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The now international Hillman List was originally created by Craig Burlingame to allow the handful of US Hillman owners to get and stay in touch.  It has been successful beyond Craig's wildest dreams and now has spread around the world.  The list is probably more important to non-British Hillman owners because we are so few and far apart we really cannot get together very often (although again Craig helped that by sponsoring the first ever US Hillman meet 4 years ago – everyone had a GREAT time).

Hillman owners around the world really owe Craig a debt of gratitude for his pioneering work for us.

So every time you get that advice you need or find that impossible to get part – quietly say thanks to Craig – one of the truly great "Hillmanites" in the world.

Jan Eyerman

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Well, "quietly" saying anything pretty well rules out me.  But the list has been a huge help.  I shudder to think of what frustration I would have had with my various Minx problems without the benefit of the experiences of others.

I am still constantly amazed at how this list has so little of the bickering that at times dominates other lists.

–Evan

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I couldn't agree more Evan, this list is excellent with a bunch of really nice people.  Helpful, generous and not prone to bickering and character assassination like some people on other lists.
Because of the list I have found parts for my Hillman and made a lot of contacts who I now regard as friends.  Hopefully I've also been of help to some members.

What became of Craig, Jan?

Ed

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Jan, You're right, it truly is a great resource for us Hillman owners.  I was interested to hear you mention Craig's organizing a Hillman meet four years ago.  Where was it and how many Hillmans did you get attending?  Maybe it's time to organize another meet?  Maybe make it a five year thing?  I'd certainly volunteer my time to help organize.  It would be great to get together and see everyone's cars.
Something to think about anyway.
Regards,
Alan

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Alan,

We had about a dozen cars out NE of Seattle.  Craig and his wonderful wife, Nancy, were organizing a meet for this summer when Nancy became seriously ill.
Craig is devoting all of his time to his wife so the meet has been postponed.

The Seattle area was chosen because that area has the highest concentration of Hillmans in the USA and because Craig lives there and was willing to do all of the work to set it up (including a great lunch).

Again, while some us might be quite noisy, there are other quiet people who do a great deal of work (and good) that you never hear about.

(snip) ........

Jan

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Hello Everyone,
Thanks for the nice comments and mini history lesson on the Hillman List's humble beginnings.  And you're right Jan – I never envisioned this in my wildest dreams back in late '95, early '96 it would turn into something like this.  Does anyone else remember when the List volume was less than one message a day??  I remember an early email I posted to the group announcing I was going up to Canada to purchase a fine Mk VIII Californian and wondering if anyone would read my proud announcement.  I both bought and sold that car over the internet.

It does show the enormous power of the internet.  And the community of Hillman owners gathered here is quite a testament and helps redefine what a club is or could be.  Some months later I was getting the Californian ready for a big All-British Car show here in Seattle area and developed a last minute problem with the carb (leaky float).  Within hours of my plea to the List I had a new float in hand, corrected the problem and was able to motor up to the meet the next day.

Coincidentally Jan Eyerman had just formed the first real Hillman club for US owners in about 1995 called the Brotherhood of Three Spires.  The List helped bring people to the Brotherhood and vice versa.  (By the way I never did learn the secret handshake).

And as Jan recounted I had put together a fairly large Hillman website including pictures and bios of List members to that point. I attended the Hillman Owners Club meeting in England in 1996 and posted a complete set of photos for all the world to see.  The following year another HOC member sent me pictures and I scanned them in.  Unfortunately as was stated earlier, a hacker got into the site in early '99 and destroyed both the original and the back-up copies.  At the same time my hard drive froze and never relinquished my only other backup copy of the site.  I'd always intended to get around to starting it over again, but so far that just hasn't happened and coincidentally Doug Bragg was just starting his site about that time.
Nice job Doug.

My internet provider, Brigadoon.com ran into financial difficulty in late '90s and the fellow who helped me set up the original Hillman list became a fan of Hillmans and decided to adopt the fledgling Hillman list and carry it over to his new more reliable provider, Can-inc at no charge to me or anyone on the list.  It has been rock solid ever since and I owe him a lot of gratitude for keeping the List going when I had to turn my attention to other things.  Sharp techies, like the Becketts stepped in and helped manage the list while we were rebuilding our house.

And yes, I'm still out here rattling around.  In fact Nancy and I played host to Keith and Alleyn when they were in our part of their North American tour – treated them to a drive in the Mighty Minx and everything.  I'm one of the quiet ones out here taking it all in and trying to decide if I should drop a straight 6 or a V8 into the Mighty Minx.   ––nahhhh

As Jan mentioned, he and I were planning on a second North American Hillman Gathering for this summer.  The first was five years ago in 1998 and hosted no less than 10 Hillmans in one US location – a modern day record we determined.  My wife Nancy suffered a serious stroke in early January of this year and my life has been changed ever since.  Jan wisely advised that we postpone the Gathering for another year and so that's the current plan if it doesn't conflict with a major Sunbeam meet.

North American Hillman owners and fellow brothers . . . what do you think about a Gathering in Seattle in 2004? Can we match or beat the old record of most Hillmans in one location? . . .  Does anyone remember the secret handshake?

–Craig Burlingame

BTW Since several of you have asked, Nancy is doing quite nicely and working hard to get back to full mobility.  She lost motor control on the right side of her body but she regains just a little more each day.  We even went for a drive in the Mighty Minx the other day – it was fabulous of course.  She missed our romantic Hillman drives on summer evenings listening to the old radio that only seems to pick up the local radio station that plays old radio music from the '40s and '50s.

 And thank you all for your prayers and concern.

Dear Craig:

I very much enjoyed reading your recent posting to the Hillman List.

As a Sunbeam Rapier owner (cousin to the Hillman?), I want to thank you for all the work you have done to promote the Hillman marque, including creating that first web site and being responsible for the continuation of the current Hillman List.  (Not to mention the first gathering of Hillman owners in North America).  It is a wonderful collection of world-wide "characters" with a common interest in the Rootes Group saloon and convertible (non-tiger and alpine) cars.  I wish you and Nancy the very best in the coming year.

James Mazour/Sunbeam Rapier Registry
West Des Moines, Iowa

Here's one of Craig's e-mails from a few years earlier, in which he gives due credit to Gary Moore who helped out in a big way :

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Here's a new development on the Hillman listserve scene.  I just received an email from the "guy at Brigadoon", Gary Moore who was instrumental in getting our Hillman listserve started in '97.  Although unfamiliar with Hillman at the time, he was made an honorary lifetime member of the Hillman listserve group and has since followed along with our exploits -- gaining perhaps some appreciation for Hillman along the way.  Here's a copy of the message he sent me:

Craig, Hello! I'm the "guy at Brigadoon" who helped out to provide the Hillman list with maillist service.  I've provided that service at my own expense on my own server for what, almost two years now? I even continued to host it (again without charge, paying for it out of my own pocket) after I left Brigadoon in July, 1998. I was not the "guy in charge".  I was a frustrated employee who thought customers should be treated better and tried to help until Brigadoon could develop the capability to do it on their own.  That never happened.  The reason for the CAN-INC.COM domain was that I had a commercial client who was paying the bills for a time.  The client went away, but I owned the domain and decided to keep the server because I had offered to help you and several non-profit organizations by hosting maillists.  Rather than cause a huge disruption to a lot of people, I kept paying the $65 a month to keep things afloat. I currently host about 10 email lists for different non-profit organizations.  Some of the organizations pitch in a bit (most $5 - $10 a month) to help out with expenses.  I don't intend to make a profit on it, I do it to help organizations and groups like yours. If you'd like me to keep hosting the Hillman list, just let me know. Best Regards, Gary Moore

So, what do you all think?  It sounds like we could continue to stick with hillman@can-inc.com (doesnt' quite slide off the tongue like hillman@brigadoon.com), but it certainly has been much more reliable over the years and with Gary Moore's offer, should be around for some time to come.  Gary Moore and Can-inc.com has been most generous to the Hillman listserve group and I think it would be a good idea to think about extending our listserve presence with can-inc and pay $10 per month to continue the privledge.  Further, I would suggest that we transfer our pledges of funds to help restore my site to this cause instead.  Since I have recieved one contribution already by mail, I'll pass that along to Gary Moore to keep our list alive and worthwhile for him to maintain our existance on can-inc.  In the future, I'd recommend people send along their voluntary contributions to me at:

Craig Burlingame
3265 W. Lake Sammamish Rd. SE
Bellevue, Washington 98008 - USA

Is this what the group would like to do, or should we have Evan look into the OneList option of free groups with advertisements?

Editor's note :
The way events unfolded, we were able to stay with CAN-INC.COM until it suddenly ceased functioning in early November 2004.