How This Hoon Became A Hoon

There is a story to this picture, just keep reading!

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.

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  1. lilwillie Avatar

    Welcome!, Cool pics, nice story.

  2. Eggwich Avatar

    You. Are. Awesome.

  3. Ambersand Avatar

    +1! Welcome to the fold. We're glad to have you aboard and know that experiences sometimes speak volumes over technical bulletins.

  4. Mike_the_Dog Avatar

    Wow. Great story, and more than a little like my own. Would you believe that I named the year of both of those wagons before I read the blurbs based on the hubcaps alone? My dad had a '67 Ranch Wagon and a '65 Country Squire when I was a wee one, so my little brain clicked on them immediately.

  5. dukeisduke Avatar

    Alright longroofian, now you've gone and done it. I just ordered a copy of that book. Twenty bucks plus shipping. I'm sure I'll get some funny looks from my wife when it gets here. A couple of years ago I bought a copy of the little book I read as a kid in the school library, "Automobiles: How They Work", by Yerkow. It was the book that turned me into a gearhead, so I had to buy it.

  6. CptSevere Avatar

    Longroofan, I look forward to your stuff, and I am in awe of your taste in vehicles. I have enjoyed your comments, and yeah, I looked at your blog. Good stuff. I used to live in Flagler County as a kid, and I know about all the the Hoon-worthy writing material you have at hand there in Ormond Beach, so let it rip. Cheers.

  7. coupeZ600 Avatar

    I concur with Cappy Severe and the others above; great article, awesome cars/vans/wagons in the pics, and your comments are always respected.
    Seeing those pictures of you as a kid brought back some cool memories of how I too became a Hoon. While I'm only 46 and a whipper-snapper compared to your august and sage experience, one thing is burned into my memory…. Memorial Day Weekend means Summer, and Memorial Day Weekend means Indy.
    It was tape-delayed back then, and so every radio in town was tuned to the live AM audio-feed. Moms made BBQ, while Dads worked on their cars and other Dads came over and watched and gave advice until every one, all at once, suddenly stopped talking because the radio said somebody hit the Wall. After a hushed silence, once it was told the driver was O.K. and the Race was re-started everybody cheered and got back to drinking. They'd all walk down to the next Mom & Dads house and do it all over again. For the most part, it was the only time we ever saw our parents drink in public, and we knew that this single event meant that Summer was officially here.

    1. chrystlubitshi Avatar
      chrystlubitshi

      i moved to indy right before i started high school… had always seen the race on tv in my previous location… but never realized just how big of a deal it was… through high school… i proceeded to skip school for carb day all four years… it's amazing how that track (in "not the nicest part of town") brings everyone together, makes them friendly and helpful… a few days out of the year… don't know if any other cities have that relationship with their track or not… but it's amazing.

  8. longrooffan Avatar

    Thanks to all my fellow Hoons for your warm welcome into the Hooniverse world. And, as on the Johnny Carson show, More To Come.

  9. jeepjunkie Avatar

    Good blog Jon-Jon….where is that old book now….thanks for the cold pops on the way home from the beach today…and why do you keep forgetting the 66 Chevy 3/4 ton panel van…???…always thought that one was one of the best…guess it is rotting away in a swamp in the panhandle somewhere…..
    As always, I look forward to your comments on our daily life……

  10. Bus Plunge Avatar
    Bus Plunge

    Hey John!
    Just got back from the Lake so I'm late getting my shout outs in!. Nice story, as I have always said, you can turn a tale!
    I remember that 66 Chevy panel truck. It was a one ton, 30 series. An old bread truck. Had 17" wheels and power seats …aftermarket? You bought it from Leonard or Sam. For what? $400?
    enjoyed reading your post Jim aka "The Bus"

  11. BPR Avatar
    BPR

    Glad to have you here!
    I know this is an auto blog and all, but is that an Optimist pram on top of the old '65 wagon?

  12. longrooffan Avatar

    On top of the '67 wagon is indeed an Optimist Pram. I'll have to do a blog about it.

    1. Jim Lee Avatar
      Jim Lee

      You may call it an Optimist Pram (I thought that was the name of a transformer toy) but I always called it that sailbox, usually prefaced by several adjectives.
      Once Mom and I took it out on Tablerock, we got going really good but I must have missed the part about sailing against the wind. I think Tom came and rescued us in the motor boat.