association invited AMAC to display their cars on Stephen Avenue Mall on Sunday, July 26. Other car clubs had been there before, and now it was our turn. It was really unfortunate that not everyone knew about it (I only knew about it from Neil's email. Does everyone have email? No. Does everyone have a phone? Yes), because only 12 cars showed up. Yes, it is the middle of summer, and yes, it was the most beautiful day that should be spent at the lake or backyard wading pool, but this was good PR for our Club, and only about 15% showed up. Hell, that's less than the popular vote given to the Conservatives in the last election!!
For those who were there, it was a good time. Great goodie-bags from the downtown association, door prizes, and tons and tons of people! I expected very few passers-by, because after all, downtown is usually business and business doesn't run on Sunday. I was wrong. Maybe it's because it's Stephen Avenue Mall, a true pedestrian mall, and maybe the Folkfest had something to do with it. I know Edmonton's Jasper Avenue, in fact any avenue in Edmonton, is like a ghost town on Sunday. This avenue was crowded. More people there than were at our Presidential. The location, by the Bay couldn't have been better. Lots of shade from buildings and trees, and many of the stores were open, such as Lamle's, Dairy Queen, MacDonalds, and other eateries.
It was pretty casual, not a car show where people like us have to vote and make painful decisions. Nice day. Oh yeah, the Devil and what he make me do… When I'm at a car show and Mr. Sore Loser is there, he always puts on a little show of power (a misnomer in his case because he has a gutless wonder). I always hold myself back from doing these childish things, but as many of you may know, at the Presidential I did exactly that shortly after SL (Sore Loser, S---out of Luck,Sucks Lots) did his bit. I couldn't help it. I have more power in my fuel pump than this guy has in his engine, so I had to educate the masses. Plus, I was goaded into doing a burnout (SL was moving when he did his thing - could have run someone over, I did a static burn-I wasn't moving).by a group of teenagers who had just come by. After I did it, I thought, THAT was stupid. That was LAST month.
Did I learn my lesson? No. At the Stephen Avenue Mall thing, I said to myself: "I will not do a burnout". The cop van 4 car-lengths down from me didn't bother me. There's this nice smooth brick in the cement road that would have been perfect for a good burn. It would have just cleaned the surface of my tires, not chop off big chunks like it does on rough pavement. As I was leaving, all eyes were on me: club members and lots of tourists watching as I slowly moved out. This is when I usually hammer it, and you're probably thinking I did. But I didn't!!
People on the street were safe. I got to the end of the block, with the stereo shaking the glass of adjacent buildings, when a young man approached me from the side. I didn't hear what he had to say, but I thought he was telling me to turn the stereo down. (Remember Folk Fest is on, and they had problems with cry-babies in the area about noise.) These were fighting words. He may as well have said, "Your Mustang is a pile of crap". I turned down the stereo to hear what he had to say, because I was ready to tell him what he could do with my Club, right there on the street. What he said was "Hey man, why don't you light up the tires when you go around the corner?" I said "I don't think I should", but he insisted. "Come on, it's a nice car, let's see if it'll put out". (I hate that when they give you a compliment that works so much on your ego that you just can't resist proving them right!) What's a guy gonna do? Here's a fan, asking me to put on a show. What do I own the Stang for? To put on a show. Besides, I was unhappy with the old fogy attitude I developed just prior to that. What am I , a sissy?
I crept around the corner, checking all streets for traffic, pedestrians, and cops. Then I hammered it. Well, going into a corner with a 425 HP car requires different driving technique, as I found out when my car fish-tailed over two lanes. I popped 'er into second real quick, chirped the tires again, then tried going through the next light at a reasonable (ie close to speed limit) speed.
As Flip Wilson use to say: "Da Devil Made Me Do It"