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The Last SOA Newsletter ( Ladies Tea)

by Diane Burgy

Thirty dozen cookies, huge urns of coffee and iced tea adorned the table for the Convention's Sunday Afternoon Ladies' Tea. So, while our beloved husbands walked around a 100 degree parking lot asking Carroll Shelby to "lean" on their cars for pictures (something we're never allowed to do), the Ladies of S.O.A. sat in air conditioned comfort enjoying the company of the Guest of Honor, Jeanne Shelby.

Jeanne Shelby was much the way you pictured her to be . . . full of poise and always smiling. A soft-spoken woman who loves the out-of-doors, she gardens and plants Bonsai Trees as a past-time. Jeanne and Caroll Shelhy have three children, the oldest a son who is 30 years old. However, he is married and happily raising his own family.. some people have all the luck. As Carroll Shelby was busy signing autographs outside, Jeanne too. was kind enough to sign Polaroid snapshots and name tags for our scrapbooks.

As usual, when two or more women get together, many things were discussed: from Carroll Shelby, to the cars he built to the hours of patient waiting until the Shelby is tuned, polished and whatever, only to find that by that time, it needs to be tuned, polished and whatever all over again. It was at least comforting to learn that for one afternoon, women from all over the United States got together and found that all households had one thing in common: "What the Shelby needs, the Shelby gets - FIRST".

We also discussed grease and how to get transmission fluid out of underwear, and how hard we think we have it.

Perhaps, if you can picture little 4'11" Susan Greene doing hers, your grimmy chore will seem smaller. Her husband, Dr. Bill Greene of Florida is blessed with an 18 1/2" neck and at least a 6'3' body to go with it. She can barely load the washing machine since, one soiled work outfit weighs almost a ton. Once the one outfit is in the washer, the poor machine can hold no more. As it goes through its cycle, banging from side to side, one wonders if Dr. Bill has taken pity on her and rigged up a conveyor belt from washer to dryer.

When the Tea was nearly over, we were paid a visit by our Club President Dave Bythewood. He discussed the club and wanted to assure us that the wives were members too, not just the men, and that anytime we had something to say, to write it down and he would print it in the newsletter. I'll bet there are a lot of wives who have a story to tell about their Shelby lives with each other, knowing that we're not alone.

A very special thanks goes out to Tami Wagner, who organized the Tea. It was a very nice idea to have, something just for the ladies to do. Also, to be thanked are all the ladies of the Kansas Region who baked the many dozens of cookies enjoyed by us all.

 


 

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Originally formed as the COBRA Club in 1972. Established as a Region of SAAC in 1975. One of the oldest SAAC Regions in the United States