[ponyakr]

on the back of a cdl license it says that if you have a seizure while operating a commercial vehicle, that you may not operate a commercial vehicle for a period of 10 years thereafter. so now i had lots of stuff to think about. i'd driven trucks since i was 6 years old. i'd planned to do it till i retired. i loved it. now what? well, i'd just have to figure that out after i got out of the hospital. so i began thinkin back on the wreck. an eye witness said he was following me when i ran off the road & knew i was out when he never saw the brake lights come on. he may have called it in. but there are so many cell phones now, it was probably called in by several. then i thought, "it could've been a lot worse. instead of veering rite, it could have went left & killed me & others". that brought to my mind that T.J. & my mom always prayed for my saftey. & the scriptures say that the angels of God are sent forth & they encamp "round about us & bare us up in their hands, lest we should dash our foot against a stone. had to stop there & just thank God for being alive. then the thought came to me, "what if i had died?" at 1st that old creepy feeling of fear came on me. it sorta made my skin crawl & even shiver. then this warm peaceful feeling began to slowly flow over me & flood my mind. then, not an audible voice, but just a thought entered my mind. "yah, what if you had died?" so i began to think about the answer to that question. well, i'd heard the bible account of heaven all my life. i knew it had to be a better place than this. i remembered the account of the apostle paul, when he was caught up into heaven in the spirirt. he saw things so awesome, he could'nt even describe them, said they were unspeakable. after this, when he was being punished for preaching the Gospel, he told the people he would be much better off in heaven, but he decided to stay with them, to teach them more about God. there have even been some in modern times who have been allowed to visit heaven in the spirit & allowed to tell it. from all accounts its a much nicer place than earth. so in that hospital room that day, it was settled for me forevermore. since that day i have had absolutely no fear of death. "o death, where is thy sting? o grave, where is thy victory?" nobody wants to suffer pain & sickness, but for the child of God there should be no fear of death. if your not Gods child, you have plenty to fear! so i encourage you today, if your not, receive Jesus as your savior & rid yourself of the fear of death forevermore. PTL! 2 cor. 12:2-4, 2 cor. 5:6-8, phil. 1:21-25, phil. 4:6,7, john 3:16, roamans 10:9,10

[ponyakr]

sometimes mistakes can be great teachers(if you live over 'em). lookin back over my racin mistakes, i can see several things i did wrong that resulted in fewer wins. i'll share this with you & it may help you avoid my failures. i'll lnclude the changes i'd make if i could go back & do it over. i'll include these ideas from 2 different approaches. (1) using the exsisting technology of that day & (2) using the technology of today. the #1 biggest mistake i made was switching to the 455 motor. had i stayed with the 400, we would've won many more races & thousands more in $. many a nite we loaded up early because of lost traction or broken parts. now, if i could go back, using the technology of that day, i could've avoided those 455 problems. 1st i'dve spent the extra $ to have a ladder bar system installed. it would've paid for itself many times over. next, of course, if i used a th400, i'd put a hd sprag in it. or i'd use a th350 with manual shift, forward pattern valve body, blocking out 1st gear at the shifter, & using only 2nd & 3rd. this would require more rear gear to compensate for the lower 2nd gear ratio of 1.50. next i would start with the biggest tires i could possibly fit on it. all these changes would have resulted in a quicker, but manageble, under control package, producing more wins & fewer broken parts. now, using todays technology, there may be other traction device options, cheaper & easier to install than ladder bars, which will work just as well. i'm not familiar with these, so i want discuss them further. now, there are other tranny options available today. the most popular, of course, is th pg. a look at a product list from most major racing tranny co will reveal pg models which are reliable to over 2000hp. that should cover the needs of most street/strip or footbrake class bracket racers. i still like the idea of the th350, using 2nd & 3rd only. & here's another wrinkle. buy a bulletproof th350 & use all 3 gears for the street, then for the occasional trip to the track, run 2nd & 3rd only. on a sticky track you may not even need slicks. but to cut a decent lite, you may need to take along a set of the shortest front tires you can find(22-23"). the early goats used a 2-speed tranny some called a super turbine 300. they worked great with the 389 motor. my pontiac tranny man thinks he can build 1 that will hold up to a 455. 2 other advantages--they have the bop bolt pattern & use the same converter as the th350 & th400. i'll say again, the advantages of a 2-speed are, less chance of traction problems & greater chance of consistent et. if given another chance i'd use a 2-speed of some sort in 2 of our cars. but not mine. if your like me & love to shift, then don't give it another thought. a th400 with a hd sprag is the safest way to fly. some say the th350 with modern technology is plenty strong. i've never used 1 of these new age creations, so i can't recommend them for hd bracket racing. if you'd rather use a th350, talk to someone who is using 1 sucsessfully in a setup similiar to yours & find out exactly what parts they are using to keep it together, or at least the builder of 1 that works. Good Luck!

[ponyakr]

1 nite in 1970, me & a couple of buddies had just come out of a tavern in monroe, where we'd had a few "cold ones". we jumped in the goat & drove across the river & down the main 4-lane drag. after stopping for a red lite, i popped the clutch & barked the tires a little, just for kicks, then shifted on up & eased on down the street. there was almost no traffic that late at night, but it just so happens that there was a city cop who had his cruiser hid behind a gas station & had seen the whole thing. when i noticed his lites flashing in my mirror, i immediatly down shifted, burning rubber, & said "hang on boys". why do guys do that? well i soon left the cruiser far in the distance, turned rite & headed south towards I-20. then about that time another cruiser came out from a side road & joined in the pursuit. so downshift again, here we go, to well over 100mph. now i was only a mile from I-20. the cops told me later that they didn't have any more cruisers that far south that nite & since they were city police, if i'd just got on the interstate the chase would've ended. but i didn't know that at the time. so i made a quick rite into a residentual section that i was not familiar with. by now there were 5 cruisers & 2 motorcycles in hot pursuit, with lites flashing. i took another quick rite & saw in my mirror that the cruiser who had been closest behind me had flew rite on buy the turn, so i thought maybe we'd lost 'em for good. how dumb can you get? being unfamiliar with the neighborhood, i'd driven down a street that went less than 1/4 mile, then made a u-turn back out to the road i'd just turned off of. so there ahead of me came about 3 cruisers & a cycle. i knew the chase was over, so i stopped, got out, then got my wallet out of my pocket. i assumed they would ask for my drivers license rite away. WRONG! they spread out & approached me slowly, with hands on firearms & 1 of them slapped the wallet from my hand, sending cash & cards flying in every direction. then they slammed me up against the car, frisked me down, cuffed me & stuffed me in the back of a cruiser. then i could hear 'em laughin & talkin. it had been a slow nite for them & they had enjoyed the hot pursuit thang. but i'm thinkin, "hey wait a minute, i'm not a criminal, why are ya'll doing this to me?" now when we got to the jail, if we'da had $125 between the 3 of us, we could've just jumped back in the goat & drove off into the moonlite. but we couldn't even come up with $100. so they locked me up in what i assumed was the drunk tank, while the boys went around town waking up people they knew to help raise the bail money. so here i am in the drunk tank. its late, so all these guys are asleep, most snoring loudly. i sat on my bunk & was real still & quiet, hoping the boys would be able to raise the $ & get me out before these guys woke up & tried to kill me. well, they finally got me out & we drove off down the street in the ole goat. we've had a lot of laffs about it since, but at the time it wasn't very funny. not proud of it, but thats part of where i came from.

[ponyakr]

now here's an unforgetable goat tail for ya'll. in early 1970, i enrolled in an ironworker apprenticeship program. we'd go to 3 nite classes a week, taking welding classes as well as some book learnin. i was still also taking a nite class at college. they let us work on construction jobs along with the real ironworkers, so we could learn from them. sort of O.J.T.. i remember my 2nd job. the foreman of my crew said to me, "punkin(thats what they called all apprentices) get 1 of those small choakers & get on the back off that cherrypicker, & go get a piece of iron. the operator will show you where it is". well i only had 2 problems with that. i had no idea what a choaker was, nor what a cherrypicker was. so, i had a lot to learn. from then on i drove the goat to work every day on thru part of '72 to construction sites in n la, s ark, & e tex. so even if the day was hard, at least i could enjoy the ride to & from work. 1 day in march of '71 me & a punkin buddy were workin on a big job at our local papermill, less than 10 miles from home. just after we got to work, it started to snow really hard, & did so for several hours. now for you folks who live up north this is no biggy. but here in the land of rednecks & bayous, cajuns & crawfish, snow is a rare treat. & especialy in march, what little we get is usually in jan or feb. but this day it was just cold enuff to stick to everything it touched. there was soon a nice blanket of snow covering everything, including the trees. it was beautiful. so they shut the job down & told everybody to go home. most did. but me & my punkin buddy didn't go straight home. we popped a top on a brew, which was always handy in the ice chest on the back seat. now folks, i'm not suggesting that you do this, but this is just where i came from, part of my life B.C.(before Christ). we rode slowly out of town & down some of our favorite drinkin roads. it was the strangest & one of the most beautiful scenes i've ever witnessed. it seemed we were the only folks on the road. every road was absolutely smooth & white, with no tire tracks of any kind. we rode rite down the middle of the road. & when we made a pit stop, i'd turn the motor off & there was absolute quiet. no sound of any vehicle anywhere. it was almost like we were the only people left on earth. it was just 1 of those special moments, captured in my memory forever. as we drove on we came to a familar 4-way intersection. i did a couple of do-nuts there just for kicks, then we headed down 1 of the other roads. the ole goat never maid a slip or a bobble. i had a posi (which i think pontiac called a safe-t-track limited slip or something similiar) rear end, & sears steel belted radial tires, which were just beginning to replace bias ply tires. so we drove straight & smooth rite down the middle of the road. when we got to town, we turned around & went back to the intersection & went down 1 of the other roads to its end, then continued the same procedure on each of the 4 roads. still never a sign of any other vehicle. this day made a real special memory which i wish i had captured on film.

[ponyakr]

i'd heard about mardi gras all my life, so i decided i needed to go check it out. in feb of 1970 i loaded up all the boys & we drove in the ole goat to new orleans to hit mardi gras. let me say here, if you have been, you can probably relate, if not please don't go. well we checked into a hotel several miles from bourban street, then took a cab to the corner of bourbon & canal, where he let us out, each carrying a fifth of boones farm apple wine in each hand. anybody remember apple wine? then we strolled on down the street, takin in the sites. but there wasn't much to see. it looked like a slum section to me. there were carnival barkers outside the strip joints, trying to lure us in & occasionally 1 of the girls would come out to further entice us. but we kept walkin & suckin on our bottles til they were empty, then we'd stop by the way & buy some more which was iced down in tubs all around. we saw the big floats come thru with people throwing cheap beads off them to the drunks below. if a trinket was not caught, there would be a large pile-up of humanity scrappin to get the treasure. sometimes peoples hands would be bloody because they had gotten stepped on while reaching for the beads. there were cops on horseback patrolling the streets. when somebody got out of line or shouted obsenities at them, they would reach down, grab hold of them, & jerk them up over the iron railings & put them into paddywagons, which were parked on every corner. when the wagon got full they'd take 'em to jail, then bring 'em back empty, ready for another load. i could tell i was not in kansas any more. during the nite we got seperated & 1 guy got lost. when he finally found us you could tell he was extremely releived. me & 1 other guy decided we'd check out a strip joint, since we'd never had the pleasure(or whatever). it was'nt really a nude show, you know just little g-strings & such. i really felt sorry for the 1st few girls we saw. they were obviously on drugs & just doin it to get drug money. but then a beautiful, tall, dark eyed cajun girl came out. that got my attention. about that time i heard a thump. it was the sound of my friends head hitting the bar. he'd had all the wine he could stand. the bouncer quickly escourted us out & that was that. we survived the nite, then loaded back up into the ole goat & cruised back home, never to return to that h??? hole again!

[ponyakr]

how many of you have ever gone crawfishin in a new 4spd TA? i have! back about '74, T.J. & i were friends with 2 redheaded brothers & their families. so 1 day they decided we should have a big crawfish boil get together. now, for those of you who have never eaten crawfish, i feel i must give a little background info here. a crawfish looks just like a lobster, but is much smaller & lives in fresh water. when the cajun people of s La 1st settled there, they were very poor & didn't speak english. they spoke french, so many thought they were just poor ignorant people. but they had the good sense to use their new invironment to their advantage. the warm waters of the s La lakes, bayous & rivers were rich with fish & crawfish. so this became the staple of their diets. at the time, i assume most white folks didn't eat crawfish, at least not in public. they actually looked down on cajuns for doing so, saying they were just poor & ignorant & didn't know any better. so for years, cajuns got to enjoy these mudbugs(as they are called) without competition. things have really changed. now, most rednecks from the hill country of n La love mudbug boils. the crawfish industry is huge in La. in some years demand exceeds supply. but in '74 , if you wanted mudbugs, you couldn't just go out & buy a sackful like you can now. you had to go out & catch your own. this wasn't very hard, cause in La every body of water, including every mudhole on the side of the road has mudbugs in it. so in '74 me & the brothers started puttin out our crawfish nets in every mud hole along all our old drinkin roads. 1 brother, i'll call al, had a new '74 400, 4sp TA. when his brother was workin shift work at our local papermill, me & al would load up our ice chest & our nets, pop a top & head out down the old drinkin roads, lookin for a decent sized mudhole to put a net in. it was definately the most fun i ever had fishin. after a few days, we had plenty to have our boil. so out in the yard at al's mom's house, we got a big black iron washpot & filled it about 1/2 full of water. then we built a big fire under it using wood meant for al's mom's wood burning fireplace. we put in a pkg of shrimp & crawfish boil seasoning. then we cut up corn & potatoes & onions & thru it all in the pot. once this came to a boil, we added the bugs we'd caught & soon had a feast fit for a cajun king. so me & T.J. & al's family had a real s La style banquet, munchin on the bugs we'd caught in a '74 pontiac TA.

[ponyakr]

this story is about the strangest street scene i've ever witnessed & the events that surrounded it. i have a pic of me at about age 3 out playing in the snow beside a pitiful little snowman. but i was to young to remember it. the 1st snow i remember was in feb of either '61 or '62. it was on a friday afternoon. me & a helper were doing our afternoon milking, which i did everyday after school. as we looked out the window of the barn to the west we could see these tiny flakes of snow falling. but soon they turned to giant flakes. they were the only flakes i remember seeing up until this time. & at least in my mind, by far, the biggest i've seen til this very day. anyhow, it snowed long & hard (about 12"), definately the most i've seen til now. T.J. says thats the way she remembers it too. then it got really cold, maybe 12-14 degrees. now i know that may not seem cold to you folks in the north, but here, most winters, it never gets below 20 degrees & doesn't stay that way long enuff to freeze the ground. but that year it did. for several days it never got above freezing even in the daytime. all the ponds even froze over. most traffic ground to a halt (not our milk trucks tho, the milk must get thru). the vacuum lines in our milkin barn froze up & even the milking machines themselves froze. it was a nitemare. after 4 or 5 days of this my dad finally had all he could take. he sold the cows & a big 18 wheeler came & picked them up in a big cattle trailer & hauled them away. he was sad because he loved cows & farming. but i was glad. that meant i didn't have to get up at 3am to milk anymore & i didn't have to milk after school any more. i was free at last. our family had never taken a vacation. we were tied to the dairy farm every day. but now that we were free from that, my dad decided to treet us to a family vacation. he probably did it partly out of guilt, 'cause he was a homebody, who didn't even like to eat out. now this turned out to be our only vacation ever, but it was 1 to remember. dad had been stationed for a while during ww2 in colorada. so he knew how nice it was up there, especially in the summer. so we loaded up in our '61 ford, 6 cly, 3 on the tree & headed north. to save $ mom packed plenty of sandwich makin stuff, so when we got to the foothills of the rockies, we pulled over to a roadside picnic table & she started makin sandwiches. but before we could dig in the bread was crusty like toast. it was my 1st experience with low humidity. but , i'd soon see more of its effects.

[ponyakr]

we finally made it to denver & it was the strangest thing i'd ever seen. there was lots of traffic on the 4-lane main drag just like any big city, but this was different. instead of the normal mix of new & used cars, this looked like a scene from a hollywood movie set back in the 40's. all these old cars from the 30's & 40's were flying down the street just like the newer ones were. i'm sure there were some pontiacs in the mix. in La cars this old had long since rusted down & went to the crusher. the low humidity had preserved these old cars in col & there they were, in a nonstop parade down the main drag. its a scene i'll never forget. my dad was a cool dude. i talked him into going at least part way up pikes peak in our old ford. but the low oxygen content of the air soon made our ford barely able to move on flat ground, much less pull a hill, so we took it in for a tune up. we were able to see the rockies & me & my sister got to ride a ski lift & got some spectacular views of distant snowcapped peaks. in that crisp, dry air, just breathing was a pleasure. on our trip back home we began to see signs that said something like "litter barrel 3 miles". we weren't paying attention, we thought it said "little barrel", maybe a town with indian roots. but after we'd gone many miles we saw another sign & said "i thought we already passed little barrel". well, we finally figured it out & have had many laffs about it thru the years. my dad had 1 more treat in store for me on this trip. we circled thru kansas city to take in a pro baseball game. it just so happened my favorite team was in town, the NY yankees. & whats so special about this is that it was the year roger maris broke babe ruth's home run record. he hit 2 or 3 cheap line drives shots over the short rf fence at the game we saw. but let me describe the most awesome home run i've ever witnessed. micky mantle hit a ball farther than i thought was possible. cf was 421', then 30-40' passed that there was a tall lite pole. this ball cleared those lites by at least 20'. it must have traveled over 500' in the air. the image of that is still clear in my mind after 50+ years. it may be a record for the pre steroid era. i think maris hit 61 homers & mantle 54. they were called the M & M boys. we made it back home with a lifetime of memories stored up, & never had another family vacation.

[ponyakr]

if you've followed my story, you know i had to learn the hard way, by trial & lots of errors. i just thought of a couple of things that mite help some just getting started in the hobby. once i learned these things the hard way, it became basic set up 101 for every racer i rigged up. i'll start at the front with the radiator. back in the day most gm muscle came with a 4 core radiator. i found that anything less just would not keep a pontiac cool. today, most of the 4-cores are gone & the repros are hi $. but alum rads are cheap & plentiful. they claim that a 2-core alum cools better than a 4-core brass/copper. they're about $150 at summit, & even cheaper at circle track suppliers like speedway. they even have double pass jobs that cool even better for about $200. now the next item is very important & overlooked by many. i used to see sbc cars without a fan shroud & getting by just fine. but a pontiac is not a sbc. unless you run electric fans, you need a good shroud. & the fan should extend well up inside the shroud, so that the fan will pull air THRU the radiator, not from the sides. if you've ever seen the deep shrouds that came on '69-'77 gp, you can see the lengths pontiac engineers went to, in order to keep the motor cool. next is the fan itself. the factory flex fan on my '69 ra3 worked well. i also used big clutch type fans, 'cause i had so many laying around. you can buy all sorts of hd, extra cooling fans today. but avoid those little, small blade fiberglass jobs--they want cool a pontiac! now if your car is race only & you want all the power you can get, you can use an electric water pump($300+) & electric fans. a small electric fan is cheap. efficient, dual fans are not. now on back to the motor mounts. if you run only hard street tires, then good stock mounts may be o.k.. but if you ever bolt on slicks or sticky drag radials, you'll rip the drivers side mount apart. when the rotation of the motor meets the resistance of the sticky tires, the drivers side of the engine trys to raise up, which will pull the stock mount apart. there are several solutions to this problem. you can use the late '70's style mount. if you do, keep in mind a big car shell want work on a bird. it raises the motor too hi off the frame. i've noticed these old bird shells now sell for $25 up. you can just buy or make a solid mount. but this puts a lot of strain on the side of the block. & the vibration transmitted to the body is harsh to some folks. i used stock mounts, plus a small turnbuckle bolted to the front & back of the drivers side head. the other end can be secured with a small steel cable around the frame rail. or you can fabricate brackets welded to the frame rail if you prefer. turnbuckles are available at any hardware store. just use double nuts on the rite hand thread end, to lock them in place, after you've ajusted all the slack out. i've seen some use pieces of chain instead, but there always seems to be a little slack left, which will cause a shock load when the slack is jerked out of it. for race only a rear motor plate is better, but requires considerable fab skills. some also run a front motor plate, to eliminate all stress to the side of the block. this requires mods to the timing cover. if you want motor plates, i'd hire this done by someone with a lot of experience in this area. unless you want a busted tailhousing on your tranny, never use a solid tranny mount, enuff said? don't forget to run a driveshaft loop. & remember to tack weld your axle tubes to the center section BEFORE running slicks or drag radials. now get out there & have some fun with your pontiac!

[ponyakr]

T.J. just reminded me that during the 1st year i had the goat(3-69 thru 3-70), i lived beside the pizza inn in a small travel trailer. my boss ("uncle joe") liked me & probably for security reasons also, let me set up the trailer & plug in rite beside the pizza parlor. so for the 1st year of its life, my ole goat was parked almost every nite between that little trailer & the pizza house. & fittingly enuff, the brand name of the little trailer was Teepee. so there i was, living in a teepee, with my trusty tin indian parked rite outside. & on top of that, i could eat all the pizza i wanted every day. some seasons of life are just better than others. i know heaven is even a better place than this was, so it must be a really great place. T.J. has the camera card so i'll have to send the pics later.

[ponyakr]

during bible days, of course, there were no cars. their transportation seemed to be horses, donkeys, & oxen. but that don't mean there was no racing. humans have always had the desire to compete. they had foot races, gladiator fights, & horse racing of all types. the great chariot race from the hollywood movie "ben hur" quickly comes to mind. the thought came to me," if Jesus could come to earth now, what would he use for personal transportation?" i figure he'd have a large tour bus for his entourage to travel in, but he'd ride in a personal car with 1 of his apostles as chauffeur, probably peter, paul, or john. & it would have to be a gto ragtop, so he could be seen by all his adoring followers, as he sat up on the back & waved to them. now he would not have to worry about safety or security. a shot from a snipers rifle would not do him in. he would'nt bleed to death, because all his blood was poured out for mankind while he was on earth. i can also see him takin the wheel of the ole goat for a while, on the way to the next big city. & why do i think Jesus would drive a pontiac? "cause He said, "broad is the way that leadeth to destruction... & narrow is the way that leadeth unto life & few there be that find it". from our racing experiences, we found that maybe 80% of all racers are chevy, but we were usally the only pontiacs there. i just can't see Jesus joining the masses. T.J. said be sure & tell ya'll that i'm not sayin all chevy lovers are goin to hell. no, thank God, the plan of salvation includes "whosoever", even chevy lovers. joshua 17:16-18, 1 kings 4:26,10:26, psalm 20:7, isa 31:1, nahum 2:4, hab 1:8, ecc 9:11, 1 cor 9:24, john 3:16, 1 john 4:15,5:1

[ponyakr]

i've seen ww2 stuff, telling of how hitler, on purpose, killed millions of jews, & how he tried to take over europe, killing millions more, eventually resulting in the deaths of millions of his own people. just before his capture, he hid in an underground bunker. he killed his children, then he & his girlfrind committed suicide. some say he was an evil man, he deserved to die. this is probably true. many would also say he deserves to burn in hell for his terrible sins. but thats where God disagrees with man. he doesn't think any human being should have to spend eternity in hell. thats why he's provided his great plan of salvation for man. he's done all the hard work. all man has to do is accept it. the decision is yours. so, no matter how ridiculous it may sound, hitler could have gone to God in true repentance & been forgiven of all his horrible acts. that kind of love is out beyound what most humans can comprehend. but thats my God. the bible says "God is love". there have been some very evil people in this world, who have turned to God & received this free gift of salvation in prison, just before their excecution. its gonna surprize lots of folks when they see some of the people who made it to heaven. & its also gonna surprize many at those who did'nt make it, that they thought surely, they'd be there. you can here many people on t.v. talking about some Godless celebirty that died & saying how they were now at peace in heaven. well, that sounds good & people feel better about it, but the truth is, it just ain't so. if these people did'nt accept Gods plan of salvation before they died, i'm sorry, they just did'nt make it. some of you mite be wondering why i'm so "religious". actually, i'm not religious at all. religious people go to church every week, some sleeping thru the service, & can't wait for it to end. then they have no thought about God during the week, unless they get into a jam & need Gods help. God has made some great things available to man, but the decision to accept or reject is all up to you. i'm trying to take as many pontiac freaks to heaven with me as possible, so that thru-out the ages to come(when we're not busy praising God) we can sit around talkin about our old pontiacs back on earth. come on--go with me. get your ticket now. the bus may be leaving sooner than you think. matt 25:34,41,46

[ponyakr]

i thought maybe i'd give you guys a rest today from my saga, 'cause this moring i had no inspiration or ideas or any more flashbacks from the past. that was until T.J. & i went on our moring walk down our driveway into the deep dark woods along our yellow brick road. as we came back & approached our little cornfield county estate, we noticed that there was a layer of fog a few feet off the ground, blocking the view of the top part of our house. well, this was not the 1st time i had seen a fog layer like this. so thats what triggered this tale. now hang in there, its a pontiac street story. back about 1976 i saw an ad, either on t.v. or in a newspaper about an upcoming event happening only about 25 miles from home. it was called the outlaw music festival. back in the day, some wild country music singers got together & traveled around the country drinkin, smokin dope, & singin when they were able. they called themselves outlaws. the only names i remember for sure are wiily nelson, waylon jennings & his wife jessie colter. there were several others. now this was back when country music was still country. some crowds back then would have run these modern day so called "country" groups off the stage. country music has fiddles & cryin steel guitars, & stars named hank, charlie, johnny, buck, george, conway, porter, dolly, loretta, tammy, june, barbara, crystal, & patsy. i'm sorry, but these new age groups with nothing but heavy metal look & sound just ain't country. you may like it, but don't call it country--it ain't! just my opinion, does not require any flack. anyway, back to the story, i must have been the only 1 in town to hear about the upcoming gig. the nite before, i talked it up & tried to find somebody to go with me. i finally got 1 boy to agree to go. his parents were out of town, so i stayed at his house, so we could get an early start sat moring. we decided to go in his old chevy pick-up, so we hit the brew store as soon as they opened. we had 2 big ice chests, so we went prepared with many cases. now, being a sheltered country boy all my life, i was not prepared for what i would see. i can see this is going to be a tri-power story, so i'll break it down--center carb, front carb, & rear carb.

[ponyakr]

how many of you guys went to woodstock? at least you've heard about it & seen pics & film clips. well, this was a country music woodstock. just the line of traffic waiting to get in gave a hint of what to expect. there was every kind of vehicle you could think of, from hippie vans to hells angles type choppers. most folks were drinkin or smokin "funny cigarettes" & already havin a good time. they didn't wait for the show to start, & the law just stood by & watched, i suppose just hoping they could somehow keep everybody from getting killed. there were police 2-wheelers patrolling every where & even choppers circling overhead. but we finally made it inside & found a parking spot. as it turned out there was plenty of parking for everybody. the promoters of the gig had learned from the mistakes made at woodstock, & had rented a farm of several hundred acres for the show. so here's the scene. in 1 area all the choppers were parked. now i'm talkin hard core bikers with long beards, tattoos, & chains(& probably switchblades & guns) & most were "tokin on a joint" the whole time. cattle were raised on the farm, so there were several small ponds on the property, all of which were considered by the hippies to be swimming pools just made for skinny dippin. there were hippie vans parked all around these little ponds. for those of you who may not know, most hippie vans were vw's with all sorts of graffittie(sp?) spray painted on the sides. these were long-haired flower children left over from the late 60's. the girls all wore these big, ankle length dresses, we called tent dresses. & you could tell that most of them were way out there somewhere on a cloud of their own. anyway, we survived the day & the music started. the sound system was loud enuff so that the music could be heard anywhere on the proporty. but there were lots of hills & valleys, so to actually see the performers, you had to get closer. we began to walk thru the crowd toward the sound of the music. finally we topped a small hill & there it was, that low hanging fog like i saw this moring. but this was no fog. it was a cloud of "funny" smoke. there were thousands of people in the small valley in front of the large stage & banstand. it seemed that most were partaking of whatever was being passed around. thus the smoke would rise & form a virtual cloud, just above their heads. lets call it "atmosphere". the music was great, but most of these folks didn't seem to care if there was any music or not. they were "doin their thang". well, we'd seen all we needed to from the front lines, so we went back over the hill to where there was more elbow room. the music was still plenty loud, so we just settled in to enjoy the show.

[ponyakr]

about this time another drinkin buddy of mine(remember, this was B.C.) appeared on the scene. when he'd gone to town that nite & i was nowhere to be seen, he asked around & found out about the gig, so he came on up. don't know how he found us in that crowd, but somehow he did. i'll call him br. after br got there, the boy i had come with decided he'd enjoyed all of it he could stand. remember, we had started at 8am that moring. by then, it was about 10pm. 14 hours is probably enuff(or too much) for anybody. since br was there to give me a ride home, the other guy got in his pick-up & made it back home. but for me, i had some new blood on hand, who did'nt no the whole story. so between songs, i blabbed everything i could remember of the days happenings, to catch br up to speed. so for several more hours me & br sipped on a cool one, listened to good live country music, & discussed the days events. finally i guess i left br to enjoy the rest of the show by himself. the last thing i remember is leaning up against a fence post & listening to the beautiful sound of jessie colter, as she sang her big hit "i'm not lisa". some time later(probably 2-3am) i was awakened by my own coughing. the dust was so thick, you could hardly see or breathe. the fence post i was leaning against was rite beside 1 of the dirt farm roads crisscrossing the farm. it was summertime & very dry, so as the stream of traffic roared by, they stirred up all the dust. finally me & br made it back to his car & were able to breathe a little better. i don't know why, but i seemed to always seemed to have been the designated driver on all our drinkin cruises. i reckon i did o.k. never got a dwi or hurt anybody. so br put me behind the wheel & we headed for home. but after we got a couple of miles down the lonely country road, i realized i could'nt make it. i seemed to be on a cloud of my own, probably from takin in too much of the atmosphere that had been floatin around the farm. or it may have been the 16+ hours of sippin tasty beverages. anyway, br was ok. he hadn't started til after dark. so he took the wheel & headed for home as i eased on out. now i told ya'll this was a pontiac story. br's car was a '75 or '76 luxury lemans, white in color, loaded to the gills, & probably had a 350 2bl. it was a nice ride, but definately not a musclecar. we could ride around all nite "under the radar". all the gto muscle was gone. the best thing on the street was a 4sp TA. but by then they were all low compression & wimpy by musclecar standards. & if you bought 1 off the dealer lot, they all seemed to have 2.41 or 2.56 gears, not exactly the stuff of young mens dreams. never heard of another music festival in our area. i guess they went the way of the musclecar & faded into history. i suppose this sorta helped mark the end of a special time in this country--the '60's & early '70's. even the music began to change. still glad i got to experience it & lived to tell it!

[ponyakr]

how many of you gto owners have used your goat for a tow vehicle? i have. after i started construction work as an ironworker, i had a little more money to spend. that brings up another ? how many of you have walked across a narrow I-beam, hi off the ground, where if you fell off it meant certain injury or death? it can be a frightful experience til you get the hang of it. if it was on the ground, you could walk it easily without fear. but put that same beam 50'+ in the air & its a different situation. sometimes its safer to just get down & "coon it", even tho you know you'll catch flack from fellow workers. i remember once i was up about 100' carrying an arm load of angle iron braces. the shortest route to my destination was a 30' beam with about a 6" flange. by then, i was confident i could walk a beam that wide, so i started across. but as i approached the center, the beam began to shake, side to side. i stopped & looked down to see if i could throw the angles down without hitting someone. but then it quit shaking & i eased on across very slowly. i found out that the bolt-up crew had not gotten to that beam yet to put the extra bolts in it & tighten them up. so it only had a couple of bolts in each end, with the nuts hand tight. thats why it started shaking when i went across. thats been 40+ years ago & i still recall it vividly. on that same job an ironworker had fallen off a beam to his death, so we didn't take it lightly. it was just part of the job. meanwhile, back to the goat tale. with all my new found extra income, i decided i needed a ski boat. no, i didn't have a clue how to ski. but i'd played b-ball & i knew people who could ski who were not athletic at all. so i had a trailer hitch installed on the ole goat(thats rite) & went to pick out a new ski boat. then i had to pick out a motor. well, i'd seen boats about the size of mine using 40hp motors, so thats what i bought. hey, what did i know? so i was all rigged up & we planned a big ski trip for the weekend to a popular, nearby lake. i've mentioned it breifly on an earlier post. so there we were. me & T.J., my former girlfriend & my old b-ball teamate from hi-school. & the girls were lookin good in their new string bikinis. this was the perfect setting for embarassing myself(which i did). the girls & the other guy popped rite up & skied all over the lake. then it was my turn. who remembers your 1st time on skies? if i could'a used the ole goat to pull me up--no problem. but instead, all i had was a 40hp outboard. i was over 200lbs & the little 40hp just did'nt have enuff grunt to get me up. how embarassing. another guy from our hometown saw my delimma & came over to help(or to get a closer look at the girls). he said his 65hp would pull me up. he was rite. after a couple of broken ropes, it jerked me rite up & over the handlebars. it was a very embarassing day, but i finally got the hang of it & went back the next week & traded the 40hp in for a 75hp--no more grunt problems. i finally learned to ski on 1 ski & bought a huge rudder for it, with which i could spray some awesome rooster tails. & the ole goat made a nice tow car. with posi unit & radial tires, there was never a slip pulling the rig up the boat ramp. & if there had been any ski rig races, i figure i'da won those easily.

[ponyakr]

here's T.J.'s plow horse that wasn't, tied to the trailer hitch of the ole goat.

[ponyakr]

here's the teepee i lived in when i 1st bought the goat. its behind the car.

[ponyakr]

i may have mentioned this briefly, but i have no index & would'nt no where to find it amongest all the posts. anyway, it bears repeating & analizing a little closer. we were going to a race at green valley, in the dallas area. it was our 1st time to go there, so we were not familiar with the area. in fact it was my 1st time ever in dallas. once again, the country bumkin goes to the big city & doesn't have a clue. as we got closer to town, we noticed that the pace & volume of traffic began to pick up quite a bit. & the road went from 2-lane to 4, then 6. i think the speed limit was 70mph, but the flow of traffic was going between 75&80mph. it seemed much safer, especially with our long rig to go with the flow, so we did. now we always heard that the slower traffic should keep to the outside lane, so i did. now i want you to get this picture in your mind. we're in this 2-car rig(i'll post another pic) flying down this 5 or 6 lane road at nearly 80mph to keep up with the flow of traffic, & my trailer does not have a sign of a brake on it. now all of a sudden we see this sign that says--lane ends, & it was not kidding. there was no exit ramp or wide shoulder to slow down on, & the flow of traffic in the next lane would not allow me to merge & to make matters even worse, the car in front of us was caught in the same situation as us & was stopped dead still, watching for a break in the traffic so they could pull out into the next lane. we were in a pickle ya'll ! to be continued.

[ponyakr]

so, what'cha gonna do? i'll tell ya what'cha gonna do, if you ain't prayed up, your gonna be involved in a muti-car pile-up, with a lot of damage, injuries & maybe even deaths. thank God this was not B.C. no, now me & T.J. could pray & believe together for our safety on the track & on the trips. so here's what happened. i was going way too fast to downshift to 3rd to help slow down & there wasn't time for that anyway. all i could do was just mash the brake pedal as hard as i could, which i did. now by the law of physics & motion there is absolutely no way we could possibly haved stopped. but we did! T.J. says she remembers that it looked like there was only about 2" between us & the car stopped in front of us. we just looked at each other & said at the same time "angels"! here's why we knew that without a doubt. psalm 91:11,12 "for he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. they shall bare thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." heb 1:14 says the angels are sent forth from God "to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation." in the old testament, there is an account of the prophet elisha & his servant, when they were in a pickle. an enemy army had surrounded the city with horses & chariots. the servant said, what we gonna do master? elisha said "fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them...& the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, & he saw: & behold the mountain was full of horses & chariots of fire round about elisha. hey, just because you don't see um, don't mean they ain't there. now this may be too strong for some of ya'll. but its too late to tell me it ain't so. i've seen too much! PTL!