As you may have surmised, Timo is a Saab driver. And Saab used to have a factory in Uusikaupunki, Finland. In order to increase production at that facility in the mid-1980s, they began to build the Saab 900 Convertibles there. It was the only place that they built them for many years, and they were generally considered among the best built Saabs.

Timo arranged the use of a 1989 Saab 900 Turbo Convertible (built in Finland) in exchange for some used Saab parts. He also arranged for some young ladies to sit in the back as queens. Unfortunately Uncle Randy talked them out of it when they sobered up. So we had a nice convertible, but no queens.

But doesn't every young woman dream of being a parade queen? How often have they practiced: Elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, wrist? So we decided to give that opportunity to many young -- and young at heart -- women. We played Tag-team Queen, or "Queen for a Minute". Every now and then the convertible would stop and the sitting queen would depart in favor of a new queen plucked from the crowd. Amy was the first queen until we chose someone from the crowd. Over the course of the parade, there were at least fifteen different queens.

Photos ©2007 by Tim Winker