HELLO MARY LOU!

 This blog is dedicated to our "new" 1955 Dodge Coronet Lancer.  We have been waiting 35 years for this moment.  A true car guy from Newton (Gordon "Gordy" Jones) owned this car.  Unfortunately he died from Covid and his son Justin made the decision to sell the car.  A big thanks to Randy Jones of Nothing But Customs for getting it ready.  We took possession on 8/5/22 and got the title on 8/12/22.

We are still learning the history of the car.  We know before Gordy owned it, Bob and Lonnie Clark of Mitchellville had the car. Bob is the one that built her the way we see her and Gordy added the Hemi.

"Mary Lou" is the name we gave the car...named for Cindy's aunt Mary Lou Cass.  She would have loved the car and we know she's smiling down on us now.

Posts will appear in chronological order...that's just how blogs are set up.  I can "label" (categorize) posts by a name or topic and that is how I see the blog being used.  See the menu (File Cabinet) on the right.  You can click on a category that way and see the related posts.  If you get to the bottom of a category, look to see if it says "Older Posts" and you can continue until there are no more posts in that category.  Then on to something else if you want and you can also click at the top of the page to go "home".

(Photo by Diane McKillip)

WE MADE THE HOME PAGE OF THE VAL AIR BALLROOM

 Our friend Steve Vickery was out looking on the Val Air Ballroom website (which comes up www.firstfleetconcerts.com) and Mary Lou is on the main photo 😀

"APRIL SHOWERS" (BATH AND POLISH FOR MARY LOU)

 A weekend with temps in the 80s in April means time to wash off the dirt and dust.  Did just that on Sunday then took a cruise.  Stopped to get some octane booster.

BEFORE

AFTER

Tire pressure hold pretty well over the winter.  

Needed to top each tire off...checked at 40 PSI and need to be at 44 PSI.

A SUNDAY DRIVE

Took Mary Lou on a very windy 77-degree day.  Stopped for ice cream...what else? 😀

VAL AIR - GRAND RE-OPENING

The Val Air Ballroom underwent an extensive, $15,000,000 renovation that took close to two years.  We heard about an open house that sounded like a great chance for me to FINALLY get inside and for Cindy to reconnect to the glory days of the '60s.  Gary Pullen started reaching out saying they wanted some cars from the '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s to get there early and be part of the open house "experience".  We weren't going to say no to that!

So down we went on a beautiful late February day with the temps in the upper 60s.  I was in a t-shirt and no worries.  We even joked some people might get a sunburn.  I borrowed Jacob's "big" camera...it has a bigger sensor so the pictures turned out great.  The beautiful blue sky helped.

Cindy had called a few day before and spoke with one of the owners (Doug).  She told him it was her haunt on Thursday nights back in the late '60s.  Also shared that I have a coat check tag we use as a keychain and that I have a Val Era shirt.

When we got down there, Gary was helping cars get parked.  We got a nice spot in front the "Edsel Family" but it was clear people got there WAY early to get those prime spots up front.  We had a nice time visiting with people we've met and others we hadn't.  We did track down Doug to show him what we have.  I printed two pictures for him to keep.  One was Mary Lou in front of the Val Air from August 2022 and other was a picture of the keychain.  He took a picture of my shirt (see below) and was going to take a picture of the coat check tag but "I said I can do you one better...here are photos for you to keep".

Keychain photo

Photo from August 2022

One thing you will notice is how the building and grounds were cleaned up.  They removed the siding that was put on years ago as a band-aid and painted it back to colors it had in the 1950s.  They cleared the bushes around the drive-up area.

    Here are photos from the day...

We ran into our friend Steve Berry (we told him to come down).  He got this nice "high angle" shot. 😀

Steve and Cindy

And we made the March issue of Iowa Living in the Ribbon Cutting section...

Enjoying the rays...

We made Channel 5 😄

This 1941 DeSoto belongs to a gentleman named Dave.  We first met him at the Valley Church show last July.  He's involved with the Des Moines Concours d'Elegance.

Beautiful 1954 Merc

A member of the Charity Cruisers (John) and his 1961 Pontiac Tempest.  Was a 4-door.

This guy had a very straight 1964 Impala...he bought new!  Sold in the '70s and found it again in the '90s.

Here are some images I got from The Business Record and from the Val Air Ballroom Facebook page...

We made the aerial shots!

Back in the barn.