MORE SUMMER HEAT... lots of it (Part 162b)

MORE SUMMER HEAT… lots of it (Part 162b)

The only thing that saved me from having Elle really mad about me not getting home early was that she knew there was something going on with the race car. Cliffy’s call had put her ‘on notice’ but she wanted to know the details. I tried but telling someone who has no basic knowledge of car racing and engines it was like talking to a wall.  Elle had told Barbara that I’d be home early and, as we’d decided, she’d take us for a viewing of her new house whenever that happened. She was all excited about it. I, of course, wanted to get to the garage to find out about the heads and just what the plans for them were. We ended up compromising by taking two vehicles. We’d all go to the house and then I’d leave and head for the garage.

Because of the added expense of getting the property properly graded Barbara’s parents had to make some sacrifices as far as the house itself was concerned. To me it looked like a big rectangular box with no personality. I immediately remembered back to when J J was having his house built and him having to do without some of the ‘gingerbread’ to keep the cost down. It was a big house… approximately 2200 square feet with a full basement. That was the reason for the grading expense as the property bordered on a creek and this parcel was subject to some flooding when it was stormy. I also remembered asking Barbara’s father why they hadn’t bought the house next door to us that they’d been renting and Bill’s one word response was “cellar”. For Phyllis to run her day care she needed to have clear access to the outside property and maximum space inside. The cellar of the rental house had no real access to the outside and was encumbered on the inside by an old coal fired furnace right in the middle of it. Standing in the basement and looking at the sliding glass doors I could see Phyllis got what she wanted… but I could also see the water in the creek.

The house had no special features other than it would be new. Barbara would be getting her own room for the first time and that was why she was so excited. I hung around for a little while and then took off. On the way to the shop it hit me as to why Barbara was so excited about getting her own room… she’d have free reign to pretty much wet and play with herself whenever she wanted… if what Elle and I had surmised was going on with her. I also remember thinking about what I’d told Elle when she wanted to confront Barbara… what harm was there in doing what she was doing? None, in my mind.

All the crew was there at the shop, even Buster. Of course we all wanted to know what sort of ‘deal’ Cliffy had worked to get the heads. Basically, C J was loaning them to us but at the end of the year we would have to pay for them. Cliffy told us that C J had spent over $1,000 on special machining on them to maximize the horsepower of the motor. That explained Cliffy’s father’s comment to me earlier that evening. Cliffy went on that to buy the heads new and to have the special work done on them it would cost close to $3,000. I couldn’t believe it and said so. Cliffy went over to one of the heads and pulled back the plastic that covered it. He pointed to something embedded into the casting and I could see it read Holman & Moody. Holman and Moody supplied all the Ford parts used by the top line NASCAR racing teams at that time. Any car that used their parts had a decal on it that showed a big, elongated C and a P and, in much smaller letters, Competition Proven writtten right through the middle of the letters. All of us knew of Holman & Moody and the C P decals.

The crew was really excited about the prospect of using the heads on our motor but I threw a bit of ‘cold water’ on their enthusiasm. I wanted to know just how much C J wanted for them and, right behind it, how were we going to come up with the money. Cliffy couldn’t give an answer but said C J had told him he’d be “reasonable”. Alan was the first to speak up and said it was the only way we would be able to race. Dick followed and said that by the end of the racing season he’d have some money. He was a potato farmer like “Seeg”, C J’s father, and he’d be shipping them to market by then. I knew I could probably come up with $200 to $250 as well because I was due for my annual performance review around then. The only one not to speak up was Buster… but nobody expected that he would. At that point Alan went over to the bench and picked up one of the heads and called out for us to start getting the motor out of the car. It would have to be taken completely apart and then re-built. I remember being somewhat excited but with definite reservations.

It was sometime after midnight when we finally turned out the lights. We had disassembled the motor and and had washed all the component parts. Cliffy was to get the bearings, rings and gaskets necessary to put it back together in the morning. Cliffy’s father had allowed us to use his credit at the parts store so we didn’t need cash for that stuff. It’s always easier to take things apart than put them back together and Cliffy warned us that if we wanted to go racing Saturday night we all better show up that night.

For work, the ‘busy period’ was over and so was the gift campaign for the main office. The three girls who had manned the new accounts ask had done an acceptable job and, thinking of the future, I had Trish put a note in the new applications file about one of them. My focus was on getting the final numbers together both dollar and gift wise. Again, the blankets were the most popular followed by the hand mixers and step stool. As Morris had noted, when it came time for savings accounts it was the women who controlled the money. We’d averaged almost $1,300 per account in new money and with over 1000 new accounts it was, by itself, a very successful campaign. The problem was the branch… and I’d have to wait until after the upcoming meeting with Morris to hear the fall-out from that.

Call me “chicken”, but I’d not said anything to Elle about working on the race car that next night. I actually got home at a reasonable hour and won some ‘brownie points’ for that. I was also greeted with a bit of a surprise. Not only did we have Barbara as a guest but also one of her friends. The girl, Edna, was a cheerleader with Barbara. She was going into her senior year at school while Barbara was going to be a junior. They’d not really been more than acquainted with each other because of that but, for the Summer, Edna had gotten a job at the drug store (where Elle had worked while in school) which was but three doors away from where Barbara worked. Running into each other on the street a few times they decided to lunch together on a regular basis. Through casual conversation Barbara found out that Edna was going to be alone that night and had called and asked Elle if she could bring her home with her. Elle, always accommodating, said “Yes”… and there she was. As it turned out, Edna’s parents were friends of my parents so at least we had something to talk about.

To be continued…