Dale Edwards, Sept. 1, 2011

In late July, we had six Lizzies drive up the hill and participate in the almost annual Big Bear Parade. I say almost annual because it didn’t happen last year due to what I understand was financial issues. So this year the parade was on a different weekend than it was in previous years and was shorter in length, but the weather was great as usual. Most of the Lizzies went up the night before, stayed in the Robin Hood Inn Motel, and after dinner played cards until the wee hours.

On Saturday morning, the Lizziers drove their cars past the formation area to the local Masonic Lodge facilities where they partook of the offered breakfast and showed off the Lizzie cars. After getting there without incident, Mike Selix’s Lizzie towcar failed to start and had to be towed to the formation area where a shorted out sparkplug was diagnosed and repaired. The parade itself went smoothly with all Lizzies starting and finishing under their own power. After the parade, several of the Lizziers loaded up their cars and zipped back down the hill to attend the wedding of our Captain, Larry Griffin, at the Orange Grove Lodge.

In August we had 15 Lizziers show up for breakfast at Arthur’s Coffee Shop before the La Habra parade and 12 lizzies took part in the parade. A couple of the members had other commitments that kept them from parading, it was not from a lack of available cars. Everyone made it to the beginning of the parade without incident and all made it through the parade without trouble except John Lake who had to get John Edgmon to tow him when his throttle linkage came apart about halfway through the parade. We also had a new Lizzier parading with us, Ted Segerstrom, and he made it through the parade without problems and said he had a lot of fun doing it. Of course he has a brand new factory-built 2011 model Tin Lizzie which he pretty much expected would survive the parade, even with the famous “Student Driver” license plate hanging on the front bumper. The parade went well, even though we had a lot of forward motion hold ups which results in the Lizzies doing a lot of “circling in place”.

If you are not currently a member of an El Bekal Shrine parade unit, you too should consider joining the Lizzies. For more information, come to one of our regular business meetings at the El Bekal Shrine Center on the second Monday of each month. Give a call to our Captain, Larry Griffin, at (714) 273-0220 for specifics. If he is busy recovering from his recent wedding, call our Lieutenant, Bill Walls, at (562) 594-6232.