A Hot Rod story

[Tuffy's Garage]

Anyone that knows me is aware of my love of cars and going fast and all that goes with it. What most don't know is that I also like to write. So I wrote a story about cars and girls and so on. I would appreciate it very much if you took the time to read this story and let me know what you think about it. Thanks and here is the story

I win the race and as usual she goes over to the guy holding the money to collect. Just as he hands her the cash sirens blair and my first reaction after she gets to the car is drop the hammer and get out of there. Then like clockwork I wake up in a cold sweat and feeling like ######. I have had this dream almost every night for the last six months. I haven't been able to get much sleep because of it. My doctor says that its stress, I think its my past finally catching up with me. It seems that since she left I haven't grown up yet. You would figure that after nineteen years I could just let this go and live my life, but no I still think about her and racing.

I remember it like yesterday draging that 57 Chevy home. My father told me I was nuts but it's my money so go spend it how you like. I was sixteen and working checkout and bagging at the local supermarket. At night I would come home and work on the car for as long as I could stay awake. I put most everything I earned into it. I wanted to be the fastest thing on the streets.

A little over a year later I took her on her first drive in all her flat black glory. With a big block under the hood and a set of cheap swapmeet Craigers she looked cool and sounded mean. That night my life seemed to change forever, I had my first race with one of the local wannabes and sent him packing with his wallet 50 dollars lighter. Soon after the word hit the streets about the flat black 57 Chevy, word was it was fast and going to be hard to beat.

I went from zero to hero over night. Soon after I quit the supermarket to work at Millers speed shop as the counter person. Today I am still there and still the counter person but I am also the new owner. Miller wanted to retire and sold me the business for a price that I couldn't refuse.

My mind still goes back to her and the dream that I keep having. She wanted to become a doctor and I just wanted to go fast. She left for UCLA and I went racing. I haven't heard from her in nineteen years until today. I get a letter from her and she says that she is a doctor with a practice around LA. She also says that she was married and is now divorced. Then she asks if I am married and what am I doing with myself. She ends her letter with do you still have the car and did you paint it blue? That made me smile, what other color would I paint it. After all its the color she helped me pick out.

As I look at the car in the garage, I write back to her and tell her about buying Millers and no I am not married. I couldn't tell her that I kept waiting for her, so I said that I haven't found the right girl yet. As for the car I said yes I still have it and its blue. With that I ended the letter and got it ready to send.

I went out to the garage to look at the car and try to remember so of the good times that we had with it and next thing I know I am pulling it out and heading for the streets. I start out by going to all my old haunts and the car feels good and strong. Not bad I think for being garaged for over two years. Some of the young kids are giving me the thumbs up, I see some of the old crew is still out there but it looks as if they are cruising and not racing anymore. Man I wish for the old days, I know its different now then it was back then. Now the cars look more like race cars than street cars. I wonder if my time has come and gone. Now I know what Jimmy Addison must of felt like after selling the Silver Bullitt, and seeing all this resurgence in nostalgia and the way things use to be. Maybe this old 57 is just for show and cruising anymore. Maybe at fourty I am now considered an old man and my car considered a rolling museum of days gone by. Maybe thats why I got out when I did, because my last race was just to close for me and I saw the writing on the wall and just quit.

No use on thinking about what happenend and what might have been. I need to send a return letter and get some sleep so I can open the shop in the morning.

[lordairgtar]

Great little essay.

[oldcars]

I must be getting old too. I'm now waiting to see why he quit racing. 8) Richard

[Modellpularn]

Cool story! It put a smile on my face... very familiar memories; My first American car was a '55 Chevy 2dr HT, it was light blue and white, and I raced it some, but never for money. It only had a mild 350/4 speed. No special girl with that car. She came along a few years later when I'd bought a '70 El Camino SS454. We met through a contact ad in a newspaper. Eventually she moved in with me, and she was the one I should have married. We broke up in '89 after living together four years, and I ended up selling the El Camino, to get rid of a stupid loan! I now have another El Camino, a '72 with 350/350. But no new woman....

I like to "dabble" myself, but haven't written anything like this. I used to write about models mostly and some car sometimes, in Wheels magazine. Now I might take it up again, as a freelance writer for a fairly new magazine called Gasoline.

[Tuffy's Garage]

Thanks for the comments. They story was inspired by a 57 Chevy I painted a few years ago with Tamiya Mica Blue, I am starting to work on that again so it will be done so I can continue the story. I will post pics later but yes there will be a continuation and ending to this story. I am also working on another one right now that I will post when its done.