MySource:Rebekah Carlisle/Rebekah Carlisle, Haines, Martha Crum - Let, 1988-02-10

Marion, Ohio February 10, 1988

Winchester Speedway OTC Urbana, Ohio 43078

Dear Sirs,

I am writing to thank you for remembering us with the newsletter. I am the wife of Harley O Haines, Sr. He can no longer participate as ill health for several years, and now is in a rest home where he has been this past year. I am aware of the many names of the very old timers even though I never knew them personally. Some I have met by their coming to our home – they were racing drivers. Harley was a mechanic early on for Monk McCurdy Cars, a Ford and a Dyer. Then he built the McCurdy Offy No. 32 See a story by John Sawer written up in the February 1983 issue of “Open Wheels” Magazine. Harley was a person that had to have hands on to keep his interest in any project. Early in our first year of marriage (65 years ago) he got a job in the Street car barns in South Bend Indiana, he was taught how to handle a varnish brush so it would not leave ridges in those beautifully varnished over head ceilings in the interurban cars (only real old timer will remember those). Illness brought us back to our Ohio homes. The experience got him a job re-varnishing autos – yes the old automobiles were varnished. Then of course all the dents [etc.] were first taken care of and he learned to work metal: that lead him into repairing & painting wrecked autos. Then airplane racing in those fast little planes at the Cleveland in the late 1920s caught his interest in building a small aircraft (it was being built in our living room). It never was finished; a large family and the [D]epression put a halt to that. The family kept increasing through the years until by the War No 2 it had increased to 10 living children. Now you know why I only knew so few of the racing people personally. I seldom went to a race. Of course he became an A & E airplane & engine mechanic in the 30s and was an early licensed one in this area, but as the airplanes got larger and more technical, and no time to study he gave that up in the early part of the War as his business kept him [busy]. He taught welding to men that were in aircraft plants and still kept auto fix[ing] during that period. Our sons that were old enough to help were drafted (3) in War #2, then in the Korean Conflict 3 more were in that one also a son-in-law. This past October 25th our son Harley Jr. succumbed to lung cancer, just 3 days before our 65 wedding anniversary. Harley Jr was the only son interested in auto racing and he [mechanized] one of the new Sprints with the “Crazy Tops.” [The unfinished letter ends.]