Big Muddy
08-18-2014, 09:50 AM
Did any of ya'll see this???....Jimmie Johnson's gear shift lever broke off, during yesterday's race....when he pitted, his crew chief handed him a pair of Vise-Grips, which he clamped on the broken lever stub to use as a handle....they appeared to work just fine. ;)
I may have told ya'll this before, but it reminded me of a Big Muddy event(bloody accident), when I was a kid....my buddies and I had thrown together a rag-tag go kart, using the motor off of our old Yazoo lawnmower....there was a steering stud up front, but we didn't have a steering wheel, so we clamped a pair of old Vise-Grips onto the steering stud....the Vise-Grips wouldn't make that final " really-clamped-shut" feeling, that a pair of good ones make, but we just made do with them.
I was the guinea pig....the go kart had to be pushed-off to crank it because there was no clutch on it....we had it direct-driven with a bicycle chain to the old Yazoo motor that was the type engine that used a cranking handle....recoil rope cranking hadn't been invented, yet. ;)
To make matters worse, there wasn't a throttle cable, either....we just set the throttle lever to wide-open, and the only way to stop the thing was to turn around in the wooden seat(which came off of an old dairy milking stool), and yank off the spark plug wire.
My Dad had been a flight instructor, during WW2, and had given me one of his old leather flight caps, so I was ready and rearing to go!!!....my buddies push-started it for me, and down the gravel road I was really flying....I mean, that thing was apeing-ass, when the Vise-Grips turned loose....it began zig-zagging across the loose gravel, so I turned around to yank off the spark plug wire.
My weight shifted, and that day'um thing flipped about a dozen times, then I skidded on my back about 100 feet in the middle of the gravel road, with the go kart on top of me....when it finally came to a stop, the gas tank had ruptured, and gasoline was pouring down my, now, meat-less back.
There wasn't a single square inch of skin left on my little skinny ass, except for the top of my head, where the leather flight cap had protected my noggin....my entire body was one big bloody, gasoline-soaked mess.
After my buddies got thru laughing their asses off at me, they picked me up, and threw me in a wheel barrow, and hauled me the half mile down the gravel road to our house....when my folks saw them, hauling me up the driveway in the wheel barrow, they jokingly said later, they thought I'd been run over by a herd of our neighbors dairy cows. ;)
My Mom picked as much gravel, as possible, outta my hide, washed me up, gave me a couple of baby aspirins, wrapped me up in a bed sheet, and made me a pallet on the floor....I found out later, she didn't want all the blood and hanging skin to ruin the mattress. ;)
Next morning, the bed sheet was stuck to my entire oozing body....I remember my Dad, lifted me off the pallet, and sat me in the bath tub, so the bed sheet could soak off me....talk about hurting....day'um !!!!
School started that next week, and I remember all my friends, calling me Frankenstein....I couldn't much blame them....I was one ugly-looking-bloody-mess for about a month. ;)
I may have told ya'll this before, but it reminded me of a Big Muddy event(bloody accident), when I was a kid....my buddies and I had thrown together a rag-tag go kart, using the motor off of our old Yazoo lawnmower....there was a steering stud up front, but we didn't have a steering wheel, so we clamped a pair of old Vise-Grips onto the steering stud....the Vise-Grips wouldn't make that final " really-clamped-shut" feeling, that a pair of good ones make, but we just made do with them.
I was the guinea pig....the go kart had to be pushed-off to crank it because there was no clutch on it....we had it direct-driven with a bicycle chain to the old Yazoo motor that was the type engine that used a cranking handle....recoil rope cranking hadn't been invented, yet. ;)
To make matters worse, there wasn't a throttle cable, either....we just set the throttle lever to wide-open, and the only way to stop the thing was to turn around in the wooden seat(which came off of an old dairy milking stool), and yank off the spark plug wire.
My Dad had been a flight instructor, during WW2, and had given me one of his old leather flight caps, so I was ready and rearing to go!!!....my buddies push-started it for me, and down the gravel road I was really flying....I mean, that thing was apeing-ass, when the Vise-Grips turned loose....it began zig-zagging across the loose gravel, so I turned around to yank off the spark plug wire.
My weight shifted, and that day'um thing flipped about a dozen times, then I skidded on my back about 100 feet in the middle of the gravel road, with the go kart on top of me....when it finally came to a stop, the gas tank had ruptured, and gasoline was pouring down my, now, meat-less back.
There wasn't a single square inch of skin left on my little skinny ass, except for the top of my head, where the leather flight cap had protected my noggin....my entire body was one big bloody, gasoline-soaked mess.
After my buddies got thru laughing their asses off at me, they picked me up, and threw me in a wheel barrow, and hauled me the half mile down the gravel road to our house....when my folks saw them, hauling me up the driveway in the wheel barrow, they jokingly said later, they thought I'd been run over by a herd of our neighbors dairy cows. ;)
My Mom picked as much gravel, as possible, outta my hide, washed me up, gave me a couple of baby aspirins, wrapped me up in a bed sheet, and made me a pallet on the floor....I found out later, she didn't want all the blood and hanging skin to ruin the mattress. ;)
Next morning, the bed sheet was stuck to my entire oozing body....I remember my Dad, lifted me off the pallet, and sat me in the bath tub, so the bed sheet could soak off me....talk about hurting....day'um !!!!
School started that next week, and I remember all my friends, calling me Frankenstein....I couldn't much blame them....I was one ugly-looking-bloody-mess for about a month. ;)