PB 300 new page 15-16-17.indd - Plymouth Club

From From the the Editor
Plymouth 300
No it’s not a new Plymouth model,
even if Plymouth were around to
offer any models at all. No, the
300 moniker is safely ensconced in the
Chrysler lineup. That’s not to say that the
Chrysler marque has not made off with
some Plymouth names -- Sebring and
Voyager come to mind -- and whole cars,
most notably the Cordoba and the PT
Cruiser, both of which were originally to
have been Plymouths.
DESPITE SUCH SPECULATIVE MUSINGS, this
Plymouth 300 is firmly rooted in reality.
With this issue, the PLYMOUTH BULLETIN has
been produced 300 times. It’s just another
issue, yes, but it’s significant nonetheless.
What began as a four-page mimeographed
newsletter in 1959 has grown over
the years to the computer-generated fullcolor
publication we know today and from
four pages to this issue’s sixty-four.
I’ve been privileged to have been part
of that progression of BULLETINs since issue
162 -- not quite half of them, but getting
close. It could happen, but it will take four
more years.
TO MARK THIS MILESTONE, I’ve gone to a
reprise of BULLETINs past as a basis for the
stories featured in this issue. There is much
that is new, it is true, but even what seems
new is built on what has happened in the
past, which is the case in what you’ll find in
these pages.
The Atomic Plymouth story came
about when Jim Benjaminson was contacted
by a person who had found the original car
that Jim had written about in Issue 213.
The Tüscher article began with an internet
inquiry from Bruno Costers about membership.
The car he now owns was the
cover car of BULLETIN 161.
The Plainsman and 2010 Road Runner
stories had their start with internet links
given me by members which, in turn, led
me to auction sites and the contact people
for these articles.
Scott and Lynn Grundy and Bill and
Joyce Chace are continually touring with
their Plymouths during the North’s summer
season that’s short in months but long in
days. Another of their accounts appears in
this issue.
PLYMOUTH BULLETIN
editors
1959-62 Jay Fisher
1963-64 Robert Ruckman
1965-67 Donald Wood
1968-69 Lou DeSimone
1970-74 Harold Soukup
1975-79 Andrew Weimann
1980-86 Jim Bejaminson
1987- Lanny Knutson
Trev Feehan promised me more on his
Plymouth-powered ‘29 Dodge truck, and he
delivered.
A second club-rostered ‘58 Plymouth
has been the subject of a die-cast model, and
Ron Waters tells the story of the modeling of
his Belvedere.
One-time fellow Albertan, Bob Just,
chose to restore a stablemate for his ‘66
Canadian Valiant convertible. This time he
turned to the ‘64 Valiant wagon that had
been his and Laurine’s transportation for
forty years.
-2-
Last, but not least, is a story that has
been in the works for nearly twenty years.
Following the 1991 Spring National Meet in
Hastings, Nebraska, I and other members
were invited to the Berkheimer homestead
to see Merrill’s vast collection of Plymouths
and some other Mopars. It was a fascinating
visit made even more so by Bobbi and
Merrill’s hospitality. I took a number of pictures,
and we were planning to get together
to create an article for the BULLETIN. At
each national meet, we would tell one another
that we have to do that story. National
meets are busy times, and so the idea got put
on the back burner until, over the years, we
kind of forgot about it.
It took a revival of the famed
Berkheimer Labor Day picnics to get the
story going again. Bobbi wrote it up and
sent a couple of CDs of pictures, and I’ve
put it together, almost 19 years later. Like
good wine, some things just take time.
ISSUE 302, the May-June BULLETIN, will celebrate
the 50th anniversary of the 1960
Plymouth and Valiant. Member Michael
Dabrowski is working on an article about
the full-sized Plymouths of that year. I’m
still looking for someone to write about the
first Valiants. I have a few, but more stories
from owners of the big-finned Plymouths
and ground-breaking Valiants of 1960 are
most welcome.
WE’VE MADE IT TO 300. Now, it’s time to
go for more.
-- Lanny Knutson
The The Plymouth Bulletin
No. 300 Jan/Feb 2010
LANNY D. KNUTSON, editor
LEEANN LUCAS, asst. editor
THORSTEN LARSSON PHOTO