"So you want to learn to drive stick. Well Sure I can teach you, thats all we had back when I was your age. But if we are going to do it lets do it in style."

"Let an old man have his fun, let a speed demon have one last race. Here is what we will do, we will make it a competition among you and all of your friends. We shall get everyone that is old enough to drive and teach them to drive a standard. In half a years time we will go out to the salt flats and have ourselves a good race."

"You kids are putting the fire back in these old bones. Lets have ourselves a grand ol' time. This reminds me of when I first learned to make my car sing, let me tell you about it and maybe you will learn something about standards."

As much as I would like to tell you that my old man taught me to drive and game me my love of racing, it was my mother that did that. She was every bit the speed demon that I turned out to be. She taught me everything that I am now teaching you. But most importantly she taught me to never be afraid of the car. To never fear the open road. To push myself to be better and to know the limits of my ride inside and out.

My mother taught me all the tricks of the trade and how to repair the engine of my car and when I was ready we set out on a 500 mile journey to a landmark in the next state over. She made me drive the entire way and used it as a learning experience. The first thing that I learned was that it is better to have coffie and not need it, then to need it and not have it! You simply must be wide awake if you want to be any good to anybody. Going to sleep behind the wheel is the quickest way to end up dead.

It was a beuatiful autumn day with the birds about and the road before us. The trees where painted in the most exquisite colors imaginable. When autumn comes around I like to go for drives on old counry roads and if I focuse hard enough I can still hear my mothers bell like laughter. I can still feel that contentment that I felt on that trip of a mear 500 miles.

My mother never thought I would lead a small life but even she had no idea how grand my dreams were, nor how grand the dreams of the age I would grow up in and you would be born into. That is my secret you see, I loved the little things and found that they added up to Glory.