chapter 265

Six Degrees of Separation

7/20/2011

Utica's ultimate car collector

There I was sitting at the bar having a fine free Italian lunch and chatting with what I'd call one of a handful of premier car collectors in America. Alan Rosenblum is on the board of Trustees at SAM and a self made millionaire (selling donuts) with a collection of hundreds of near priceless rare and exotic automobiles. We were miles apart in dog years but we were like kindred brothers.

He said his day had begun at 5:30 AM driving down from his camp at Old Forge. I asked if he had been out in his mahogany boat then realized we had been living parallel lives. We talked about our Adirondack camps . Al knew my neck of the woods recalling with fondness going to Shermans Amusement Park and the Jammer . His father-in-law had run a Texaco gas station (honored in the collection) just as mine had. Al descended from Polish ancestors as have I. Al drove his car around Watkins Glen as did I (1927 Bugatti Type 37A Grand Prix racer verses my '58 4 door rusted Chev salvaged from Virgil Dairy farmer Bob Bayes). We were so much alike, bank accounts not withstanding.

I had previously visited this stable in central New York and had judged some of his cars at our annual car shows . This painting in his office depicts the blue Bugatti that raced at Monte Carlo Grand Prix and had sold to the President of Peru before ending up in Utica. Since his stable is private, only open to limited invited audiences he doesn't want a lot of photos distributed via internet. Thus the secret folder link.

Group photo from fellow Lithuanian/Amsterdam native Paul Barkevich

A second stop on the way home was to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees' collection in Gloversville.