Goodguys West Coast Nationals

One of the weekends that Santa Cruz Woodies members look forward to every August is spent in Pleasanton at the Goodguys West Coast Nationals. It’s much more than just a weekend!  The woodie ohana actually gathers first on Thursday evening with – what else – a welcome party hosted by former SCW President Toni Wilkerson at her home.

As is always the case with a party at Toni’s, it kicked the weekend off on a high note.  The bar was well stocked but draining fast, the appetizers and desserts each took up a table of their own and the center island was groaning under the weight of a wonderful Italian dinner.   No one left hungry and even though we all had to get an early start in the morning to roll into the Good Wood section at the show, no one left early.

Our arrival in the Good Wood (the Grove) section of Goodguys Friday morning was somewhat bitter sweet. We were sadly reminded that Gary Meadors, founder of Goodguys and a longtime member of SCW, passed away earlier this year and would be greatly missed.  However, the tradition that Gary had established of reserving this most coveted spot for our woodies every year continued thanks to the efforts of Goodguys staff who made sure that the welcome mat was out.  Thanks also to Walter Nakamura for manning the gate and insuring that nothing without wood entered the Grove area.  The day was bright and sunny, a little more than usual do to the demise of some grand old shade trees and the loss of the attached shade tarps.  No worries, we just pulled the palapas umbrellas out of our woodies and settled in for the day.

Checking out the Swap Meet for treasures you didn’t know you need and wandering the rows of beautiful classic cars is mandatory. The same is true when the gals visit the Goodgals Gallery to do a little shopping for absolutely necessary treasures. But the best part of the day was, as always, just sitting in the Grove and visiting with our woodie ohana.

The topper for Friday at Goodguys is the annual Friday evening barbecue. Again manning the grill were Jim Vickery and Jim Alves with the close supervision of barbecue master Doug Yugo.  Sausage appetizers were the first to come off the grill setting the tone for more good food to come. Hamburgers and Hot Dogs were the order of the day. By the time the food was rolling off the grill, Lynda Yugo and her crew had the side dishes, desserts and fresh condiments assembled we sat down for another memorable tailgate feast with all our woodie ohana.

Saturday morning it was all about gathering back in the Grove, checking to make sure nothing was overlooked in the swap meet, no cars worth seeing were missed and again hanging out and enjoying each other’s company.

The gals however were noticeably absent as Toni explains:

“I was delighted to setup a special Tea Party for the woodie “Goodgals” for lunch on Saturday at my home.  “Tea party-ing” is my favorite thing to do which is right up there with “Woodie-ing”.  It was a real treat for me to be able to gather the ladies together to do what we do best; talk, talk, talk! Of course, more than tea was served. How about a few champagne cocktails in the middle of the day to get us ladies prepared to have fun at the Yugo’s that same evening?  Some lovely hats were worn to the tea with Jule Hilton by far outshining the rest of us with her beautiful hat, along with a lovely vintage skirt worn by Katie Atwood that had belonged to her grandmother. The tables were set with some antique teacups and I would like to thank Howie and Patsy Benfield for gifting me some lovely teacups that belonged to Howie’s mother and had previously lived in Castro Valley many, many years ago.”

Queen Toni

P.S.  “Never mind what was talked about: what happens at a tea party, stays at a tea party”

Not to worry, our forces joined up again Saturday evening at Doug and Lynda Yugo’s. As if it wasn’t enough that the Yugo’s were the master barbecuer and party planner of the Friday evening, they had the gumption left to host a Saturday evening barbecue at their home.  Doug cooked, Lynda ran the show and provided crowd control, and more fun than you can imagine was had by all. Nobody gave a thought to the fact that the morning would bring us back early again to the final day of Goodguys.  Too much fun was being had by all to call it an early night so we gathered around the fire pit and talked story till the wee hours.

Another great weekend at Goodguys is in the rear view mirror but there are still plenty of good times to look forward to.  Here is hoping that we see you at Wavecrest the weekend of September 17th and again at Woodies at the Rock the weekend of October 1st.  Until then, safe travels and much Aloha.