Driving Southern

[redietz]

I thought I'd post this here so a few folks see it. The collection of short stories called Driving Southern publishes Monday. I was fortunate enough to have a gambling-flavored story included in the collection. The stories and essays are about automobiles that had some significant effect during the authors' coming-of-age.


https://wipfandstock.com/97816667468...outhern/#tab-9

[The Boz]

I thought I'd post this here so a few folks see it. The collection of short stories called Driving Southern publishes Monday. I was fortunate enough to have a gambling-flavored story included in the collection. The stories and essays are about automobiles that had some significant effect during the authors' coming-of-age.


https://wipfandstock.com/97816667468...outhern/#tab-9

Wife ordered for me through Amazon. If it sucks you owe me $16…..in picks.😂😂

That’s a joke you know.

[redietz]

I thought I'd post this here so a few folks see it. The collection of short stories called Driving Southern publishes Monday. I was fortunate enough to have a gambling-flavored story included in the collection. The stories and essays are about automobiles that had some significant effect during the authors' coming-of-age.


https://wipfandstock.com/97816667468...outhern/#tab-9

Wife ordered for me through Amazon. If it sucks you owe me $16…..in picks.😂😂

That’s a joke you know.

Please tell the wife many thanks. I can vouch for the quality of the writing other than that Dietz guy.

Also, please inform the wife that Shamokin PA gets a prominent mention in my contribution. It was the home of The Jester Club back in the 70's.

[MisterV]

I just oredered a copy through Amazon.

As a gearhead who attended school in the South, I hope to relate well to these storie.

I bought my first car there: an ancient Beetle for $200 that quickly gave up the ghost; then I bought a Chevy II for $100; the original owner wanted (and bought) the least expensive American built car then available: what a stripper.

But this "stripper" lasted me four or five years, made two cross country trips and only let me down once, failing in the hills outside stumptown.

When if finally stopped running I called a tow company; I was in law school, broke as a joke and at the time had not self-educated myself in the complex mysteries of automotive repair.

The tow driver agreed to buy it for three hundred bucks, and gave me his check: excellent, I thought.

Hardly; come to find out he'd just been fired and was "jumping tows," including mine, using the truck without permission.

The police later informed me that he went to California and Nevada in the car, robbed a casino and was finally chased down by pursuit vehicles in the hinterlands of Nevada.

I was told the car wound up impounded at Winnemucca.

Unrelated note: the first night my "hillbilly" room mate invited me to hang with he and his buddies in the deep mountains of the Appalachians, the driver of the hot car we were in said something that stayed with me, to the effect "For five bucks I can buy a six pack of beer and still have enough money left to buy gas to ride around all night."

[redietz]

I just oredered a copy through Amazon.

As a gearhead who attended school in the South, I hope to relate well to these storie.

I bought my first car there: an ancient Beetle for $200 that quickly gave up the ghost; then I bought a Chevy II for $100; the original owner wanted (and bought) the least expensive American built car then available: what a stripper.

But this "stripper" lasted me four or five years, made two cross country trips and only let me down once, failing in the hills outside stumptown.

When if finally stopped running I called a tow company; I was in law school, broke as a joke and at the time had not self-educated myself in the complex mysteries of automotive repair.

The tow driver agreed to buy it for three hundred bucks, and gave me his check: excellent, I thought.

Hardly; come to find out he'd just been fired and was "jumping tows," including mine, using the truck without permission.

The police later informed me that he went to California and Nevada in the car, robbed a casino and was finally chased down by pursuit vehicles in the hinterlands of Nevada.

I was told the car wound up impounded at Winnemucca.

Unrelated note: the first night my "hillbilly" room mate invited me to hang with he and his buddies in the deep mountains of the Appalachians, the driver of the hot car we were in said something that stayed with me, to the effect "For five bucks I can buy a six pack of beer and still have enough money left to buy gas to ride around all night."

Thanks, MrV. I am touched that you guys bought a copy. That is very cool.

The guys down here have some Dukes of Hazzard in them, for sure. They are bemoaning (as am I) the end of the muscle cars, which will be discontinued in two years, I believe.

Impounded at Winnemucca is pretty funny. My late wife owned a Renault Alliance. A guy stole it out of a body shop garage in Harrisburg PA. We were informed days later that he ran out of gas in the middle of a street in Baltimore and tried to hit up a priest for gas money. Illegal alien; didn't speak English very well. The priest called the cops. The wife got the car back, but it had been ridden hard, and without specific things being obviously wrong in a dented/smashed way, the insurance company would not part with any serious money. The Alliance, which was not too sturdy to begin with, was shot.

[MisterV]

The guys down here have some Dukes of Hazzard in them, for sure. They are bemoaning (as am I) the end of the muscle cars, which will be discontinued in two years, I believe.

Street takeovers are popular in stumptown these days.

[redietz]

Quick notice: well, the printer botched a bunch of books that were shipped to Amazon, so if you get one of the butchered copies, just send that baby back.

Oh, this will be interesting. I don't grasp all of what goes on in publishing, but the printer has first responsibility, then the publisher, then the editors, but if things go wrong, the editors always shoulder the heat. It'll be bad because Amazon has no mercy. I'm glad I don't have to deal with it. Somebody at the printer was seriously asleep on the job.

Nothing smooth. One of the editors is on vacation on a cross-Canadian high-end rail tour, so this may be tough to coordinate.

Well, it's better than being coach of the Hawaii football team.