Tom & Linda Rothenberg

Our Meet the Members feature has offered us the opportunity to contemplate a wealth of life's experiences...from riding the Orient Express to surviving mine explosions, from World of Wheels award winners to building motorcycles in the bedroom.  We even have someone that chose his favorite car because the dashboard was wide enough to hold a pizza box.  With that in mind, let me stimulate your memory banks.  It's August of 1969; it's one of the most memorable stateside events of the year...maybe the decade...maybe in modern history.  It's Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Richie Havens, Joe Cocker and a slew of others.  It's 500,000 anti-government advocates, pro-government advocates, legalizing drug advocates, anti-legalizing drug advocates, Viet Nam vets and anti-war protestors.  And, if you look close enough at some of the old pictures, you'll see a skinny kid with bell-bottom pants, tie-dyed shirt, with long shaggy hair....that was Tom Rothenberg.  WOODSTOCK.  The place to be and Tom was there. 

The shaggy hair remark came from Tom's bride of 28 years, Linda.  Who should know better than Linda about the shaggy hair?  After all, she has known Tom since she was 12 years old.  Now, stop that!  Get your minds out of the gutter; it's not what you think.  Tom's uncle kept his boat in the slip next to Linda's mom and dad's.  As Tom, then 18 years old, battened down the hatches on his uncle's boat, Linda kept wondering why "that jerk" didn't get a haircut.  About 6 years later, the two were reunited at a party where Linda was now the almost-18 year old hat check girl in hot pants.  Tom's protective instinct took over and made sure none of his buddies swooped on this tasty young morsel.  Two months later, Tom and Linda were cruising their native New York streets in Tom's brand new Vega.  Looks like Linda checked more than Tom's hat and the rest is history.

With college now behind them and a young son, Tom & Linda moved to Florida 18 years ago for their son's health and never looked back.  Linda has a Master's Degree is Special Ed and is currently teaching kids K-5.  She also plays the piano, organ and accordion.  When I asked Linda about her favorite car, she said it was her '72 Impala.  During our conversation, I discovered that these two used that car as a truck when they were rehabbing old houses and used it as a source of income.  By that I mean this poor Chevy got hit...BING BANG BOOM...time and time again and the insurance company kept paying to fix it but it never got fixed.  It was dented, battered, with so many colors of paint scraped on the side that even the New York cabbies avoided it with a vengeance. 

Linda likes just about any car as long as it's blue.  The proverbial "found in a field" '76 coupe they now are restoring will be blue.  Their 1980 Corvette remains white and Tom admits that neither of their Vettes make the trip to their pet store at Mariner and Spring Hill Drive.  

Tom is an expert when it comes to aquariums and reptiles; so, if you need to know anything about your lizard, ask Tom...learn something.

This couple says there's not a lot of spare time...what with a business, a career, two sons, restoring a Corvette...but somehow they manage to enjoy cruising.  Yup, in a car but on cruise ships too.  They love Carnival Cruise Lines.  They're a walking commercial.  Who needs Kathie Lee anyway?         

Butch Uzzo, Your Roving Reporter