Young Men and Fast Machines

I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that had I lived 125 years ago I would've been one of those with a fast horse. When I was young I used to like to ride my bicycle fast with the wind blowing in my face. I only had a one speed bike but I had dreamed of having an English racer so I could go faster.

 As I got older one of my friends had horses. I would get out of school in the seventh grade, hustle to the house, jump on my bike and race cross-country through the woods to his house. I would almost always beat his bus to his house and would be waiting as he climbed off the bus. His father had set down the law. If we wanted to ride horses we would have to feed the hogs first. We would jump on the little Farmall tractors and to the trailer and run the quarter-mile down to the hog pens to feed up. Afterward we would go catch up and saddle the quarter horses. We would ride in the fields and in the woods until it was time for me to head home and for me to be there before dark. I looked forward to that and of the fun we had racing those quarter horses. My friend got a big paint, named King, who was without a doubt the fastest horse in the county. We would race him against people's cars on the dirt road to the point where when the car came by, he thought he was supposed to race. The horse I liked to ride was a black Marsh Pony off Cumberland Island. Since he was born wild, he was the fastest in the woods.

As I grew older and got my first car, although it was not fast, I drove it as fast as I could. I fell in love with racing the quarter-mile drag racing. There is something about revving the engine up, releasing the clutch and accelerating for all the car was worth. It was fun even in cars that were not fast but became much more fun with the faster cars. There was something about hearing a big V-8 with straight exhaust rev up and then when the clutch was dumped hearing the tires squall and hear that big V-8 as the RPM's increased. Some of them sounded as if they almost were going to blow up when the driver would catch another gear and start the sequence all over again. I can remember going to the drag strip and watching some remarkable gassers and rail dragsters and later funny cars as they ran down the track. We even had a jet dragster one time that was extremely fast. I don't remember what elapsed time it ran I just remember how loud it was and how hard the exhaust would blow on you as he went by.

In elementary school, I was a fan of the Ferraris since they were born the same year as me. I always wanted one but to this day have been yet to afford such a fancy ride. I fell in love with road races and endurance races. I love to hear them gear down as they went into the turns and then run back up through the gears. I can hear the tires protesting as they made the way into a turn and the car pushed on the tires almost breaking loose into a spin. To this day I would've liked to have run in the 24 hours at Daytona or the 12 hours at Sebring or even better the 24 hours at Le Mans.