Two Friends from the Fifties and their Deuces
Joel Burkhart and Rich Sherman

   Rich Sherman and I met back in ’58 at a classic American Grafitti drive-in called Chuck-a-Burger in St. Louis County. He was driving a Chevy powered red five window and even dating a girl who drove a '55 T-Bird just like the movie. I was driving a Nailhead powered ‘41Tudor while trying to save enough money to bring my beater Deuce roadster up to his standards. We were both crazy about '32's back then and became fast friends. At the time, everybody we knew was into hot rods and if they weren't, we didn't want to know them.
     Somewhere during this period we both turned 20 and realized that if we were going to survive in this world, despite both having ’32 Fords, we might benefit more from a college education than from hanging out at drive-in’s. Rich sold the coupe, I parted out the ’41 (but kept the engine) and we both headed for college, Rich to Southern Illinois and myself to Univ. of Tulsa.
Despite our attempts at higher education, however, we still maintained our love for those old ’32 Fords. I had driven mine to Tulsa and spent the following year rebuilding it while attending college. Rich, regretting that he had sold the coupe, asked me to keep an eye out for another '32 that he could buy and work on. As luck would have it, I turned up a nice full fendered roadster here in Tulsa. The car had originally come from the Bay Area in the mid 50’s and somehow wound up here in Oklahoma. After much letter writing back and forth and agonizing over the high asking price of $400, Rich made the deal, paid $350 for it and came to Tulsa to pick it up.

   The problem now was how to get Rich and his "new", flathead-powered Deuce back to St. Louis. Being young and lacking concern that anything could possibly go wrong, we thought, why not just flat tow it the 400 miles from Tulsa to St. Louis with my roadster? After all; that’s what the "big dogs" in the rod magazines did on their way to the dry lakes or Bonneville. And considering that I had just gotten my roadster running a few weeks before with the Nailhead out of the '41, we had a natural (but untested) tow car. What could possibly be wrong with that idea, especially when you are twenty years old?

   Back in those days before NSRA Nationals and Goodguys shows, only a few folks took long trips on the open road in ‘32’s and even fewer did it flat towing another ’32. Full of youthful confidence, we hooked up Rich’s '32 to mine, tossed some clothes and tools in the trunk and headed out onto old Highway 66 without a care or worry in the world. The concern of a problem-free trip in my untested '32 roadster tow car pulling his '32 roadster 400 miles up Highway 66 in mid August just wasn't an issue.

   As it turned out, that level of optimism went unchallenged, as the only issue was stopping after sharp turns to straighten out the front tires on Rich's car which didn't respond to the make-shift hitch. Naturally we hit a little Midwest rain and a few hundred bugs and getting lots of strange looks from the more conventional travelers. We took photographs, had some great "Mom-packed sandwiches" and enjoyed the scenery as only you can from an open roadster (or two) in the summer, including the deck-lid shot that Rodder's Journal found useful. There was even a reception committee waiting for us the next day at Rich's house to see the new arrivals. Naturally, we had to do a line up in his front yard and get a few pictures. (yes we also liked that '34 Ford).

And now, forty five some years later, still friends and still working on cars, the two guys brought together by a love of '32 Fords back then, still laugh about our big adventure back in 1959.

And now the rest of the story:
   Rich worked on his roadster for a few years after we got it to St. Louis but finally traded it for a more civilized ’57 Chevy. The next owner parted it out and the body and frame went to another local St. Louis hot rodder named Gary Kessler. He built it into a famous trend-setting ‘70’s yellow highboy that was recently chosen as one of the Signifcant 75 '32's honored at the Grand National Show last January (see Rodder’s Journal # 34, The Kessler Roadster, page 94, for a complete story on the car including our brief adventure with it.)
   I drove mine for a few more years, hitting the local show circuit with it until 1963 before parking and disassembling it to install a newer 401 Nailhead in it. Life, marriage, kids and a real job ended my romance with ’32’s back then but I just couldn’t part with it to some drag racer, so it sat disassembled in storage for about thirty years . Finally, about ten years ago ’32 fever came back at Rich's urging and I pulled the car out of storage. This time around instead of putting all the latest and greatest new stuff in it, I restored it back to way Rich and I drove in it back in 1959..
   Recently, Rich and I hauled both my old ’32 and his "new" ’29 roadster (pic above) out to the LA Roadster show, but this time the tow vehicle had air and music, "one on a stretcher, one in a box". Maybe a little wisdom comes with old age; but still having fun with those '32 Fords...
 

  Now THIS is what Hot Rodding is all about .... cars and friends ! Great Story guys...

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