Stevie:
I know Wayne is familiar with this story, but it is such a good one I think a lot of folks will get a kick out of it, especially those who knew Ray Hardy.
This race brings back a lot of memories for Eileen and I, one of which is very humorous and has as one of it's chief players someone who youand the other readers may or may not remember. His name was Ray Hardy, from Chicago, Il., and unfortunately he passed away several years ago from the consequences of Alzheimer's. Ray, who was also a good friend of Baldy's, as well as Eileen's and mine, had called me several days prior to this race after deciding to come down, and asked me to reserve a room at a local motel where we would be staying. Motels were in very short supply in Dumas, in fact there may have only been one, so when we (Eileen and I) arrived and checked in we asked about a room for Ray and his wife. The manager told us they only had one room left which was the "Bridal Suite" and asked if that would be alright, and since it was either that one or nothing we said yes. As Ray and his then wife Jeanie, were having some problems at this point, which later on led to Ray leaving and then divorce, Eileen and I thought that perhaps a "Bridal Suite" atmosphere was just what was needed for the sake of the marriage. The really special thing about this room was the large canopied four poster bed and everything in the room was done in pink, including the walls and furnishings. We called him and filled him in and he said he would be coming in late and would come out to the race course which was a way from town as you mentioned, to drop off his trailer and then we could have supper together and get a good nites rest for the coming race.
After meeting him as agreed and having dinner, we saw to his check in and before going up to our rooms, I agreed to give Ray a wake up call in the morning as he wanted to ride out to the race course with me and get in some early testing. That would leave his car for Jeanie and Eileen to come out later after they had slept in for awhile. I did give him a call the next AM about 6 and went down stairs to wait at my car. About 15-20 minutes went by and no Ray, so I went back up and called him again. He again said he would be down in just a few minutes. After another 20 minutes or so, I went back up and called the third time and told him in no uncertain terms if he wanted to ride with me he had 15 minutes to get downstairs or I was leaving.
Just as I was about to pull out without him, I heard him call my name, and the door to his room slam shut above me and he appeared hurrying down the stairs. He was only about half dressed, red as a beet on the bare skin I could see, and had a big "knot" on his upper forehead that was getting larger by the minute. I of course wanted to know what had happened and he related the following story.
After my third call he had realized I was serious so he got up and stepped into the shower to take a cold one and hopefully wake up from what had caused the problems from the nite before. Unfortunately the hot and cold water faucets in the tub/shower combo were reversed from the order he was familiar with (remember he was from Chicago and this was rural Arkansas) and instead of getting the cold faucet he had turned on the hot water, and when I say hot, I mean HOT, almost steam. He immediately started yelling and trying to get it turned off but the faucet was stuck and would not budge, so to keep from getting scalded more than he was he tried to pull back the shower curtain so as to get out. Like most of you are familiar with, the rings on the curtain would not slide quickly or easily, so he just grabbed the whole curtain and pulled it down and lunged out of the tub. He got his feet tangled up in the bottom of the curtain, as it was now laying in the tub, and started to fall forward, headfirst, towards the commode which was adjacent to the tub and had the pink wooden seat in the up position from previous use.
He reached out to break his fall and keep from hitting his head on the porcelain edge of the commode, and the sudden jar to it from all his weight caused the wooden seat to fall, cracking his knuckles in the process, and causing him to yell in pain from the hand injury. His wife Jeanie, heard all the commotion in the bathroom, and as the door was closed and she could not see what had happened, started yelling to him wanting to know what the problem was. As he was laying on the floor, scalded from the steamy water, and with what he thought were broken knuckles. he could hear her running across the floor to check on him as she had heard him hit the floor behind the closed bathroom door, and also heard the screaming from the scalding he had gotten from the hot water.
As he was relating the story, I could see the knot on his head getting visibly larger as he talked, and just as I was about to ask him about it, he got the rest of the story out, and I was almost unable to drive the rest of the way to the course as I was laughing so hard as he related "the rest of the story". As he was laying on the floor about two feet away from the door (which opened inwards) he was visualizing what was about to happen. He tried to get up and get out of the way. Unfortunately, time was up, and when Jeanie threw open the door, the bottom edge of the door cracked him across the forehead giving him the big knot that was continuing to get bigger by the minute.
As I got to know Ray better over the following years, I came to realize that things like this that happen only occasionally, if ever to regular folks, were a regular occurrence in his life, and provided much humor and fun for his friends when the stories were retold. He was a one of a kind, a good friend, and someone who, like your Dad, provided me with a lot of fun and pleasure in my life because of our friendship. The saddest things sometimes happen to the best folks, and Ray's later illness was one of these cases. He was a very talented person, who could take a problem and not only figure out how to solve it, but with a drill press, hack saw, and file, make the tool, part, or thing, to accomplish what you were trying to do in 24 hours or less.
For those who wonder why in the world the race festival was called something like the "Ding Dong Daddy Festival", that was the name of a country song from 10-15 years (I think) or so prior, called "I'm a Ding, Dong, Daddy from Dumas" which of course was Dumas, Arkansas.
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