A Letter From Bob

Hi Bill: I haven’t figured out yet how to enter a blog so I will send this as an e-mail. This is the letter I am sending to the organizers of the Telstar show yesterday. It is long but it needed to be. Enter parts of it or all of it if you choose to.

To Telstar Organizers:

I got up at 5 am and drove 95 miles from Kennebunkport to attend the Telstar show which I must say was the poorest of the poorest shows that I have attended in Maine, NH, and Florida. The crew who greeted us at the gate were pleasant but had no idea what was going on. They told me I could park in any class I desired but they suggested I go into Imports. We ended up with seven sports compacts surrounding us, four of which were owned by one individual from Bethel. Two of the four contained dogs, one a pit bull on a short leash which almost attacked my wife as she crossed in front of his car while approaching the side of our car. After complaining to the apparent parking chairman about cars being entered in incorrect classes, and about the dogs, which he had already received complaints from several others, (the gate should never have let in his car with dogs as your flyer clearly stated “No Dogs”). The owner unhappily left with his four cars and dogs after making his feelings known to us.

The parking chairman explained to us that they were all volunteers and none of this really made any difference.

I can only comment about the import class I was in. And it’s not sour grapes as I won a first place. Only one car, a newer VW, which was not a sports compact by definition, was entered in sports compact. Three additional sports compacts, one which won a third place, were entered in Imports where they did not belong. The short of it is, if the three sports compacts had been entered where they belonged, since there were only three of them, they would have all won trophies, and had the VW been in Imports, he could have still won fairly but maybe not first, which really didn‘t mean much since he was alone in that class.

Complaining to the lady in charge, who apparently knew nothing about classes of cars, or why it is important that cars be in their correct class, only produced more confusion with nothing being done to correct things.

When voting, I found many situations where cars were in wrong classes and ended up stealing trophies from those who should have won them.

Then came 12:00 noon, the usual lunch hour. On our way up the hill to purchase hamburgers, it was announced there were no hamburgers left. Great planning when you run out at the beginning of the lunch hour.

Then there was 50-50. Granted the class of 2010 was trying to raise money. But we were hounded all day by the DJ and told we had to buy more and more 50-50 tickets - and after that we were told to buy more.

Then there were the supporters who were collecting signatures for a “NO” vote on raising taxes. One or two announcements about them being on the grounds would have been sufficient but not being told over and over that we had to sign the partitions. Several of us were registered to vote in another state and were really not interested in it. Others might not have appreciated the pressure to sign the partitions. Politics such as this has no business in a car show.

Listening to the music was more like watching a movie on TV with the commercials over and over.

Then there were the bathrooms. Many cars were owned by older people and those which were parked in the lower level had to either walk up a steep hill and way across a field, in the extreme heat, to get to the porta-pottys or down an even steeper hill to the Industrial Arts shop then back up again. Those parked on the upper level at least did not have the hill to climb but wherever you were parked, it did take planning ahead. There should have at least been a porta-potty on the lower level.

Then came the trophies. It’s strange that, ever though their vehicles should have either been in a separate class of their own or not eligible for trophies, sponsors, show organizers, and alumni all won trophies, some first place, stealing them from others who deserved them.

I should have stayed in bed until later, saved a lot of gas and tolls and gone to the car show in Auburn. This is what I will do next year along with many others who have stated they will never return to Telstar.

Sincerely,

Bob Norwood

[Editor: Thank you, Bob. And you have raised some points I overlooked, such as the restroom facilities. And though I understand you sent this letter to Telstar, I doubt it will do any good, judging from what the organizers said and how they reacted to problems on Sunday. But all anyone can do is try.]

/