From the "What Not to Do" Chronicles

A recent past customer is a photographer of fine things, including this classic 56 Chevy Belair. Our dad has this to say......

Boy, the Chevy brings back images...I had a friend who had one about
like this one....except for the wheels...the wheels back then were not as fancy.
It was a cool car and he was proud of it. We had a 1957 Ford Fairlane
500 that was also a good looking car. That was back in the days when
"drag racing" was a big thing. One night we went out West of Morning
Sun to a long stretch of straight road with a small hill on each end.
It was probably about 2 miles long. A car went up to the finish line
and flashed their lights to signal that no cars were coming our way.
Somebody dropped a hat and we took off..going neck & neck. There was
a RR track that wasn't used often that was on that stretch...we could
see for a long way both ways so we knew trains would be no problem.
The problem turned out to be that when we hit the tracks the
speedometer on my Ford was bobbing around 100-105 MPH and was still
accelerating...the tracks were a little rough. I heard a BANG and
felt the car start to swerve.. It took some work but I was able to
hold it in the road...the tire just disintegrated and was down to the
rim..the sparks were flying like an arc welder. Well, the rim was
ruined too. We changed the tire and I went home. Early the next
morning Dad came into my room and said "what happened last night" I
said "I had a blowout"...he didn't get angry or anything but just said
"Your lucky to be here this morning and, by the way, you won't be
driving the Fairlaine for a long time....he was right! Anyway, I
guess we all do some stupid stuff when we are young...It's a wonder
there aren't more deaths and injuries. I'm sure you boys never took

those kind of chances. You better hope that Grant has better judgement

than his Grandpa, his Father and his Uncles!

Dad