Page 38 - Oct 2022

had not seen them since sometime in the '80s. They
didn't stay long and had to depart back to Charlotte
by one o'clock. When they did, it was the signal for all
of us to head back to the warm, dry Marriott. Jennifer
and I got back at about two. I turned up the
temperature in our hotel room and slept for an hour
wet and exhausted.

Dinner was served in the nearby Hickory Conference
Center at 7 pm. We had a table for the nine of us and it
was a joyous occasion as we told stories and
reminisced about earlier times.

After dinner, John Holtzapple, a member of the Board
of Directors of the Volvo Club of America, presented
the awards. First, second and third prizes were to be
presented to the winners in each of the 13 or so
classes of Volvos.
But before John started to do that, he launched into a
discussion about a member who had the oldest
membership number, and - you guessed it! ? that was
me! He then presented me with the Special Honors
Award from VCOA! I never knew that was coming so I
was totally surprised.

A raffle was held during the dinner. Everyone had one
ticket but more could be purchased. These were
tickets for prizes donated by VP Autoparts and were, of
course, associated with Volvo cars--things like mirrors,
special gadgets, polishing materials, etc. To spice this
up for the Stickleys, my niece, Holly, bought a number
of extra tickets and so we won a number of the raffle Above: A now fully functional driver's side windshield
prizes. More fun. wiper was pressed into service to hold the information
sheet for this award winning PV544. Casual passerbys at
Mr. Holtzapple then proceeded to announce what
Cars and Coffee would have had no idea about the
everyone had been waiting for- the rain swept
drama that came with discovering that your windshield
winners of the various class awards. The PV544s
wiper doesn't work when you're 380 miles from home in
Volvos were in the A Class; the first ribbon he
a 61-year-old car. All they noticed was the handsome
awarded was Third in Class. That was won by my son
ribbon that recognized the excellence of the Volvo in
Matthew and his white1965 PV544!
front of them. (Never let them see you, wet!)
Second in Class went to a red, repainted 544 that had
been owned by Volvo of Sweden and resto-modified a
bit with a tachometer, race wheels, etc. And then First
in Class was awarded to Martin Stickley for his 1961
green PV544!!! How about that!

John proceeded to complete the awards to winners in
the remaining classes, and then came the big

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