So, just who of you Racing Reunion-ers had Jolly Ol' St. Nick drag an electric racing set down the chimney? Hmmm? I'll start the confession and admit to having the big guy do that........ twice. The race car sets had brand names like "Aurora" and "Tyco......the finest in model motoring" (I could have that slogan backwards). They had "H.O." and "full-size" versions, and I still don't know what "H.O." stood for, other than they were the real little cars. Christmas of 1962, Santa must have climbed down the local Western Auto's chimney to get mine. And fours yeas later, he had to, first, get into Sears and Roebuck before making his way to my house.......which did not have a chimney.
I was convinced, the REAL Santa Claus lived at the Belk-Beery dept. store in Wilmington, NC. Yup, right there on 2nd and Princess street was THE north pole. My mom had to take me to see him every year.......otherwise how could he know my wish list? See, every other Santa in the world was the Belk-Santa's helper. No young'un ever believed that any more and with any more absolute conviction that me. The real Santa would look deep into your eyes, and he would always say........"well, you be a good little boy, and Santa will just see what he can do.............."
Which brings up the second, and perhaps more profound and haunting question: Why, WHY IN THE WORLD, did we kids of the '60's spend so much effort trying to lean the "truth" about Santa Claus? By "learning the truth" I mean dis-proving Santa's very existence. Why was that task number one, of every Christmas, after reaching the age of eight or so. An electric race track set, with two cars that looked a lot like little '40 Ford coupes, brought by Santa Claus, was, and still is, as good as it gets! You know, I might could find that race set on ebay, maybe I should look, but would it come with the excitement and the wonder and already mounted to a sheet of 3/8 plywood? And would it bring absolute joy as it once brought to a 1962 Christmas in a little town in North Carolina?
But I've only told half the story. My two best childhood friends, who lived down the path and just across the field and down the dirt road, got the same plywood mounted race track set that Christmas!!! If that weren't heaven on earth, it was real close! But, alas, there was an inherent problem with race track sets of the '60's...they would not, actually could not, survive Christmas day! Well, they might if 'regular' non-racing-nut-kids owned them. These two sets had the mis-fortune of landing at ground-zero for all the race-crazed-40 Ford loving kids of all time. And by Christmas-day-night, the little copper pick-up, the appendage under the front of each tiny '40 Ford, that rubbed along the circuit embedded in the race track.......was plumb wore out. All four cars suffered the same fate. A few days later, we tried dabbling solder on the worn culprit, and it kind of worked OK, but I think we really got the 'goody' out of them cars on opening day. It was just too much fun. Yule-tide question number three: who's race track set survived longer than Christmas day?
Belk-Beery moved from the North Pole to "Independence Mall" in Wilmington in 1979. The old Western Auto has been gone a few years now, and Incredibly, my not-so-little town (anymore), now, has a Belks store.. The Belk's folks are real thrilled and they have expanded the store, already. Yup, it's been there a few years, right in the middle of what used to be Mr. Fred Mintz's tobbacco field (former home to a '49 Ford business coupe, the back half of a '39 Chevy coach and where a home-made tractor fashioned from a cut-down '37 Chevy pick-up truck once trod). Belks has been real successful, and folks recently waited for their doors to open on "Black Friday" but they don't have a Santa, maybe today's kid just don't believe, or maybe its just not that important, but maybe the Belks floks realize they don't have the real Santa anymore.
Well Bobby, I don't remember the manufacturer or scale (not H.O.)but my brother Keith and I got a slot car set one year. I think it was around 1964. It was an oval track on a plywood platform that could be slid under the bed. There were two cars with coupe bodies and a couple of extra bodies, one blue (always #4), one red, one yellow (always seemed to win)with the other black or white. Hoods missing with engine visable. I thinkthe front tires turned with brush holder that made it look like the car was steering into the slide as it went through the flat corners. The brushes that contacted the rails could be replaced as that was what experienced the most wear. We had years of fun with that race track.Years laterDad told usthe reason for the extra bodies. Mom worked at the hoisery mill and Dad worked at the slip factory as a fixer. I used to love that title, it meant that if it was not working that he could fix it, he still can. They had got the set from the big guy a little early and set it up in the tool room of the slip factory to test it out and break it in. The test went so well that the two original cars were burned out and had to be replaced. It worked out well for Keith and I though, we would use markers to number the cars and change bodies and be different drivers. Two heat races with the winners of each heat going into the main event.
Dennis, Good Times! Your cars sound a lot like mine. Coupe bodies, engine exposed, front wheels turned. I had a red car and a blue one. My track had guard rails around the turns, and it was a big advantage to be on the outside and ride the rail........just like the 'Darlington Stripe'!
This is what our track looked like Bobby!
Dennis, my set looked just like this one, except one of the cars was red, with gray-colored wheels.