I'm still looking for more "old" pictures,here's our current racer.!972 vintage Junior Fueler,we race in Southwest Junior Fuel Association
Scott LaFleur. Bobby , good to hear from you.I think we've crossed paths at the Geezer Gathering,I race with Tinker's nephew Tom Hixson.Do you still do streetrod interiors? I ran into Harry Whitesides a couple years ago,still talk to Sheffy on occasion.
Yeah at 76,I'm still messin with the sewing machine,,,among other things... Saw Sheffy at James Crawfords benefit in Jan...Hadnt thought about Harry in years.
Had the Toronado drivetrain in the back,and a 20 or 55 gallon drum under the hood to adjust the weight distribution.Empty the drum and she would park on the back bumper. Fill it up and run anywhere in town
Here are the 54 Hudson Super Jet pictures again,didn't post right the first time.Owned by Tim Templeton and driven by Billy Mitchell in the 70s and early 80s.454 and a glide,was named :One Wild Ride".Our new /old dragster bears the same name
Hey Charles,I'll check in here. My name is Mickey Davison. Born and raised in Dallas in 1944. Some of my early stories and pictures appear early in this thread in an entry by Paul Herdez who has the blogspot listed there called "hechointexas".(He hasn't put my D/A Model A on yet!) Here's something REAL close to home for you. I used to work in the machine shop at J&J Auto Parts on E. Vermont,Dallas, with your dad "Tinker #1". I ran the Storm-Vulcan BlockMaster and did all the piston work. Joe Athey(B/G) built engines, Harold Beach on the Van Norman boring bar and Richard Heard did all the head work. I bought my first set of progressive linkage for my 3-2's from Bobby(WBRW32 on the HAMB) at Custom Automotive on Pearl in 1960. Lucky for me I was not killed in early drag racing or Viet Nam! I'm still building hot rods(although more slowly now)in McKinney,Texas. Ask your dad Tinker where's that set of 327 rods he borrowed from me for his Crandall car in 1963? Cheers!...MickeyD
Commerce street bridge early fifties Main and Harwood 1953 Downtown Streetcars Akard st Crozier with some old cars Chalk Hill drive in P.C. Cobb stadium Oak Cliff Jefferson Ave Burnett Field corner Jefferson and 35 is now. I think
This is a pic from the lot my Dad worked at...he still works for them but they have moved twice since then. This is a pic from the corner of Oakland and Main facing North in 1975...look at the Dallas skyline in the background at the time. You will see a whole lot more buildings now...back then you still could see the flying red horse from multiple directions. The white building across the street with the garage door was Catalina Motorcycles.
Cool pic's there Merc, thanks! It seems like there was a Harley-Davidson dealer (Connellys?) on the SW corner of Oakland and Main, and there was an Indian dealership across the street who also sold Mustangs(the motorcycle). Was that Catalina Cycle that's in your photo? That was about 1958 that I'm talking about. For those not familiar with the early Dallas skyline, the Flying Red Horse that Merc mentioned was a huge mechanical and red neon rotating depiction of the Mobil Flying Red Horse logo that topped what was the tallest building in Dallas until the mid 1940's and could be seem for miles around at night.
Browns was right across the street from Catalinas. I think they're still in business, but they've moved. I think Catalinas was still open (just barely) until a year or two ago. Larry T
Yep, the red pegasus is atop the Magnolia building at the corner of Akard and Commerce. You just have to look for it now Does anyone here remember a guy named Nicky Ragsdale?
Catalina's is/was located at 2833 Main St. They dealt in all kinds of scooters. Browns was directly across Main from them and was a Harley only shop. They started business in 1970 (I thought it was earlier) so they could have bought out an old dealership. When you walked in Catalinas they had rows and rows of used parts you walked through and basically found what you needed. Browns wasn't quite so organized. They had a parts counter, but there were piles of parts out front that you dug through to find what you needed. Another old scooter shop in the DFW area was Andy's, I think they're still open but I don't know for sure. Here's Browns new card and a couple more I found while I was digging for it. Larry T
I don't know if you guys went to my blog or not but I have pics of motorcycles my dad had during this time and I mentioned those places (the bike shops). My dad got a Black Shadow chopper from Catalina. Don Banister owned the place and they were good buddies. A guy came in needing cash to leave town because the law was looking for him and what is kinda funny to me is a similar situation came up years later at Catalina and that is how I ended up with my first car, a 55 Chevy. My dad bought the bike and word got out real fast and he turned it for a profit a few days later. He bought all sorts of bikes and parts back then.
Yeah, that HD dealer was down there at some point and my dad bought bikes there. I think that became Lee Woods place on Harry Hines maybe? I was pretty little then and I don't remember it well. I remember those guys giving my dad a hard time and joking with him when he started buying Jap bikes when that was pretty common to do. I do remember being in the new Harley place and the guys teasing my dad and one guy asking him why he bought a jap bike and my dad told me to go over and look under the new Sportster on the show room floor. I walked over and he told me to tell him what I saw under it and I said I saw floor tiles and oil...my dad turned and said that is why I don't have a new Harley. Everybody cracked up and then they continued talking...but every single time my dad would walk in they would bust on him. Same lot, different bike:
A place I've been to many times...sports car races/drags. Green Valley Raceway was a 1.6-mile road course and drag strip located in North Richland Hills, TX, part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. It opened in around 1963 and closed in 1984. During the 1970s and early 1980s, the track was owned by the noted drag-racer Bill Hielscher. It held NHRA and AHRA championships, and numerous SCCA and Trans-Am Series road-races. Evel Knievel performed there in 1974.
I knew him back in the early 1960's. He was buddies with the guys at Custom Automotive (Foster Yancey, etc. - came from well-to-do family who was the shop machinist and later was part owner of the Dallas Cowboys).
So did they race across the bridge you had to drive across to get to the staging lanes? As I remember it, it wasn't very wide. Larry T
This picture comes from Jim Smith/owner/Hot Rod Garage Location: Funeral home located on Swiss Ave. east Dallas Date: Summer 1934 Occasion: Bonnie Parkers funeral Of interest: 2 year old 3w with a crease in the door
Born & raised in Dallas...lots of memories from Caddo Mills, Green Valley, Cedar Hill as well as "unofficial" tracks like S. Hampton Blvd. and the bean factory. Another shop in town was AEECO. What ever happened to all those guys?
You know, I have never asked this before on the HAMB. I graduated high school in Plano in 1986. My uncle was Frank Pillsbury and he had the Sea Ray dealership off 35 (Royal exit). Anyhows, I used to follow the street racing in the early 80's and would go down to Emerald and such. Did any of you ever do that? I was in the area the night the guy in a Nova (or Falcon) hit a light pole and everybody scrambled out and I was down the night the helicopter overflew the area and they did a big bust. I fact, I had given Dr. Peppers to an undercover cop and I think that saved my butt. Guy asked me if I had beer in a cooler and I never drank and drove and had DP. Asked him if he wanted one and he stayed around us. Saw him a couple of times before the bust, always said "hey" and gave him a DP. Parked the car one night, saw the chaos, cops rolled in and he was with them. He told me to get in the car and go. I would never run, I was not in that league, but I had a 69 GTO Judge. Were any of you involved in all that stuff. Also, Forrest was not totally dead yet and we would go up and down in a bit in the early 80's. Another thing, were any of you involved in the "Storming Home" movie that stared the guy from Buck Rodgers? I was in it with the GTO, Frank from Sachse had his Stude truck, Monte had his pro street Firebird, and I know a guy had a cool 32 black five window but I can't remember much else about it other than one of the local street racers having a flamed Camaro that was in it that I had seen run on the street. In fact some dude in a red Camaro showed up for the filming with some loud mouth buddy and a girl and was annoying everybody. He kept yammering and when we were supposed to roll down the road for some scene word was given to hold back and the two Camaro's went after it and the red guy got blown away and finally shut up. Anybody around for that either? Wish I had taken a camera, but who knew?
Hey Mike,,,AEECOs Murray Oxman is somewhere in Ariz..a self proclaimed guru,,,Willy Redford lives in Tyler and works for a local Ford dealer....Bob Gipson is always at the geezer reunion in Dec,,surprised you didnt bump into him there,,He is in process of building something,but I cant remember just what,,Don Ross probably knows...
I ran across this Facebook group for alumni of W W Samuel HS in Pleasant Grove. They have a great bunch of pictures from the area. Here are a few. Griff's on Buckner. I believe this might be just south of Lake June? I am told this is the corner of Lake June and Buckner. On Buckner headed south? toward Lake June 1952. More at http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=29554927385&view=all#!/group.php?gid=29554927385
I remeber going to Emerald a couple times to watch but never ran. I also remember going somewhere in southwest Dallas with my cousin around 71 or 72 and watching the street races. At least I think it was southwest as he lived off Polk street. Anyone remeber where the street action was in the early 70s?
Allan,I dont remember the exact name of the street,,we always just called it "The bean factory"coz there was one close by. far south and west in Oak Cliff...
Does anyone remember going to or having there car welded on at R & W welding on canton st. in downtown around the early to mid sixties?
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