30-Year-Old NORCAL Parties at Columbia
by Doug Hubbard
Way back at the June Board Meeting someone spoke up and said
that with the October 1995 General Members Meeting the Club would
be 30 years in operation. A motion was proposed that the Club
should make a big deal out of this and have a real 30th year
celebration. It didn't take much discussion for this to be heartily
indorsed by the Board and then the ideas started to flow on what we
were going do. In a few minutes President Bill Jarvis looked me
straight in the eye and said, "I expect that you would like to take on
this project as chairman." Taken aback by this, I hemmed, hawed
and backpedaled for a few minutes until the idea sunk in and and
then I allowed that I could probably do that. I knew right then that
I was looking at four months of concern as to whether I could pull
this off with any expectation of a good time for all. And then my
concerns evaporated when Hilary Cresswell and Pat Gardner spoke
up and volunteered to be part of the Anniversary Committee. With
those two, I knew we could do this. Before we left the board meeting
that night we all agreed that the main focus of the Anniversary
Meeting would be to honor our five Charter Members.
Our five Charter Members that have remained with the Club these
oh so many years, and have been continuous members since the Club
was formed during the Summer and Fall of 1965, are: Jack Breeze,
Hollis Button, Alan Huntzinger, Bill Titcomb and Chris Weld. These
members are special to us and we were going to do something special
for them.
The Club Members gave the Committee a good budget to work
with so we set out to see what we could do. The first decision, this
would be a "no charge to the members" party. Then we decided that
with the Charter Members having an October join date this meeting
would be an Octoberfest-type party.
Pat took the food responsibility and knew of a caterer that could
do German food. "Her people" would fix up a meal that would
include German Bratwurst, German Sauerkraut, German potatoes,
German spiced apple sauce, etc. We couldn't have asked for better.
Hilary would see to the cake. The cake would be a large,
decorated German Chocolate Cake with the Club Logo prominently
displayed, large enough for everyone to see. "Her people" and the
cake artist that Hilary found did us proud.
We must have beer for this affair, what kind of beer was an easy
decision, we would have German St. Pauli Girl. After a few phone
calls, German St. Pauli Girl would be waiting, cold and ready for
pouring.
We wanted to make this a day to remember for our five Charter
Members so Pat took charge of getting them a memento of the day
that would be hard to not notice. She knew where to get some really
fancy plaques made and they came out positively great.
The plaques are walnut and are about 10 X 14 and have near the
top, floated in a cutout backed by black velvet, our Club Logo in a
brushed photo etched aluminium finish. Centered below the Logo
etched in metal is an inscription that says: "In Recognition and
Appreciation of Foresight and Perseverance as a Founder and
Continuous Member. This Award is Presented to (here each Charter
Members Name is inscribed) On this 28th day of October, Nineteen
Hundred Ninety-Five, The Thirtieth Anniversary of The BMW Club
of Northern California
The campground chosen for this day was the Marble Quarry RV
Park next door to Columbia State Park. Not too far, not too close for a
ride, just about right for a trip to the foothills in October. Columbia is
an authentic gold rush town and is a marvel. Marble Quarry had all
the things we were looking for, plenty of space, fire ring, shelter in
case of bad weather and reservable. Many Club Members will recall
that we had an earlier Club Meeting at Marble Quarry - Oct. 1984
Our next order of business was getting our members to RSVP. We
put advance notice in the Newsletter, made phone calls to our charter
members and the RSVPs started to come in. We started out with
thoughts of 100 but as time drew near we had 153 who told us they
were coming. That was great, the more the merrier. A few more
than that actually came but Pat had warned the caterer and we were
ready.
All of our Charter Members except one came to this Anniversary
Meeting. Bill Titcomb was not able to make it, he now lives in
Reading, MA. We missed you, Bill. Old and new members had a
grand time, it was old home week. We hadn't seen a gathering like
this in many years.
In the early afternoon members started to steadily arrive, picture
albums of past years were broken out and members gathered around
to remember old familiar faces as long forgotten names came back to
memory. There was lots of good natured ribbing as comments were
made here and there that a hat seemed to have replaced a bit of hair
and that gray had creeped in unnoticed.
Our regular meeting was held in the late afternoon and many
members received Anniversary Membership Pins. It was great fun
as many said a few words about their past years in the Club.
Bill McKay came especially for the meeting from Sandy, UT, and
was awarded a 15 year membership pin. Bill is a Past President and
'49er Chairman. Bill did not say this, but I think we need to be
reminded of history now and then. If it were not for Bill we may not
have a '49er Rally in existence today, for in 1976 Bill took it upon
himself to get the '49er started again after a year of not having a
rally and having no money in the treasury to fund one. Somehow he
got it done and the Rally has not wavered since that time.
The highlight of the meeting was having the Charter Members
come up in front of the group. With their name engraved, a plaque
was presented to each honoring them for continuous membership
and having the foresight in starting the Club 30 years ago. Hollis
Button spoke of his early years in motorcycling and the founding of
the Club. Alan Huntzinger and Chris Weld spoke of the many Club
friendships over the years. Jack Breeze's article on founding of the
Club that was published in the News years ago was read by Secretary
Hilary Cresswell and Jack made a few comments. All in all it was a
satisfying time for all.
After the meeting, dinner was served and the beer was flowing,
the cake was cut. Many pictures were taken of the cake cutting with
Jack Breeze doing the cake cutting honors. Hilary had two cakes just
in case, the second one came in handy so that no one went away
without a generous helping.
After dinner everyone was invited to walk up to the fire ring.
Seats were arranged around the fire, hot and cheery. Many people
crowded around, not that it was that cold, just more fun that-a-way.
Lots of people watched a slide show of long ago meeting before
joining the fire. A half keg of beer found its way to fireside. Some of
us lasted as long as the beer and surprising enough that was till late
at night.
I wish to thank President Bill Jarvis, Vice President Ray Trujillo,
Buzz Benham, Roger Caswell and others for their assistance in helping
with this Anniversary Party.
It has been my privilege to be the Chairman of this Committee
and my privilege to have worked with such fine committee members
as Secretary Hilary Cresswell and Pat Gardner.
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