VIETNAM VETERANS WALL

Photos © Dwight Drum and Gary Larsen
Tribute by Dwight Drum

We'd like to share special images focusing on US. Veterans. We launch this tribute on Veterans Day weekend 2001, but we don't intend to drop it off after that or relegate it to an archive barn. Every day is Veterans day at StripBike.com. and Zoomster.com

The tribute consists of images of the traveling Vietnam Veterans Wall during a Memphis display. Among the many visitors were five hundred Harley-Davidon riders, The IRON WARRIORS, a national motorcycle club whose members (95%) are Police Officers and Fire Fighters. Some are retired, some are active but they all ride American made V-twin motorcycles.

It's a tribute that doesn't need many words.

FIVE HUNDRED HARLEY-DAVIDSONS

Stand with us at a Memphis cemetery as members of the Iron Warriors ride 500 Harley-Davidsons two by two at an idle to visit the traveling Vietnam Veterans Wall. Everybody stood and stared at the spectacle. No words were spoken by viewers or riders, and the only noise was the bikes…no revving, just idling, as the bikes filled a winding road around the wall. The Iron Warriors parked Le Mans style and stood silently by their bikes until everyone was parked. Then Boy Scouts gave them candles in a small bag to place by the wall.
Gary says, "I will never forget the tingle and the sight of it…Awesome."

AMERICAN LEGION ELVIS PRESLEY (R) POST 249
Terry Adams, Commander

Dwight Drum
Gary Larsen

REAL DIRT

© 2000 Dwight Drum

Howard Johnson 1925-2001

We proudly remember "Howie" our family race car driver and great guy. Back when we were kids, when much of stock car racing was mud and old cars, and another uncle owned the local track that Gary Larsen's dad managed, Howie was tops! This interview with Howie "Real Dirt" will stay on Zoomster as a tribute to him and racing. As Howie told me in July while we watched a NASCAR race on TV..."If only I had all that power...just once!" We take solace in the thought that old number four is learning about power from big number three.

Forty to fifty years ago the short dirt tracks dominated the stock car racing scene. As a kid in Pennsylvania I remember the aroma of those races as a mix of burnt exhaust and wet dirt. It seemed fast back then, and it was exciting growing up watching the competition drive the dirt ovals to win. My uncle was one of those competitors. Howard 'Howie' Johnson, drove those dirt tracks during the fifties and sixties. At a family reunion recently I had the opportunity to ask him a few questions about the racing past…about that fast old dirt.

You raced dirt tracks long ago. What's the difference between then and now?

"You had to have original equipment. You couldn't change gears. I paid thirty-five dollars for one of my best cars, a six-cylinder. I stripped out the car, put roll bars in it and it was off to the races. I won thirteen races with that car before it was falling apart and got too dangerous to drive any more. When I tore it down, I discovered it had a thirteen pound flywheel."

I raced the nearby tracks of Northwestern Pennsylvania and Western New York. In six years I won 15 races, and lots of seconds and thirds. Dirt tracks were just that…always dirty. You ate dirt all the way around. Old dirt tracks weren't well kept. They always had a part of it that was a hill. They just packed the dirt down…no scrapers. They just ran trucks around it until it looked like a track."

You raced out of pocket with no sponsors, right?

"I had no sponsors. I'd buy me an old car for thirty or fifty bucks, rip out the insides, put roll bars in it and race it. A beer garden or a gas station might buy gas or a tire or two, if you put a sticker on the side of your car, but they weren't big sponsors."

What could you have done with a sponsor?

"I could have gone to a different class, so I could build up a racer."

What's your best feeling about racing?

"That I had to stop. They started to change the rules, and it became too expensive for an individual. If you didn't keep up you ended up last."

Do you miss racing? And when did you stop missing it, if you have?

"Yes I do. Even as old as I am. It was a lot of fun."

Want to share any stories?

"I raced with no seat belts or helmets. I got hit by a piece of mud that knocked me out. Fortunately my car was aimed toward the starter, and it coasted to safety. After that, I wore a helmet."

You're an ace mechanic and painter. What do want to share with the young?

"I came up the hard way…no teacher. Either do a good job, or don't do it at all. Paints today are complicated. Old paint with hardener was simple. I learned it from scratch. The first one was okay. The next job better. The next one better than that."

Later that day 'Howie' walked by me while the family was watching a NASCAR race. He stopped to gaze a minute and looked at me.

"Just once, " he said. "One time… I'd like to have all that power!"