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Gary Merrick · 12-24-2015, 04:34 PM

Merry Christmas to All!!!

Great Story Mike, I hope you and your folks have a Wonderful Christmas and wishing you a very Happy New Year...

Your story of ole Saint Nick reminded me of a ride I gave to my Dad (he was in his early 50's) back in the early 70's in my first race car, which was a 69 Yenko Camaro - SS/D (it had run 11.0's prior to this). I had just changed the clutch and Pop helped me get the trans back in. After I buttoned everything up, I asked him if he wanted to go for a short test drive around the neighborhood, to make sure the clutch worked OK. Slicks, open headers, needless to say I had other plans than just a short ride around our street. To make a long story short, I was heading towards a 4 lane highway (at a very reasonable speed) and he told me to turn it around and get it home before I got a ticket for the open headers. So, I pulled in a driveway, turned around, he yelled at me (hard to hear with open headers) to get going cause traffic was coming. That was all he had to say, so I put it in first, revved it up to 6000, dropped the clutch and started yanking gears, got it into 4th and shortly thereafter had to start slowing to make some turns to get back to our neighborhood. As I pulled in the driveway, shut it off and looked over, I will never forget that look on his face, his hands were shaking and he had this huge smile that was "priceless". I will never ever forget that moment. OBTW, the clutch worked great.
God Bless you, Dad.....

12-24-2015, 04:34 PM	#4
Gary Merrick Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 210 Likes: 439 Liked 196 Times in 29 Posts	Re: 'Twas The Night Before Christmas Merry Christmas to All!!! Great Story Mike, I hope you and your folks have a Wonderful Christmas and wishing you a very Happy New Year... Your story of ole Saint Nick reminded me of a ride I gave to my Dad (he was in his early 50's) back in the early 70's in my first race car, which was a 69 Yenko Camaro - SS/D (it had run 11.0's prior to this). I had just changed the clutch and Pop helped me get the trans back in. After I buttoned everything up, I asked him if he wanted to go for a short test drive around the neighborhood, to make sure the clutch worked OK. Slicks, open headers, needless to say I had other plans than just a short ride around our street. To make a long story short, I was heading towards a 4 lane highway (at a very reasonable speed) and he told me to turn it around and get it home before I got a ticket for the open headers. So, I pulled in a driveway, turned around, he yelled at me (hard to hear with open headers) to get going cause traffic was coming. That was all he had to say, so I put it in first, revved it up to 6000, dropped the clutch and started yanking gears, got it into 4th and shortly thereafter had to start slowing to make some turns to get back to our neighborhood. As I pulled in the driveway, shut it off and looked over, I will never forget that look on his face, his hands were shaking and he had this huge smile that was "priceless". I will never ever forget that moment. OBTW, the clutch worked great. God Bless you, Dad.....