chapter 296

Go Kart

12/3/2012

the birth of go karts in America

Can't say that they we invented them in Virgil, but these were among the early prototypes. Bro Dale designed this one from a copper water tank liner, Model T steering wheel and baby carriage wheels. Dad added the pusher reel lawn mower engine, I guess in 1956. He also composed the elements of a good shot here, so I had it transferred to coffee cups for us boys. I was adjusting the v belt with two brothers and our dog Blackie? looking on. Neighbor Tom Saltsman was at the wheel on this day. 

           Web sites say go kart racing started in California in 1956. A Popular Science article in Nov 1955, however, did an earlier story on a rag tag go kart group of boys in Arizona. Since Dad was an avid reader of same, I suppose it spurred him to create a bunch of different designs for us kids.

 Dad had got us into photography about this same time. My recent scan of these photos came from prints made in our darkroom/bathroom. We worked in the dark with a red light. Shown are the print bath trays for the Kodak developer chemical, the stop bath, and the fixer (hypo) / water wash. We used a similar process to develop the negatives right out of the camera. Not shown is our enlarger, like a projector to shine light through the mounted negatives onto the photo sensitive paper. We learned exposure time, dodging and burning techniques here just like Ansel Adams . The monogrammed towels had always been a memorable gift from Aunt Carol.

Anyway the shot above was admired and is prominently displayed on an national dirt racers web site http://www.jimmyjeep.com/ who we just happened to grow up with.

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