We spent all day walking, talking and looking. Leaving right around dinner time, we stopped at a local tavern in downtown Gettysburg, called the “Plaza Restaurant & Lounge”, which we found to be a great choice. Our waitress, Christy, served us a good meal at a reasonable price. Check them out the next time you’re in Gettysburg and ask for Christy, you’ll be glad you did.
The old BelAir drove back to Richmond though some heavy downpours, without a problem as usual. Good trip, Good show, Good time.
Keep em’ Runnin, Big John
What is a Kemp? It’s a slang word used by teenagers in the late 50’s, and early 60’s to indicate a car or a truck. When you say Kustom Kemp, it means kustomized car or truck. So a kustom kemp can be any make, model or year vehicle, from 1903 to current year. The word “kemp” gained national recognition on a famous TV show called 77 Sunset Strip, where Edd “Kookie” Byrnes used it often, and in the little 25-cent Rod and Custom magazines.
The KKOA started producing outdoor kustom shows, with the first being the 1981 Leadsled Spectacular, that attracted over 300 kustoms, and the legendary Leroy “Tex” Smith and Street Rodder magazine editor, Geoff Carter. Street Rodder gave the event national coverage, which was highly unusual those days for a street rodding mag, and once the dust had settled, the foundation was laid for kustoms to build on. From that point on, the KKOA continued to grow in memberships and kustom events. (The King of Kustomizers, George Barris coined Custom with a “K”.)
As the KKOA shows increased, the legends of kustomizing, Starbird, Barris, Bailon, Hines, Winfield, A-Brothers and many other top names started appearing at the events to meet and greet the thousands of eager KKOA members.
