2021
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2021 Officers... 2021 Marque Leaders...
President: Terry Roberts Austin Healey: Jim Hofer
Vice President: Jeb Blanchard Empire: Tom Wilson
Secretary: Jim Duke Jaguar: Dave White
Treasurer: Jerry Farrar MG: Paul Burdette
Triumph: Jon Brody
  Lotus: Chris Irving

Car Show Chairman: Jim Hofer

Newsletter Editor: Jim Duke

Communications Assistant: Janey Reynolds

Webmaster/Historian: Joe Reed
2021 Newsletters

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August 14, 2021 - Blues Highway
By Carolyn Shepard. 8/15/2021
 
Driving event to the Delta Blues town Clarksdale Mississippi

As usual the British Sports Car Club did not disappoint with their Saturday driving event that started on Hwy 61 and ended at the Cross Roads of route 49 and 61 in Clarksdale Mississippi with lunch at Morgan Freeman’s restaurant, Ground Zero Blues Club, followed by a tour of the Delta Blues museum across the street.

 
With sunny skies, billowy clouds and the local Blues channel blaring on the radio, 10 mostly late model Jaguars trekked south down Hwy 61 past a few casinos, multiple Dollar General stores that vowed to have their yellow logo every 15 miles apart, many stainless grain silos with green cotton fields and dried corn stalks flanking the road side.
 
Free of the predicted rain and the help of my Southern born club members, the reason why the Snow White anticipated cotton fields were not in view was explained. And that would be…the growing season and harvesting of cotton occurs in November after the green leaves are defoliated and just before the cotton gins begins their harvesting choirs.
 
The hour and one half drive was interrupted by the first stop at the “Shack Up Inn” motel near Clarksdale. Anyone wanting to experience a night in an old cotton picking shack must spend a night in a completely renovated edifice that now includes AC and a flushing commode for about $90 per night.
 
Anchoring these hotel shacks is a juke joint with a lodging registration desk and live blues stage with tchotchke artifacts from old southern living. The proprietor was happy to give us a tour of one of the accommodations that included a bar, old piano and the story of the previous inhabitant who fathered 7 kids without indoor plumbing and only 3 rooms.
 
The next drive-by was the cross roads sign where Hwy 61 and 49 converge. The greatest blues singer was Robert Johnson according to Dave White, our fearless event leader and Blues connoisseur. Dave even followed the Delta Blues in LA where he lived for 27 years. He told the story of Johnson and his death that occurred at the Crossroads after selling his soul to the devil.
 
The Blues and the Blues singer had really special powers over women, especially. It is said that the Blues singer, Johnson, could possess women and have any woman he wanted. And so when Robert Johnson came back to Mississippi, having left his community as an apparently mediocre musician, with a clear genius in his guitar style and lyrics, people said he must have “sold his soul to the devil.” And that fits in with this old African association with the Crossroads where you find wisdom: you go down to the crossroads to learn, and in his case to learn in a Faustian pact, with the devil. You sell your soul to become the greatest musician in history. Legend has the devil as the poisonous murderer.
 
But according to Dave White’s account, Johnson was poisoned by a husband of one of his ladies verses the devil as legend states. Dave said he watched one of the blues players who was with Johnson the night he was poisoned strum in LA. Dave’s version is better then Wikipedia that states Johnson died of syphilis.
 
Onward to Clarksdale, a sleepy Blues town on the Blues Hwy that stretches from Minnesota to Louisiana. Morgan Freeman opened up the Ground Zero Blues Club where Blues bands play for donations. Tourists and Blues enthusiasts stop for a hamburger or listen to delta blues while playing pool at the club. The entrance porch has old dilapidated sofas and metal yard furniture for those who must wait in line. A huge bbq smoker lures people in with the Smokey smell of roasting pork. The hamburger did not disappoint.
 
Rounding the day was a tour of the Delta Museum just across the way. Dave did not disappoint either. He was the best docent as we walked past a Muddy Waters display, a 1930’s car set up with speakers in the trunk and old instruments wired together.
 
A big thank you to Dave and his unique trip to Clarksdale.

Here are some photos of the event taken by Al Ross and Carolyn Shepard...

8/21 Blues Highway
July 10, 2021 - BSCC Scavenger Hunt
This event began at Pleasant Hill Cemetery on Brunswick Road, which was founded in 1853 and was the site of Brunswick Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The church was used as a Hospital during the Confederate War. Seventeen unknown confederate soldiers who died there are buried in a nearby plot along with many of the pioneers of the area.

After answering a few riddles at the historic cemetery, BSCC members enjoyed a leisurely 40 mile drive on the most desolate roads Shelby and Tipton county have to offer and had a few more questions to be dealt with.

The Rally ended at Chris and Pam Irving’s home in the woods in Bartlett with Pam’s delicious spaghetti and French Bread. Handmade awards were handed out for best answers, worst answers, worst luck and best vehicle. Photos of the event (courtesy of Al Ross) are below...

7/21 BSCC Scavenger Hunt
May 30, 2021 - Indy 500 Fish Fry
Jim Hofer hosted our annual Indy 500 Fish Fry, as he has done for many years. Here are photos of the event courtesy of Carolyn Shepard.

5/21 Indy 500 Fish Fry
April 24, 2021 - DeTerra Winery
The skies cleared just in time to provide a beautiful day for this event - a drive to the De Terra Winery near Somerville. Carolyn Shepard provided these photos of the event...

4/21 De Terra Winery
March 14, 2021 - BSCC Spring Break(out)
Our first driving event of 2021 was a pleasant drive from Greenbelt Park on Mud Island, northward through the Shelby Forest area and on to Munford City Park in Tipton County where we had a small birthday celebration for Dave White. As you can see in the photos, we had an excellent turnout for this event - the first in many months -  with a wide variety of classic British sports cars, newer British cars...and a couple of German examples as well. The weather cooperated beautifully with temps in the mid-70s and no rain in sight.

3/21 BSCC Spring Break(out)
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