[caption id="attachment_821" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Cal Rod's Club at the January Pomona Swap Meet"][/caption] FEATURED CAR CLUB - FOLLOW UP Most people in high school do…{"id":819,"date":"2012-02-14T15:04:40","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T23:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.pomonaswapmeet.com\/?p=819"},"modified":"2012-02-22T01:19:41","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T09:19:41","slug":"cal-rods-at-pomona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pomonaswapmeet.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/14\/cal-rods-at-pomona\/","title":{"rendered":"Cal Rods at Pomona!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cal Rod's Club at the January Pomona Swap Meet<\/p><\/div>\n

FEATURED CAR CLUB – FOLLOW UP<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most people in high school do some pretty stupid stuff, so to create a positive legacy that\u2019s still around six decades later is quite an accomplishment. But that\u2019s something you can credit Don Scurti with. You see, Scurti and nine of his closest friends started the car club, Cal Rods, while they were attending Baldwin Park High in the 1950’s. Today, that same club has about 400 members and meets regularly at the Wally Parks Motorsports Museum in Pomona, CA, where members of the Club help keep a handle on things at the museum.<\/p>\n

It started in 1954, when Scurti and his friends decided to start a club\u00a0centered around\u00a0something they loved – cars. In those days, he had a \u201846 Ford Coupe, while most of the guys had \u201832’s, \u201940 Chevrolets and stuff like that. As an early fundraiser, the club\u00a0organized a newspaper drive,\u00a0which enabled them to start a treasury. One of their friends had a really deep lot which she volunteered to the club. After the success of the paper drive, the group constructed a 24\u2019 X 40\u2019 clubhouse on the lot. They also had a garage with a pit,\u00a0which made\u00a0working on their cars much easier. At the time, the club had a dragster, which they all worked on together.<\/p>\n

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Don Skurti and his 1955 Ford Pickup<\/p><\/div>\n

The Cal Rods\u00a0were rather ahead of their time by letting the girls from high school be part of the organization, giving them the name Cal Rodettes. (Scurti jokes that, since many of these same ladies are now over 60 years young they no longer want to be \u2018ettes\u2019). The facility was also used by the club\u00a0to hold weekly dances, which led to more than a few of the members getting married. In fact, Scurti\u2019s girlfriend of the time, has now been his wife for 52 years.<\/p>\n

The club continued to succeed at their goals in those days and, in 1955, they were elected Club of the Country. Scurti and the president of the girls\u2019 club graciously presented an $800 club check to the City of Hope. \u201cThat visit was heart breaking,\u201d recalls Scurti, \u201c…because it was mostly children in there.\u201d That award led to an appearance on the Bob Crosby TV Show<\/a> along with their student adviser, Officer Gordon Browning of the Los Angeles Police Department. Oh, and Browning is still a member of Cal Rods.<\/p>\n

The club thrived for about ten years, but then fell apart after the original members went their own ways.<\/p>\n

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Club President Tom Flenniken<\/p><\/div>\n

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"Checkbook Charlie" and his New '71 Mustang he just traded<\/p><\/div>\n

Don remained a fan of things that ran on gasoline, ultimately having his own auto parts store where he kept a lot of the memorabilia from those club days. In the late 1990’s, Vick Cunningham took his \u201954 Ford to the Pleasanton car show and happened to have had \u201cCal Rods\u201d sticker on the car. It turned out there were 20-25 Cal Rods guys there, who were in the club originally. Those guys got to talking and decided to try to regenerate the club.<\/p>\n

After looking around, they found Don Scurti and, in the office of his auto parts store was plenty of memorabilia from Cal Rods. So much so, in fact, they were able to recreate all of their new items using the original items. \u201cWe meet at the NHRA museum, which isn\u2019t a bad place to meet!\u201d In fact, when Wally Parks wasn\u2019t around, some of the members referred to the museum as the Cal Rods Clubhouse. Today, their meetings\u00a0attract over 100 attendees and feature guest speakers and presentations. \u201cIt\u2019s social, it\u2019s not all cars, it\u2019s a good time meeting your old friends – many of whom we went to high school with”,states Don.\u00a0Cal Rods hosts an annual car show at Santa Anita Racetrack which raises money for charity – their biggest charitable recipient is the Wally Parks Museum, where\u00a0they also help polish cars and such on Thursdays and help with things around the museum.<\/p>\n

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Jim Clark with a 1951 Plymouth<\/p><\/div>\n

The club also runs a twilight cruise at the museum, on the first Wednesday of each month, which draws around 400 cars. While the show starts at 4:00p.m., cars begin arriving around 1:00p.m. for catching up on the latest happenings.<\/p>\n

In the original days of Cal Rods, Scurti had a \u201946 Ford coupe – today he drives a \u201946 Ford Sedan. During high school, he recalls that these weren\u2019t classics, they were just used cars. There was even a member who was able to buy a brand new 1955 Chevrolet in those days – that was something. Of course, over the course of one\u2019s life, one\u2019s perspective changes. That \u201946 Ford that Don has today has things like a Super Cool air conditioner and that back seat is the perfect place to have a couple of friends along for a night on the town. When Don first opened his shop, guys would come in looking for points and condensers – today his \u201954 Ford features a modular V8 that\u2019s computer controlled. Still, the more things change, the more they remain the same. \u201cI’ll be 75 at the end of August and people ask what I do – I hang around with the guys from high school,” boasts Scurti.<\/p>\n

This article was written by Tony Barthel from the Curbside Auto Column and Car Show Calendar. For auto articles, news and an on-line calendar of automotive events, please visit www.curbside.tv<\/a>.<\/p>\n

– Curbside Publisher
\nwww.curbside.tv<\/a><\/p>\n

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