Longtime Newhall resident Don Hoffman celebrated his 90th birthday on Friday afternoon at the Don Redding Museum in Newhall.
Hoffman, a member of the Burbank Road Kings since 1955 and currently the vice president of the car club, spent the afternoon with family, friends and fellow Road Kings members.
“Well, 89 was good,” Hoffman said during the event. “Ninety —”
He wasn’t as complimentary about being 90 years old. He had a health scare a few days before, but he was doing better and seemed happy to be spending time with the people in his life.
Hoffman grew up in Burbank. He and his family moved to Newhall in 1973. In fact, he, his wife of 69 years, Ginger Hoffman, and their daughter, Cathy Hoffman, still live in the same house.
Many of the members of the Road Kings came to the gathering in their classic cars. Hoffman came in his 1965 Ford Mustang.
“He’s the original owner,” his daughter said. “I learned to drive on it. My brother learned to drive on it. Now it’s restored.”
According to Karen Arellano, president of the Burbank Road Kings, Hoffman still has the original sales sheet from the car.
“It’s one of the first things he showed me when I came to the club,” she said.
Hoffman’s friends had much to say about him. Ernie Urioste, who works at the Don Redding Museum, said Hoffman reminds him of the 2004 song “Live Like You Were Dying” by Tim McGraw. In his 90 years, Urioste said, Hoffman has driven trains, flown planes, raced boats, raced motorcycles and raced cars.
“The only thing he hasn’t been on is a horse,” Urioste added. “But seriously, the guy is just a kick. He’s 90 years old and he’ll come over bleeding some days. ‘What were you doing?’ ‘Oh, I fell out of a tree. I was cutting the tree.’ He’ll come over with a bruise on his head. ‘What’d you do?’ ‘Oh, I hit my head on the oil pan. I was changing the oil.’ He’s always busy.”
Family and friends took a group picture and wished Hoffman a happy birthday. Age 90 might well have been turning around for him at that moment, despite what he’d previously suggested about how things had started. However, someone gifted him a tin bucket of lollipops with a sign that indicated otherwise: “90 sucks.”
