in North Carolina for a Mets seeder team. Several weeks later another draft notice came in the mail, this time he was a Marine in Vietnam. Joe and Pauline had mar- ried so after two long years he returned in 1971 and they had their first child in 1972. As soon as Joe returned from military duty he decided he wanted a street rod. He hunted down a ’29 Ford roadster body, his old neighbor helped him build a big Pontiac engine, his uncle painted it, and he drove it to the Street Rod Nationals in 1972. While at the event he decided he needed to up his game and since he had already barn-found the origi- nal Stone, Woods, & Cook Willys Gasser he decided now was the time to make a street rod out of it (leg- end move aside). He loved the ride for a couple of
years, but by that time Joe had moved on to a ’29 Ford roadster pickup. In 1974, Dick Royer came up to Joe and recruited him to be the Pennsylvania State Representative and his trip with NSRA would continue for 52 years and onward. They continued cruising the ’29 through most of the ‘70s including getting it on the cover of StreetScene, but Joe always had some project on the side along with raising his boys, both of whom had the same love of baseball that Joe has. As the ‘80s
36 MAY 2026
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