I routinely mention that I consider myself as one of the lucky people in the world. One of the things that makes me lucky is that I am able to list Bret Kepner as one of the people I know and consider a friend. I stand in amazement at the depth of his memory of not only drag racing facts but of all things in general.
 
Recently I celebrated a birthday (57th in case you really care to know) and on one of the message boards, Kepner wished me a “Happy Birthday” from him and Thrush mufflers. I laughed so hard that I embarrassed people around me. Again, the amazing memory was apparent.
 
Quite some time ago, just after having become friends with Kepner, he and I were standing by the side of a track somewhere. You will have to ask him where and when…. I have no clue. As we stood there a car with a Clay Cams logo on the side came by. The logo is of Woody Woodpecker and I mentioned to Kepner that every time I see that logo I think of Viet Nam.
 
Kepner’s eyes glazed over for a bit and he just stared at me waiting for an explanation. So for the next several minutes I tried to explain the connection of that logo and Viet Nam.

I routinely mention that I consider myself as one of the lucky people in the world. One of the things that makes me lucky is that I am able to list Bret Kepner as one of the people I know and consider a friend. I stand in amazement at the depth of his memory of not only drag racing facts but of all things in general.
 
Recently I celebrated a birthday (57th in case you really care to know) and on one of the message boards, Kepner wished me a “Happy Birthday” from him and Thrush mufflers. I laughed so hard that I embarrassed people around me. Again, the amazing memory was apparent.
 
Quite some time ago, just after having become friends with Kepner, he and I were standing by the side of a track somewhere. You will have to ask him where and when…. I have no clue. As we stood there a car with a Clay Cams logo on the side came by. The logo is of Woody Woodpecker and I mentioned to Kepner that every time I see that logo I think of Viet Nam.
 
Kepner’s eyes glazed over for a bit and he just stared at me waiting for an explanation. So for the next several minutes I tried to explain the connection of that logo and Viet Nam.

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a d v e r t i s e m e n t

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I grew up in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains of South Carolina - right smack in the middle of the bible belt of the Southeast. My dad was one of the more fervent men with respect to his beliefs. After I graduated from high school I began to work at the cotton mill where my father had worked for 30-plus years as a loom fixer. I inherited a white 1961 four-door Chevy Bel Air that dad had allowed my brother to purchase. My brother joined the army in early 1968 and left the car with me.   The Chevy had a 283-cubic-inch, 2-speed auto transmission with a bench front seat and four doors. It was as basic and ugly as a car can be. This was 1968 and in the middle of the muscle car era, but I had to cruise the drive-ins in a car that collected laughs instead of women.   White was not a good color for a car, and still isn’t as far as I am concerned. It needed to be blue. I was able to spend $29.95 and half a day at a local shop and I had a blue car. Actually, it turned out better than a really cheap paint job had the right to look. At least it wasn’t white anymore. My dad wasn’t upset at this point because it did make the car look better.   I installed an eight-track tape player and made the housing for the speakers for the back window that were popular at that time. Dad was not real happy about the eight-track player because he knew I would be playing some of that hippie music but he didn’t make me take it out.   My next thing to make the car more presentable was replacing the stock wheel covers with wire spoke covers.  I really got on the wrong side with my dad when I replaced the tires with new red stripe tires. He wasn’t so much upset with the red stripe as he was with the wastefulness I exhibited since there was several hundred miles left on the old tires. I heard about that for weeks.
 
On October 10th 1968, I bought a Thrush muffler at Midway Auto Parts Store for $29.95. Thrush was the premier muffler at that time and had as its logo Woody Woodpecker’s head, just like Clay Cams has now.
 
I installed the new muffler during the day while my dad was asleep. We both worked the 3rd shift, midnight to 8am. I didn’t need as much sleep as he so I had it installed before he awoke. It was my week to drive us to the mill so I had the car already cranked when he came out of the house for the drive. Dad was still half asleep and didn’t pay any attention to the different sound of the mighty 283 powerplant. That was not, however, the case on Friday morning, October 11th at 8:15. Dad was already sitting in the car when I came out of the mill after my shift. I cranked the motor and watched as his head immediately snapped back. He got out of the car and looked underneath at the brilliant red muffler gently rumbling out its perfect sound.
 
“That is of the Devil. You will take that off as soon as we get home!” And that is what I did. I took the Thrush off and replaced it with the old rusted stock equipment. I was pretty upset and decided at that moment that I needed to make a change, so while dad slept, I drove to the recruiting station in Greenville and joined the Army, volunteering for Viet Nam. I will show him, I thought.
 
On Wednesday, October 16th, after two days of medical examinations and testing, I recited the oath of a soldier of the United States of America. So for the next four long years I showed my dad.
 
That is how the Clay Cams logo reminds me of Viet Nam every time I see it.
 
I may have joined the Army for the wrong reasons, but as I grow older, those four years I spent in the Army have become the proudest thing I have or will ever do.
 
The luckiest geezer in the world

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