Don Lang will be at the Chickasha show as always and is able to bring orders. If you would like to have something brought down, please place your order by March 9th.

I'll be there. Will you have any paper catalogs?

I will be at space SL4 in the south building with my linebores , Babbitt bearing molds , ball caps and front cover centering tools ...NO CATALOGS ...just real parts that you can see in person and ask questions and get answers ...always an optimist...Gene French

"WHAT ?"

I'm goin'.

We will be there in spaces SL 11-12-13 in south building. Im bringing a little more than normal this year. Do not forget that this year is a Friday Saturday meet with vendor set up on Thursday ... see ya'll then ....

Is anyone from South East Michigan or Toledo going?
I have a relatively small assembly I would like to have picked up from Dean Yoder.

I will be there in the south bldg. in sw corner
trying to decide what cars to bring , see you there will have many great buys and great items.

The one panel on my 24 Touring that's unacceptable and not repairable is the drivers side rear door.

It's a long shot but I'm hoping to find a replacement that matches the nicely weathered paint on the rest of the car.

The last time I went to Chickasha was 1991....hope it's still worthwhile.

I checked this morning and it is over $600 for the cheapest plane ticket I could find, over $800 for the flight I wanted. Takes three or four days to get there and another two or three home if I drive, dunno if I'm going or not. I'm thinking not.

Just called Susie to see why no space stickers yet, she said "in the mail on Thursday" so coming soon. Same spaces #18,19,20

She said weather was 52 today, but to be 70 on Monday! Ah, Chickasha, just wait a day if you want warm or cold!

Dan I got my stickers in today mail. FM01 & FM02 with Mike Walker.

Lang's Old Car Parts will be at spaces NH 8-10 on the West side of the North building.
Stop by and pick up your advance ordered parts and save on shipping.

I was raised in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas....5 hours south of San Antonio....about as secluded as you could get in the US in the 1970's and 80's.

I subscribed to Cars and Parts Magazine and Hemmings Motor News and literally read them cover to cover....multiple times. I read about, and was in awe of, the big swap meets like Pate, Carlisle, Hershey and Chickasha, but they seemed a million miles away.

Then I joined the military and spent most of my tour in the Philippines and kept dreaming about going to these swap meets.

I left the military in 1991 and went to college in Denton, TX and went to Pate that year. It was still out in the country at the Pate Museum and I remember literally shaking with excitement as I walked across the highway from the parking lot and was in awe of everything.

I also went to Chickasha that year and stayed for two days. I slowly looked at every exhibit and every car for sale that I could the first day...then spent the night in parking lot in the bed of my Toyota pickup in a sleeping bag....then continued the second day.

I desperately wanted a Model T or Model A at the time but was a broke college kid and could only partially satisfy myself by being near them at Chickasha.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I finally have the Model T that I've wanted for so long.

I still get a rush when I arrive at a swap meet, but I have to admit that Pate isn't nearly as cool as it was when it was out in the fields. It's nicer now that it's on pavement, but so many of the cool old-timers that used to be regular vendors have passed on.

I'm hoping Chickasha is as neat as it was in the 90's, but I'm tempering my expectations...for the same reason.

Don, Chickasha is not as big as it used to be. But it still is my favorite swap meet to go to. It is as much a social event to me as it is a swap meet. Its a chance to see old friends, spend a few days with my two friends that go with me, (even though they are Model A guys ). We spend the nights on the spaces. We take air mattress's, electric blankets, food, a microwave, ect. and they have showers in the south building, with electric and water on our spaces. That way we get to spend every minute of the meet "at the meet" And where else can you wake up in the morning, to a "sea of old car parts" in your bedroom. ... see ya'll there ....

Donnie, the answer to your question is: Hershey.

Here is our "room" at the swap meet a couple years ago. Steve Jelf usually has a "room" just a little way from us .. Steve is more "frugal" than us. His "room" is the "economy" version, with just a blue tarp and sleeping bag. My friends and I opt for the "deluxe version" with all the comforts of home. There are also several other people that stay in the building, or on the grounds ... "counting down the days"

Alex, good answer ... It is on my "bucket list"

As usual I will be in the South Bldg with Arrdeen spaces SB 13 14 15 16 17 across from Mel Draper.

When I had the sign business and peddled my wares at swap meets, the Pate meet in Cresson was my favorite. If there was rain, the ground was slicker than snot. Then the sun would come out and in an hour there would be dust blowing. And through it all I sold, sold, sold. It was wonderful. But when they moved it to TMS the magic was gone. I haven't been there in 13 years. I think my second favorite in those days was Chickasha because the prewar signs sold so well. Folks at most meets have never heard of Mitchell, Cole, and Pope, but at Chickasha those signs sold as well as Hudson or Studebaker. It's also the first place I saw a Stanley being driven, and an 1886 Benz replica.

My dad had spaces at the first Pate swap meet, I think it was about 1977. Including us I think there were 20 - 25 vendors.

We went together through about 1985, then I got my own spaces down near the creek north of the Pate museum. Dad kept his original spaces until about 1990 when he decided he did not want to be a vendor any more. So I took over his spaces and kept selling at Cresson through the last year which I think was 1995.

The first year at the speedway was OK, but it rapidly went downhill. I let the spaces go in 2001 at Pate. It is primarily hundreds of acres of motor home parking with an occasional Hot Wheels or beanie baby seller on each aisle. Once in a blue moon you come across a person selling car parts. Typically the parts are scrap metal that once was attached to a wrecked 1970 - 81 Trans Camaro. It is nearly unheard of to see anything related to a Model T other than at the Lone Star T club spaces.

Our Model T club shares the operations of Pate with some other area clubs. I help lay out and pick up after the meet every year. It is an embarrassment what it has become.

A sad end to what used to be the best automotive swap meet in the world.

I'm probably in this photo.

I was wondering if there are many model T parts at Pate ?

David, go back to Royce's third paragraph. He's been there a lot more recently than I have.

I attended the Pate Swap Meet in 1983/84. Back then you needed to be careful where you stepped or walked.....especially if it rained recently. Finding a parking spot was not that hard.
Even then, there was not much early Brass items available. Not like Chickasha.

Last year I walked the entire meet at Pate and found only one vendor who had primarily T parts. He did not have anything too interesting, a bunch of black era rusty axles and frames and a few rotten wood wheels. A bucket of rusty carburetors.

I bought a Stevens Model T exhaust wrench for $5 and resold it to a friend for the same price. I also bought a sandwich for $8 and a cup of lemonade for $7. Spent about three hours and $13 net.

I'll be returning to Chickasha in my normal North Bldg, NJ 8-9 spaces. Will be displaying my Leather License Plates. Also, Friday at NOON, the Buick Boys all gather for a bit to discuss all things early Buick. This gathering is in front of my booth space in the North Bldg. Also, this year the HCCA National Tour is the week before Chickasha and it's being held in OKC, just 30 minutes up the road. Come and enjoy the tour and swap meet and stop by my booth and say hello.

You still have a little time before the trailer leaves for Chickasha this Friday! Anything orders you would like delivered, please let us know.