Fancyisms
Bonnie Fancy
Chips off the Old Engine Block
Emma pointed to a scribbled word in my handwriting on the answer sheet to the quiz rally and asked, “Grandma, what does that say?”
“Al’s Garage,” I said.
“That’s the wrong answer.” Emma wrote a neat little “X’ next to the word, and then moved on to the next question. Once again, my handwriting was hard to read.
“What’s this one?”
“Orange cow.”
That one was right and got a neat little check mark.
When Ernie and I joined the Mercedes-Benz Club of America nearly 37 years ago, we never thought about how long we would be involved, or whether our two sons would follow in Ernie’s greasy footsteps. Now, so many years later, I am grateful and proud to say they did. Grateful because there are worse things to do with your time than spend it around and under cars. Proud because Ernie is one of the best role models a child could have. His record of service, dedication and involvement in the MBCA is almost unprecedented.
Our son Mark lives near us and has been involved as a member of the MBCA for almost 10 years. During that time, he has been section president, vice-president and treasurer. He has, with the help of his wife Becky and their two children, organized several rallies. With Spencer and Emma’s help, he has made trophies for Minuteman Section events. Emma, especially, enjoys sanding and staining. Within the Minuteman Section, Mark has been referred to as Ernie’s clone – and not just because they look so much alike. Besides the MBCA, Mark is an active and involved Cub Scout leader, noted for his patience and humor – traits he gets from Ernie.
Son Mark, Grandson Spencer, and Ernie at one of their favorite male-bonding activities, searching a junkyard for treasure.
James lives in Michigan and has a couple of restoration projects in his garage. All right, they are not Mercedes cars. Still, they are restoration projects. He was involved in the sports-car club in college and helped design a competition car. Today he works for a company that designs interiors, especially instrument panels, and subcontracts with large automobile companies, both here and in Europe. When we visit him for Thanksgiving, he always finds at least one auto museum to visit. This past year, he and Ernie sat at the kitchen table one morning, each with his own laptop, searching old cars for sale.
James’ daughter, Amber, is not all that much into cars. However at the Stahls Automotive Foundation car museum in Michigan, she found a mid-1950s mint-green Kaiser Darrin convertible she wants her father to get for her. I doubt he will oblige, but a 7-year-old can dream.
All of this involvement can be traced back to Ernie. He had the boys helping in the garage when they were as young as two. They attended the concours and helped out – and it really was a help: They ran judging forms back to the desk for scoring and placed cardboard sheets under the cars that were parked on the closed tennis court at the Noble and Greenough School where the concours was held. No two people were better at composing fiendishly clever questions for a quiz rally than Mark and James were.
The first time Ernie was on the national board, the boys traveled with him to board meetings. While they did not attend the actual meetings, there were alternative activities and they were willing to pitch in if asked.
It is Ernie’s example that Mark and James follow in their dedication to service and involvement. In raising their own children, they have modeled that same example. Their children are in the garage helping out. In fact, Emma was very little when she discovered there were two kinds of cars: There were “cars,” and then there was “Daddy’s ’dadies.” For someone just learning to talk, that was as close as she could get to “Mercedes.”
There was a time when many of Spencer’s drawings included not only the bugs he likes, but the three-pointed star. A grasshopper with a three-pointed star on its head is something to behold. We gave Spencer and Emma disposable cameras and had them take pictures at a rally – they were thrilled when some of the pictures were posted at the Minuteman website. And although she’s not all that interested in cars, Amber calls her Dad’s cars by name, Mustang and Focus.
Ernie encourages the grandchildren in their interest, smiling as he remembers Mark and James doing many of the same things. It goes without saying – but I’m going to say it anyway – Ernie is one proud grandpa.
I, too, get a kick out of watching the grandchildren participating in club activities. Whether it is drawing tickets for a raffle or handing out sandwiches at the lunch stop during a rally, they are involved in a positive way that I hope will encourage other people with children to allow them to participate.
More than that, I enjoy the look on Ernie’s face as he watches our children and grandchildren continue the legacy of service and involvement he has passed down. It is a legacy that includes not only cars, but involvement and service in other activities and organizations. That part of the legacy is even more important than the love of cars.
Recently, Minuteman Section President John Piekarczyk submitted to Ernie his nomination for officer of the year. Each section president can nominate an officer and the regional director chooses who will receive the award. Piekarczyk’s nominee put Ernie in a bind. While Ernie was proud that Mark had been nominated, he didn’t feel right as the RD making the choice, given that his son was one of the candidates. Ernie recused himself and sent the nominations to another regional director, who made the choice.
No one was prouder than Ernie when Mark got the nod.