One reason I love the old car hobby is the sense of community you develop after you have been in it for awhile. People stay active in the hobby for a long time and it will often be 20-25 years between meetings. For instance, last fall on my parts-hunting trip to Oregon, I stopped at the Pioneer Auto Show museum in Murdo, N.D. The owner Dave Geisler greeted me and as soon as I saw him I knew I had met him once at Auburn. "That was in 1985," he said. I asked how he knew. "That's the on;y time I went to the Auburn auction," was his answer. So we hadn';t seen each other in that many years andeting him again was like meeting an old friend.

At last year's Iola Old Car Show I was working in the book tent when a man walked up to say hello. "Do you remember me?" he asked. "I'm the guy who sold you the 1936 Pontiac you own." That was also over 20 years ago and we sat down and talked like dear old friends.

In last week's paper (www.oldcarsweekly.com) I did an article about Pat Aldrich, who did a great job delivering a car I bought in 2002. He lived in Denver then. Yesterday Pat called me. He's now in Dayton, Ohio doing restorations, mostly on Packards (www.aldrichrestores.com).

Small world!