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Gone Racin'
by Richard Parks and Roger Rohrdanz
This attitude goes back to the beginnings of our country, when each and every settler had to make his life by his own hand and their was no king or army to protect or defend him. Hot rodding began as soon as the car was invented, and maybe a bit before, since automobiles were built on carriages derived from horse drawn wagons before the turn of the twentieth century. We look at the 1930's and '40's as the Golden Age of hot rodding, when our fathers and mothers confronted the great Depression and World War II. If we are shaken by the economic events of 2008, then you would have been crushed by what happened in the 1930's, when total unemployment figures stayed between 16 and 25 percent for a decade. That was the figure for those who were unemployed, but many more were only partially employed and the figure would have doubled without all the governmental programs that were developed. The crushing economic collapse struck at the very heart of optimism and hope. In fact, it was sometimes referred to as the "hopeless" and "lost" generation and when I interview people from that era, they tell me that they didn't expect to survive the Depression or World War II. Where want and desperation occur, the human spirit can either give in and die, or reach out and cope with disaster. Hot rodders throughout the country made do with what they had and junkyards were plentiful. You could buy a used, but running car for anywhere from $5 to $50. It all depended on how desperate someone was who had a car he couldn't afford and how hungry he was.
 That was the age of car clubs and neighborhood gangs. Gangs in the good sense, where kids got together and helped each other build their own cars out of scraps and junk. If someone had a garage that wasn't being used, all the better, and if not, then they became "shade tree" mechanics. My father used to tell my brother and I how he would rebuild bicycles from parts he scavenged in a junkyard. Later it would be cars that he would build, with his friends in the Road Runners car club. There was hope to be found in a group and car clubs formed an identity in a world gone hopelessly mad. Later, when the Great Depression and World War II had passed and prosperity came back to the world, the need for car clubs faded and drag racing became the rage. You didn't need clubs to go drag racing. Just a buddy or two to form your crew was all that was needed. But while the car clubs were in their hey day, a sort of car culture formed and it was based on equality. The hot rodders of that day saw the world in terms of the wealthy and the poor and they were usually the poor. They rebelled against the notion that some were born to do well and others were meant to provide the drudge labor. They created a car culture that treated all members as equal and respect was given only to the achievements of the group and the individual. Since much of the achievements were the result of the group effort, the honor was paid to the car club. Thus, when people speak about Ak Miller, Don Blair, Nellie Taylor, Wally Parks and others in the early hot rodding culture, they often referred to them as "members of the Gophers, Road Runners, Lancers, Throttlers, Albata" or other car clubs.
From such humble beginnings, many of the early hot rodders rose to a high level of success in society and were lauded by the public. But this was uncomfortable for them. These young men and women recognized their value in a group and to step outside the group to receive credit for what the group did smacked of egotism. They were never comfortable with such praise. They might have accepted it, but they found it distasteful. It's not like we don't have contacts with people who have "names." We mingle with them as we mingle with all hot rodders, but we don't see them as special, only as different. We tease and taunt them as our equals. I will never accept the fact that anybody is superior to the average hot rodder. I understand that people are just trying to pay their respects for whatever we might have done. Most of the time we just nod and say thank you, but sometimes the flattery stings, because that's not who we are. That's not who any hot rodder is. We have no royalty, but we do have equals and lots of them. It's normal for the modern generation to think in terms of status, for we have star studded celebrities, movie stars and politicians who tell us that they will "Lead us to glory." But the hot rodder is suspicious. He has always had to fend for himself, with his buddies as his only allies, and so he doesn't readily give credit to anyone for their so-called exploits. The hot rodder wants to see what you've done, before he says "nice." You very rarely get "great" out of a hot rodder, but "okay" and "nice" are acceptable compliments. The times are changing, as they always do, and some of the hot rodders of this generation, like Jay Leno and Chip Foose are held in such high regard that they are given all these accolades and titles of respect. There is really only one word that describes us and that is hot rodder. Originally a term of contempt, it has become our term of respect. We have no royalty and never will.
Gone Racin' is the team of Richard Parks and Roger Rohrdanz and can be found at www.hotrodhotline.com and other publications.
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