WOODEN-OODENS

• "WOODEN-OODENS" : One day in the year 1979 I went to the hospital to see my Dad. He was recovering from a car wreck while riding with his friend on old Interstate 52. During my visit I noticed on the night stand a small wooden toy another friend of my Dads had given him. I informed my Dad that I was taking the little toy home for a face lift. This little toy resembled a modified racecar. I was very familiar with NASCAR Modifieds having grown up going to Bowman Gray Stadium nearly every Saturday night since I could remember. The

car was very plain. It was about 1 1/2"inches wide and about that tall. It was about 3" inches long. Its profile was similar to a Volkswagen. The axles were 1/4" inch dowls with larger dowls as the tires.

• Days after studying over this seemingly insignificant chunk of wood, I bought a band saw and had friends and family cutting up blocks gathered from construction sites. The dowls were bought at a nearby lumber store. I painted up several cars to resemble the cars at Bowman Gray.
From that first night of selling out of a cardboard box sitting on a trash can, I knew I was on to something and had to have a name!

• The name "WOODEN-OODENS" was a play on words. It was a combination of the engine sound of a racecar and the material the original cars were made of, that material being wood. As demand grew I had to have the cars molded using a resine and in the mixture were pecan shells. And since pecans come from trees, and trees are

made of wood, I kept the name with a clear conscience.
I was invited to sell my cars at other tracks such as, North Wilkesboro, Martinsville, Orange County, and Charlotte just to name a few. I was also invited by Richard Childress to The Grand Opening of his new facilities in 1988. But much to my surprise, in 1993 a Federal Marshall accompanied by his gun toting deputy, with official ID, barged into my shop informing me that he was representing Dale Earnhardt and Sports Image and I had to immediately "Cease and Desist" manufacturing the #3 car. And stop I did. My question was "Why stop?". the explanation I got was that I didn't have license to manufacture and sell the likeness of

the #3 car. This was true, but neither did I have it several years back when I was invited on Richard Childress property to sell my cars. I attempted many times to resolve the problem but to no avail. Heck, I even offered to pay them 100% of the profit I made the car just so I could sell it and please my customers, because it was very difficult making ends meet when the #3 car was over 50% of your business. I suppose Dale thought I just wasn't worthy of manufacturing his car or that it was one less dollar that he could spend on himself. As his car cracked the wall in turn four at Daytona and drifted slowly into the infield, I can only hope, as his last breath and thought was leaving him, and he was going to where ever it was he went after meeting death, maybe, just maybe he wishes now he would have let a man that has every right to sit back and do nothing, but has the courage and faith to keep trying in spite of his circumstances, make a honest living selling the #3 car.

• During the time of my business I came to know many of the drivers. They also became familiar with me. It was always very humbling when, "The King of Racing", Richard Petty would see me several feet away in a crowd and come over and put his hand on my shoulder and say "How's Bo?". Earnhardt may have tied Richard's Championships, but will never come close to his integrity.

• My business came to a bitter checkered flag ending in 1996. I was approached by a company in October of 1995 to manufacture a limited edition of 1000 Jeff Gordon Championship cars. This order was to be sold on QVC. I successfully completed this order

and eventually I was paid, but not without a lot of stalling. Soon after the success of the #24 collectible, the same company approached me again with another deal.
I was a little apprehensive about proceeding with another deal with this company because of the delays in payment on the previous engagement, but after the many compliments I received on it, I decided to go forward.Indeed it did turn out to become a bad venture. The deal was to manufacture 5000 replicas of the 1996 Daytona 500 pace car. Through many adverse circumstances this order was completed and delivered. This order was to be sold on QVC the night before "The 500" from Daytona. It was not ever made clear to me the number of cars that were sold.

But the number of cars QVC sold was irrelevant to me, my deal wasn't with QVC, it was with the "middle man". The neglect and delay in payment for this order caused much pressure on my business. When I was finally paid something for the order, though it was sizable, it wasn't even enough to cover my

overhead for the order. I was left with the embarrassing decision of dividing the payment and paying my suppliers. I withheld a little bit to cover the cost of closing up shop. An evil "source" may look as though it has TEMPORARILY destroyed "WOODEN-OODENS", but it DIDN'T DESTROY ME or MY SPIRIT!!!