Prowlers received an email from Mark Cariola, Roy Cariola's son, requesting some information about how to get their Dad a club jacket. Roy was a member back in the 50's and had recently been talking a lot about how much fun he remembered having when he was in the club. Roy's member number is 2/2. Roy was known for having one of the fastest '36 Ford coupes around. At one time in the late 50's at El Mirage he was known for turning 131 MPH with his 3/8x3/8 Ford flat head. After running at the dry lakes for years Roy turned to drag racing at Paradise Mesa drag strip right here in San Diego county - one of the first drag strips established here in San Diego.
After ordering the jacket, Bill Larson, the club's current President, asked the family if they'd like the club to make a trip up and visit Roy on the day that they were going to give him his jacket. The family was just thrilled to think that we would do this. It took a couple of months to get things squared away, but we kept in touch with both Mark and his sister, Janine. When time got close Janine gave us the info we needed to set up our visit. Roy has a very loving and caring family and they made us all feel very welcome and it seemed like we had known the family for years. We had 7 cars show up for the visit. Janine made a fantastic DVD of the club's visit and gave one to each of the guys who showed up. We were just glad that the family was willing to let us help with the presentation of the jacket to Roy. Below are some pictures that were taken on that special day.
Roy Cariola was member number 2/2 when the Prowlers were going on their second round of bringing in new members in the late 40's.
Roy's '36 Ford Coupe was running a 3/8 x3/8 Flat head
Club cars in front of Roy's at the Classic Hyatt La Jolla Village Towers where he now resides. L-R Ken Polesky's '33 Ford Sedan Delivery, Marty Simonidas' '49 Ford Pick up, Swede Sommer's '32 Ford Sedan and Pete Morrow's '27 Ford Roadster.
L-R, Monte Hale's '29 Ford Model A Roadster, Bill Larson's '32 Ford coupe highboy and Clem Chavez's '34 Ford coupe. There's Roy's daughter as she was walking around taking movies and pictures that she later turned into a fantastic DVD. Thanks Janine!!
Here's the guys saying hi to Roy after we got parked. The family had everything just set up perfectly for us so we could park right at Roy's front door.
Here's Andy Bekech the club's historian and Bill Larson the club's President having a chat with Roy after he was presented with his new club jacket. The club would really like to thank Roy's family for letting us present him with the jacket that "they" bought for him. We considered it quite a honor.
Great shot of Roy and his family.
After the jacket presentation Roy and his family had us up for cake and coffee, and cheese and crackers. While we were up at Roy's place he tooks us into his back room where we were all in ah of his collection of over 360 various types of model cars.
This back room was just filled with every kinda hot rod you could think of, plus flyers and posters Roy has collected over the years.
Here's a good example of a true Prowler.... Roy had the flyer for the club's 60th Anniversary Picnic posted up with a whole shelf of highboys.
Wow! What a collection. Wasn't just hot rods, he had every kinda car you could think of. Fantastic!
And last but not least, a great shot of the guys with Roy. The club would again like to thank the Cariola family for letting us participate in this great event and making us feel so welcome! Like they always say, "Once a Prowler always a Prowler!"
