It may seem strange that drag racing became the center of my life from the beginning of my marriage to Dennis. Actually I came by it quite naturally having two car crazy brothers, started going to the drag races when I was fourteen and it was how I met Dennis in the first place. There were times when I did wonder what the normal folk did to pass their time but there really wasn't much time to think about other things.
When Dennis went to work for Lincoln/Mercury we had a completed chassis and it did not take long for a racing enthusiast at his office to appear in our garage. Robert E. Lee Capps, Jr. better known as Lee J came by to visit. He was single, very smart, very funny and ready to go racing. Since we had the chassis Lee J. wanted to build an engine and both a partnership and a friendship was formed. Where the idea to build a six-cylinder Ford engine came from I really don't remember but that was the plan.
Dennis and I were building the aluminum bodies for other racers. About the same time the company I worked for got the idea to make Spanish style wrought iron bar stools. Quite by coincidence we had made friends with a racer who did car upholstery so naturally I said I could make the cushions for the bar stools. In reality I had no idea how to make them but learned pretty fast how to cut out the fabric, foam and wood it took to make them. Between my friend and I we made about two hundred of the tops. Should note here that as ugly as they look now they were the hot ticket in the year of Spanish houses and shag carpet.
Between the dragster, our side businesses of bar stool tops and aluminum bodies the little single car garage was a little difficult to deal with. It was time to purchase a garage - I mean house. Since Dennis thought he should only have to drive ten minutes to work we decided to build one of the starter tract homes in Carrollton. It was Spanish style, of course and was on the very edge of civilization just north of Trinity Mills road. I got to drive to Arlington everyday to work but the good thing about it was that it was going to be much harder to move if someone did not like the house, the garage or the neighbors. Did I really buy red shag carpet and Spanish furniture?
Hertz had another sale of Ford rental cars and we purchased a '69
Mercury Convertible and said goodbye to the lovely Mercury Marauder.
It also seemed stupid to keep making car payments on the '68 Chevy pick up since it could not be seen on the Ford parking lot. Since a guy can't live without a pick up Dennis found a '51 Ford to replace it. It was a cool truck and became the tow truck for the dragster and trailer. We put an oak bed in it and the only little problem it had was a vacuum leak that caused an interesting whistle when you drove down the street. I
was always curious how someone who told other mechanics how to fix cars could not fix a leaky radiator, a transmission that didn't quite line up with the engine causing sheared clutch discs or a vacuum leak. It still remains a mystery of life.
Shortly after we moved into the house the dragster had an engine and was ready to go to the Green valley Raceway. That should have been an exciting day but was a penchant of things to come. Somehow when we were loading the car on the trailer Dennis had me stand at the back of the trailer and it landed on my toes. My tennis shoe turned instantly red with blood and rather than be concerned about me Dennis was upset that I was so stupid to have my foot there in the first place. I hobbled into the house, bandaged my toes, put on my saddle shoes in hopes the bleeding would stop and went off to the race track. Wow, my foot hurt a lot as I pushed the race car around. The car did not run well, Dennis was grumpy and I ended up in the emergency room at 2:00 in the morning. Nothing broken, big toe just smashed. Not a great evening.
Just to make sure there was never a dull moment around the Tarkington house Dennis and Lee J decided to paint the race car in the garage. No one thought anything about the fact that the fan for the heat and air was in the garage. It was magical how the entire interior of the house had a lovely blue dust all over everything. My dear Mother had met a man from Oklahoma City and got married. We sort of missed the wedding due to some big race we had to attend. Not a great way to create pleasant family relationships. Lee J. got married to a gal named Peggy and they moved a few blocks from us. We did attend that wedding.
It was a very good thing the land in front of the house was designated for a future freeway. Most of the neighbors were pretty good about the number of vehicles and the trailers that would show up on the weekend. Somewhere there had to be a secret map that showed all the want-to-be-racers and fans where the action was. If someone like Benny Osborn or Kenny Bernstein had us building a body for them the traffic got even worse. Then there was the slight noise when we would start the car in the street to see how it sounded.
At the end of the fourth year of marriage we had now moved seven times, had eight different vehicles, had a running dragster (sometimes),
bought a house and I found out I was pregnant. But we did have the same dog, Herman, who had learned to speak English and stopped eating tacos and enchiladas. Now we can take the time to figure out what the simple folk do..........maybe.
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