Dan Pigott

[Danny Pigott]

Christmas Eve 1953 . I was 7 years old my brother was 5 years old. I don't remember how this started but I think my grandfather on my mothers side was here for Christmas . Dad and him were in the shop talking , the next thing I know is dad says we are going to test the boats your grandfather wants to see them run I don't think he had ever been to a race, so it was new to him. This sounded easy to do. We hook the trailer up and head to the test site. Not long after we left it started to rain we got almost there and still raining the paved road ended about a half mile before the landing if you could call it that just a dirt area off the a dirt road ( Al Lang will know where this is as he tested there when he lived here ) once we got on that dirt road it was so bad there was no stopping or turning around. This little road was about 15 miles long to the next paved one and in the middle of nowhere nothing but woods . Dad kept going this was the only chance we had ,I f we stopped he didn't think we could get going again. On we went with the car sliding back and forth spinning the tires if it stopped there was no way home, no phones no houses no stores. Mean while me and my brother were talking to each other about if we get stuck we will miss Christmas as it was now getting late in the afternoon we were really worried, for us Christmas was the best day of the year and we might spend it out here in the middle of no where. Well we made it home in time but this is one time I never forgot. I now live only a few miles from that landing an drive down the road every week. I was driving down that road this Christmas Eve and all of that day ran though my mind, oh the road is paved now but still nothing on it