Although it took awhile to repaint the letters, I learned what brush and bristle to use, plus the cut. With that and my oil painting experience, I started staining our house while it was being built in 1980. I watched the interior painter and decided I could do as good as him. I didn't need to tape off walls or trim. I could cut in paint in a straight line without holding a thin sheet of tin against an edge or taping off. Whenever I have to paint anything by hand now, I always think about all the painting I did in the winters of 1966 and 67 on the raceboats. After that, we always hired a real sign painter. The only other letters I painted on our boats after that was "Spider" in 1968.

It was very cold that year. In the sixties, you had to keep up with antifreeze mixtures in your vehicles. I had been painting letters on the trailer after school while listening to the "Stones" singing "Let's Spend the Night Together" and the other side "Ruby Tuesday", as well as the Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love" when Baldy came home. It was already dark. It was early, and it was overcast all day, but there was a forecast of a freeze overnight. Baldy was going to prepare supper and told me to take all the cars down to the service station to check the antifreeze levels and get them right.

I was freezing by then. The temperature levels had dropped rapidly after Baldy got home. I took his Plymouth Station Wagon first. I don't remember how each car went, but I had to take my Mom's old Chysler New Yorker, and my International Scout. Brenda had to take her own Yellow and Black Plymouth.

The places where you fueled up in those days were just called gas stations. There was no such thing as self serve. When you pull up....the attendandt put the nozzle in the tank, popped the hood to check the oil and radiator, cleaned the bugs off the windshield and dried it with a chamois cloth that had be wrung through a set of rollers. When he was done, he would dip the chamois in the 35 gallon drum to wet it, and lay it across the rollers for the next car.

So, when I brought back the third car, it was getting late (about 8 O'clock) and very, very cold for South Texas. The service guys were very quick, getting other cars into and out of the bays to check their antifreeze. While sitting in my Scout with the engine running Spanky and Our Gang did one of my favorite songs of that time about Sunday Will Never be the Same. I don't know if that's the title, but I can remember being very cold and shuttling cars before an unexpected and quick moving storm moved in. Every time I hear the song, I think of cold, cars and boat racing.