Phase Two...Weekend Events...Rallies continued

The South Plains Sports Car Club had special local weekend events, usually once a month.  These events took a lot of planning.  We had rallies and gymkhanas.

The rallies were a competition where we drove a long distance over public streets and roads.  There were several stages and checkpoints, where we were sometimes given another set of instructions.  It was mainly a time/distance event and we left at two minute intervals.  If you finished under the set time, points were added to your score.  Too fast and you got double points per minute added to your score.

We usually did these events in the Porsche.  I was the driver and Bill was the navigator.  He had a clipboard to hold the directions.  All of the calculations were done on a circular slide rule that Bill had used in his old pilot days.  We also had a stopwatch.

Because Bill was very good at the calculations and I was a good driver, we usually won the rallies.  Some of the members were upset because of our number of wins, and some used us as their benchmark and strove  to beat us.

On a shorter rally, maybe 25 to 50 miles long, Bill would tell me how far I should go every minute.  Our directions told us what the average speed was to be and sometimes it changed with each section.  On long rallies 100 to a two day event of 600 miles, he would give me a reading every five minutes.

Sometimes the events were during the day and sometimes at night, but always on a weekend.  Before leaving the starting point, we were given a sealed envelope telling where the finish point was.  In case a team got lost, they would know where to go for the after rally festivities.  By the way, Bill and I didn’t ever have to open a “panic instructions” envelope.  That would have meant a disqualification, and to us, that wouldn’t have been acceptable.

Some of the rallies were fairly straight forward, but some were a challenge of one kind or another.  Once there had been rain in the area and we came across a bunch of cars stopped by an impromptu lake between two fields.  A big discussions was going on about what to do.  Since our Porsche was rear engine, to everyone’s astonishment, we just drove across the lake.  Our only concern was making sure the boats and water skiers going back and forth between the pastures knew we were there.  It was not a problem.  They gave us the right-of-way.  I think most of the other cars chose to follow us.  Some made it, but some didn’t.  Others turned around, opened their “panic envelopes,” and we saw them at the finish line.

We were good friends with a couple, Zan and Carolyn Smith.  Actually, Carolyn and I were good friends, and Bill and Zan were friends.  I was Zan’s nemesis, or would it be the other way around.  Zan tried as hard as he could to beat us at things and never did succeed.

Well, one weekend, we had a two-day 600 mile rally.  At about the 400 mile mark, the event planners had dinner on the grill and had set up big tents.  We all brought bedrolls and slept in the tents.  Some slept in their cars, but with the Porsche, it really wasn’t an option.  Two rolled up bedrolls was pushing the little car’s limits.  The night festivities took place at Palo Duro Canyon State Park, but in those days, there weren’t hotels or restaurants close by.  So tents and bedrolls it was!

Zan and Carolyn were scheduled to start two minutes ahead of us.  We were driving along and saw them.  We decided to play a trick on them.  We took a chance that there wasn’t a checkpoint coming up anytime soon.  We went flying past them.  At the time, Carolyn was balancing their checkbook as they drove along.  She started recalculating and they soon roared past us in their Austin Healey.  Then we slowed way down and got back on track.  See, we were “bad to the bone” even back then!

     (to be continued)

SPSCC Monthly Meetings

The South Plains Sports Car Club was our primary social orgazination.  It met once a month.  Different members would plan an after club event for each month.

There were lots of interesting after club events.  One was a “lime bag run.”  The cars left at two minute intervals, after giving the starter your odometer reading.  When there was to be a turn, the people setting up the event would put powdered lime in the intersection.  That alerted us that the route might go left, right, or straight.  A half block in the correct direction there would be more lime.  And so on and so forth.  

Most of the drivers would drive one way, if they didn’t find lime they would turn around and check out another direction.  Well, since it was a “distance traveled” event, Bill and I figured out another way to do it.  We would stop, get out of the car, he would run to the left and I would run to the right.  If neither of us found the lime, we knew we had to go straight.

I don’t think anyone else ever figured our why we won those kinds of events.

Another low mileage event was a scavenger hunt.  Well, we didn’t all go the same route.  One guy, whom we called Superman because his name was Kent Clark (Do you get it?) decided he would back everywhere.  At that time, a car’s odometer would take off mileage when the car was driven in reverse.

Kent had a small Thunderbird...a very jazzy little car.  He always called it “The Bird!”  After awhile, we nicknamed it “The Gooney Bird.”  I think it was a good fit of driver, car, and nickname!

Another after club event would take place out on country roads.  A person would drive away and set off a flare.  Every fifteen minutes, he would set off another one several miles away.  This went on for quite awhile.  The winner was the first one to find him.  It doesn’t sound like it makes much sense now, and I’m not sure it made any sense then, either.

These events are examples of one level of our “insanity.”

From One Sports Car Back to Two

We were members of the South Plains Sports Car Club when we lived in Lubbock.  They had lots of special events, though not actual car races like NASCAR.

We realized the wear and tear on the Porsche might be too expensive.  After looking at several cars, we decided that the Austin Healey Sprite might hold up to the rigors we planned to put it through.

We loved zipping around town in the little bug-eyed Sprite.  It was fun to drive, but rough to ride in.  For that reason, we nicknamed it Teddy Roosevelt, because it was a rough rider.

Bill installed an air horn and air tank under the front left fender.  I would say that every time we honked it, the little car shot backwards, but that isn’t true.  

Whenever the Sports Car Club went anywhere out of town as a group, we were put at the front of the line so we could “clear the road.”  One time we were in a traffic circle and a semi was beside us and a little bit ahead.  We honked and watched him in his mirrors as he tried to locate us.  Finally, he opened his door, looked down, and there we were.  The last car to pass him that day said he was still laughing.

Every time we filled with gasoline, we filled the air tank, also.

(More adventures to come!)

Our Delayed Honeymoon

Because I was teaching and couldn’t take time off for a trip, we delayed our honeymoon until June.  

We headed for California, with the top down, of course.  Our first destination was Yosemite and Kings Canyon in the central part of California.  As we drove through Yosemite, we came upon a forest fire.  Bedraggled fire fighters were sitting by the side of the road.  It was a quite a scene.

Also in Yosemite, but not in the area of the fire, was the famous Wawona Tunnel Tree.  In 1918, a tunnel was cut through the giant sequoia.  It was a popular tourist attraction, and we were tourists.  We took a picture of the Porsche in the tunnel.  See, I told you we were tourists.

Unfortunately, the tree, estimated to be 2,300 years ago, fell over in 1969.  Heavy snow on the branches was blamed.  Hm-m-m-m!  Do you think cutting a hole clear through the tree might have had anything to do with it?

As soon as we got to the coastal area we began seeing roadside stands selling fresh strawberries.  We stopped at one, bought a flat, and ate as we rode down the road.  They were so-o-o-o good!

We went on down the coast to the Monterey area.  The top was down most of the time so we were both very tan by the time we got to the Pacific Ocean.  Later, when looking at our pictures of the trip, we couldn’t remember taking a picture of a dark skinned woman standing by a Maserati.  Oops!  It was me!

Bill was at Fort Ord when he was in basic training in the Army.  He said that the entire time he was there it was foggy.  He never saw the sun.  Well, it was foggy the day we were there also.  Bill felt right at home.

While in the area, we drove the Seventeen Mile Drive which goes along the coast and through an area of very, very expensive homes.  While on the drive we stopped at Pebble Beach.  There was a Pro-Am Golf Tournament going on so we went to see the excitement.  The only celebrity we saw was Bob Hope riding in a golf cart.  It was a beautiful setting and interesting to be there.

We continued south on Hwy. 1 to Santa Barbara.  I think the only down side of the entire trip happened when we went for Mexican food one night for dinner and were served spoiled tamales.  Of course, when we complained about them, suddenly no one who worked there spoke English.  Bill hasn’t eaten a tamale since then.  It took me many years to get past that unpleasant experience.

We stopped at Hearst Castle.  It was a very interesting tour of a magnificent house and beautiful grounds.  Two young people from the plains of Texas had a hard time comprehending that kind of wealth.  And it is still not in our realm.

When we got to LA, we visited with my mother’s friends, Grace Brickley and Doris Bertrand.  Bill and I wanted to go to the beach.  Doris warned us about getting on the freeways and showed us a route through town.  It took us three hours to get to open water.  We enjoyed our time in the sand and surf, but decided to take the freeways back.  We got there in 45 minutes.  So much for “locals” recommending routes.

By then we were just about on overload of things to see.  Neither one of us can remember much about the return to Texas.  Maybe that’s because we really didn’t want to go back.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip...a great way to start “our life on a wandering road.”

The Great Car Shuffle

Sometime before we got married, Bill sold his Austin Healey and bought a new Porsche...a 1959 1600 Convertible D.  It was light blue and very pretty.  

There were only three Porsches in the state.  We often had people stop us and ask about the car.  It seems that they had come upon an old man driving a Porsche on the freeway between Fort Worth and Dallas.  Someone would pull beside the old man, challenge him to a race and off they would go.  They thought it was a VW, but soon learned their mistake.  He was driving a Carrera, which may have looked like ours, but was much, much, much more powerful.  He left his opponents in the dust.

After we got married, we decided the two of us had no business with two new sports cars.  It made sense, especially to Bill, that my TR-3 be the one to go.  The only good thing he ever had to say about it was that it was mine.  Otherwise, we might have never met.  

Only recently have I admitted how inappropriate my little red car was.  I loved it!  In fact, I loved it so much I let Bill drive it to work and I sacrificed and drove the Porsche to school.

After we got down to one vehicle, Bill’s partner at work would take him back and forth to work.

New Beginnings

Bill and I had rented a two bedroom apartment.  We scrounged around and got as much furniture as we could.  The one thing we didn’t have was a table and chairs for the kitchen.

So, after our wedding and before going to our apartment, we went to an auction.  Earlier in the day, we had found a small kitchen table and four chairs at an auction house.  We successfully bid on it.  Neither one of us can remember how we got it home.

Bill carried me across the threshold to our “new abode” together.  The fact that I weighed 109 pounds at the time was a big help.

There were local elections going on not long after we got married.  We got a barrage of mail from all of the candidates.  It all went into the “round file.”  Then it dawned on me that the envelope from the County Clerk was different from the other campaign stuff.  I drug it out of the trash and opened it to see if it was anything important.  Sure enough, it was...our marriage certificate!

Tying the Big Knot

We had chosen a date for a June wedding.  Well, why wait?  An Easter wedding would nice.  In those days, we didn’t have Spring Breaks.  For Easter, we were out of school Friday through Monday.  April 15 sounded good!

We planned a very small wedding.  It took place in my mother’s living room in front of the fireplace.  It was a pretty fireplace, even if it was fake!  We borrowed folding chairs from the school to seat some of the guests.  Not many attended.  Only family members were invited.  

I had a gardenia corsage.  To this day, it is my favorite flower.  The smell is heavenly!  (To my surprise, 40 years later that is the flower Meredith chose for her wedding.)

My brother, Jim, was in seminary at TCU at the time.  He was given special permission to perform our ceremony.   “Two I dos and an amen,” is how we’ve always described it.

We had a very small wedding cake and punch.  I really can’t remember if we had anything else.  Things were somewhat of a blur!

Our Work-a-Day World

When Bill and I met, he was working for the City of Lubbock in the tax appraisal department.  His job was to appraise both new and existing properties..commercial and residential.  Usually he worked with new construction, but every five years, on a rotating basis, all property within the city had to be reevaluated.  

As far as I know there were two teams of appraisers.  Bill and his partner put in a full day,s work.  Not so with the other team.  As soon as they left the office they headed for a donut shop.  When they would go back to the office at noon, they would put their finished folders in the basket along with Bill’s.  Then Bill and his partner would take some of the work files from the other team so they would have something to do in the afternoon.  

It was comforting to know Bill had a good work ethic.  I did, too.

I taught second grade at Rush Elementary School.  In those days, classroom aides or parent volunteers hadn’t been “invented.”  I had 36 students all day long, even during lunch.  There was no such thing as a break.  But taught them, I did.  As throughout my entire teaching career, I had very wonderful students.  Because we moved around so much, I don’t know where any of that first class is today.  I hope they think of me as fondly as I think of them.

The Movie

On February 14, 1960, Bill and I had our first date.  We went to see the movie, Li’l Abner, based on the comic strip by Al Capp.  

Peter Palmer played the part of Li’l Abner Yokum, with Leslie Parrish as Daisy Mae.  Billie Hayes played Mammy Yokum and Joe E. Marks had the part of Pappy Yokum.  (No, I don’t think there is a single Oscar winner among the cast!)

The story goes like this...Daisy Mae hopes to win the hand of Li'l Abner by catching him in the traditional Sadie Hawkins Day race.  But Li’l Abner, the clueless man that he is, would rather go fishing.  A senator comes to visit to tell the residents of Dogpatch that their town is to be used as an atomic bomb testing ground, unless they can find “something” necessary about the town.  Li’l Abner who is big and strong, though perhaps dumb as a post, has been taking Mammy Yokum’s Yokumberry tonic since he was a baby.   Maybe it will save the town. 

Okay, you can stop laughing now!

***Some of this account of the movie I remember and some I refered to Wikipedia.

The Phone Call.

That same Sunday, I had gone to the drug store for a tube of lipstick.  When I got back to the house, Mother said she was so glad I came right back because the nicest boy had called.  Callers were seldom polite enough to leave their names, and she said that Bill Dane had called.

From that day forward, she thought Bill was the greatest guy ever.  In fast, I always thought she liked him better than me!

He did call and asked me for a date to go to a movie.

Our Second Meeting

On a Sunday afternoon in early January, 1960, I was riding around in my little red car when I saw a bunch of sports cars in a parking lot.  They were standing around talking.  Being the shy person that I was even then, I stopped to join the group. Soon afterwards, Bill arrived to take part in the fun.

Before I left, he asked for my phone number.  I would stop here and say the rest is history, but there is so much more to tell.

How Bill and I Met

In October of 1959, I went to Houston to take delivery of a new car...a shiny new red Triumph TR3.  It was so much fun to drive.

At that time, Bill had a 1956 Austin Healey LaMans.  It was very racy, with a louvered hood and leather straps to hold the hood down.  

A week or two later, my teaching friend Carol Sweeny, and I went for a ride in my little red car.  We saw a bunch of sport cars at a parking lot having some kind of special event, so we stopped to watch.

Bill was there and tried to get his friend, Dan Erhardt, to ask me out.  (Recently, I ask Bill why he didn’t ask me out.  He said he already had a date for that weekend.)  

[Bill and I can’t remember what kind of car Dan drove, but he was always talking about it being a 2.2 liter.  Our crazy friend, PeeWee, nicknamed Dan...Doodley Dan, the two two man.]

Anyway, I’m glad to report that Dan didn’t ask me out.  Bill said he was, too!