........won't bore you with my story (although it's a good one!). I just feel fortunate that I was able to meet one of my childhood heros........... Journey well Large Father.
I spent an afternoon at Ed's in Manti, Utah after he moved there. The place I met him was an old house with a little shed out back right in the middle of town. It wasn't where he lived, but a little place where he was working on a show car. He was in the driveway, putting the finishing touches on the body for "Stelth 2000". The chrome rolling ch***is/drivetrain were in the shed. He showed me how to build a fibergl*** body his way, showed me some projects he'd been messing with, and tried to sell me some trike body molds from the early seventies. His wife and he climbed on the back of my V6 trike, and we went to the local burger joint for lunch. He had all the girls down there wrapped around his little finger. After lunch, I interviewed him about his bike/trike phases for ThunderPress Magazine. It was cool to meet and spend some time with someone who had influenced so much of what made me what I am. He was (and still is) one of my major heroes,, and I'm glad I got to meet and talk to him in a setting like that, just the two of us. Rest in Peace, ED!
He was really nice to me. We talked alot through e-mail as well. He kinda let me see that my car wasn't EVERYTHING! like I thought it was. Then one day, he didn't answer an e-mail...
Yes, this is absolutely true. When I was a kid, the term Rat ****ed was popular. And when the Fink first showed up on hand airbrushed shirts it was common knowledge that it meant Rat ****ed, it was just a way to explain it to our parents. Before Roth became a Mormon he shared a shop with Baron on Slauson in Maywood, CA where would stripe whatever you wanted on the side of your car or on the side window for $5. He hung with a bunch of Satan's Slaves and Gallopin' Gooses back then. REAL outlaw bikers. That shop was the kind of place where you figured out right away to keep your mouth shut and not try to act like a bad ***. Those guys would kick your *** for fun. Ed was a bad *** just like them too. I mentioned it to him years later and he said it was a part of his past he'd rather leave in the past. If he hadn't changed his life he knew he wouldn't have lived to die of old age. He became a really sweet guy. I was happy for him. I still call some things rat ****ed. Stripped threads and welds that have burned through are Rat ****ed. Some bodies that are used on posuer rat rods fit that discription. It's still the best term for some things. IMO. Good thread, here. I know Ed is smiling from heaven.
I think Ed epitomized the culture of our youth , rebellious against standard social mores , like a James Dean with a striping brush . The first time I met him , he had hand carried a pair of wire dragster front wheels on a flight from LAX to Vegas for a friends dragster . When queried about them by the flight personnel, he replied they were for his wheelchair ! I had a pleasure of talking to his old racing partner , George "Bushmaster" Schrieber in his "Yellow Fang" racing jacket at Bakersfield this year, another very colorful man to say the least . RIP "Big Daddy"
Just to let you guys know. Every year his widow has a reunion party at there house in Manti, Utah. She has turned the house into a museum of all his art that she could get if anybody would like to come down to the reunion. It is April 20-22 2006. It is free to come down and look and watch the guys pin strip what every they get there hands on. I have been for three years now and it is a blast. Hope to see a few people from the HAMB come out thanx. Long live BIG DADDY!!!
From the first time my big brother brought me to Knotts to get a shirt for me from Ed, he was a friend. I was terribly saddened when he p***ed. It was almost like losing family. I spent a good amount of time at his house in Manti when I lived in Provo/Orem back in the early 90's. He wanted to stripe my 63 Cadillac. It never happened - I'm such a f'ing tool... Been sporting this since '94.
It was 1958 when I spent a year out in California. The first West Coast term I learned was "Rat ****". I was even clued in (and it was verified) that you could hear it muttered on one of the (clean-cut) Kingston Trio's first records that year. So when Ed's "Rat Fink" came out, everybody knew what it really stood for.
I grew up in Bell,Ca.and went to school with the Roth boys at Nimitz Jr. High,and Bell High.My mom was Eds first wifes best friend.We went to church together in Hunington Park.Ed used to have a booth at the Great Western Exibit Hall,when they would have car shows.My mom would drop me off and I would sit with Sally Roth in the booth.One time she gave me a chrome,plastic German helmet.When Ed saw it on me,he ripped it off and gave me one of the scratched up ones.I was six or seven.When I got home,I painted it flat black,put a RatFink(water transfer)decal on it where it remains today.I took it to one of the RatFink Reunions at Mooneyes,but forgot to ask him to sign it.I asked him if he remembered when he gave it to me,he said yes.I never told him about all the other stuff Sally gave me,RF towels,t's,decals.I did have a R.F.mug,but i gave it to Darryl,the youngest son,for all the help he gave my parents,before they died.He is a good friend.Bad Bob
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