Santa Brought a '39 Ford
There was a new store in town, that Christmas, its name was (the) "Western Auto". New stores meant new excitement 'specially those with bicycles and BB guns in the front window. But that new Western Auto store turned out to be just about the coolest store any of us had ever seen.After getting past the washing machines, and the ice-boxes, and a few stacks of funny-smelling tires.........what in the world......... A model RACE TRACK! Christmas, 1963, electrical race tracks were NEW, at least they were to me and my wide-eyed friends. We knew about electric trains; they had been around forever, but race tracks? Never seen one before. The new store had two of 'um. Just alike, and .........the two race cars (in the race track set) were minature MODIFIED-looking '39 Ford coupes! If I hadn't been lookin' right at them, I'da sure never believed it!I a'int making this up, either..........you CAN'T make up this kind of stuff! These little race cars were modeled after Henry's most famous and stock-car-friendly design, they even had their hoods REMOVED, showing off their V-8 'engines'. There was a red one and a blue one. Their tires were rubber and the wheels were real-looking gray colored 'rims'. The little control switches, that each driver actuated had an 'accelerator' that LOOKED like a real-live accelerator pedal! As a final touch, they came with cool looking decals. Looking back through the haze of 45 Christmases, the designer of that race set had SEEN a Carolina-Saturday-night stock car. He'd been there and done that! And a bunch of nine year olds definitely recognized and appreciated his genius.But, y'all know Santa Claus........ he MADE two race track sets (one for me and one for my best friends, next door) that looked just like the ones at the Western Auto. Santa even mounted those little race tracks, each, to a sheet of plywood, and got them both down chimneys.....(and my house didn't really HAVE a chimney) just waitin' on their drivers.We raced all Christmas day........that was just about all the little coupes could handle. By Christmas night, none of 'um would run anymore. I soon learned there was a component alled the 'pick-up', each car had two pick-ups......copper tabs that mounted near the car's front wheels and made contact the the electrical conductor in the race track. It's how the coupe's tiny electric motors got their power, and after 12 hours of continuous racing........we had wore out every single pick-up on all four cars! Over the following days and weeks, we tried to repair the cars by soldering the worn-out copper, and it kinda worked, but they never were the same. Sadly, I think we'd gotten the best of their motors too. The little coupes never would run all by themselves anymore. Guess the designer never dreamed they would run 500 miles, at one time!Kinda like a real-life Alan Jackson song, the old Western Auto moved a couple times, burned down in the '70's, but rebuilt and made it until this year.........when the state of North Carolina tore it down for road-right-away. It won't ever come back, and today's kids wouldn't be nearly as thrilled over a '39 Ford equipped race set.........time changes everything.....but 1963 was one more special Christmas!HO! HO! HO!
Man, what memories! You are bringing back floods of memories to me and emotions flowing. I remember the Western Auto's (old ones). We had one in downtown Greensboro, in the 60's.Our first electric car sets and my first train set came from the old GI-1200 store that used to be in the Lawndale Shoppping Center that is off of Lawndale and Battleground Ave in NW Greensboro. I can remember getting matchbox cars, and choosing them from the round display that rotated. These sit on the counters. The cars were stored in little yellow boxes underneath the counter. Then around 1967-8 Hot Wheels, then Johnny Lightning cars made the market and I was never the same.Ofcourse slot car tracks faded in the early seventies when Hot Wheels introduced the greatest toy race track. Yes the Sizzlers tracks. I loved my Sizzlers fat track with the high banked Daytona style curves. The fact the cars were able to go anywhere on the track was so cool.Pastor Ken
Bobby, Just stopped in to say Thank you. Its folks like you that come to this wonderful site to share pieces of your lives like this story that make this truly 1 very special place. I am scared that our children and grandchildren today will not have too many memories like this. I just don't see how the toys and games of today could possibly compare to a slot car set with a pair of 39 Fords roaring off into turn 1 side by side.P.S. You mean there are people out there that don't believe in Santa?
If there are such folks, I a'int one of 'um! I a'int gonna lie to y'all...........1963 was not the last year Santa Claus had to make me a race track. For the next three Christmases, Santa only had to make a 'Flying Tiger' flying/model airplane, a 'spittin' image' Daisy BB gun, andin 1966 (I really went over the top) Santa had to make me a UNICYCLE! By the way, I a'int making this up....in the mid-'60's my hometown, thanks to my unicycle exploits, had more one wheeled riders (per capita) than anywhere on EARTH!But, I'm getting off track (get-it?) here. Anyway, Christmas 1967, I (sort of) asked Santa, if he thought that could make just one more race track. I could tell, right away, that Santa was just a tad wiser than he was in '63. Santa Claus tried the logical approach: "why do you want at TOY race track when your dad does the REAL thing..........and you get to help out and go to the races.............hmmm?" Santa had a good point, but how could all of that be packaged and brought down the chimney and played with all Christmas day? Hmmm?Me and Santa Claus were at an impass, neither side showing much sign of bargaining. But, firmly in my corner, and never to be underestimated..............MRS. SANTA CLAUS. See, Mrs. Santa can make race tracks, too. My second and final race car set was, again, waiting on me that Christmas morning. Santa did not attempt the plywood part, again, but it was Deja'Vu all over again..................my friends, accross the street, got race tracks, too.............and we raced all Christmas day. The cars were not '39 Ford coupes, this time, they were Can-Am/open cockpit type cars. They had a mesh/steel/pick-up assembly (which did last longer than the old copper ones) but after racing all Christmas day we had all wore out the pinion gears! The car's engines would scream..........they just would not go anywhere.Necessity being the mother of invention, one of the kids in the neighborhood had an old wind-up alarm clock..........and it had a million tiny little gears inside! The plan was to extract one of the clock's gears and install it in the race cars. Come to find out................didn't work........the various diameters and tooth pitch just didn't pan out. But, it was about as much fun working on the cars as it was racing them....................really, it was not that different from REAL racing.Thank you Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus
Guys'I have a suspicion that I am gettng a relic this Christmas. I accidently saw an old Aurora race track box in the back of my wife's minivan the other day. Keepin the fingers crossed.Pastor Ken
LOL...you guys are great!
Bobby my brother and I both got those same race tracks and cars for Christmas that year, seems like to me they were light gray figure 8 shaped race tracks. I always remembered the magnetic part in front of the cars that kept them on the track. We would put 3 in one oil on the plastic rear end gears to speed the cars up. We tore out a rear end in a wreck as the ring gear hit the edge of the dining room table. A great fun toy back in the day! I have not thought about this toy in many years.
Jack, you're right! Unbelievable! Santa was busy that Christmas making '39 Fords. The track was light gray and had a figure 8 shape! Which ever driver had car in the outside lane had a definite advantage, due to the "Darlington-stripe" factor. The track's guard rail would keep the car planted on the speedway.After our cars wouldn't run, anymore, we spent a lot of time making (fully-packed) grandstands, out of pasteboard boxes, for added scenery. Then one friend learned how to draw a palm tree..........all you have to do is keep drawing a capitol letter "M".......one on top of the other, and add leaves at the top, and it does look like a palm tree... Anyway, he drawed one, with a black magic marker on the track's plywood base and said it was the "winner's tree". Whoever won the race, a card, with their name inscribed, for would be affixed in the imaginary palm tree's, trunks, the "M's". Guess this 'winner's tree' pre-dated the electronic score board. LOL! Funny, aint it, the stuff you remember 45 years later!
Here is a Slot Car track that my wife and I built in the early 60s.
There is actually a slot car track in Level Cross area folks. I have not yet been to it. I will try to make it out to it soon. I will give feedback once I do go. I know that this place stays packed when they are open.Any other Hot Wheels "Sizzlers" fans out there? Anyone remember the gas pump shaped "Juice Machine" that held the batteries to charge the Sizzlers up with? The hassle of getting the rubber bands around the backs of the curves to connect them.We used to put a bit of 3 in 1 oil on the tracks and in the curves. The sizzlers would usually fishtail on this and if the cars were close to each other coming off of the turns and hit the oil, they would usually crash pretty good. This was a "hoot" for a 10 year old boy anf his 12 year old brother at the time. My favorite one was a early 70's orange Mustang Mach1 Sizzler, it was the only one that could keep up with my older brothers Dodge Daytona Sizzler.Pastor Ken
Sure, but you have to call your Mom, if you want to stay for supper...........LOL