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NCDBS Northern California Dodge Brothers and Sisters is a group of
people who love and own vintage Dodge Brothers and Graham Brothers vehicles.
Our group is located in Northern California. We promote Dodge Brothers vehicles and Grahman Brothers trucks in our everday life.
The Annual 4th of July Parade in Danville for 2011 started off fairly early in the morning. All attendee's were urged to arrive at the Stadelhofers by 7:30 a.m. since the actual parade was scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. this year. The week before, the weather was great. The temperatures were in the 70 F range and there was even a lot of rain on Wednesday when it dropped about 3/4 of an inch of rain in the bay area. In as much as Gene Stadelhofer always guarantees that the 4th will always be one of the hottest days in the year, we were not disappointed! When everyone arrived at the Stadelhofer abode, they were greeted merrily by host Gene and Vickie. Tom Barham along with wife Sharon,Travis Barham and spouse Julia with sister Jennifer and Bob Vincent with his wife Timber "roaded" their vehicles from Pleasant Hill and Danville respectively. There was a "crowd" at the Stadelhofer home with the next generation Stadelhofers (son and daughter) and their spouses and their relatives in attendance. This year the Stadelhofer's entered 3 cars into the parade route; their 1918 Touring car, a running and almost completely restored with a natural rust patina 1922 Roadster and a well maintained 1928 Victory Six.
There were a plethora of other Dodge Brothers cars in attendance this year that ran the parade route. Aside from the three Stadelhofer vehicles, Amil and Sharon Gehrke's 1927 Touring Car, Travis and Julia Barham's 1924 Touring car, Roger and Lynne Gong's 1925 Screenside, Ken Stadelhofer in a 1928 Senior Six, Tom and Sharon Barham's 1926 Sedan, Tom and Elaine Gong's 1919 4-door sedan, Herman and Barbara Boone's 1933 Cabriolet participated in the parade. The Stadelhofer son-in-law Matt drove the 1918 Touring Car and son Ken drove the 1928 Sr. Six and Gene himself drove the 1922 Roadster for a total of 10 cars for the parade.
Once everyone congregated at the Stadelhofers and had a cup of coffee and a donut or two, we assembled for a drivers and navigators meeting to hear the pronouncements of Tom Barham regarding our route down to the staging area. This year the High School parking lot was under construction so the NCDBS Region had to assemble at the Church. Since we were unit 181 of the 200 unit parade, we had plenty of time to decorate the cars with bunting and flags. Lynne and Leah Gong arrived a bit late since they were picking up 4 dozen cupcakes from Redwood City on their way to Alamo. The Bannister family (Melisa, Faith, Noah and Liberty) joined us at the staging ground and rode with the Gong contingent in the parade. To reiterate, the temperature was extremely warm and the decorating went rather slowly but got accomplished in plenty of time. While waiting around in the heat for our turn to enter the parade Ken Stadelhofer was enlisted to help Travis Barham and his 1924 touring car. Travis's '24 has suffered from a persistent leak at the water pump for a few years. Ken used a pair of water pump pliers (and a lot of sweat) to unscrew the rear packing nut (reverse thread) and place a piece of the Arms Pumps magical teflon packing material in front of the gland and re-tighten everything to reduce the leak to a drop or two. Nice work Ken!
Below you can see a visual recording of the activities just after we had completed the July 4th decorations of the NCDBS car entries. We were at the assembly site by 8:15 a.m. as required by the organizers of the parade since the parade was to begin at 9:00 a.m.. At Unit 181 we finally entered the parade route at 10:30 a.m. at it took a good 45 minutes to run the parade route before heading back to the Stadelhofers. We were met there by Ben and Betty Miller along with numerous Stadelhofer family members. Of course we did have one casualty during the parade route, where Gene Stadelhofer in the 1922 Roadster decide that it wasn't going to cooperate. It appeared that a bit of electrical problems kept it from completing the parade. After cooling off a bit, Gene got it to chug as far as the corner of their street, where it required a tow by Tom Barhams 1926 sedan to make it the rest of the way.
Since Gene was having his struggles to get the '22 Roadster home, the "show must go on" and Ken Stadelhofer stepped up and began the BBQ'ing of the burgers and hotdogs. There was a great spread of food ranging from cool crisp salads (green, fruit, potato, macaroni and others) and other side dishes and plenty of deserts. The group did not hesitate at all and the food was eaten!
After partaking of the food a short NCDBS Business meeting was held with Tom Barham as moderator. President Elaine Gong thanked the attendee and the Stadelhofer family for their participation in this affair. Tom Barham then went on the review the "rest of the year schedule" with the following activities lined up: The Great Gatsby Festival at Tallac, the Gatsby Afternoon at Dunsmuir/Heller House, the Galt Old Car Festival, a Fall Tour and the annual Sonora Christmas Parade the day after Thanksgiving. The meeting was concluded and with one more thank you to the Stadelhofer family for their hospitality, people began to filter out and off to their homes after a great 4th of July Parade and party.
Barbara Boone, Timber Vincent and Vickie Stadelhofer waiting in the hot sun after the cars had been decorated. As guaranteed by Gene Stadelhofer, this was one of the hottest days of the year.
This is the 1918 Touring Car driven by the Stadelhofers' son-in-law Matt.
This is a 1919 4-door sedan driven by the Tom Gong with Navigator Elaine Gong. Riding with them was Melisa Bannister with daughter Liberty.
This 1922 Roadster was made road worthy by Gene Stadelhofer specifically for this parade and it was the cars initial tour. The heat seems to have had an adverse affect on the operation of the car as its electrical system became intermittent about 3/4 of the way down the parade route.
Travis Barham and wife Julia (along with sister Jennifer Barham) proudly display their 1924 touring car. While at the staging area the car received a field repair and the rear seal of the water pump was repaired by Ken Stadelhofer.
Ken Stadelhofers' drove this 1928 Senior Six down the parade route. Although the temperature was near 100+ degrees, this car had no problem navigating down the parade route.
Herman Boone with wife Barbara Boone took this beautiful 1933 Cabriolet into the parade. At the staging area, the coil over heated (some electrical short was causing a problem) but with icy cold bottles of water put upon the coil, it cooled down enough to get started and running down the parade route. Another field repair using whatever was at hand to make the journey.
Tom Barham and Sharon Barham drove this beautifully decorated 1926 sedan in the Parade. This is significant since just a few months before, Tom had health problems which did not allow him to drive his beloved DB. It appears that all Tom's medical problems are solved for the time being.
Bob and Timber Vincent's 1936 KC Pickup truck was in great shape and ran the Parade without a hitch.
Roger and Lynne Gong's 1925 Screenside (built July 10, 1924) was well decorated by Lynne and daughter Leah and some help from the Bannister clan.
Although you can barely see them, this is Jennifer Barham (in red) and sister-in-law Julia Barham (taller blonde to the left) decorating the 1924 touring car. During the parade, they sat in the rear seat with umbrellas and avoided the heat arising from the front floorboard and the direct sun shine. But the car did not overheat and it did not use an excessive amount of water since the water pump leak was repaired just before the parade.
Tom Barham and Herman Boone members of the NCDBS waiting at the staging area.
Amil Gehrke and Gene Stadelhofer take advantage of the shade of the 1918 Touring Car.
Travis Barham, Bob Vincent and Tom Gong also taking refuge in the shade.
Lynne Gong and Elaine Gong discussing the heat of the day.
There were many other digipix taken but the authors NIKON ran out of memory, so we will wait until other participants forward their own digipix before we add to the list of this great July 4th Parade.
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