My "CARS" from day one!
Here's the first car I owned.
This began a long love affair with cars, as you're about to see.
This is an old photo of my dad Justin Hall and my uncle Hack Burden
taken in Sayre Oklahoma around 1937-40. They owned this old
Sinclair gas station and did auto repairs for locals.
Age 2, 1946!
Granite, Oklahoma
(click for enlargement)
Here's little background and story for you.
Born in Oklahoma (March 2, 1944) but raised in California, around a father who was a car & motorcycle
nut as well. At the age of 12 I bought my first real car. Car #1- a 1949 Mercury 4-door, for $50.00
Of course I couldn't drive it on the main streets but I got some dirt road time behind the wheel after I got
it running. I did all my own mechanic work as well, no help from dad. He was never around when I needed it.
Car #2 was a 1930 Model-A coupe. It was absolutely stock and ran great but really needed a paint job.
I sanded that old rubbery lacquer off and repainted it, all by hand. Just like they did it in the factory in
1930 with a paint brush. That's right, a paint brush! And it turned out just fine. I was really proud of it.
I paid $150 for it in 1959. I was 14.
No this isn't it. But mine was just like this one.
Unfortunately, back then I didn't own a camera!
I was 14 years old and hadn't gotten into photography yet.
Car #3 was a 1941 Chevrolet shown here:
It didn't look like much but ran really smooth!
I paid $60 for it. I ended up trading it and the
30 Model A (above)
for Car # 4
My first real Hot Rod. A 1934 Ford Coupe
with a '48 Merc. flathead in it. I eventually turned
it into a Drag car. I was then 16.
I needed a car to drive to school so I also
bought this
1950 Ford Custom Coupe, Car #5
for $300. Remember the 4-Bar Spinner hubcaps and Lake pipes?
This was my High School car! Graduating class of 1962,
Burroughs High School, Ridgecrest, California.
I tore up (3) transmissions- drag racing!
At the age of 15 (in 1959) I joined our local car club, called the "Dust Devils Car Club".
My nickname all through High School was "DUSTY". All my old classmates know me by
that name. Naturally, I was the youngest member in the car club. I didn't even have
a drivers license yet but I was a drag racer anyway. Here is a photo of me on my 16th Birthday
(1960) turning 132 miles per hour (in a 1/4 mile) in a friends dragster that I drove
for him occasionally. I was smaller and lighter and could turn better times than he could.
I don't remember what my time was, probably about 8 seconds in those days.
(click for enlargement)
Sanctioned Drag racing was in it's infancy and I was right in the middle of it.
I grew up on the Inyokern Drag Strip near my home of Ridgecrest, Calif. It was an old
abandoned air-strip our club turned into one of the countries most famous drag strips.
(Today, Inyokern Drags is know as the "Longest Continuous Running Dragstrip in America")
Here I am as a Flag starter for some races. I worked a lot of different positions
in those days. Racer, tech inspector, starter and more. This was in the days before the
"Christmas Tree" starting lights, that finally replaced "flag starters" like me.
(click for enlargement)
You might notice this was WAY back when we didn't even have bleachers.
We were one of the only dragstrips in California that even had timing clocks and lights.
The only spectators in those days were the racers "ourselves". And the
admission to get in was $2.00, and we had no concessions stands or bathrooms!
Here I am in one of my first real drag cars that I built. Car #6 A steel 1927 T-Bucket Ford Roadster
AM/R which stood for: A-Modified Roadster.
Notice the Blown BIG HEMI, homemade headers and the skinny drag tires. This was in the days
before the big, wide, soft rubber, tires were ever developed. Remember, we breaking new ground here.
This thing would fly! But it was a handful to drive!
(click for enlargement)
Go to the NEXT page for MORE CARS!
Index of Cars I've owned.
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