Club History - As told by Baron Hazen, January 2026

~THE BEGINNING~

Back in June-July of 1980, I had decided I wanted to join a Hot Rod Club. After attending a number of events and meeting fellow hot rodders, I spoke with some of the Mass Street Rodders and decided I would join their club. As the time approached for me to attend one of their meetings, I ran into Sonny Venuti (one of the MSRA members) at a Cruise Night at Captain Fowlers in Revere. He asked me if I had still planned on coming , to which I replied that I was. The next thing he said was “Make sure you bring your 32 Coupe”... to which I then replied that I had sold it and had bought a 50 Merc that I was going to chop, customize, etc.

His reply was “ One of the requirements for joining the MSRA is your Hot Rod must be pre-1948, otherwise you can only get in as an associate member”,  which really bummed me out as the Merc was too new. So that ended my joining the MSRA.

That following week-end, John Lyon, Joe Orlando and I were discussing what had happened at my shop one evening - and I think it was John Lyon who suggested that we should start our own club. After a short discussion we came to the conclusion that we’d call ourselves the Strokers (little play on words, almost as a joke). The plan was to form a club that had “no rules" and let custom cars be admissible to the club.  We came up with a 1/2 dozen names of people we thought we could get to join the new club instantly. We wanted as close to ten members as possible as we had to buy a minimum of 10 plaques for Dennis O’Brien to make them up. Once we spoke with Dennis, he informed us that there were other clubs with that name. So at that point we added 'Northshore Mass' to the plaques and the name of the club.   

Unfortunately, I don’t have any written notes to verify who the first ten members were. I have a good idea, but don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings by leaving anyone out.... but I do have a membership list from 1982 . In those two years the membership grew to a total of 28. They are, (alphabetical order) Chuck Adams, Peter Allen, Dave Asaro (RIP), Jack Baker, Brad Barrows, Phil Collyer, Mike Corbett, Russ Cummings, Dave Erickson, Paul Fernandes (RIP), Alex Finigan (RIP), Gary Geissler, Mark Griffin, LeBaron Hazen, Bob Kern (RIP), John Lyon, Kelsey Martin, Paul O’Keefe (RIP), Joe Orlando (RIP), Jamie Piraino, Brian Quinn, Bob Reece, Les Stanley, Steve Tanzella, Glen Trenholm, Paul Waitkus, Alvin Williams, and Bryan Winter. 

It is great to say 13 on this list are still active members in the club today!

When we first started the club, we had no idea - not in our wildest dreams, that the club would eventually grow to its current size. The thought that we’d be hosting this  yearly event at the Danversport Yacht Club, with over 120 plus people, still amazes me to this day! We are fortunate to have such a great group of people in our club. And, that all of us here, including members of other Hot Rod clubs, not only enjoy these Hot Rods and Custom cars, trucks, etc, but enjoy the company and friendship of all these wonderful people with whom lifelong friendships have developed over the past 35 years. 

All of the cars that all of us have owned and built over the years have been great... but they are just a small part compared to the friendships that have formed as a result of them.  And the best I/we hope for today, is that when all of us here are long gone, these Hot Rod Clubs will continue to flourish and the love of automobiles and the friendships they start as a result of these creations of ours will continue for many years.

Baron, January, 2026