DREAM OF A HOT ROD WINTER
by Richard Stanley Cagan
I’m Richie C. My better half, Betty Ann, and I, together with our 1947 shaved, blue Streetrod Chevy with violet ghost-flames, whom we affectionately call “Blue”, were sitting around talking about the dream we had for our Hot Rod Winter. Well. I tell you, we had some great ideas. Cruise along with us now as the dream begins.
Blue started to tell us about what he used to do in the old days back in 1947. He said that he was born ready to roll---rock and roll that is. He didn’t have to learn how to walk, or cruise down the streets, or talk with his horn, like some people he knows. He just hit the street and away he went. He said that in those days he had four doors, but he likes his new two-door, slipstream look. It makes him feel real fast.
You have to be careful when you talk with Blue because you don’t always know if he’s remembering things like they really were or if he’s enhancing his stories and telling little “Blue” lies – nothing bad, just a little bit of make believe.
Blue said that he was involved in a number of bank robberies in the old days and that he was the wheel man. He even said that he rode with Bonnie and Clyde, but that can’t be true because they didn’t ride anymore after 1934 when they were gunned down by federal agents. But that doesn’t stop Blue. He says he has the bullet holes to prove it but that they were filled in and repaired with lead filler just like the bullets were made of lead. Lead all blends in, he says.
He even says that he was caught and tried and decapitated. That’s when they did a four inch “Chop Job” on him and removed his beautiful, shiny, hard head. That’s how he got his nick name, “Wacked” which is emblazoned on the front of his engine bonnet. Now he has a custom steel Carson top covered with padding under a Mercedes Benz convertible black cloth head-cap. He says that it’s that German fabric that gives him his slight German accent. But when we remove his top and he becomes a handsome convertible open car, his accent seems to go away.
We were having a good old time in our family talk when all of a sudden I heard a noise and a slight tremble and shaking all throughout Blue. He was shivering. He said that he was getting a winter chill from the sixty degree weather-it was too cold for him, so we all decided to go for our dream winter. We packed up everything, including Blue’s car cover which he loves like a security blanket.
We followed the manatees to where they go to keep warm in the Florida winter: Places like Blue Spring State Park in Orange City; Lee County Manatee Park; Homosassa Springs; Sea World in Orlando, and Epcot in Lake Buena Vista. Then we proceeded down to the Keys to do some snorkeling. I heard about a motel where you have to dive into the water and swim under it to get to your motel room. Blue said that he would skip the dive because he didn’t think that his tires would float and hold him up and he might sink to the bottom of the lagoon. He had tried that once before, he said, and it didn’t work. Rather, he said, he would keep his eye out for that cool 1940 Ford two door sedan streetrod dream-girl who had that tricked chassis and hot skirts. The word was that she had a hot manifold too. Blue couldn’t understand why she wore a muffler all the time since she was such a hottie. I knew that she always turned Blue on whenever we took our winter vacation dream trips.
He pulled that same kind of excuse to not go snorkeling with us in Key Largo. He said he was going to keep an eye out for Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson whom he had worked with in making the movie “Key Largo”. Now that part could be true because the movie was made in 1948 when Blue was only a one year old kid. So he had that one on us because, who knows, maybe he was in the movie. Blue could have remembered because he has a great memory. He even remembers things that didn’t happen.
We finished our trip with a few runs down the drag strip in Bithlo, Florida near Orlando. Blue really loved that because he has a nitro bottle setup in his trunk for just the “goose” that he needed to win first place in the “Old Timers Run”. He did “pretty good” too for an old timer. Betty Ann was driving and she said that now that she and Blue have bonded she’s going to run with him all the time. And so, I lost my wife and my Street Rod all in the same “Dream of a Hot Rod Winter” in Florida. On our next trip we’re going to start dreaming about the “Dream of our Hot Rod Drag Racing Odyssey” throughout the United Sates as soon as the weather clears in those colder climes. We’re going to pack up our 1981 Camaro Z-28 Pro Street Dragster named “Draggin”, then we’ll be towin’ and Draggin’ to the Grand Canyon and the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah where Blue said he had set a land speed record for Streetrods back in 1950. Who can challenge that? Blue was there. He should know. Shouldn’t he? Even if he was only three years old.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Richard Stanley Cagan is a hot rod and muscle car enthusiast, as well as a writer. Richie, Betty and Blue can often be found at hot rod shows and cruises, showing off Blue’s sleek looks.
Richard’s second book, “Mafia Cop-The Two Families of Michael Palermo-Saints Only Live in Heaven”, was just published by Skyhorse Publishing on January, 2, 2013. It is the true life story of Detective First Class Michael Sabella who spent his tour of duty in the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) of the New York City Police Department. His story begins in 1953. Blue tried to tell him that he knew Detective Sabella aka Mike Palermo and all the mafia kingpins that the detective knew and had worked with. Blue was only five years old then, But it is possible that he was there. You never know what’s bondo or real steel when you talk with Blue. Richard Stanley Cagan has now just completed the fourth part of his “Mafia Expose” series. Look for these other parts coming soon.
“Mafia Cop” is available for purchase from www.skyhorsepublishing.com, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, and quality booksellers throughout the world and by electronic downloads.
Copyright 2013 by Richard Stanley Cagan
