Veneys ride in style
by Tom Chillemi
Every car has a story. And how Melvin Veney’s Maserati came to be parked in a field at Wings, Wheels & Keels show on September 24 with millions of dollars worth of exotic and antique vehicles is a good one.
“I didn’t see this car until it came in my driveway,” he said.
No, he didn’t buy it online . . . his wife did!
“He’s always working and driving a work truck and we felt he needed a car,” said his wife, Caroline. And what a car she chose—a 2018 Maserati Gran Tourismo convertible.
Their son did the research, found it online, made the deal and planned a surprise, she explained.
Then one day an unmarked trailer showed up at his work. When the trailer’s tailgate was lowered, out rolled a gleaming white four seat convertible. Melvin was speechless. “I just stared, amazed.”
Melvin is a hard worker, he’s still at it at age 72 running Veney’s Heating and Air in Kilmarnock. And when it’s time to shed his work clothes and take his wife out, they go in style.
Car club founders honored
Jack and Barbara Ashburn of Memory Lane Car Club were presented a plaque on Saturday, September 24, by Wings, Wheels & Keels (WWK) officials.
They were recognized for organizing and producing the vehicle show portion of WWK for more than two decades.
A total of 215 vehicles entered the 2022 show held Saturday at Hummel Airfield in Topping.
The Memory Lane Car Club was formed in January of 2011 by Jack and Barbara Ashburn and 52 other car people. It now has somewhere north of 260 members.
Jack and Barbara Ashburn have been running car shows 60 years, since April 1962.
WWK was their fourth show in as many weeks….
