Sunday, January 31, 2016

Richard Petty without the hat

About 20 years ago, we were on the Winston Cup media tour in Charlotte, and the tour was visiting with Darrell Waltrip.

DW was announcing his silver No. 17 car, I think, and there were a bunch of famous drivers in attendance, guys named Jarrett, Petty, Pearson and Earnhardt, to name four. Waltrip was big-time, too, with three Cup championships. Those five drivers had 24 Cup titles among them.

After the presentation, I went to the front and was talking to Jeff Hammond, Waltrip's crew chief then, and someone else was talking to DW.

Suddenly, someone taller than me put his left arm around my right shoulder, and I looked up at Richard Petty shaking hands with DW. Richard, sans cowboy hat and wearing a sports coat, pulled DW and me into a group hug, and Hammond said he wished he had a camera.

I said I wished he had one, too. And I did. It's a cherished, if perplexing, memory.



CONTACT: Email me at tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com. Also, my Twitter handle is EDITORatWORK.

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie
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Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie


EDITOR@WORK blog entries

Entries from The Dog Blog

Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)

Monday, January 25, 2016

Getting help at the trash dump

I found another Good Samaritan today, although he was not like the one I met before.

When I went to the trash dump today, I had forgotten that there would likely be snow and ice in front of the recycling barrels. There was, and I quickly realized I couldn't get across it.

At first, I thought of leaving. Then I noticed a young man with nothing to do. I hollered for help, and he quickly came. I showed him the bags of metal cans I wanted recycled, plus two cases of empty plastic bottles.

He made two trips, first with the cans, then with the bottles. It wasn't easy getting across the snow and ice, but he made it.

I was relieved that I could get help. As I was leaving, we waved at each other, and I noticed he was walking toward the recycling barrels with a big shovel to move the ice and snow.

Then I went on to my next errand.


EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  TWITTER: EDITORatWORK

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie
• Advice for be and would-be novelists

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie


EDITOR@WORK blog entries

Entries from The Dog Blog

Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)

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