A Brief History

On August 5, 1953, the Ty-Rods Club was formed in a cow barn in Cochituate, MA. A group of rowdy teenagers fond of street racing their hot rods under the banner of the “Piston Pusher” club decided that, before someone got killed, maybe they should alter their ways.

The first step would be to change their name and their image. A new meeting place was found in Concord, and the Concord Ty-Rods became respectable. We joined the New England Hot Rod Council; a group of clubs dedicated to safety of the hot rod sport, and attended the first drag race in Portsmouth, NH. We subsequently became very involved with the New England Hot Rod Council in running the drags at Sanford, Maine Airport. We put a cap at twenty-eight members, because that was the number of lines in the treasurer’s notebook. We assessed dues of twenty-five cents per member per meeting each Monday night. We bought a used eight-door Chrysler Airport Limousine that could transport sixteen of us at a time, just for the fun of it. In fact, enjoying life has been the Ty-Rods’ passion. We profess to be a group of regular guys who “enjoy each other’s company and have a common interest in cars.”

The first ten years or so, we were content to drive our hot rods during the week and race them on Sundays, but a gradual change took place as the muscle car era evolved. Some of us parked our rods and started enjoying GTO’s, ‘Vette’s, 427 Fords, and the like. And, for a spell, BSA and Triumph bikes and go-carts caught our interest, too. When snowmobiles became a bit faster, they became a winter diversion. Then, for many, the “Holy Land” beckoned. I’m talking California, land of the eternal sun and plentiful hot rods. At least a dozen Ty-Rods heeded the call. They found jobs; some married Left Coast honeys but most, after a spell, returned. The seasons do have a stabilizing effect. By then, most of us had married, sired children and acquired a mortgage.

In the early 70’s, we decided to meet just once a month, second Monday, at one of the member’s house or business. It’s amazing how many of the Ty-Rods have owned their own businesses. It may be part of the individuality traits hot rodders show. The street rodding movement was gaining momentum, so we uncovered our rods, freshened them up, took our kids to shows and “Reliability Runs,” and continued to watch the drags on T.V.

About 1976, someone said, “Wouldn’t it be great to see some of the guys we had so much fun with, when we were kids?” We decided to host a rod show and called it “The Old Timers’ Reunion.” We called some of the old “Cam Snappers” and “Nomads” members, and some from other clubs, and met in Littleton, MA at the VFW parking lot. There were probably thirty cars. We had such a good time, we have continued it each year. We moved from Littleton to Concord, then to the Hudson Lodge of Elks, to the Prowse Farm in Canton, MA, and finally to the Bolton Fairgrounds in Lancaster, MA. We are now maxed out at a 1,200 car area, but it’s a great facility.

The problem was the show got so big that you couldn’t always find your old buddies. So, we decided to hold an “Old Timers’ Night” the night before the show, only for those who were rodding in the fifties and sixties. This is held at the Elks Hall in Concord, MA and entertains about 180 rodders with pizza, movies and slides, and speakers dedicated to the early days of the sport. We have celebrated over fifty years of companionship.

Some of our members have gone to the “great drag strip in the sky,” some have found other interests but, on the whole, the Ty-Rods Club is alive and well, and enjoying life. We now number forty-five, are very selective in accepting new members, and boast an amazing cross section of skills and accomplishments. Each year, aside from the monthly meetings we enjoy a corporate dinner with our wives or significant others at a nice restaurant, a sumptuous summer cookout, a challenging Reliability Run to some unknown destination, and a weekend trek to either Rhinebeck, NY for the Goodguys event, Summer Nationals, or Burlington, VT for the NSRA Northeast Nationals. In the words of “Hot Rod Father,” Wally Parks, “The first fifty[-five] years have been a great ride – I can’t wait for the next fifty[-five].”