NASCAR NEWS: It may have been a while ago, but people still
remember that NASCAR race at Bradford Speedway in 1958 in which
Junior Johnson beat Lee Petty to take the checkered flag on the
half-mile dirt track.

Don Hudson of Belmont, N.C., writes this past Monday: “We were
at that NASCAR Race in ’58. We had just moved to Belmont which is
about 10 miles west of Charlotte, N.C. We have watched it become
the huge complex that it is today. There now is a NASCAR Museum in
Charlotte today. It is a big deal now.”

Woody Woodruff, our former Era compatriot, remembers the
Bradford Speedway event for several reasons – mostly pecan pie.

At the time of that race, Woody was selling Oldsmobiles, which
was one of NASCAR’s sponsors. They were just trying to get this new
motor sport going.

The drivers came to Woody’s garage, and “We took them to
Anderson’s diner.” “They went crazy over the pecan rolls,” Woody
recalls. Since they would be going back south, Ben agreed to tell
them the recipe.

Woody’s relatives hail from that North Wilkesboro area of North
Carolina not far from Junior Johnson’s home – and many of the other
drivers, especially the old timers. Woody remembers being down
south when crews would water down the dirt track until they were as
hard as concrete. “Jalopy races,” as they were called.

NASCAR has certainly come a long way in the intervening
years.

WRITER’S ART: Writing – punctuation, grammar, style, usage, etc.
– is fast becoming a lost art. Its decline will probably be
accelerated further with the absence of Jack Kilpatrick’s weekly
column, The Writer’s Art, carried in The Era for years.

Universal Press Syndicate reports that Kilpatrick’s final column
will be released next week.

Universal president Lee Salem writes, “Since 1979, we have
learned a lot from Jack Kilpatrick. He showed us how a master
newspaperman writes, how a gentleman treats others, how a columnist
comments civilly.”

“For him to relinquish ‘The Writer’s Art’ was difficult, for his
affection for and appreciation of the English language are
boundless. His tears and pain came through in our phone
conversation. We – and newspapers – are a bit more diminished
today.”

(Our first thought was, is that further or farther, used in our
second sentence? We could like to hear Jack’s opinion.)