Hey, who took my other pistol?

Hey, who took my other pistol?

Way to go Country Music Hall of Fame!  Looking for music notes and found cool cars!

Country music means leaning back and listening to words that capture moments from your reckless youth. It means sliding on a pair of boots that will carry you through a ride on a horse, a truck, or a date where you can’t wait to take them off.  This music marques  the lyrics of those who are/were wise enough to know what we don’t…are too afraid to say.  Country music has a history that is embedded into the souls of some, into photo albums of others, and oddly enough into the car of one Webb Pierce.   Way before anyone was worried  about “Conceal and Carry” there was Webb and his car he had fashioned with the help of Nudie Cohn.  While Nudie Designs was mainly associated with clothing and fashion this car stands out with its saddle leather interior and ‘locked and loaded’ type ornaments.  By today’s standards we worry about pulling out of our garage if we have a tail light out.  How grand to sport about town with pistols mounted on both front quarter panels!  Giddy-Up Webb.  Thanks for being a rebel of the road and a contributor to country music.  No wonder your hit song “I’m in the Jailhouse Now” seems  so fitting, and I’m certain I’m not the only one who admires that car of yours.

Everyone needs a good set of horns.
Webb Pierce’s Silver Dollar Convertible
Hey, who took my other pistol?
Saddle Up
Glass all around.
Straight Shot
Who needs a scope?
Oh, Webb!
Glass all around.

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Debbie | 8 Comments

I am very much delighted and honored that I have been nominated for the Bouquet of Three Award.  This award is a combination of the following:

  • The Sunshine Award implies that the author positively and creatively inspires others.  Save for my nasty little write up on the new Corvette I truly try to be positive, hoping that creativity falls upon the screen, as well.
  • The Best Moment Award is given to a blog that has a literary piece defining a specific moment that is thought provoking, creative, honest, and or inspiring.  If I had to choose among my 60+ posts I would select one about each of my sons Michael and Jon, respectively.  These two young men inspire me daily.
  • The Versatile Blogger Award recognizes the all-around blogger.  I suppose when a person writes about their mom, license plates, and muscle cars…

My friend, Mart, at http://onemanandhismustang.com/, happens to be my first follower, and I, his.  I am humbled that he thinks I am worthy of the above accolades.  I thank him so much for this award.  I suppose he has seen the best and the worst of my posts.  He has supported me along the way, and has given me guidance and suggestions.  While there are three dimensions to this award I am confident that writing about the history of cars as they relate to my wonderful family might graze across each.

Thanks again, Mart Dawson!

Here are the rules:

1. Proudly display the Award Certificates on your blog page!

2. Announce your win with a post.  Be sure to say thank you to the person who nominated you with a link to their post.

3. Present up to 15 awards to fellow deserving bloggers.

4. Let them know you’ve nominated them for this awesome award.

5. Post 7 interesting things about yourself.

I am pleased to nominate the following:

  1. http://onemanandhismustang.com/   I would nominate this very creative, informative, and lively look at restoring a ’66 Mustang, but my dear friend Mart has already been recognized!
  2. http://thebestcarblogever.wordpress.com/  Sid has a very enthusiastic love of cares, with his posts traveling to us from India.
  3. http://flynbrian48.wordpress.com/ Creatively written with interwoven pictures of Cool McCool’s journey with cars.
  4. http://wildhorsesltd.wordpress.com/ A very slick look at Mustangs from the UK.
  5. http://petedenton.wordpress.com/  An extremely creative fellow.
  6. http://mlarsonoutdoors.wordpress.com/  This is a great site about hunting and fishing.

Seven Things About Me:

First, I apologize that a most recent post highlighted a few bits and pieces about me.  It was only meant to camouflage that pesky Plate of the Week.  (I don’t normally talk about myself this much!)

  1. Growing up it was important that we learned all that was necessary for a well rounded childhood: shooting a gun, riding a motorcycle, the game of pool, water skiing, driving a stick shift…you know, the usual stuff.
  2. If I had a tattoo it would be of a piston with my dad’s name on it.
  3. I don’t like gardening, lace, ruffles, etc.
  4. I will not race a girl.  Nor do I race like one.
  5. I’ve never had a bee sting, cavity, or broken bone.  I should be careful.  Until recently I was able to say that about a speeding ticket.
  6. When the weather is right…I’d rather blog outside than inside.
  7. I’d rather be remembered than rich.
Posted on July 24, 2013 by Debbie | 6 Comments

Muscle cars don’t guzzle gas, they drink it with purpose. – July 19, 2013

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Debbie

Here are 7 not so interesting facts about me followed by The Plate of the Week.

  1. My favorite type of music is Country, but my favorite musical artist is P!nk.  It all sounds pretty great when the windows are down in any weather.  My son and I have a motto: “Windows down, heater on, radio up!”

    A powerhouse of uniqueness.

    A powerhouse of uniqueness.

  2. My very first personalized plates read RADICL.  I’ve had my present vanity plates since 1986, RAY-BAN.  While the plates in Missouri have gone through color and design changes I’ve kept the same letters.  That’s a very long time for free advertising.
  3. My Mustang has 78 thousand miles on it, and much to my husband’s financial frowning I am on my 4th set of tires.
  4. I’ve only had one speeding ticket in my entire life, and it happened just this October.  48 in a 35, but the officer took it down to 45.  After the ticket was issued, I swear the ghost of my father pulled up next to me in his ’79 Trans Am.
  5. My husband has driven my car only 7 times in the last 9 years.
  6. My first car was a ’79 Bobcat with a stick, and I remember boasting to anyone who would listen that it would someday have a 289 in it and that I would  be racing at I-55 Raceway in Pevely.  It was such a tiny little car that the Cragars I had to have only had four (not 5) spokes.  Oh, the dreams of a 17 year old.  It was a great little 4 speed! Click here to view.
  7. I openly wish I had NOS and a manual transmission in my car. And I drive as if I have both.
    What I feel like I drive.
    What I drive.
  8. I do not like this week’s Plate of the Week.  That’s why his silly little picture is mixed in with all this stuff about me.  Ha to him.

    Rest in peace, V-8...I think not!

    Rest in peace, V-8…I think not!

Posted in Journal, Plate of the Week, The Burnoff Area | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments
Startlinging New! Wonderfully Different!

Sales Brochure

“Your new 1953 Chevrolet is by far the finest and most beautiful Chevrolet ever built…”

As we sift through this manual I will announce my favorite parts (FP)  and how things haven’t changed (THC) in a few of the sections.  Hopefully the photos will turn out well enough and you can, in turn, pick your own favorite parts.  Enjoy the read, and don’t forget to check out the slide show at the end!

For the year 1953 this manual is in excellent shape with a bit of fading on the cover.  It is full of accurate recreations of men and women of that time, and filled with selectively informative bits and pieces.  Surely an heirloom in and of itself, this manual was in the pile because my mom says, “Yes, we did own a 1953 Chevy Bel Air”.

The colors inside this manual are green and brick red on alternating pages for images, while black is the color for copy.  I tried googling artists/designers for similar items, with no luck.  Inside the Preface page at the bottom it reads LITHO. IN U.S.A. One nice gentleman from Litho Press got back to me and said the above only meant the style of printing.

Chapter 1 CONTROL Positions:

FP Page 3 #5 Vent Knob:  “At times, it may be advisable to shut off the flow of air to keep out offensive odors or exhaust gases of other traffic”.  Nowadays we ‘roll’ our automatic windows down, blame each other for the smell, try to avoid the dead skunk with its petrified legs pointing to the heavens, etc.

FP Page 4 #9 Instrument Cluster:   Oh, my.  The instrument panels of today are certainly not a simple cluster.  With Sirius, GPS, 10 disc loaders, and the ability to use your phone and it’s entire contents hands free, etc. …means there is a separate manual just for such a cluster.

THC Page 3 #7 Lighters still pop out when they are heated.  However most of us refer to them as a place to charge things.

THC Page 4 #14 I am lucky enough to say that my ’03 Mustang still has a round speedometer with a needle.

Chapter 2 INTERIOR Features:

FP Page 7 #5 Door Ventipanes:  Just the term alone is historic.  Oh, why don’t they make a car that still sports these wonderful features?

THC Page 7 #6 Sun Visor:  I’m sure there must be a car out there that automatically tints its front window when the sun is shining on the driver, but for now I am glad that I have full control.  Thanks to my awesome Ray-Bans and Rule # 3 on my list of 30 Crazy Car Rules.  Feel free to view them here.

Chapter 3 OPERATING Information:

FP  By far my favorite part of the whole manual is the guy in his car service outfit. The only thing missing from this picture is the oval shaped, red embroidered patch, stating that Ray is ready to serve you! Can you imagine being greeted by a gas station attendant or a

May I Help You?

May I Help You?

mechanic in a white coat?  Nowadays, attendants are mostly found behind the register talking into a speaker telling you that Pump #3 is on or taking your money for a lottery ticket.

THC Engine Oil Level Rod:  As far as I know we can still check our own oil on a flat surface using a paper towel from the kitchen.

Chapter 4 AUTOMATIC Driving:

FP The order of the letters has changed over the years.  And we have added a few.  In this manual it is P N D L R, but later on it became P R N D S L.  A boyfriend once told me that meant People Really Need Debbie Stepp’s Love. (Stepp being my maiden name.) Hmmm

THC Drive is still for all normal driving.  (Who does that anymore?)

Chapter 10 CHEVROLET Radio:

FP Page 18, Letter A  “Warm up radio at least ten minutes….”.

THC Page 18 Letter E  We still press and hold a button in to save a station.

Chapter 14 SPECIFICATIONS:

FP Page 31 Horsepower: 30.4 and firing order 1-5-3-6-2-4.  How awesome to think about the firing order of the spark plugs on a 1953 Bel Air.

THC The serial number appears to be in the same place as always.

I can only imagine how my mom and dad looked tooling around in the 1953 Chevy.  This legend of a car is 60 years old in Chevy’s record books.  Finally, here is a great web site I found dedicated to this classic car.  http://www.1953chevrolet.com/

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Debbie | 5 Comments

What could make a visit to Nashville, TN complete?  Curious car sightings, of course! Pulling off the highway we were greeted by none other than Cooter’s…a Duke’s of Hazzard souvenir mecca!

They had everything!

They had everything!

While I am a fan of the General Lee, I came away empty handed and no thank you to the $5 fee for having my picture taken in the driver’s seat.  A fun and unique stop non-the-less.

Hazzard Country Towing
I’ll take my own picture, thank you!

Entering the lot of our Holiday Inn Express we spy not one, but 4 Camaros.  Do I see a problem with them taking up 6 spaces…absolutely not!  ….Some women would prefer a bouquet of flowers…not this gal.  Victory Red, Rally Yellow, Ashen Gray, and Inferno Orange…such a sight.

Taking up 6 spaces!

Taking up 6 spaces!

BFF Yvonne was the first to notice the Transformer plates.  The Orange camaro had Bumblebee on the side!  Makes me kind of want to see the movie. Those cars did not move from their spots, then Friday morning they were gone.  We speculated that there was a high stakes poker game being played, but our shuttle driver informed us that they came all the way to Nashville from Ontario for a local car show.  We preferred our story of slick men, fast cars, and reckless gambling.  Note the Camaro5.com decal on all of the cars.  I tried contacting them via a website and Twitter, but no luck.  If anyone is familiar with this band of Traveling Transformers, please feel free to share.  PS  For all you petrol heads out there…our room number was 427 hmmm.

TRANS4MR
Beastly…
TRNZ4MR
MRBRANS5
Our Room #

Posted on July 14, 2013 by Debbie | 1 Comment

Plumbers, florists, and teachers…oh, my!  My favorite of the bunch is ICUT-U.  One can only assume this is the car of a hairstylist.   Hmmm…or maybe a surgeon. Being a Hyundai on a Burger King parking lot might give us the answer. Oh, gee, I never considered gang member.  We vanity plate people have no problem misspelling a word for the sake of our  legal graffiti.  However, the teacher in this group might have received a bit of joking from friends.  “I’m a teacher and I will proudly tell you with a misspelled message.”  I was most nervous about following the police officer for a perfect photo op. I’ve never tailgated law enforcement, but it brings quite a powerful feeling.  Just glad it wasn’t the other way around.  Finally, I wonder how many times the CAR-FXR has heard at a stoplight….”Hey I’ve got this sound under my hood, mind pulling over and taking a look at it?”  Final note:   I guess plumbers make okay money.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Debbie | 8 Comments
Michael and I standing on Dad's Corvette!

Michael and I standing on Dad’s Corvette!

trophies2

Dad (left) and his great friend, Rich Shook. Mom is the the one in the lawn chair!

It’s interesting that some of the most extraordinary moments in your life occur at I time that no matter how hard you try you will not be able to recover them.  My dad, Rich Stepp, hard worker and family man, was a dragstrip driver whenever he could be.  I wish I could recall standing on the hood of that red Corvette, but I can’t.  However, I’ve known all my life that it was a ’63 with a removable hard top and that sometimes I waited for him at the finish line to ride back in it with his helmet on my head. I know that he changed out the rear end so my mom could get groceries in it.  In addition,  I do remember feeling cool…not that I was just at a race track, but I was part of the racing.  My dad won several trophies during those early years.  He raced the Pevely, MO and Alton, IL Dragways to name a few.  After his death, those trophies somehow fell through fingers, were misplaced by relatives that promised to keep them safe, etc.  But my brother, Michael and I have never forgotten them.  There was always a place for them in our home growing up…mostly on shelves made by Dad, near the shotguns!   They seemed as tall as I was, and by the look of this picture they almost were.  The common theme was ‘winner’, and our whole family was very proud of that.  Michael and I have talked about those trophies from time to time and their importance to our family’s history.  But like pages torn from a journal the trophies were no longer tangible.  A few weeks ago, while at an antique store, I came across a handful of similar and well maintained trophies.  The plates read “Alton Dragway” on all of them, but no actual person had been awarded the trophies.  After buying one, I cleaned it up and had a new plate made for it. My brother who can be a man of many words when the hunting story calls for it or a man of few words when the moment just needs to be the moment displayed a solemn happiness when I gave it to him.    It was one simple trophy replacing the others, but representing so much more.   You might not be able to remember everything that happens to you in your life, but hopefully tiny snapshots of a few extraordinary moments will remain.  So glad I was able to recreate a piece of our dad’s history.  He was such a winner to us in his live-fast way.  Crossing the finish line first may have happened over 40 years ago, but knowing that we lived in his winner’s circle is a trophy we are very proud of and it can never be replaced.

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Debbie | 8 Comments

Here are two great pics stating the obvious.  You gotta love your vehicle to tell everyone what your driving, while driving what they can see you are driving.  Hmmm, I think I know someone who does the same thing with a certain brand of sunglasses!

Escaped
It’s a Jeep Thing
Posted on July 2, 2013 by Debbie | 8 Comments

Open the first picture for the slide show.

You gotta start somewhere
Buggy
Back To The Future!
My Favorite!
Heartbeat…
Of America!
Herbie
Rides
Again
Mark from London
My first car show appearance.
6 Hours of Detailing
Family Fun
The Big Prize
Our DJ, Jay

As you can see by the pictures, Friday night’s Car Cruise at Chick Fil A was a success.  Many turned out to participate and view the cars.  Great music was provided by Jay Glenn.   Kids could jump rope, do side walk chalk, and play the ring toss.  It was a very well put together family event.  Mom and I had a great time walking around, meeting people, and taking pictures.  Best moment was meeting a guy named Mark who has moved here all the way from London.  How many can boast that they know two fellows from the UK who love Mustangs?  If you haven’t caught up with my other friend Mart’s blog click here for the link.  A thank you to Chick Fil A for this event.  Click here for information on their future car cruises.

Posted on June 29, 2013 by Debbie | 8 Comments
New dual exhaust

New dual exhaust

Flash back…Twenty five years ago I arrived at my best friend’s apartment.  A Cardinal’s home opener party.  Knowing full well that the Swinger driver from across the street might be there was a bonus.  I have no idea if the Cards won, but I do know that I left that night with the promise of spending time with that gangly Dart driver.  Of course there are a lot of details left untyped, but the driver of that brilliant yellow ’70 Dodge Dart Swinger made his way into my heart.

Flash forward…Brad wanders about this amazing life he has built for us over these past 25 years.  We are a family of 4 with 5 cars.  Hmmm.  When one needs something he pays the bill that pays for its needs.  And if a hands on approach is a better method, be sure that Brad will find a way to take what he has learned over the years, whether from his father, or on his own and apply it to the challenge.

The Cutlass has been a great addition to our family.  Brad and Michael picked it out while driving lessons ensued, and Jackie Blue has somehow eased its way into the garage.  The Mustang got acquainted by saying, “If you’re going to hang in here, you best smell good, look good, sound good, and run good.”

Oh, my …it smells so good, it runs great and Brad (with Michael’s help) has made sure that there are on-going efforts to improve its street appearance.   As I sit here typing, and hoping that the most deserving words appear, Brad is hand sewing the piping back onto its visors.  Jackie Blue now has a new floor board on the driver’s side, a new headliner, a new roof, dual exhaust (a favorite for me), resewn visors,  and a rebuilt transmission.

This amazing car holds the history of 41 years before this day.  And it now boasts the handiwork, the ideas and ideals of a man and his son who saw a stock of metal at the local Waffle House with a FOR-SALE sign in its window.  It had a past, someone who loved it, and wore it clean through the top and bottom.  It now has a present with a son and father finding time, vocabulary, energy, and some times the convenience to work together… launching this car, its past and present…into the future.  Imagine…someone else may write about this ’72 Cutlass one day.

Waiting for the right time.
Took a lot of work.
I had my doubts.
Hard work paid off.
Fred Flinstone Floorboard.
Like new!
Posted on June 27, 2013 by Debbie | 4 Comments