Oh, the memories of hot rods, custom cars, Abbotsford airport, drive-in movies, drive-in theatres, hangouts, car clubs, jukeboxes, hamburgers that cost nineteen cents, poodle skirts. The first fuel injection, Payless Auto Accessories, Sylvia Braddick and Stew, Cal-Van Auto Supplies, Fred Welsh, "The Syndicate", BCCCA, BCHRA, and my car club The Igniters. Jim Greenwood, (pin striper), great looking girls, saddle shoes, 45 rpm records, portable record players, and rock and roll. Teen Canteen, the PNE, Bill Haley and the Comets at the Kerrisdale arena in June l956 and Elvis Presley at Empire Stadium August l957. The words “chopped and channelled”, the word “mill” when referring to a car’s engine. Gene Vincent at the Denman Auditorium, Buddy Holly in town with Eddie Cochran, and Jack Cullen’s Owl Prowl. The White Spot, Kings Drive-In, and the Aristocrat restaurants, The Cascades Drive-In Theatre, sock hops, drapes, banker shoes, top coats called bennies, On Wo tailors, BC Lions football at Empire Stadium, track meets at Brockton Oval, blue jeans, Kelly's record store and also Ward’s music at

RED ROBINSON - Inducted 2002

Supporter - Hot Rod, Custom Car and Drag Racing

Red’s remberances of his early involvement in the Vancouver hot rod scene

Left: Red broadcasting at the Abbotsford drag races       Right: Red and friends, 1957  (Red Robinson collection)

Red Robinson

4l2 West Hastings. Eddies Cafe on Main street, pin ball machines, the first Corvette and the first T-bird, Danceland, The Cave Theatre Restaurant, Fogg Motors in New Westminster, Eagle Ford on Hastings Street, rolled up jeans, saddle shoes, great looking girls, going steady, phones that required an operator, and telephone party lines. Johnny Ray,

James Dean, Vic Morrow, Blackboard Jungle, Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando and the Wild Ones. One and two dollar bills, typewriters, slide rules, and Polaroid cameras, ten cent cokes, engagement rings from Birks, The Marco Polo, The On On in Chinatown, and something new everyday. These were the halcyon days of youth and those days are gone, but the memories live on. My kids, like so many of their generation, are envious of our great times when life was simple and we had a social relationship with each other. The most important ingredient in all of this was “wheels” and the car club guys and gals who put some of the best on the road and on the track. God, we had fun.

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Red Robinson, October 2004