ROF Tracks of the Stonebear
Great Nephews li'l Dave and Jake inquired about my haircut... or lack of. It went something like this.
Jake: Uncle Hargus, ?What happened to your hair?
Uncle Hargus: I had hair when I was 'bout your age. off and on.
Jake: ?Off and on?
Uncle Hargus: When I was a teenager, me and Dad were coming back from work on the Talladega racetrack. This was about '67 when it was being built. We ran out of gas. Walked about a mile and got a gallon of gas in an old thrown away clorox jug. You did stuff like that back then. Gas was .26c a gallon. We poured the gallon of gas into the tank and it still wouldn't start. The motor needed to run to pull enough gas to the carburetor.; to prime the carburetor. Well a walk back to the station would have been a pain in the ass and more time. Dad came around from the trunk with a mason jar half full of moonshine... white whiskey. Dad was known to take a nip.
We took the air filter cover off and Dad would crank the car while I poured in enough shine to start the engine. I was leaning over, hunkerd down looking right down into the throat of the carburetor barrels while dribbiling shine in. About the 3rd try to start when I said Pump it,... Dad thought I said Crank it. Engine turned over, sputtered, and then the carburetor backfired a flame into my face and singed my eyebrows off.
While rubbing my eyes from smoke and carb soot, coughing out fumes... Dad got the jar and poured about a cup into the carburetor, got back in and turned the key. I thought that '59 Ford was gonna take off. It sounded like the power of a NASA rocket. The engine rpms went up to about 5 to 6,000. Being that close, I crouched down as it could have slung a rod running that hard. It lasted about 10 seconds; seemed like a minute. Big puff of smoke at the back where the system was obviously now cleaned out. I got in and we went and filled up and headed off like always.
Now I just shave what wasn't singed off. It works for me.
