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♦ THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 2007
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OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
President
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Group Marketing
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
Rough, but generous racers
They’re rough. They’re gruff. They’re
as tough as nails.
They’re a symbol - not just that,
but the “real deal” - of a generation slowly,
regrettably, slipping away from us.
“They,” are members of the National
Vintage Racing Association. Locally,
they include names like Bob Moore, Don
Tomberlin, A 1 Smith and a handful of oth
ers - including the late Butch Seymore who
passed away a few months ago.
They grew up during a time when racing,
and to a certain extent the world, was at its
toughest.
When they
hit the track,
their cars
weren’t any
thing like
today. There
were no wind
shields and
as Moore put
it, when you
climbed out
at the end,
your knuckles
were all cut
up from rocks
and debris
thrown at you
from the car
in front.
And that was just for starters. They beat
on each other - on and sometimes off the
track - and took nothing off of nobody.
Today, they remain unchanged. They still
race pretty much the same way (with one
exception: their cars have been restored to
its original look/state on the outside, but on
the inside, a considerable amount ofpporerw r er
has been added). They still smoke. They
still curse - albeit they still believe firmly in
God and country.
They have over the years remained pretty
much solid as a rock, intact ... with one
exception.
What could crack this hardened exterior?
Children.
Members of the organization recently gave
thousands of dollars to help children in need
(see related story IB), the same as they’ve
been doing for at least the past four years.
Every year they have their annual reunion.
Every year they raise thousands and every
year they keep only what they need. Most of
these legends, in-between and while racing,
built nice careers, so what they need “mon
etarily” is pretty much nothing.
You - an adult - get one-on-one with any
of these men and they’ll have you hanging
on every word with some of the tough-guy
stories they’ll tell. And, they might even
have you blushing with some others.
But you get them around children and you
will see them melt like ice cream on a sum
mer day.
They see children for what they are - as
precious as jewels. That’s true, but in our
book, they too are a national treasure.
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Audrey Evans
Vice President
Marketing!Advertising
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
When they hit the track,
their cars weren't
anything like today.
There were no
windshields and as
Moore put it, when you
climbed out at the end,
your knuckles were all
cut up from rocks and
debris thrown at you
from the car in front.
Have we passed the point of no return?
Radio personality Neal Boortz
told of a conversation with a
young niece, who was surprised
when he told her there were no short
order drive-thru restaurants when he
was growing up.
“Where did you eat?” she asked.
Boortz told her, “At a place called
home.”
Then he entered into conversations
with callers who recalled how it was
when they were young and what they
did not have that we take for granted
today.
I’m old enough to be Neal Boortz’s
father, so I remember a Spartan way of
life that he cannot.
We did not have much because we
were poor and because there was not
much to have.
Life was simple. We didn’t even know
how tough it was because it was all we
knew.
Mothers washed the family’s clothes
in a tub and hung it out to dry on a
line. In a family with money the moth
er may have had a clothes wringer
two rollers turned by a crank through
which the clothes were fed before being
hung out.
We didn’t have any local radio. There
were some clear channel radio stations
such as KDKA in Pittsburg, one in
Cincinnati, one in Nashville and some
renegade stations in Mexico. If you
had a radio you could pick them up at
night. Most people could not afford a
radio. Some of us young people made
crystal sets and sometimes were able
to pick up a station.
Even most streets in small towns
were unpaved and occasionally an
automobile chugged by.
"He's been like that ever since he heard the
General Assembly was thinking about tax reform!"
■ f(Q
wM i V
Weapon of choice causes a jailhouse stink
Professor Moriarty’s weapon of
choice was an air rifle, craft
ily concealed in a cane in an
attempt to fool his arch-nemesis,
Sherlock Holmes.
The Penguin opted for an umbrel
la that oozed “knockout gas” in his
efforts to spread criminal mayhem in
Gotham City.
And what is Brian Bruggeman’s
“weapon of choice?”
His butt cheeks.
This comes from an actual Associated
Press story. A Nebraska inmate, the
aforementioned Bruggeman, has been
charged with felony assault of a con
fined person after he allegedly tor
mented another inmate, Jesse Dorris,
by passing gas repeatedly, resulting
in a fight. The story doesn’t speci
fy whether the assault charge is the
result of Bruggeman striking Dorris
physically or striking Dorris malodor
ously. (If it’s the latter, a warrant for
my dog’s arrest is forthcoming.)
According to a story in the North
Platte Bulletin, Bruggeman, 38, and
Dorris, 26, were in the same cell on
December 14 when Dorris began bang
ing on the cell door, screaming he
wanted out. Sheriff Jerome Kramer
said Dorris couldn’t stand Bruggeman’s
“bad gas.” This, as opposed to the
“good gas” coming from other inmates,
OPINION
Foy
Evans
Columnist
foyevansl9@cox.net
Without radio and television and
other forms of entertainment, what did
we do? We stayed home and read books
or magazines. We used our imagina
tions and enjoyed magnificent adven
tures that today’s children never heard
of. Their imaginations are traumatized
by outrageous television programs
unworthy of being put on the air.
We didn’t have to be entertained. We
entertained ourselves.
The only kind of steak I knew of was
chopped. I never ate in a restaurant
until I was grown and moved to Macon
for my first full-time job. Then I ate at
the lunch counter at Wool worth Five &
Dime store.
Most working people today frequent
expensive restaurants for their noon
time meal.
People were poor, but they did not
live in public housing and they did
not look to the government to support
them. My generation would have been
too embarrassed to take a handout
from the government or anyone. Even
in the deepest part of the Depression
hungry men and women would accept
food only if given an opportunity to do
some chore to earn it.
Today money does not seem to be a
deterrent to having everything anyone
wants, regardless of a person’s finan
cial condition. Buy today. Pay tomor-
Len
Robbins
Columnist
airpub@planttel.net
I guess.
Dorris said he tried to stay on
the other end of the cell block from
Bruggeman, but that Bruggeman
insisted on passing gas near Dorris on
multiple occasions - which would have
been reasonable if Dorris was a lump
of coal.
Dorris was then moved to a different
cell out of nose-shot of Bruggeman.
But when the inmates were lining up
for dinner (beans and franks - again),
“Bruggeman reportedly got next to
Dorris, backed up to him, and broke
wind.”
The funky haze prompted a fight,
where Bruggeman allegedly struck
Dorris, causing Dorris’ head to bang
against some cell bars.
Lincoln County Attorney Jeff Meyer
said jail fights are common, but not
usually caused by foul odors.
“It’s usually about someone hogging
the newspaper or someone not happy
: -*Wm
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
row. Or sometimes never.
Saving until you can afford some
thing is passe with most people. Credit
is king. Trying to keep up with the
Joneses used to be a flaw. Now every
one must have designer clothes and
basketball shoes., as well as every
new convenience or luxury that comes
along. Those who can afford it the least
seem to be most willing to spend fool
ishly.
It is disheartening to look around
and see how much a nation of proud
and independent people has changed.
Boortz pointed out that today people
living in public housing have automatic
clothes washers and dryers, dishwash
ers, radios and television sets, comput
ers and cell phones and the govern
ment still says that they are poor. You
have to wonder what poor really is.
Is the poverty level based on people
living frugally or on people having
every convenience and luxury they
want? One wonders.
Our world seems to be upside down.
And there are enough people envious
of the 5 percent who carry the largest
burden of taxation that politicians are
swept into office on the wings of prom
ises to distribute the wealth so that the
lifestyles of the worthy and unworthy
are almost indistinguishable.
The inexorable sinking of our coun
try into socialism continues unabated,
with alarmists drowned out by those
who believe that they will benefit.
Long ago a wise economist warned that
the end of our country will be in sight
when more than half the voters are
receiving more from their government
than they contribute.
Is that time over the horizon?
about what’s on TX” he said in the AP
story. ,
Overcrowding may have also been
a contributing factor, said the sheriff,
noting that as many as 65 inmates had
been in the Lincoln County Jail, which
has a 23-inmate capacity.
“You just can’t get a reprieve from
one another. When you’ve got a guy
causing problems passing gas, there’s
no way to get away from the smell,” he
said, ignoring the option of breathing
through your mouth, or making bail,
to escape the funky fish bowl.
Bruggeman, who now goes by the
jailhouse moniker “The Ripper,” was in
jail serving a 90-day sentence for violat
ing a protection order. He could get five
more years and fines up to SIO,OOO for
stinking up the joint. Oddly enough,
it is not noted in any of the published
reports if he has been involved in other
stench-related arrests.
I’m no lawyer, although I’ve pre
tended to be one at numerous fam
ily reunions. Thus, my legal advice
would be for Mr. Bruggeman to adopt
the “...if I only knew that stalking fel
low inmates with my flatulence was
frowned upon here, I wouldn’t have
done it...” defense. It works every
time.
I smell a dismissal of all charges, or
is that just my dog?