Even those latter people still come away from those events with something more than the rest of us, who only experience history at a distance, through books or television. History doesn’t happen in a vacuum (here on Earth, at least) – it’s a sometimes messy affair that involves plenty of people connected to individual events, some of them directly but most of them on a tangential or proximate basis.
Which is all a fancy way of introducing a pair of comments from people who had a little more to do with a couple of our stories from this past week. First, from Vern Westgate, commenting on the Gary Gabelich story:
I worked for North American Aviation with the astronauts on Apollo 1 with Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. I wrote Spacecraft Operating Procedures. Gary was my back-up astronaut when I needed a procedure checked out on our Engineering Evaluator, (a simulator) and the astronauts were not available. He was as good as the astronauts doing simulated landings and such. As I recall, he was driving ‘double A’ fuel dragsters at Lions drag strip (among other strips) at the time. Gary was a nice guy; unassuming, bright, highly skilled, and fast in just about anything he raced. It was a special time. It was one of the best jobs I ever had in terms of the work with interesting guys on a fascinating project. But then the astronauts died in the launchpad fire and Gary went a few years later and that took some of the edge off it all. Looking back at all of that state-of-the-art Apollo stuff, all the stuff that went into the ground-based racing cars and motorcycles, and now it’s all crude and rude technology when compared to cell phones…The world moves on…
And in our second look at a world land-speed record holder this week, Jim Walker remembers meeting Art Arfons:
It’s totally great to see that the old Airport Dragstrip that I went to with my dad in the mid fifties is getting recognition from the Ohio Historical Society. It was an era when regular guys with one-car garages and a few bucks in their pockets (to spend at Otie’s Automotive in the Kenmore section of Akron perhaps) could modify a daily driver, throw on a helmet, and be competitive.
I grew up not far (easy bicycle ride) from the Arfons’ compound on Pickle Road. One day I stopped by when I saw the yet-unpainted nose of what would soon be Art’s LSR vehicle sticking out of the door. Hopping off my bike, I walked in. Art gave me a big smile and asked if I would like to help him sand down some of the fiberglass? And so I spent a half hour or so helping hi … never thinking that I was in the company of a man who would become a legend in the world of competitive auto racing. (I had seen the Green Monster at the Airport Dragway, though.)
Another time I heard a loud roar while at my house a couple of miles from the Arfons’s shops (Art and Walt had separate buildings and work areas.). I rode my bike over to find a surplus J-79 jet engine wiggling around on a wooden cradle, chained to two nearby trees. A pre-installation test no doubt.
Great memories for sure.
Thanks for the stories, guys!
Tag
auto classifieds auto dealers bentley bmw bmw cars books for sale buick cadillac car classifieds car parts cars for sale cars wanted chevrolet classic cars for sale classic classifieds dodge ferrari ford ford cars hemmings jaguar jaguar cars lamborghini lincoln lotus maserati mercedes mercedes benz mercury cars muscle cars for sale oldsmobile packard parts wanted plymouth pontiac porsche porsche parts rolls royce services offered triumph used cars for sale volkswagen
Recent Comments