How This Hoon Became A Hoon

So, while the JeffMan is out checking out Barracudas, this longrooffan thought I would welcome you to my first post here on Hooniverse. Late last week, this olelongrooffan dropped an email to Hooniverse Virtual World Headquarters with a sampling of some of the blogposts I had done over at my personal blog. I thought maybe some of the stuff I had posted might be of interest to some of you Hoons out there.

Well, this olelongrooffan is honored to have received a limited edition key to the vault that is Hooniverse. I am still working out the kinks I have with the host site so your patience with me is much appreciated.

However, I would suspect there are many of you Hoons out there wondering what “web cred” this, previously unheard of, olelongrooffan possesses to have been bestowed this Honor.

First off, a little about myself. I am an independent General Contractor, yeah, lots of time on my hands these days, down in The Birthplace of Speed, Ormond Beach, Florida. I’m divorced and have the ability to do pretty much what I want when I want.

Yeah, I know, I am lucky. I am pretty fortunate in usually getting some good passes to events out at the Daytona International Speedway and there are car shows pretty much year round down here and I try to get to every one of them.

My posts tend to be experience related and this olelongrooffan hopes you enjoy them.

Yeah, as if some auto manufacturer is going to give this old man the keys to any shiny new automobile or truck to hoon around the Ocala National Forest!

Anyway Kids, this is how This Hoon Became A Hoon.

I have always been interested in all things auto related. Just look at the below image of this 10 year old longrooffan laying on the floor in my Dad’s den with my favorite reading material. Now, we oldtimers will recognize, even though just a part of that television on the shelf behind me is showing, that it is an old black and white set, and yes, it got three channels. And those books on the bottom shelf of that bookcase? Those are Child Craft books and World Book Encyclopedias. Google that youngsters.

So, I would suspect that, at 50 years old, a seat in the senior section of The Hooniverse has been reserved for this olelongrooffan.

So, as far as being a Hoon, check out my little sister standing on the door sill of  the vehicle of choice for my dad, TheGentlemanFarmer, starting when I was still at the formative age of 13 years old. Yeah, a 1972 Citroen DS21 Palas. The only one around! It was a gorgeous Work of Art and that era DS’s and SM’s still are. And we lived in a small city in southwest Missouri! My dad, a Roman Catholic newspaper editor was able to get a Vietnamese refugee, who was also a mechanic, relocated to Springfield, MO, just to work on that car! And I got to drive it! Often!

But that wasn’t the first unique automobile my dad owned.

Long before this olelongrooffan was a gleam in TheGentlemanFarmer’s eye, he had one of these, at least to me, a highly desirable Willys Station Wagon. And he owned the, not one, but the two first Volkswagen Microbuses sold in St Louis, Missouri back in the early 60s. My three older brothers are pictured with one of them in the following image. Why two VW Buses? Well, this olelongrooffan comes from a family of ten kids plus Mom and Dad and there were no, and still aren’t any, vehicles to transport all twelve of us to Sunday Mass in one car.

As a matter of fact, I think one of the reasons my Dad asked Mom to marry him was that her Dad owned a cool old Woody Wagon. In the mid sixties, my Dad tried to recreate that with the plastic wood clad siding offerings put forth by the Blue Oval at the time.

Both this ’65 towing Dad’s ’32 Model “A” when we moved from St. Louis to Springfield, yeah, a 33 year old project with ten kids. I still don’t know how he managed to have his projects. And later, the Pacific Blue ’67 Country Squire that still triggers the lust I have for longroofs.  No comments on my black socks with wader jeans and canvas sneakers.  This olelongrooffan now is stylish enough to know to wear white socks with my wader jeans and canvas sneakers! Around the same time, he picked up a ’63 Corvair convertible, shown in the image below with my Mom and the owner of that original Woodie Wagon mentioned. After Dad decided to become TheGentlemanFarmer, and my older sister totalled that oleragtop, he picked up a rather pedestrian 71 Dodge 3/4 ton pickup for duties around the 173 acre farm. Along with an International ‘C’ tractor that the wheel fell off! Yeah, honest to God true story. In the late 70’s, after moving from the farm back to the city he owned a pair of ’66 Pontiacs, a Catalina sedan and a Bonneville convertible. To the right in the above image is my 72 Volvo 144, one of the 50 plus automobiles and trucks this olelongrooffan has owned in the past 35 years.  And see all that white stuff on the ground?  That’s why this olelongrooffan lives in The Sunshine State.

In his later years during the ’90’s he had a ’63 Coupe deVille. just like this one. And the final hoon car he had was this Fiat 124 Spyder. After Pop passed on, my brother sold it on ebay and the Hoon who bought it flew in from Washington state to southwest Missouri and drove it home. Yeah, he is probably reading this right now! Well, to those of you out there in Hooniverse, I think definitely establishes How This Hoon Became A Hoon.

But wait, what about the brothers to this olelongrooffan?  Is this olelongrooffan the only Hoon in my family?  You decide.

Well, one of my brothers, the Bus had this but sold it to buy a 1946 Willys CJ2A. But he kept his Bus. Another brother, thehorsefarmer had this uncut 66 Bronco but sold it to buy a Blue Oval dually to haul his miniature horses around. Luckily, he still has another highly modified 66 Bronco to hoon around.

And my brother, thejeepjunkie? Well he has this pristine, also a, 46 Willys CJ2A while his son, my nephew, the Kid has this 67 Jeep CJ5. Now, lest you Hoons think those Ormond Beach based CJ2A and CJ5 are trailer queens, check out the following two images.

thejeepjunkie’s 2A, prior to the bright yellow paint job. And the Kid’s CJ5 when he was out without a chase vehicle. Now, this olelongrooffan is sure you Hoons are wondering what I possess to make me “Hoon Worthy”?

For starter’s, this 88 E30 ragtop, the third one I have owned as well as my 63 Ford Falcon Station Bus. And if you are wondering what that is hanging from the Florida Antique license plate, click here. And here is my olestationbus bearing a shiny new coat of paint at the Grassroots Motorsports corral at the 2010 Rolex24 at Daytona. To the rear of my olestationbus is my Budweiser beach chair, cooler and laptop ready for posting the blog this olelongrooffan did about my experiences over that 24 hour period.

So, in conclusion, while my posts tend to be more wordy and less technical than many others around these tubes, this olelongrooffan hopes you approve and enjoy my offerings.

And until the next time we get together, remember to

Celebrate Life.