ce cars and one group of motor bikes. The club is open to anyone possessing an interest in drag racing and who would like to attend any or none of the meets, go to the three annual parties, hang out and have an extremely good time. Owning a qualified car or a vintage bike, is nice, but it is not required for membership..
If you wish to find out more, visit http://www.neto-nostalgia.com/ . If you join now, you will be welcome to join us at this year's upcoming Banquet. Members' note: the Banquet has been changed to the Ramada for this year. Invitations have gone out, you should have received yours.
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NETO's three annual parties are called "Marcus Dairy", "The Picnic", and "The Banquet". Marcus Dairy is the club's annual membership drive, the picnic is late summer, and the the banquet is the awards dinner at Christmas time. While no one in the club is ever unsocial, at the track they are typically all business and machinery orientated; they go to the track to race. At at the parties, the machines are thankfully quiet and the time is devoted to happily networking and completely enjoying friends and family.
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Many of us have been discussing how to link the artist and racing communities further. Some of us, the extremely rare few, truly belong to both worlds. Cars and bikes have always sported fine paint jobs and glorious airbrush work; almost all of the time this work is performed by specialized artists or professional paint shops. In addition, a number of us currently do 'car jewelry' and use old car parts in sculpture. To further the discussion of how artists can participate in the racing community, as well as the flip side of how can the racing community help promote art, Orchid attended this year's NETO Picnic.
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All of the photos are from this year's picnic. As to why there are not more 'car photos', I remind you: this is an ART blog; it is not a CAR blog.
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This year's picnic was again held at the Drewhurst Ranch. Known as tommyanderinsplace, the Drewhurst Ranch is a twenty acre estate nestled in the rolling hills of lower New York State. With many people gladly travelling several hours to attend, the members and their families party from early afternoon until the stars twinkle late evening; some people leave the next day. Anyone who did not attend the picnic this year missed an incredibly good time, lots of delicious homemade treats, and rudely interrupted fireworks.
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Down the heavily wooded country lane from the Drewhurst Ranch past the meadow with the beekeeping boxes, there were three beautiful horses and one adorable striped donkey. The donkey's name is "George W."
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A number of folks opted opted to motor to the picnic in their vintage mobiles, thereby creating instant entertainment with a "Mini Car Show" . As we wandered through it with Orchid, on our way back from feeding and petting the horses,
we were particularly taken with the blackandwhite vintage station wagon in the photos. We deemed it 'Best in Show' and simply loved the littlebluewords sign on the back of it. We were very careful that not one of Orchid's long hairs should so much as graze the vehicle while taking the photographs. Two male club members insisted that the best part of the car was not the littlebluewords sign, nor was it the fact that the car was a rare two door something, they told us that the engine was the best part. "That car has a twentythousanddollar motor!!" We gave each other the "I wouldn't pay tencentsatagaragesale for that" look and then said, "Ok! Then let's take a picture of that ENGINE!!".
A special welcome to all new members and a thank you for joining us at the picnic. I hope to see simply everyone at the banquet; the president of NETO, thewingedthingking, has unequivocally assured me that our party time will not be negatively affected by the delivery of this year's allotment of golden winged things.
