Slipstream - August 2002

Copper Canyon Fest
By Charlie Davis
Caveat: No animals, children, or Porsches were injured during the
writing of this article. Some names have been changed to protect the
guilty. Editorial license was stretched to the limit and has currently been
revoked. All opinions are those of the author and do not represent
the attitudes, prejudices, and stereotypes of the Region at large or
management in particular. In other words, it's a figment and the
humor-challenged should read elsewhere.
It's traditional to get together on Father's Day and throw water
balloons until half of us are wet. Never seems to be the half with
swimsuits on. This year, we continued that tradition, but avoided
our long-time, traditional venue, the Casey's homestead, in beautiful,
downtown Copper Canyon (the community). Seems they tore up
their place and could not put it back together in time. So we moved
upstream, to the headwaters of Hickory Creek. The Rueh's live
'round there, near Copper Canyon (the geologic feature in the
ground) and were our gracious hosts.
Photo by Dennis Chamberlain
The only group that was neatly arranged.
Rich's car, named "Ol' Yeller", is a phenomenon. It is wildly
loved by lay people. We of the 914 persuasion (disease?) debate "why"
incessantly, especially those of us with green, blue, and red paint.
Nobody knows! Ol' Yeller is certainly greater than the sum of it's parts.
It's triumph proves that PCA and MR in particular are NOT infected
with the NARP syndrome! If you are confused by the "NARP"
acronym, perhaps thinking it's a federal marijuana sting or rival to
AARP, you need to educate yourself by reading more ads (see P. 28).
Photo by Wendy Shoffit
Conspiracy or not, Emily De Jong and Jasmine Shoffit
were happy to win the water balloon contest!
We traditionally have a picnic...hot dogs and what ever bringins
we liberate from home. We also monitor and occasionally rescue the
kids from the pool. Then, there is the Car Show. Did they call it a
Concours this year? If not, perhaps we should consider a name
change. How about Car Show de Elegance?
All this leads to the facts: we had a record turnout. Wendy
stopped counting at 100! Then there were the 25 cars displayed in a
haphazard arrangement on the grass...like the occupants were in a
hurry to get somewhere else. In spite of the casual appearance, the
wide variety of bright colors was stunning.
Don't take the above as a condemnation of Jimmy Carter, who
orchestrated the Car Show...he did a great job. He was simply overwhelmed
by the number of yellow cars! The alleged speed advantage
of yellow cars resulted in many entrants racing into position. Some
owners of slower colors refuse to admit defeat easily.
Whatever...most of the cars that did swap paint, were the same
boring shade of yellow, so nobody noticed.
The judging by the hungry, wet pod, was predictable...only those
fast, yellow cars were seriously considered. It was a clean sweep for
yellow! Alan Lage won the "Favorite" category in his 2-week-old 996
(yellow) and Rich Johnson won the "Cleanest" category in his
32-year-old 914 (yellow). I just can't understand how a Porsche only
2-weeks off the boat can be dirty? I know that I, for one, voted for
Alan's car as "Cleanest"...
Photo by Dennis Chamberlain
...NOT infected with the NARP
syndrome . . .
But the basackward assignment of awards is almost like
Ol' Yeller won BOTH the categories and "management" made an
executive decision to give one of the categories to the runner up . . .
then they got confused and switched the awards...or something. Do
you share my love of conspiracy theories? Niet?
Then how do you explain Jasmine Shoffit and Emily De Jong winning
the Balloon Toss, other than a trick, unbreakable water balloon? I
heard it was a parental conspiracy . . . either that, or Lanean did it?
To stir the pot some more, if we can wash and show cars on
Father's Day, why can't we do something fun on Mother's Day...like
a Hard Parts Swap Meet or Seat-o-the-Pants Autocross or Street
Race? But NO! So much for equality of the sexes...
“Favorite Car” winner - Alan Lage’s new C4S
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