Parade to Downtown South Bend

[Bob Henning]

On Friday May 5th, we will be forming at the St Joseph County Fairgrounds to parade through the City of South Bend. Please plan on joining us. You will enter at Gate 5 starting at 3 pm. We leave around 4. We will leave out of the west gate and head Downtown. This will be a procession that will not be stopping through the City of South Bend. When we get to the downtown area we will split in two directions and park our cars on Michigan. We prefer that you just pull in and not back in so we can get cars in and not have any accidents. The entire City will know about this, and it is a part of the First Friday celebration with the City of South Bend. There will be specials from most all of the restaurants in the downtown area, and lots of people to look at our Studebaker vehicles. We always talk about recruiting and getting new members, this is the place that we can do so. We already know about our Studebakers, this is a venue to promote ourselves, and our Studebakers. Please plan on driving through the streets of South Bend, and joining us downtown Friday May 5th. This event is open to all Studebaker vehicles, including Avanti, so be sure to join us.

If you are at the tour of Building 84, or have another activity, no worries. Just come downtown when you can, enjoy some time with friends, and make some new ones.

[Milaca]

Bob, do you know if anybody will be making a video of the Studebaker parade? It is something that I would be interested in purchasing if it should become available.

[Bob Henning]

Bob, do you know if anybody will be making a video of the Studebaker parade? It is something that I would be interested in purchasing if it should become available.

At this point in time, there are no plans. A good place to take pictures are the parking garages downtown. I did forget to mention that there are red Studebaker flags lining the street right now. It looks pretty nice. These same flags were up in 2012.

[jclary]

Just encourage anyone with a newer smart phone, or video camera, to take videos. Then, they can upload them to You Tube. I have a (relatively) new SONY smart TV. It is so smart, I'm still learning how to use it. One day, when exploring it's features, I managed to find the menu feature that allows you to search the internet by speaking into the remote. I blurted out the word STUDEBAKER, all sorts of You Tube videos popped up. One of them was our Maggie Valley North Carolina parade where we drive our Studebakers up the main drag during our Autumn "Tri State Meet."

My wife and I were surprised to find ourselves & friends were TV stars in a parade!

So, for anyone so inclined, any activity you video at the International Meet, could be fun for those of us unable to attend. Just put it out on You Tube. If I can find the correct menu option again...I might just be able to view it!

[STUDEBAKERFIRE]

Please post video for us that can't attend will be looking forward to seeing the videos. Still like looking at the last three part video on youtube from 2012

[Bob Bryant]

I am leaving CT Thursday AM and hope to arrive in time to view the parade. The radiation therapy was finished Mar. 31 and they said would take a month to regain my energy level. That was about right. May everyone have safe and uneventful travel.

[63avanti.]

View My Video


Small clip of parade i took... Not sure if it will work?

[jclary]

View My Video


Small clip of parade i took... Not sure if it will work?

Thanks for posting. My wife & I enjoyed it. Don't know what format you used, but the picture quality is good and it even allows you to go full screen.Too short. Hope others will post some too.

[63avanti.]

Good to hear! I used my iPhone to record it. I was hoping to get the whole parade but my phone battery was low. I Did see quite a few people recording... Hopefully they show up on here.

[Bob Henning]

This is what we always are talking about. We had a nice opportunity this past week. We got to promote our cars, our Club, and ourselves to people that may not even know that Studebaker even exists. Having a venue where we can grow our Club, and keep people interested in Studebaker is always better than promoting ourselves to each other at a venue and time that isn't in sync with the new people that we want to attract . That is why we also moved the Car Show to Saturday, and look how many people came to that as well.

[jclary]

This is what we always are talking about. We had a nice opportunity this past week. We got to promote our cars, our Club, and ourselves to people that may not even know that Studebaker even exists. Having a venue where we can grow our Club, and keep people interested in Studebaker is always better than promoting ourselves to each other at a venue and time that isn't in sync with the new people that we want to attract . That is why we also moved the Car Show to Saturday, and look how many people came to that as well.

Good points you make Bob. Although circumstances did not work out for me to attend, the threads about the meet, and comments within, are very reassuring as the club proceeds..."Into the future." This is further supported by the great videos posted by Bob Shaw http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...ouTube-Channel

In addition to Bob's great neutral mid-west manner of speech (no drawl like me), back ground comments, and sounds, indicate an excitement difficult to quantify, but comes across to me that South Bend has embraced its Studebaker heritage in a way unprecedented since production ceased.

This kind of cooperation, welcome, and celebration, should go a long way toward giving the SDC and South Bend a geographic identity, a "Pilgrimage" for homecoming. As sure as nature's order of "spawning" ensures the preservation of certain species...this event has the potential to build on the legend, as people become familiar with Studebaker, and how its history is woven into the landscape, institutions, and traditions of the entire region.