Donut Derelicts

Attending Donut Derelicts in Huntington Beach became a sometimes ritual for Brian and I. This is a semi-informal car show at o’ dark early Saturday mornings in the parking lot by Adams Donuts. If you show up after 6 am, you may not find a parking spot; by 8 or so, nearly everyone is gone off to the rest of their weekend.

At this point I don’t know which of us started going first and drug the other along. Many weeks we would have the text message “At DD. U here?” early on Saturday. At first we would park in front of Don Jose’s or around back behind the Goodwill. Eventually we both acquired cars where we were “in” the show. Me with my Mustang, and Brian (and I) with Frankenpinto. Brian tended to park at the ends of the aisles, or picked a spot with a light pole in it as the Pinto was one of the few cars that could fit there.

We would quickly find one another and start “doing laps.” We both had long settled on a specific “lap” of the parking lot that would efficiently view all the cars there. Most mornings would consist of around 3 laps–less if we spent extra time hanging out at the Pinto talking to people, or talking with some of the regulars there.

Brian would always make a point of stopping at the donut shop & getting the kids each (?) a Tiger Tail) and Juli a Maple Bar. We would get ourselves the Ham & Cheese croissant for a pre-breakfast. If the boys were along, they’d get their pick of donut to munch on the first lap.

Brian would always anticipate turning onto the aisle that the Pinto was parked on. He reveled in the crowds that always seemed to gather around it and loved how some of the goofy solutions we came up with would stump some of them. He would hold court in front of the car explaining what we had done and hearing the Pinto stories seemingly everyone had. He and “Mopar Guy” would joke that they needed to write a book of these stories called “Buddy, Brother, Uncle” since it always seemed to be one of those relations that owned the cars in the stories.

He also kept close track of how many Pintos and Vegas showed up each morning. He would inspect each new Pinto that showed up and on the rare occasion we met the owner, would chat for a while and try to get them to keep coming out, or enter the Fabulous Fords Forever show. After getting home, he would apparently post a score on the Pinto Fan Facebook page. Now that is my job.

I’m still going, and will continue to go–in part in his memory. But I miss the early morning texts and the looking around for his baseball cap or Nico when turning the corner on an aisle. I am still turning at some cars to make a comment to him or at least think “Cool, Brian would love this one.” Now I have two cars to pick to take to the show, and will trade them back and forth as the weekend allows. I get to hold court and describe what we did, but it will be a little lonely from here on.