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
