As we get older and start to think back at other peoples actions during some specific times you shddenly have a fleeting vision of something in the past. This kinda makes you shudder and then you smile as it really is a memory you have that needs attention. Mine was about a couple of guys I met in Mississippi in the 60's on the way to a track I could not find. It was getting late in the afternoon and the race was to start at 7:30 and not a clue did I have as to where this track was located. I stopped in a little town just out of Tupelo Miss. and went in this gen store and that was a turning point in the night. There were two rag tag boys of maybe eighteen or twenty in there and country wouldnt even start to describe them. They know exactly where the track was but couldnt tell me how to get there. But you know what,they could show me the way if I let them ride with me .So after the owner of the store said they were good kids I agreed and out the door they flew to go tell mama they was going to the races.Mama came back and told me them boys had better be home by midnite because none of hers was going to go tramping around getting into nogood trouble. After we talked we loaded up and they pointed the way to the track,I wouldnt have found this track without their help on the roads where it was.We pulled in and right off I see these two boys are known here. People came up talking to them and saying what a fine guy their dad was and this got me. After a few minutes they came back over and said they was ready to help me get ready for the race. Next thing i know they got the car on the ground and was checking tire pressure and got the hood up doing a pre check there too,wow these boys had been around a race car before and I was about to find out the real story here.Seems as though their dad had been a racer all his life and was shot to death by the sheriff over his wife, same one that he met at the store.Well now things are getting ready to qualify and the older one comes over and says my daddy has the track record here on qualifying and many has tried to break it but none had as of yet. He walks me around the track and tells me every little soft spot that comes back each week and how hard the clay is up high in the feature. He shows me where the shutdown spots are and where the the track will wash out after the heat races. When they pour the river water on here it will get slicker than glass but about heat race time it will tack up to the point it will near pull your shoes off. This was good info because i changed tires right off and opted to go with a set of hoosiers on rear with half slices on leading edge.Qualifying was quick here as everybody lined up and you did one lap ,not two and that was it.Daddys time still stood as we finished timetrials. The jalopies ran their heat races and then we got ready to run our heat races.My old 57 looked out of place over here because they had every kind of body you could imagine on some weird frames and mismatched motors but man they hauled the mail.We started the second heat in 4th place and immediatly got bumped and into the fence i go,so now if i can repair the car we will have to run the consi race.The wrecker set me down at the trailer and them two boys jumped in and repaired the car in no time flat,sure wish they would be around all the time. We line up in consi and i manage to stay out of trouble this time and believe it or not we win the consi.This gives you a starting place in the trophy dash race because they use the top two in both heats and the winner in consi,that totals five and race is for five laps winner take all.Fifty dollars and a trophy so now we will eat tonite at least.Feature race is set with fastest car to start last and slowest on pole,makes for some interesting racing to say the least. It gives you thirty laps to work your way to the front or as far as you can make it,We give it all and the little 57 comes in third,not to bad considering what I was running against. Those two boys,well they were worth their weight in gold that night and wish I could have kept them with me but mama wouldnt see that way. I spent the night there with them and kinda lounged around the next day talking and listening to some wild stories they told of their dad. Time to go came and I had a brainstorm, I took the trophy by the old gen store and told the owner that when the two boys come back in the trophy was theirs,well we won $675.00 and I said to give it their mama for putting up with me over the weekend. He said that was plum nice of me and it would be as I wished.About three months passed and I was in that area again and stopped in to see the guy there,he remembered me right off and said set down for a real story. Seems as the two boys went off to college that fall and both were doing great,mama,well she tried as good as she could to find where I was from to mail the money back but no luck on my address he said so she took it and opened a savings account at the bank in town and met a new guy there and she has already gotten married. Man that was some fast work on somebodys part.Anyway I kept up with the boys by mail all through school and when they graduated I was asked to attend,well as racing has it you can be where you want to some of the time and I made it through there. They both excelled in mechanical engineering and already had a job in a trucking company over in arkansas and was proud as ever to see me again,mom she done right good to marrying the guy at the bank,seems as he was a whiz at investments and had taken the money i left there and turned it into quite a nest egg for the boys. We had some pictures taken at the general store there and everyone gathered around the car for a group photo and if you travel down hiway 32 in mississippi between Van Vleet and Oklona there is a little general store on the south side of road with a dirt road cutting off beside it,stop in and look over the door at the picture there,its a 8x10 showing the car with everyone standing together holding that trophy in the air.THAT MY FRIENDS IS WHAT OLD SCHOOL RACING IS ABOUT,ALL THE -----------------------------------memories