{"id":2807,"date":"2008-08-28T22:10:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-29T02:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2008\/08\/on-road-to-gettysburg\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:00:57","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:00:57","slug":"on-road-to-gettysburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2008\/08\/on-road-to-gettysburg\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Road to Gettysburg"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1947<\/a><\/p>\n

Last month, Randy Poole set out from his Virginia home, headed for Gettysburg<\/a>, Pennsylvania. With his wife Holly, daughter Amber<\/a> and father-in-law Joel, his destination was the Annual Convention of the National DeSoto Club<\/a>, of which he is a long-time member. Not surprisingly, they saw lots of DeSotos, Randy’s favorite being a nifty ’34 Airflow coupe<\/a>, with its art deco ornamentation<\/a>. He also gazed in wonderment at the phalanx of fins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One afternoon, while driving in the area, Holly spotted an interesting old car beside the road. It turned out to be a 1947 DeSoto Custom Suburban<\/a>, the signature edition of Chrysler Corporation’s long-wheelbase sedans<\/a> and limos. Offered only as a DeSoto, the Suburban had a wood paneled interior that extended through to the trunk<\/a>, and a roof rack<\/a> on top. Suburbans were built from 1946 to 1952. The owners were not home, so it took a few cell phone calls to jump-start negotiations, but by the following Tuesday a deal had been struck and the next weekend Randy and Joel went back to retrieve the car.<\/p>\n

Dennis David went to Gettysburg, too. He kept his camera clicking away, snapping DeSotos from start<\/a> to finish<\/a>, from ambulance<\/a> to pace cars<\/a>. While Randy was taken with the Airflow, Dennis captured an Airstream<\/a>, the alternative, and better-selling, DeSoto. Everybody likes the Miller-inspired 1932<\/a> and ’33 DeSotos<\/a>, and I waxed nostalgic about the 1940 S-7<\/a>, a dead ringer for my only DeSoto<\/a> ever. There were plenty of DeSoto parts<\/a> for sale, and lots of beauty to be seen, including the iconic goddess<\/a> that adorned the 1932 models. Desirable accessories included the hard-to-find DeSotomatic steering wheel clock<\/a>. By afternoon, the row of S-11s<\/a> was tired and yawning for a nap.<\/p>\n

Dennis and his family took the battlefield<\/a> tour and visited Eisenhower Farm<\/a>, home of the late 34th President. There were no cars on display, but in the barn was Ike’s Massey Ferguson<\/a>, which ran on Citgo<\/a> long before Hugo Chavez became a big shot.<\/p>\n

Randy, meanwhile, discovered the gathering of the National Chrysler Products Club<\/a>, right next to the NDC clan. On hand were Chryslers ancient<\/a> and modern<\/a>, including a pair of spiffy<\/a> station wagons<\/a>. Plymouth was in a Fury<\/a>, and flagship of the event was a very nice 1955 Crown Imperial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Randy got his Suburban home, he was very pleased with his new treasure. While the seats are a bit sorry<\/a>, the wood is good, on doors<\/a>, bulkhead<\/a> and floor<\/a>, and the woodgrain dashboard<\/a> is quite presentable. The roof rack was included, inside the car<\/a>, and it’s equipped with spotlight<\/a>, grab handles<\/a> and clever little heater ducts<\/a>. The Suburban seats eight, though the rearmost seats are a bit spartan<\/a>. Randy and Joel got it running last weekend. Now they just need to do the brakes, so that it will stop as well as go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month, Randy Poole set out from his Virginia home, headed for Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. With his wife Holly, daughter Amber and father-in-law Joel, his destination was the Annual Convention of the National DeSoto Club, of which he is a long-time member. Not surprisingly, they saw lots of DeSotos, Randy’s favorite being a nifty ’34 Airflow….<\/span>
Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2807"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3267,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2807\/revisions\/3267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}