Yep....he would have been celebrating his 90th birthday today with us here but instead he's with his sweet Betty Annette. Kinda knew a little about my pop's - grandfather - having a garage but knew little about my uncle's going on's or building hot rod's until mu Aunt Betty told him to show me the pictures he had in the drawer. This would be well into my 40's in about 1994 or so. I had already been collecting parts and had mentioned my 1932 frame and my current flattie powered 1928 rpu. Anyways - I had already gathered he wasn't long on words or great at kidding around as we had a few breakfast's with some of the original Thunderbolts when I visited - with always the talk of "how fast one went". He left his 13 nephews and nices a little something to have fun with and me a lot of stuff he would call junk many a time or two. One of the last visits we had a the ho****e - I had videoed my Merc running on the test stand....without noticing the wire on the plug under the oil filter was off....still sounded good thru those Red Headers ! He was a little bit of a hard *** I'm sure to a few - but if you did get on his good side you were like a son or daughter they never had. Miss ya bunches ! Lawrence
Your Uncle looks like a tough cookie and the roadster is one Hot Rod. All of us need an Uncle like that, I know I had one.
Thanks guys....he also got a Purple Heart out of that deal.....he's the short guy in the group picture with his buddy Leroy's arm around him - I did also get that "old jacket" he still had hanging in the closet. The roadster is pictured from the first Autorama in Sacramento the Capital Auto Club - Thunderbolts - put on in Nov. 1950. The later picture is the nostalgic car they tried a make a run of.....his little record book tells the tale of a few blown 392's .....
The Jalopy Journal
