It happened on the strip where the road is wide. Actually, on north Hall Street (later styled as Stockton Hill Road) north of Hilltop. Hubby Grounds had a brand new 1963 fastback Corvette and local hotrod legend Billy Logas had his Superstock Dodge. They ran through the quarter mile and Hubby won handily.
According to Hubby, Billy got in his face and said, "Wait right here!" And with that, Logas roared off in the direction of Logasville. A half hour later, he came back and they went at it again, only this time Billy won by several car lengths. The secret: Billy went home and lifted an engine block into his trunk and the traction made the difference.
That wild story, and a dozen other stories were rehashed and retold as Hubby and I caught up on old times yesterday:
BBB and Hubby at El Encanto: spreading it thick
I also found a series of photos my aunt took in 1957, walking around my dad's gas station—Al Bell's Flying A—and taking a photograph at each stop.
Classic panorama of Al Bell's Flying A in 1957
I've forwarded the above photos to a video wizard to see if a composite can be made to simulate movement. We'll see.
Still noodling images for our big feature on a lost Billy the Kid newspaper article. Found these this morning:
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (plus bonus image of Gomer Pyle!)
"Golly, Sheriff, I'll take that little booger down."
—Gomer Pyle to Pat Garrett on July 13, 1881