Early Rod Run Drizzles Out

      “Listen to the jingle, the rumble and the roar”

    But not the Wabash Cannonball.  The jingle has to come from the car-owners’ pockets.  The rumble and the roar come from 100+ rods built for performance as well as beauty.  (Rods restored to original stock condition don’t make much noise.)  The cars that come to race do rumble and roar, and squeal, too.

     But alas! For the second straight year, Mother Nature refused either to cooperate or to spoil the proceedings of the Atwood Early Rod Run with appreciable amounts of much-needed moisture.  But spoil it She did.   Last year, the testosterone motivated, nitrous-fueled machines got to make about one run down the converted airstrip before a nasty-looking cloud and wind gust sent multi-millions of dollars of chrome and paint fleeing for shelter from ruinous hail.  It turned out to be a Pecos Bill thunderstorm, mostly blow, with no hail after all.  But it curtailed the drag racing.

     Mother Nature chose a different method of spoiling the 2014 show—light drizzle.  The mist began to fall about noon and desisted about 3 p.m.  The downtown crowd was somewhat diminished by the cool wet.  A few of the rods vulnerable to water (some convertibles and open-cab jobs) departed with the arrival of the first drops, but many more stayed put into the afternoon, so the proceeding wasn’t entirely stifled.  Indoor dining facilities enjoyed a boom, while outdoor food vendors and the beer garden suffered.  

     The decision to cancel was made at 2 pm.  The early cancellation saved some labor.  The starting tree didn’t get set up.  The lanes to handle spectator traffic (steel poles and plastic flag rope) stayed in the shed.  The seating crew had already hauled some twelve grandstands from the fair grounds to the air strip.  The Lions suffer a loss.  Their biggest fund-raiser is charging $3 per head admission fees for spectators to park and watch the rods pair off and race each other for a few hundred yards on the airport runway.        

    

      The Saturday evening barbecue had good attendance.

     The blight that got the drag racing seemed to get to the dance, too.  Long time band “The Benders” had to cancel out late in the week when one member resigned and another fell ill.  The “Atomic Drifters” were in town to play in the aftermath of the Friday night fireworks.  They agreed to stay on and provide the music for Saturday night.  They were okay, but they weren’t “The Benders, the Benders, the Benders.”

     Some real characters showed up for the dance, anyway.

    

     Sunday was much nicer, but only about half of the 245 cars that showed up for Saturday remained.

 

    Note the flipper hubcaps below.

    A few characters showed up at the car show, too.

     Well, there’s always next year.