It is a small world after all | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Two pictures of the same car make the circle almost complete nine-two years later.

    It's a Small World is the theme song of the attraction of the same name. It was written by the Sherman Brothers in 1963 for the Disney presentation at the 1964 World's fair in New York. But the idea has been around for ages. Here is a true story that illustrates how small the world is after all. Bobby Tony

    For many years, my dad had two pictures hanging in his workshop. One was of him racing a motorcycle at Lakewood Fairgrounds in Atlanta. The other was of him sitting in a race car at the same track. Both pictures were black and white and extremely faded. I guessed the era to be in the early 1920's when my dad was about eighteen years old. I eventually scanned the picture and tried to do some touch up work with my limited Photoshop skills. The original is hanging in my daughters guest room at her house.

    Unfortunately, the story behind both pictures has been lost to my memory and I neglected to either record or write my dad's version of the story. My dad was a somewhat wild Irishman and most of his stories were pre-edited by my Italian mother for presentation to us kids.

Flash forward to April 2, 2016

    Recently a picture appeared on one of the historical Facebook pages about Atlanta. I immediately recognized the car and sent a private message to the lady who posted it. I do not know the lady who posted the first picture. I also posted the picture of my dad sitting in what looked like the same car. It would not be a long stretch to say that my dad and the driver in the picture knew each other. Both were raised in the Grant Park area of Atlanta; both were about the same age ("Rit" was born in 1901 and my dad "Red" in 1906), and ran in the same circles in what was then a small city.

   Here is the first picture.
    RSC:This is a photo of my father "Rit" on race day circa\a 1924 or earlier. This is in front of the stadium at Lakewood Speedway. I have one more photo on the back stretch. In this photo you can see a little of the Atlanta Water works building
   She also sent me this second picture. The cars are not identical but perhaps one version is before several wrecksl

   Here is my dad in what looks like the same car.


    Below is an edited for privacy extract of our back and forth about the picture and family history.

    BT:I posted a picture of my dad "Red" in what looks like the same car as your dad's picture on FB. I would love to get some history of your dad. Apparently, they may have known each other or at least both drove the same car at times.

    RSC: Hi, a nice surprise to hear from you. Well, the story I got from my mother was a Mr Trotski not sure of the spelling was the owner and driver of the car, my Dad built the car. Dad was a wonderful mechanic and Engineer. Mom would laugh and say Dad would drive the car off the track and the police could not catch him when he wanted to run out run them. My cousins told of going to Lakewood to see their Uncle "Rit" drive in the races.

    BT:Thanks, Great history and story, which I will copy and put in my family history. What was your dad's birth and death date? My dad was 1906-2005 (99 almost made it to 100)

    RSC: My Dad was born in 1901 in Atlanta on Kendrick Ave. two blocks from Grant Park. Died in Sarasota, Fl. in Dec. of 1960. Dad had several Amoco stations for years finally retired in Florida. When I was little Dad was manager of the Atlanta Journal truck shop. Back then they had a big fleet of trucks that delivered the news papers in several states. Back to the car. As well as I remember the car was wrecked and ran off in the lake. I don't know who was driving think they said Trotski was driving.

    BT: Thank you, My dad was born in Carrollton, Ga but raised in Atlanta around Grant Park. I suspect they knew each other as dad was an electrician at Emory University until the mid 1930's and then a fireman for City of Atlanta until retirement in 1967. He knew almost everyone in Atlanta. Interesting stories and thank you again for sharing.

    RSC: I will add this one thing about our neighbor Asst. Chief Fannin of the Atlanta Fire Dept. It was very exciting to see him come home every afternoon in a big fire engine red Lincoln. This was in the early 1940's.

   Old people often look back on life and remember things that never happened or have a faulty memory of those things that did happen. I am glad that occasionally a memory is validated by another old person's faulty or blurred memory. It is an old Irish trait to never let the facts get in the way of a good story, so I will use this exchange as an opportunity to verify some of my other stories that may have somewhat of a dubious basis.

   I think I will add this to my list of God Winks which I have posted about before.

The Roving Unofficial Fluff Reporter Bobby Tony