In 1895, a crew drilling for oil accidentally hit water, instead. The result was Bouton Lake, located on what is today Lakewood Country Club. It’s thought that Lakewood’s name is connected with Bouton Lake. The club was built in 1933 and, according to a local realtor, is the oldest public building in Lakewood. How fitting it is, then, that we display antique Cadillacs and La Salles there once a year.

Because of rain in the early morning, our display was limited to about twenty cars. Many thanks to those who brought their old cars out. The rain did not prevent us from parking on the lawn, but we had to watch our step; there were some mud puddles under the clearing skies.

At about 11:45 we went inside to eat. Un­fortunately, the buffet table was not arranged for our eighty-plus members and guests to be able to get through it quickly, so our new direc­tor, Tom Musson, took command and got the buffet tables moved so that more people could serve themselves. That did the trick. I heard no complaints about the food. Some of the pastries had little black cars on them, in icing.

Our first guest speaker was Mr. “Bud” Davy, Jr. of Riverside. At the age of seven, he used to hang around the Cadillac dealership in Oak Park, Illinois. Not too many years later, Mr. Davy landed a job with GM in the Cadillac zone office. He was still taking some classes and was probably the only student on campus to have a new Cadillac demonstrator.

Mr. Davy was the number two man in charge of new car allocations in the zone, 1967-71. He had something to say about how the cash cows on four wheels were distributed to the dealers. Pretty soon he realized why he was being wined and dined in some of the best restaurants in Chicago by dealers who were twice his age: They wanted more product, espe­cially product with a good margin.

Davy went to work in the mid-seventies for one of his former customers, Fanning Cadillac, in Chicago. That was the neighbor and rival of a dealership where your editor worked. Accord­ing to Davy, 1976 was a banner year for profits at Cadillac dealerships; the Eldo convertible and Fleetwood Brougham were not given away.

Mr. Davy also explained the phenomenon of cars built with fenders or hoods of a different color: clerical error calling for pre-painted sheet metal parts of the wrong color. Thanks to Roger Lindquist for discovering Mr. Davy at his church.

Our second speaker was Mr. Jeff Hyman, who is British. Mr. Hyman got frustrated with inept appraisers and decided to do a better job of it. After six months of training in appraisal, and with a broad knowledge of British and European cars of the fifties, sixties and seven­ties, he became a professional car appraiser and importer. He now runs Classic Auto Appraisal (1-800-454-1313). A professional, independent appraisal is essential to getting top dollar from insurance companies in the event of loss or damage.

Mr. Hyman has imported 29 Rolls-Royces. One was a Phantom VI (the long wheelbase car) with the license plate T J BIG. It was Tom Jones’ car first, and it was burgundy over cream. The rear compartment was burgundy velour, while the driver’s compartment was black leather. It had right hand drive.

Our raffle was a little anti-climactic, fol­lowing Super-Lotto the night before, which ex­ceeded $190 million. Ed Cholakian was kind enough to provide many of our prizes, though. Some were T-shirts. Others were lapel pins and cash. About nine people were winners.

Three cars on the lawn were recognized in an attempt at conferring people’s choice awards. However, some of the ballots had been eaten during lunch, so hanging chads (the ones that dangle just enough) were counted instead, and our director improvised. Awards went to Mrs. Parrmno, Don Shadduck, and Paul Schinnerer. At that we adjourned for a chuckle and a last quick look at the cars.