HANDSHAKE DEAL: INSIDE THE FULL CIRCLE DRAWN BY HENRY GREGOR FELSON

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Henry Gregor Felsen ponders youth culture (and progressive carb linkage) in his Des Moines, Iowa driveway. (Photo by Holly Felsen Welch)

I shook Henry Gregor Felsen's hand. Okay, it was the hand of his grandson, Henry Gregor Felsen II, and this image is only a recreation of that moment from 72 hours ago. But still...

It only took twenty-five years for the connection made in 1990 to become fully realized. That's when I began corresponding with Henry Gregor Felsen. Overwhelmed by Henry's amazing gift for presenting the hot rodder's plight in an unbiased, non partisan, comprehensive, credible, and enthralling fashion, I felt unworthy of penning letters to him on my ruled dime-store notebook paper. Yet his typed responses (clacked out on the same typewriter used for all of his books and magazine pieces) were steadfastly supportive and encouraging. Henry inadvertently introduced me to his son Dan and daughter Holly via those letters. Holly and I eventually met, and the pieces gradually fell into place allowing for my visit last week to Henry's adopted hometown of Des Moines, Iowa.

The pretense was a concert performance and book signing at the 5th Annual Henry Gregor Felsen Tribute Car Show in Des Moines' historical inner borough of Valley Junction. And my brother Wayne (AKA Rocky) even drove over from Omaha for some overdue brotherly bonding. That much went off as planned. But as fun as it was, the car show was overshadowed by the connections made with Friends of Felsen from all walks of life and locales from Indy to Utah. As always, those events were completely spontaneous. Best of all was spending a week in Holly and husband Mike Welch's house, as a revolving cast of intriguing characters (mostly Felsens) came and went, mere blocks from the old Felsen home, where my favorite books were conceived. Full circle, indeed.

The warm fuzzy welcome to the House of Felsen. I instantly knew I was home. (Scotty cellphone shot)

Meet Luke, one of our housemates. This is his spot. He really, really, really likes his water. (Photo courtesy of Rocky Gosson)

The day before the show, we stopped in at Crazy Horse Guitars in Des Moines, where proprietor "Hippie John" (who drives a warmed up Corvette) had selected a loaner guitar for me to use. Bonus: It was built by Breedlove Guitars in Bend, Oregon. And it was a total badass, even outperforming my trusty old Martin D-28 by a good margin. Thanks again, John! (Scotty cellphone shot)

The concert venue was a large coffee shop in Valley Junction, an old part of Des Moines. Thanks to Mr. and Ms. Chad (salt-of-the-earth people) who run the joint, we were made to feel right at home and had our run of the place. (Scotty cellphone shot)

Holly has adopted a herd of swans at the neighborhood cemetery. We stopped by to feed them twice a day. (Scotty cellphone shot)

It turns out that swans are music fans. Not exactly groupies (the mother swan perceived me as a threat), but they are drawn to it. They have tiny louvers on their temples that open up when they're listening. Who knew? I'm testing the swans' sensory system response abilities here. They all tested positive (except for the testy mother swan). (Photo courtesy of Holly Felsen Welch)

Holly's '32 3-window build still had a few issues to work out, so my brother Rocky and I did what we could. We're test driving here, following some steering, brake, and carb adjustments. (Scotty cellphone shot)

Acid casualty with a screwdriver: DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! (Photo courtesy of Rocky 
Gosson)

Edelbrock's take on GM's Q-jet is similar, but different. We figured it out on a pilfered bathroom towel in the driveway, much to the neighbors' amusement. Don't tell Holly! (Photo courtesy of Rocky Gosson)

Test Drive # 4: Happily sideways, after removing a gob of Edelbrock "Endurashine" from the needle-and-seat of the carb. The fake chrome coating apparently turns to goo when exposed to gasoline (specifically, 15% alky 87 octane cat pee. The ethanol is our primary suspect. More testing will be required). (Scotty cellphone shot)

Most of show day was spent hanging at the booth with Holly and Midwest circle track legend Bob Trostle. We sold and signed a lot of books, and shared a bunch of laughs with friends old and new. (Scotty cellphone shot)

Another angle of our headquarters camp. L to R: Holly's freshly tuned coupe, brother Rocky, Bob Trostle, Holly, and her red shoes. (Scotty cellphone shot)

Since we couldn't afford to ship the entire band to Iowa, Karl Performance settled on flying me out to the Inspired Grounds Coffee Shop for an acoustic solo concert of new songs, destined for a future Scotty Gosson Combo album. The crowd was warm, attentive, and receptive. Folksinger Scotty was struggling with stage fright, but managed to survive the set until the rod-tossing finale. Note closed eyes: Playing Felsen-inspired songs in his old playground was daunting enough. Seeing my brother (who raised me) in the front row was reassuring and unnerving, all at the same time. At least we got a decent recording of the set. Bonus: SGE faves Tim Jones and Beth Main showed for the show (minus their blown flathead Comp Coupe). (Photo courtesy of Rocky Gosson)

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UPDATES

SGE Portland correspondent CC has blown the spiders out of my old Morris and has been making the rounds of the Rose City's social scene in recent weeks. He's tiptoeing into a Gresham hot rod gathering here. (Photo courtesy of PDX Car Culture.com)

Amazingly, CC has left the car just as he received it, probably ten years ago. Nothing new in here...(Photo courtesy of PDX Car Culture.com)

... except for daughter Celina, who rides shotgun sometimes. (Photo courtesy of CC)

Nuthin' new here, either, other than some fresh oil and plugs. (Scotty shot)

Last Wednesday night at the Portland International Raceway drag strip. CC blasted it there on street tires and did not make a pass. (Photo courtesy of CC)

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Pat Ganahl's Spalding Bros. Special recreation continues to receive the royal treatment from Northwest hot rod king Marty Strode, who tore into the cherry-pie body last week and discovered a shocking imperfection.

"I got the body panels back from the sandblaster, and it's real solid (especially for being 90 years old), but for a section of rust in the lower left-hand side. I formed a patch panel using an English wheel, sheetmetal brake, and a shrinker."

"It fit pretty well."

"I scribed around the affected area, and removed the rusty section with a cutoff wheel and some tin snips."

"It's only tacked in place, until a friend drops by to hammer it as I weld inch-long beads with the TIG welder. The next chore is to fab a panel to blank out the right-hand door, as that's how the original car was done." Is it just us, or is this car coming together even faster than the SGE Model A project? (Photos courtesy of Marty Strode)

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SQUIRREL AND TOOLBOX

Holly Felsen Welch's back yard is crawling with squirrels. Husband Mike obediently feeds them twice a day. This guy is named Henry. He does look scholarly. (Photo courtesy of Holly Felsen Welch)

Lowbrow artist Chris Cooper ("Coop") may have possessed the world's most spartan garage when this was shot, though it was already christened with Model A spots and sported a 4-drawer box, some chemicals, and a ladder. The Felsen/Welch garage is jammed to the rafters, yet contains nary a single tool. Now you know! (Photo courtesy of Coop)


GRIN

Henry Felsen's son, Dan - a retired Des Moines police officer - came out from Salt Lake City for last week's festivities. While serving in the Marines in the early '60s, Dan ran this flathead Ford-powered '34 Chevy coupe on Hawaiian dirt tracks. He still has the fever today - maybe worse than ever. Out of frame: A polished Model A radiator shell. (Photo courtesy of Dan Felsen)

Henry and Holly, already surfing a wave of momentum in the 1950's. (Photo courtesy of Holly Felsen Welch collection)

The Crazy Swan Lady of Des Moines, with one of her rescues. God bless you, Holly. And thanks for everything. Last week was a nice test run for the 2016 Henry Gregor Felsen Tribute Car Show. That will be Henry's 100th birthday party, and Valley Junction is gonna rock like it's 1916!

Special thanks to the crew at Karl Performance for sending the company jet to chauffeur me around the U.S. last week. It's one badass machine. These guys race everything from Pro Mods to dirt trackers. They win a lot. Thanks, Carl (Moyer), and all the Karls at the shop!

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THE MOUSE THAT RACED A JET (AND WON)

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Hungry AA/FD contestant Joe "The Jet" Jackson gets a nerf from his trusty Cadillac hearse at Fontana Drag City. As it turned out, Jackson's supposedly unique circumstance was being paralleled in an opposing universe, located only a few calendar pages and a few miles away. (Photographer unknown)

The black hole of the latest Cartech book has finally released me back into the wild. That book is now being prepped for print, but until it lands on store shelves, it must remain a mystery. Loose lips sink ships, and all that corporate paranoia...

Once released (sometime this winter), I can share more of the book with you. For now, a tease is all you get. I told a lot more stories than would fit into the contracted page count, so there is a bounty of tasty leftovers coming soon to this blog. Only upon finally finishing the project did I become aware of the sleeping stories I couldn't see for the task at hand. Here's one now:

The state of Maine hosted a fervent drag race scene in the mid-Sixties, but the southern California-based magazine publishers sourced their content locally, so that's what you read about in Maine. Those glorified tales of mechanical and driving heroics (and tantalizing purses) ultimately inspired Joe "The Jet" Jackson to load his entire AA/Fuel Dragster operation into his Caddy hearse and chart a course from Jefferson, Maine to Fontana, California's inaugural "200 MPH Invitational" meet in early November of 1965.

Jackson lived in the hearse the entire way to California, in hopes of rationing his meager budget. He arrived at Drag City's Invitational exhausted and hungry, but he arrived. Then Jackson failed to qualify for a Top Fuel field consisting largely of  "little guys" like himself. The only entry requirements were a 200 MPH time slip and a set of Mickey Thompson rods in the block, but Jackson had neither. He jangled around the Los Angeles drag scene for a few weeks, hoping for a lucky break. What Jackson got instead only rhymed with luck, as he was killed at Lions while test-driving an unproven dragster for a total stranger. Joe Jackson died penniless, 3,000 miles from home. His epic cross country journey could be considered a success, as he followed his dream to the source. Not everyone gets to do that in life. But the ultimate result of The Jet's quest remains open to interpretation.

A teenaged Stanley "Mouse" Miller surveys the possibilities, from somewhere on the 1965 car show circuit. With support from his parents (mom shipping orders and dad acting as manager), Mouse raked in an average of a hundred bucks a day, while his contemporaries had paper routes. (Photographer unknown)

The California Pied Piper's merry melody was also heard that pre-psychedelic year of 1965 in Detroit, Michigan. That's where Stanley Miller had caught wind of the tune a few years beforehand, and whistled it non-stop as he airbrushed monster shirts and striped cars at shows across the country. But Miller caught a whiff of something other than just nitro fumes on the West Coast breeze. He and his girlfriend followed the scent to northern California in a new hearse (complete with a legit delivery contract, and a "Make love, not war" sticker on the back window), and arrived at San Francisco's  Longshoremen's Hall just as the Trips Festival kicked off inside (the largest of the Merry Pranksters' "Acid Tests"). Wiped out by the long haul, Miller fell asleep in the hearse, and missed the entire show. But he awoke at his destination, which turned out to be an artist's paradise. Miller (who's father was a Disney artist, earning Stanley his eternal "Mouse" nickname), made his first California connections when befriended by the members of "The Warlocks" blues and jam band, who's last concert he had just snored through. The band had recently decided to change their name to "The Grateful Dead", and needed artwork for posters and album covers. Mouse was drafted on the spot for the job. Maybe the hearse was a factor, maybe not.

Unlike The Jet, Mouse went on to unprecedented success in his field, following his epic hearse ride. His Grateful Dead art helped usher in the psychedelic era that once partly defined San Francisco, and ultimately, a unique and pivotal era of American history. 

Behind the scenes, Mouse's (unnamed) girlfriend faced a similar challenge to that of Joe Jackson's loved ones. During the height of Mouse's fruitful partnership with fellow Bay Area artist Alton Kelley, his sweetheart presented this ultimatum: "Either move to the country with me, or stay here and make posters with Kelley." Upon hearing Mouse's answer, she purportedly threw his ink bottle across the room, inking herself, the Mouse, and several pieces of finished artwork. Then she walked out and never returned. Such is the price we pay for our passions.

While the Jet story was discovered during research for the above-mentioned book, the Mouse info came from a recent feature in the San Francisco Chronicle, promoting the "Celebrating Fifty Years of the art of Stanley Mouse" exhibit at the San Francisco Art Exchange. That piece concludes with this reassurance: "He still does hot rod stuff, too."


Mouse Droppings:

Early promotional card.

Pickup tonneau cover painted at 1958 show.

Mid 60's catalog cover.

Mouse infested Rolls Royce in San Francisco.

How a mouse pays for a Rolls Royce.

1970's promo shot.

With team-mate Alton Kelley ("The idea man").

Fifty years on and still at it.

And, "He's still doing hot rod stuff." (Images courtesy of Stanley Mouse collection)



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UPDATE

The dust never gets a chance to settle at Marty Strode's Strode Racing Equipment shop, outside of Portland, Oregon. This week was a typical example, as work continues on Pat Ganahl's Spalding Bros. Special recreation, as narrated by Marty hisself.

"Too Tall Ganahl and his wife Anna dropped by the shop this week to see the new roadster in person."

"Pat also delivered the Dennis Webb-built seat (a B-17 copy) and decided to try it on for size."

"With Pat's height, it will be a bit of a challenge to mount the steering and controls to fit him, but we're going to have some fun with this car."

Ganahl demonstrates how he earned the Too Tall nickname with his loyal daily driver Volkswagen. (Photo courtesy of Gene Routh)

"The Pat Warren axles were built in the 40's and 50's. I think Warren owned Downey Machine. He built quickchange rears for everything from Midgets to Indy cars. He offered a two-speed for Indy, as well. The V-8 center section and side plates are rare pieces these days. I found the center in Kansas, and the 'live axle' side plates were donated by a fellow hot rodder from Perth, Australia. The axle, torsion bars, and other features made the Spalding Special unique back in '49, when it was built."

"Time to get the rear axle mocked-up and positioned, so I can build and mount the rear radius rods. The axle in the pictures is a Halibrand V-8 housing that I had laying around, and a Sprint Car axle that I widened for mounting purposes. It will serve the purpose to continue the construction of the car, as we get the Pat Warren center section and side plates fitted to the proper rear axle." (Photos courtesy of Strode Racing Equipment)



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SQUIRREL AND TOOLBOX

An amazing photo from Motormouth Ray's pal Honda John! Nice shootin', Tex! I don't know that I'd have the presence of mind in this situation to grab the camera, set up the lighting, focus, or even activate the shutter. (Photo courtesy of Honda John)

Odd that the Grateful Dead filled half a dozen semi trucks with gear, but only carried this small wooden toolbox on the road. The road crew really had their act together! (Image courtesy of Stanley Mouse collection)

GRIN

Stanley Mouse self portrait (Image courtesy of Stanley Mouse)

MORE MOUSE AND DROPPINGS:

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VOTE SCOTTY IN 2016

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Competition improves the breed? To a point. A point now long gone. Maybe we should just run Time Only for a while, fellow Americans... (Scotty shot)

Other than a chronic case of stagefright, I'm pretty stoked about my September 27th live solo gig at the Henry Gregor Felsen Memorial Car Show in Des Moines, Iowa. I'll be playing acoustic versions of the songs slated for the 3rd Scotty Gosson Combo album. Stage jitters tend to bring out the wiseass in me, so I'm bound to make some lame attempt at a presidential campaign announcement. It's apparently what one does in Iowa.

God only knows how I'll feel about it on the 27th, but if nominated today, my platform would be based on two simple points. Yes, I can be just as simplistic as The Trump. Like him, I have no clue how I would actually accomplish these goals, but here they are:

1. Abolish the party system. The us-versus-them perspective so pervasive in our society has brought us to the brink of collapse. It quit working for us way before our lessons learned with the Civil War. Now drastic measures are required to assure that we're truly all in this together. Voting during my term would parallel the state system, with an annual national ballot of issues. Elections and measures would both be decided by popular vote. Say goodbye to Lobbyists, Congress, House of Reps, Department of Redundancy Department, etc. The initial plan was to replace these parasites with robots, but with the people's vote, we won't even need robots (though they may replace law enforcement and military personnel).

2. Eliminate the Haves and Have-Not discrepancy, via a flat tax. This sets the scene for perhaps the most radical change of all: An across-the-board "comfortable living wage". Every American, regardless of race, creed, sex, or power-adder of choice, would make the exact same hourly wage. Work more, make more. Work less, make less. Period.

The above changes should re-establish a genuinely United States of America. It would also save our country enough money to easily finance Stage Two of my brilliant plan: A term-long moratorium on non-emergency foreign affairs. No invading countries, hopping into bed with countries, telling countries how to do their business, and generally meddling with everyone's business but our own. For one term (length determined by popular vote), we become Switzerland, and address the corrosive issues we've been avoiding at all costs, such as racism, sexism, gun control, infrastructure, education, poverty, immigration, climate change, mental illness, veterans affairs, environmental responsibility, senior care, and childcare, to name only a few. We must also address our shameful lack of drag strips in this country. 

Yeah, I live in a cartoonie fantasy world, just like the current poll leader. Is it possible for Joe Toolbox to make any impact on the election? Dare he dream of stealing it away from Monty Burns? What say ye, registered voters? See you in Iowa.

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UPDATES:

SGE Corporate Correspondent Elana Scherr is on assignment this week

Keeping a low profile, somewhere on the Drag Week trail. (Photo courtesy of hotrod.com)

Last week, master fabricator and all-around hot rod legend Marty Strode showed us how he scratched out the .095" wall 7/8" O.D. DOM front radius rods for Pat Ganahl's Spalding Special recreation. Join Marty today for the rest of the story.

The radius rod gussets we showed you last week were merely aluminum templates. Marty knocked out these steelies with his plasma cutter and buzzed 'em in.

And the finish-welded junction at the rear of the assembly.

One last admiring look before freeing the radius rad from the jig. Note: No cute stuff in Marty's shop. Just what works.

Hey Marty, wanna narrate this for the kids? "The completed radius rods, installed on the chassis for mock-up. When the spread of the front mounting is finalized (the torsion bar arms and lever shocks will dictate the proper location), I'll roll the proper caster (seven degrees) into the front axle, and tack-weld the brackets. The next step will be the mock-up of the 'live' quickchange rearend, and building the chrome moly rear radius rods." Thanks Marty! Check Ganahl's mock-up version of his 292" GMC six. This thing is already so cool... (Photos courtesy of Marty Strode)

SGE Eastern Europe correspondent Maria Panova has been busy...

... she got a new shirt. My Russian is a little rusty, but I believe this says, "Vote Scotty in 2016".

A recent trip to Thailand netted these new shoes and ankle bracelet.

And last weekend, Maria blew the end off of the turbo inline 6 in her eight second Toyota Soarer during a failed boost/nitrous experiment at the track. She survived the explosion without injury, but popping the hood revealed a five-cylinder engine...

 ... so it's back to the old grind to hustle up funds for another block. (Photo courtesy of Sharp Shotz)

Luckily, Maria loves her work and is very good at it. (Photos courtesy of Maria Panova)

Shocking news from America's leading man, Shawn O'Brien: His iconic '59 Chevy Parkwood wagon is up for sale. No explanation and no details yet, but Shawn can be found on Facebook and the HAMB. The Parkwood has been thoroughly road tested, and passed with flying colors. (Photo courtesy of Trent Sherrill)

                   

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SQUIRREL AND TOOLBOX

Just a reminder. Be sure to vote for someone next year, or lose your whining rights.

We've mentioned David Belau's blog here before (https://dartslantsix.wordpress.com/). David recently revealed this generic rollaway (with what appears to be a Snap-On top box) to be the key to his successful grassroots Mopar builds. David's dad scored the unit at a yard sale. Bonus points for the One Eyed Jack Vader magnet. Rare! (Photo courtesy of David Belau)

GRIN

Be a patriotic rebel! Get Go Power! Vote Scotty in 2016!


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