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Friday morning, August 28, found four Healeys and their people ready to leave for the LeMay tour in Tacoma. John and Judy Carter led Jan and Gary Jackson, Jan Whittlesey and Glen Enright and Allan and Mary Gross on a very relaxing trip on mostly back roads and with great weather. We stopped for lunch at the Bean Tree in Morton, then headed for Tacoma.

The motel was easy to find as it was right next to the Tacoma Dome. Dennis Saxon met us there and we went to Famous Dave’s for dinner. We met people in the parking lot and on the trip back to the motel who all seemed to know about the LeMay event and who assumed we would be going. We had a reminder of Seattle area traffic on our way – no accident, just stop and go for the heck of it.

During the night on Friday we could hear the unmistakable sound of raindrops. It was still raining when we left to meet the group from the Washington Cascade Club and it kept raining for a good part of the morning. It is true if you go faster in the rain , it tends to blow over you. However, we never approached that speed so we were a little soggy when we arrived at Marymount, one of two sites for the show. Our group managed to arrive together and we were early enough that we all got to park in the second row of collector cars.

Still raining, most of us got on shuttle buses to go over to the LeMay Grounds where the LeMay’s house is. That isn’t all that is there. There was a whole tour set up to take you through a number of buildings, filled with cars and trucks and collections on both floors of the buildings. Mr. LeMay at one time had over 3100 cars in his collection- many fully restored, others sitting under the trees. Now the collection has about 2400 vehicles, 1000 on display and 1400 stored elsewhere. One of Mr. LeMay’s sons is carrying on buying more. It is hard to describe just what it was like. Everywhere you turned there were cars- almost all beautifully restored.

Some of the rooms were named after the cars in them like the Ford room. Amidst all the cars were car related toys, posters, gas pumps, wheels, parts and pictures. There were other collections of dolls, meat grinders, salt and pepper shakers, and brass hose nozzles, and an old general store, a soda fountain. There was an old schoolhouse, train cars, tractors- it went on and on.

After the tour at the house, a shuttle took us back to Marymount. Marymount was a boys Academy that Mr. LeMay bought. Here the buildings still look as they did on the outside, but inside they also are filled with cars. There were so many beautiful ones that it would be hard to pick a favorite. The featured car this year was the 1937 Chrysler Airflow. There were about 10 of these and a few beautifully restored and even one in the original state. One came all the way from Maryland.

Inside of the schools gym was a wide array of cars. Some were even mounted on the bleachers The focus was on four impeccably restored cars, a Cord, a Tucker, a Daimler and a Duesenberg. It was the most extensive collect of cars we have ever seen. I recommend it as a must see for any car enthusiast. Be warned however, be prepared for an overdose of cars. Check it out at www.lemaymuseum.org

This being a Healey trip, there were a few glitches. Gary Jackson’s car wouldn’t start after it was parked in the hotel garage. He needed a push out of the garage and down a small hill to get it going the next morning. Steve Day helped out on that one. Then, on the way home the Gross’ car stopped on the main street of Yelm. There we were, three Healeys, almost on the side of the road. We had a lot of help from the local people. One told us he thought he had seen water coming out under the car. Another told us about a mechanic he knew and another told us about a place where we could get off the road. The most helpful was a tow truck driver who pulled in behind us with his lights on so we wouldn’t get hit. He also followed us as we pushed the car to the vacant lot. Luckily for us, Gary had Steve Day’s phone number. He had the knowledge and we had the parts, but it was still two hours before we finally got it fixed. I think Steve must feel a little like a doctor at a party – ” I just have this little ache here.”  He and the Jacksons and the Carters were patient to say the least. Once the car was going, the rest of the trip was really pleasant.

Thanks to Dennis Saxon and the Carters for making the arrangements for the trip.

Submitted by Mary and Allan Gross

Our Club recently had the honor of presenting many, many items to our Philanthropy recipients. This is a true example of how strongly our members feel about not only our beautiful Austin Healeys, but that we remember those less fortunate than ourselves as well. Listed below are all of this year’s recipients and the items they so graciously received.

During this past school year our Club had made a donation of nearly $500 for the Automotive department at Vale High School in Eastern Oregon.

Coffee Creek Women’s Correctional Institute representative, Martha Messa, was present to receive our check for $500.00, which will be used to purchase/repair sewing machines, or to buy needed fabric for this rehabilitation effort.

Albertina Kerr Art Therapy Center was represented again by Stephanie Bolson. Thanks to our buying partner, Craft Warehouse, bags and bags of art supplies, totaling more than $800.00 in value, went to that worthy organization.

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The Muscular Dystrophy Children’s Summer Camp has been another of our recipients for a number of years. Unfortunately their camp was cancelled this summer due to the Swine Flu being contracted by several children in 3 different states…the closest being Utah. With the $500 earmarked for them not being used, the Charity team requested that those funds go to the Oregon Food Bank. Mr. Robert Dale, a representative from the Food Bank received our check. Earlier this year, our Club donated $1,000.00 to this great organization.

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The Ronald McDonald House in SW Portland had requested 15 twin size cotton thermal blankets, 9 queen size cotton thermal blankets and towels. Thanks to some hefty department store discounts, we were able to fill their entire wish list.

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This year the VA Hospital had an odd request. The VA Women’s Guild has inaugurated Operation Diaper Bag. It seems that many of our current Veterans (some mere youngsters themselves) are having babies and could use a little bit of our help. The Guild requested diaper bags, diapers, baby wipes, baby monitors, etc. Our Healey Club to the rescue. 24 diaper bags, hundreds of disposable diapers, boxes of baby wipes, and 6 baby monitors went to them. It took some shrewd shopping to get all the supplies on their list, but Craft Warehouse came through again with enormous discounts on great totes, which works well as diaper bags.

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