Cal Rod's Club at the January Pomona Swap Meet

FEATURED CAR CLUB – FOLLOW UP

Most people in high school do some pretty stupid stuff, so to create a positive legacy that’s still around six decades later is quite an accomplishment. But that’s something you can credit Don Scurti with. You see, Scurti and nine of his closest friends started the car club, Cal Rods, while they were attending Baldwin Park High in the 1950’s. Today, that same club has about 400 members and meets regularly at the Wally Parks Motorsports Museum in Pomona, CA, where members of the Club help keep a handle on things at the museum.

It started in 1954, when Scurti and his friends decided to start a club centered around something they loved – cars. In those days, he had a ‘46 Ford Coupe, while most of the guys had ‘32’s, ’40 Chevrolets and stuff like that. As an early fundraiser, the club organized a newspaper drive, which enabled them to start a treasury. One of their friends had a really deep lot which she volunteered to the club. After the success of the paper drive, the group constructed a 24’ X 40’ clubhouse on the lot. They also had a garage with a pit, which made working on their cars much easier. At the time, the club had a dragster, which they all worked on together.

Don Skurti and his 1955 Ford Pickup

The Cal Rods were rather ahead of their time by letting the girls from high school be part of the organization, giving them the name Cal Rodettes. (Scurti jokes that, since many of these same ladies are now over 60 years young they no longer want to be ‘ettes’). The facility was also used by the club to hold weekly dances, which led to more than a few of the members getting married. In fact, Scurti’s girlfriend of the time, has now been his wife for 52 years.

The club continued to succeed at their goals in those days and, in 1955, they were elected Club of the Country. Scurti and the president of the girls’ club graciously presented an $800 club check to the City of Hope. “That visit was heart breaking,” recalls Scurti, “…because it was mostly children in there.” That award led to an appearance on the Bob Crosby TV Show along with their student adviser, Officer Gordon Browning of the Los Angeles Police Department. Oh, and Browning is still a member of Cal Rods.

The club thrived for about ten years, but then fell apart after the original members went their own ways.

Club President Tom Flenniken

"Checkbook Charlie" and his New '71 Mustang he just traded

Don remained a fan of things that ran on gasoline, ultimately having his own auto parts store where he kept a lot of the memorabilia from those club days. In the late 1990’s, Vick Cunningham took his ’54 Ford to the Pleasanton car show and happened to have had “Cal Rods” sticker on the car. It turned out there were 20-25 Cal Rods guys there, who were in the club originally. Those guys got to talking and decided to try to regenerate the club.

After looking around, they found Don Scurti and, in the office of his auto parts store was plenty of memorabilia from Cal Rods. So much so, in fact, they were able to recreate all of their new items using the original items. “We meet at the NHRA museum, which isn’t a bad place to meet!” In fact, when Wally Parks wasn’t around, some of the members referred to the museum as the Cal Rods Clubhouse. Today, their meetings attract over 100 attendees and feature guest speakers and presentations. “It’s social, it’s not all cars, it’s a good time meeting your old friends – many of whom we went to high school with”,states Don. Cal Rods hosts an annual car show at Santa Anita Racetrack which raises money for charity – their biggest charitable recipient is the Wally Parks Museum, where they also help polish cars and such on Thursdays and help with things around the museum.

Jim Clark with a 1951 Plymouth

The club also runs a twilight cruise at the museum, on the first Wednesday of each month, which draws around 400 cars. While the show starts at 4:00p.m., cars begin arriving around 1:00p.m. for catching up on the latest happenings.

In the original days of Cal Rods, Scurti had a ’46 Ford coupe – today he drives a ’46 Ford Sedan. During high school, he recalls that these weren’t classics, they were just used cars. There was even a member who was able to buy a brand new 1955 Chevrolet in those days – that was something. Of course, over the course of one’s life, one’s perspective changes. That ’46 Ford that Don has today has things like a Super Cool air conditioner and that back seat is the perfect place to have a couple of friends along for a night on the town. When Don first opened his shop, guys would come in looking for points and condensers – today his ’54 Ford features a modular V8 that’s computer controlled. Still, the more things change, the more they remain the same. “I’ll be 75 at the end of August and people ask what I do – I hang around with the guys from high school,” boasts Scurti.

This article was written by Tony Barthel from the Curbside Auto Column and Car Show Calendar. For auto articles, news and an on-line calendar of automotive events, please visit www.curbside.tv.

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