Lars came out and then Natalie introduced us to her mother who had just moved in with them. It was obvious that she was from Sweden when she spoke. I couldn’t help but to keep looking between her face and that of her daughter. I swear they could’ve been sisters although the mother was prettier. However, Nadia’s shape was definitely the better of the two. The baby, in the stroller, was fussing so we didn’t stay all that long. Walking away I was already thinking of how I’d take a chance at peeking at their clothes line.
As I said, the need for substitute teachers at the beginning of the school year was always slim and Elle liked it that way. September still had some really nice days and with both the older kids in school, for at least a half day, it gave her some time for herself. Anne was in school in the afternoons for the first half of the school year which was perfect in that it allowed Elle to try and get in with a group of tennis playing ladies.
With the bulk of vacations out of the way I was able to start planning for the end of the month when we had out next “busy period”. The one change I wanted to make was to take Corrine from the drive up window and put her out on the lobby teller line full time. Since the bank began advertising on a regular basis we’d opened a lot of new accounts. Due to that I was anticipating longer lines and wanted to hire a teller trainee. It took some persuasion before Hobie let me do it. I didn’t waste any time in starting to interview as I wanted the person to be trained by the time we started into the “busy period” where we posted interest on the accounts. The first person that came in was certainly impressive by her size. At least 5’10“ tall and blonde she was a girl that everyone would take notice of. I didn’t waste any time and told her the job was hers. After she left Bret turned to me and commented that he hoped that I’d hired her.
Bret hadn’t been to the races since his baby was born even though his friend, Bags, was experiencing a good racing season and had a chance to finish first in the points. He promised that he’d be there for closing night and I was ragging on him that Jan wouldn’t let him. I even bet him a dollar on it. I’d gotten to know him over a period of a year and had definitely seen a change in him since he married Jan and they had a baby. It made me sad that he’d had to give up something that he loved so much. I felt lucky that Elle didn’t make a big deal about my love of racing.
As I’d written in a prior post I was actually glad the season was at an end. After being competitive the previous season I really didn’t like going out on the track knowing I didn’t really have a chance. My plan, sketchy as it was, was to put a new, powerful motor together for the following season. I knew the car was good so the missing part was the engine. All I needed was money.
I connected with both Jim and Lars from the park to go as part of my pit crew. Darren and his friend Donny met me at the track. I didn’t spend much time warming the car up as there wasn’t much to learn and I figured I’d save some wear on the tires. I started in the middle of the pack in my qualifying heat and felt I’d have no trouble in making the feature event. When the green flag dropped I punched the accelerator and the car didn’t respond like it usually did. Because I didn’t pick up speed like I should’ve I got hit, hard, by the car behind me. It was a two pronged shock for me. First was that the car didn’t go and the second was getting hit. I pulled to the outside and, out of the corner of my eye, saw a bunch of cars go roaring past me. By the time I made it to the first turn the motor started running right. As I got through the second turn I could see all the other cars going through the third and fourth turns, almost a half track ahead of me. I was mad and just kept my foot on the gas pedal. Going past the starters stand I was concentrating on trying to catch at least some of the cars in front of me. I figured that everybody that was supposed to start behind me had driven on past so never looked in my rear view mirror. With my foot hard on the gas I angled into the first turn to start my second lap when all of a sudden I heard a ”WHOMP“ and the sound of another motor in my left ear. I turned and saw the blue hood of another car. Before I could turn my head back to the front the car came to an immediate, very hard, stop. The only thing I remember was that for a split second my whole body was up and off the seat in spite of the safety belts I was wearing over my lap and shoulders. I was a bit dazed but my hands were still on the steering wheel... and it was now located in the center of the car. I just sat there looking out the windshield at people sitting in the grandstands Finally some people came to the window and asked if I was OK.
I don’t remember getting out of the car or even looking at it until it was towed into the pits. I do remember my reaction and it wasn’t good. The car was basically ruined with the frame badly bent and twisted. Darren and Donny weren’t there and I wondered why. Lars, who really didn’t know much about racing, asked a question that started to explain what had happened. His question was ”Why did the blue car turn you into the guard rail?“ The question brought back the visage of seeing the blue hood before the crash. I wasn’t sure which car it was but within minutes Darren showed up with the answer. He’d just come from yelling at the driver. He was livid. I was puzzled as I couldn’t remember ever having an issue with him.
It wasn’t long before there was a steady parade of people walking over to look at the car. Among them was Pop, the man who had built it. Never one with words, all I remember him saying was ”It’s a shame.“ A few minutes later Seeg and some of his son’s crew came by. His comment was to ask what I’d done to make the guy who’d put me into the guard rail so mad. I sure didn’t know. The one positive from his visit was that he told me he’d paid the tow truck guy to tow the car back to the mobile home park after the races were over. It was a nice gesture.
3 comments:
Seems to be bent and probably difficult to steer, retirement would be my suggestion.
Wow, that's pretty bad! Luckily you weren't hurt too badly. Did you have a six point harness on? Looks like there's a roll bar in there, right?
BS... this was back in 1965. We had a 3 inch seat belt and the shoulder harness was only 2 inches wide and did attach to the latch for the seat belt... and yes, we did have roll bars but my car was one of the few that had a bar across the drivers door.
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