My blogging focus for the last several months has been researching and recapping old school Petty Enterprises wins. Thank you to any who have read them, replied, forwarded a link, tweeted, posted to Facebook, etc. I hope you've enjoyed these trips through history and maybe even learned a trivia nugget or two.
Blogs about the adventures of the Schaefer Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor have not been as plentiful as in the past. The last Schaefer-schentric post was back in January. One reason has been my focus on the Petty posts. But the other reason is its getting dang near impossible to find Schaefer anymore. A limited supply results in limited opps to share in the fun.
The Metropoulos father-son combo that owns Pabst Brewing has all but strangled the life out of the brand. In the end, however, the Schaefer HOF and Ring of Honor is a committed group of good-time-havers. No amount of narrow minded, short sighted, cost cutting, production ending efforts of those two #@%*&!^ will detract from our fun times. With that said, here is a photo recap of some of the fun times had by the SHOF and SROH the past six months.
Rev. Randy had quite the Schaefer Schuper Bowl Schaemorgasborg. When food and Schaefer collide, good times are destined to happen.
While Schaefer HOF co-founder's Schuper Bowl buffet may not have been as extravagant, I've had that scheven-layer bean dip before. Its phenomenal - plus Philly amped his presentation with a Schaefer tall boy.
When a new race season begins, TMC - like many other fans - renews foolish new optimism. I'm always hopeful the legendary 43 will return to its rightful place in victory lane. I tried to convey some positive mojo on Richard Petty Motorsports beginning with the twin qualifying races for February's Daytona 500.
When the checkered flag fell on the Daytona 500, the 43 finished 13th and teammate Marcos Ambrose finished 18th. Not great. But as the Schaefer HOF slogan goes, its not that bad.
With the return of the Indy Car series to Pocono in 2013, TMC bought some 1970s era decals from back in the day when Pocono's Indy race was part of the triple crown.
In February, Rev. Randy truly went old school and back to the roots. He located a statue of Gambrinus - the patron of all brewers - and commemorated his visit with a missing-can-formation Schaefer Schaloot.
He later drove by Boston Brewing Company, brewer of Sam Adams. Before Boston Brewing moved its operations to this location, the brewery was originally the home to ... yep, F&M Schaefer Brewery (some pics and more truth). In between, the location was used to make Smirnoff Ice. But we'll overlook that part of its sordid past and move on.
In March, SHOFer (class of 2012) Kuzzin Kari traveled to New England - the one part of the country that fortunately still sells Schaefer. She found this 12-pack in parts-unknown Massachusetts.
As spring began its return, the SHOFers got the itch to do more than just enjoy indoor Schaefer activities. Philly, Rev. Randy, and Uncle Dave showed 'em who's boss at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Though with the empty grandstands and the fact these three weren't mowed down by fast race cars, I'm reminded of his 2004 commercial featuring Michael Waltrip.
In April, Uncle Dave and Philly hit the right track - Rockingham - to witness the return of NASCAR with its running of the Camping World Truck Series race.
As Uncle Dave and Philly enjoyed Rockingham, TMC flew to Philly. From there, I drove north to Princeton NJ. As part of my stay, I enjoyed a Schaefer reunion with Schaefer Ring of Honor member and fellow life-long Petty fan 200WINZ.
Uncle Dave relocated from Cleveland to establish the South Florida
Chapter of the SHOF. He regularly lets other SHOFers how good life can
be down there.
The Schaefer Hall of Fame and Ring of Honor Annual Conference is held each Memorial Day weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway - as it was again this year. But as documented here frequently, many regional conferences are held - including the All Star Race at Charlotte the week before the 600.
This year, the All Star event took it up a notch. SROH Cuzzie G made a huge delivery. He transported ten cases of Schaefer tall boys and a cooler full of live New England lobsters and steamers from New Hampshire.
And the weekend's party host, SROH member Pat, grilled several racks of incredible, dry rub ribs.
Rookie loved him some lobstah - even if he did get a bit greedy with them after they were pulled from the pot.
After an afternoon of cornhole, Schaefering and generally having fun, SHOFer Kuzzin Kari parted ways with the crowd and used her pit pass of privilege to pay a visit to the 43 pit stall - the team partially owned of course by the King, Richard Petty.
She then went one better by getting the chance to see the King himself around driver introductions.
Throughout the day, SHOFers, Schaefer Ring of Honor members and other distinguished guests schared plenty of food, fun, schmiles and Schaefer.
Because of competing priorities on the home front, I missed the Coke 600 in Charlotte for the first time in several years. The Schaefer Schelebration is greater than one individual's participation; however, and the party continued.
On Thursday's qualifying night, Philly and SHOFer Cuba met a living legend: Ken Squier. Among his many contributions to racing, he was the original voice of Motor Racing Network radio, a track promoter in Vermont, and the lead announcer on CBS' NASCAR broadcasts.
Squier's greatest career call, however, is unarguably the last lap of the 1979 Daytona 500: ... and there's a fight!
Race day for the 600 once again reunited a super-majority of the SHOF - great friends all of them. Three of us sadly had to miss year's annual Schaefer Schoiree: Bruton, Uncle Dave and TMC.
L to R: Philly, Paducah, Cuba, Rookie, Rev. Randy, Kuzzin Kari
Philly and new SROH entrant Dale Jr. claimed the treasured 2013 Schaefer Racing Cornhole Tournament trophy.
As they settled in for a long evening of 400 laps and 600 miles, the SHOFers displayed their true colors.
As Cuba settled into a new dwelling, he made sure his table's place settings were in order.
And his new refrigerator was sufficiently stocked with the basics needed for sustenance.
On a Wal-Mart run to restock some essentials, Cuba ran into this guy. Who knows - a potential Schaefer Ring of Honor entrant? I guess we'll see in May 2014.
In June, I traveled to Las Vegas and was immediately hit in the face with triple-digit heat. Fortunately, I knew precisely where to get some Schaefer to quench my thirst: Lee's Discount Liquor on Las Vegas Blvd. Just 2 years ago, Philly and I found it there - far left hand corner of the store, second shelf from the bottom. So as soon as I got my luggage and rental car, I made a beeline for Lee's.
But when I arrived, OH NO! It couldn't be! But it was. Lee's still had shelf space for Schaefer Light, but they'd been out of stock for weeks. And regular Schaefer wasn't even sold by them anymore.
Temporarily crushed (and still thirsty), I needed a new plan. The next day I phoned the local distributor to see if other area stores sold it. Sure enough, she referred me to a chain called Smart & Final. I was given the address for a specific store that had recently purchased twenty 12-packs. With renewed hope, I headed for the store - which was most assuredly not part of The Strip.
And there it was - just as was predicted. I was practically giggling like a teenage school girl as I bought a 12-pack to bootleg home in my luggage.
Earlier this month, I blogged about a return to trip to the fairgrounds speedway in Nashville. No racing trip would be complete without a Schaefer - even if it is dang difficult to find and needs to be smuggled in as a pocket beer.
SHOFer Bruton submitted this one back in January. So I'll let your deviant minds come up with your own juvenile punch line for it.
I'll close with this video. While the Harlem Shake craze has fortunately passed, it was a phenomenon of the first schix months of 2013. And with a Schaefer theme to this one, I'm willing to let the trend extend a bit.
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