A Pony Trick with a Zip-Code of Its Own

Written by Don Stewart | 30 June 2008

The Pony Tricks column is nearly seven years old. Over that period of time, the column has touched on topics that include such things as mechanical procedures, mechanical descriptions, safety discussions, and Mustang culture. From time to time, history has also crept into the format. This month history is front and center. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

When you look at the masthead on the inside front cover of the monthly newsletter, you see that Carolina Regional Mustang Club was founded on August 17, 1978 by a small group of local Mustang enthusiasts. Without their interest in Ford’s pony car and their dedication to forming a social club for like minded Mustang enthusiasts, who knows if CRMC would even exist today or—if it did—what it would be called.

Speaking of what it would be called, Carolina Regional Mustang Club wasn’t the original name of our club. Various names appeared in early club records. For example:

The Carolina Regional Group (as chartered by MCA in 1978)

Carolina Region Mustang Club (1983)

Carolina Region Mustang Club of America (also 1983)

Carolina Regional Mustang Club of America (1984)

Carolina Region Mustang Club (back again in 1984)

Carolina Regional Mustang Club (first seen in 1985)

Carolina Region Mustang Club (also used in 1985)

There appeared to be a random flip flop between Carolina Region Mustang Club and Carolina Regional Mustang Club from 1985 into 1988. Historical records seemed to indicate that letter heads for Carolina Region Mustang Club were gone by mid 1988 and that Carolina Regional Mustang Club was the evolutionary survivor. Going forward, our club was called by that name.

Evolution is a natural process but before it can occur, there must first be a beginning. And it’s the beginning that I’m leading up to, in this case the formal beginning of CRMC. The two pictures with this article document the beginning of our club as a regional club of Mustang Club of America. One picture shows a draft copy of the letter to MCA requesting permission to be recognized as a regional club and the other shows the charter granted by MCA.

The letter to MCA was written on August 17, 1978 and signed by Hoyle Swaringen, a founding member of CRMC. The territory requested was the area within a fifty mile radius of Harrisburg, NC. The charter, of course, was the outgrowth of the request.

Club member (and past vice-president) Alan Middlebrook presented the charter to President Ray Michue at the May 2008 club meeting. The charter had been in the care of Fletchel Little, another founding member of CRMC and it was at Mr. Little’s request that Alan made the presentation. That was the first time the charter had been seen in public for a number of years and it was enough to send chills up your spine, especially if you find history exciting.

Following the presentation, President Michue asked if I would place the charter in safe keeping on behalf of CRMC and it was my pleasure to say that I would be happy to do so. It will be kept with the other historical CRMC documents that I have. But before filing it away, I wanted to share it with each of you. Its picture clearly shows an August 24, 1978 date of issue over the signature of then National President, Jim Osborn.

CRMC has seen some outstanding periods over the past 30 years and it’s been part of some outstanding events. But in the grand scheme of things, it would be difficult to overstate the importance of the event represented by the MCA charter. As far as pony tricks go, this one lives in a zip-code of its own.

And for a parenthetical bit of history, let’s go back to Jim Osborn for a minute. For those who may not know, Mr. Osborn was a founding member of MCA, nearly two and a half years earlier on March 10, 1976. He is a member of the Mustang Hall of Fame from whose roster the following tribute was copied:

MUSTANG HALL OF FAME

Jim Osborn, Inducted 1998

Jim Osborn was one of the founders of Mustang Club of America and one of the driving forces that made it successful. Jim held almost every title in the club and was the "go to guy." Jim was chair of the 30th Anniversary of Mustang in 1994 and he was the chair of the 35th Anniversary event at the time of his untimely death.

Finally, if anyone has additional bits and pieces of CRMC history, it would be my pleasure to add them to the collection and keep everything in one location. I know there are several awards and documents of recognition out there somewhere and I’d be willing to bet there are historical notes and internal documents too. Can you imagine the display we could assemble if all of those items were brought together in one place? It would be fun, informative, and appropriate to do that in this, our 30^th year as a club. Get in touch with me if you want to contribute to a centralized collection of club memorabilia. My contact information is on the inside front cover.