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Re: How Charley Got His Nickname

To: FastmetalBDF@aol.com
Subject: Re: How Charley Got His Nickname
From: Joe Timney <joetimney@dol.net>
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 18:05:21 +0000
Bruce,

Thanks for the info... never heard that story. Neat stuff!

joe

FastmetalBDF@aol.com wrote:

>         Honest  Hisself  wasn't  always  in  the  speed  equipment  business
> .......
> Back in that great era when stock car racing was spreading in, and out from,
> the
> South,  around  1947, ' 48 ,  Charlie had a little diner in, or near
> Chattanooga .
>        He was the proprietor, "chief cook and bottle washer ", and  jack of
> all trades
> at this popular eatery, which just happened to be a favorite stop of racers
> headed
> south to race on the " old beach course " where they would blast down the old
> two lane highway, broadslide and wallow through the dunes onto the hard beach
> sand,
> and thunder north next to the ocean, and slide thru the dunes again, onto the
> blacktop, EVERY lap  .  These racers also ran at other tracks closer to
> Charley' s
> place, and he heard many of their  " war stories "  at the diner ,  and  saw
> the race
> cars parked outside .  The first chance he got, he went with some of the
> boys, to see for himself,  and  promptly got hooked on this new and exciting
> spectacle !
>       Sometime thereafter,  I  don't know how long,  being a pretty shrewd
> businessman,  Charley  saw there was money to be made selling tires and
> parts,etc
> to these racers  ----  more than slinging hash ----  and this was the start
> of the speed
> parts  business which became a legend in auto racing  .
>        So  HOW  did  Charley get his  NICKNAME  ???      He  was  so  BUSY  at
> the grill, cooking to please his customers ,  and with only one, or sometimes
> two,
> waitresses, he didn't have time to run back and forth to the cash register .
>        He solved this problem by placing a  CIGAR  BOX  on the counter, with
> a bunch
> of small bills and change in it ,  as  he was a trusting person , but he did
> write a little
> note on the box, for all to see  -------  it  said :
>                 "  I'M  HONEST ---- HOW  ABOUT  YOU  ?  "
>
>      THAT  is  how  " HONEST  CHARLEY "  got  his  name  .
>
>      True  Story  from  Long  Ago .......
>                                                        Bruce  D.  Ferguson



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