Story by Jon Stalnaker AKA The Studebaker Dude
Last Saturday was International Drive Your Studebaker Day, a day that has been celebrated since 2009 by Studeholics, such as myself, all over the world. Yes folks there are lots of us Studebaker Dudes all over this crazy granite planet.
I have been under the weather and decided I would just skip it this year. I’ve written stories for the Studebaker Club magazine “Turning Wheels” for each of those events only missing a few. This year will be another miss as I didn’t really do much this time. Sapulpa has a few Studebaker dudes, and I have met some, but I have gotten to know Terry Clark as he is building a C Cab truck like mine only WAY different.
He’s been working on it for 4 years and he called me a couple of weeks ago and told me he might have the truck ready to drive by IDYSD. I forgot about that conversation and was about to get in the shower when he called me to see if I was home. I said sure, where are you and he replied, “I’m in your driveway”. So, I went out to check out his creation and took a few pictures while he was here.
His truck isn’t finished yet, but it is drivable, and very cool. I had my truck lowered almost as much as his, but the tires were rubbing on the inside fenders, so I had my guy raise it back up to almost a stock stance. I hesitated to do it because the truck looks so much different when it’s that low and I really liked it. But practical me went the safe route.
I figured I could write a story for the Sapulpa Times. I thought that would satisfy the purpose of IDYSD by getting the word out about Studebakers. Many SDC members think that driving your Studebaker on IDYSD has to be a big production. As I reminisced about my stories since 2010, many of them were about venturing out on our own and skipping the big caravans.
We’ve had a few of those too, but not every year. I researched 14 issues of Turning Wheels to gather my story. I didn’t write a story for the first Drive Your Studebaker Day in 2009. It took place on July fourth. I took my truck and my son’s 65 Commander to a car show in Dixon. To be honest, I didn’t think it was going to be as big of an event as it turned out to be, but I did drive my Studebaker that day, I just didn’t write a story about it.
The next IDYSD issue was Dec 2010 and while I did not have a story to contribute, I did have a good picture of another activity that our club participated in, and the editor of the magazine, Art Unger, asked me if he could use it on the back cover. Well, yeah, that was way cool, and he linked it to IDYSD in the “about the covers” narrative in that issue. I actually wrote a story for the May 2011 issue that explains where I was on IDYSD in 2010, I was displaying my Studebaker for a private party for some rich guy. It was on display inside the El Dorado Casino in Reno Nevada. That was exciting.
The Karel Staple Chapter in California was my local chapter, and we celebrated IDYSD in 2011 by driving to Sonoma to visit the Studebaker Cheesecake factory. We visited that establishment again in 2012 when we were unable to make it to Kelseyville as planned, to visit the Studebaker Coffee House and Deli, due to another California wildfire. This would turn out to be an issue for Californians many times in the coming years and one of the reasons I decided to move to Oklahoma.
In 2013, I wrote the story about Balloon Chasing in the Studebaker. That was a fun story. In 2014, Carlene got a day off work. As a letter carrier, she normally worked Saturdays and missed these events. We drove the truck through SF to Half Moon Bay for lunch. In 2015 we were once again limited by wildfires and drove as a club to Granzella’s restaurant in Williams. Next year we drove the truck to Napa for a car show to benefit the Moose Lodge. In 2017, we took a road trip to the “Road Trip” Café in Capay. In 2018, we were worn out from attending the Tacoma International Meet, so we just took a small trip to have lunch on the River in Rio Vista. In 2019, We drove to Denair to a BBQ event with the Denair Fire Department where my daughter was working. My IDYSD story for 2020 was another sad California wildfire story that limited us to driving just a couple of blocks. I didn’t even wash my truck for this one. I wanted to display all the wildfire soot. That event had a lot to do with me wanting to move away from California and by the next IDYSD story, we were living in Oklahoma.
