How I Got This Way

By now you will have realized that I am essentially a low-brow individual and that I speak Sophistication only as a second language. I lay the blame for this squarely at the feet of Scholastic Book Services who, for the princely sum of 45¢, delivered to me the book you see below. Once a month or so, an order form was distributed to us at Kenwood Elementary School in Champaign, Illinois. We put little tick marks by the books we wanted to order, and then a few weeks later the books were delivered to the school and handed out to the students.

Of all the books I ever ordered from Scholastic, this is the only one I remember. It is not an overstatement to say that it has influenced me more than any books except the Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

Here it is: Dragging and DRIVING, by TOM MacPHERSON!


That is a scan of my original copy (now in the collection of my son). The cracks in the cover were put there by yours truly, as I read and re-read this all the way through high school. Here are scans of the beginning sections of my 3 favourite chapters:







The rest is history. This book is what put the "Hot Rod" in "Hot Rod Anglican"!