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Legends and stories of yesterday |
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Wednesday, 03 March 2010 |
By Gretchen Hendricks — Staff Writer
I am quite sure most everyone has heard of the song “Hot Rod Lincoln.” This song was about a Model “A” Ford with a Lincoln engine going up Grapevine Hill in California. Due to moving at such a high rate of speed the passenger said the telephone poles were going by like a picket fence as they passed a Cadillac Sedan.
Larry Griffin has his own story to tell about his hot rod Lincoln in Malvern. During his school years, he purchased a 1941 Ford Coupe from Bob “1/4 mile” Miller and had him install a Lincoln V-8 engine which was so long that he had to chop the inside of the fenders and move the radiator forward so that big engine would go in the compartment.
With the help of an “A”-dapter kit (as Johnny Cash’s song calls it), the engine was hooked up to the Ford floor shift transmission, but this time all the holes weren’t gone.
One Saturday night Larry decided to run out to the “Y” past Perla to see how fast his Ford with the Lincoln engine would run. After dark and consuming a large amount of the good ole Hixon Loop moonshine, he did just that.
He got behind a friend Billy Hughes in his ‘55 Chevy when he decide to pass and pulled back in front of him and hammered down on the accelerator. By that time Griffin was driving 95 mph when suddenly he noticed a car stopped in front of him in his lane with no lights on.
Just as he pulled out to pass the car it made a left turn in front of his speeding car. Griffin t-boned the car and began flipping. After punching out the windshield with his head and being pinned in the car because it was on its side. Griffin was unconscious, and the car had slid into and broke a 3” gas main which made gas spew everywhere.
When a co-worker, Little Shorty Carr, pulled up and saw the commotion, he quickly stuffed a shop rag into the broken pipe and sat down on it until the gas company arrived, which likely saved Griffin’s life. Later Carr told Griffin that people were walking up with cigarettes in their mouths trying to see what happened, and he held them all back until the ambulance arrived.
“In those days there wasn’t any ambulance service like there is today, only the meat wagon from Atkinson Funeral Home. The ambulance driver was big Indian known around town as ‘Tip’ who was named Tippenpaw,” says Griffin. When Tip was younger, he was a race car driver. When Tip drove anywhere he always drove with the hammer on the floor.
After the ambulance arrived and they pried the door open to get Griffin free from the car (no Jaws Of Life available then, only crow bars were used), the driver, Tip, radioed in to the hospital that he was bringing in a DOA (Dead on Arrival).
Hearing Tip’s radio call at the hospital were friends that had gathered there in hopes of good news. Soon after the radio call, it was all over town that ‘Chick’ (Griffin) was gone. Even a call to his parents was made to inform them of his demise.
Amazingly after a quick start of his heart by the ER doctors, Griffin was not a DOA anymore.
He says he came back from the dead to haunt State Trooper Kirkdoffer, who chased him all over the county, although he never caught up with him. Reminds me of Boss Hogg and Bo and Luke Duke.
Griffin says his father used to tell him, “Son, you’re gonna drive me to drinkin’ if you don’t quit driving that hot rod Lincoln.”
If you have a legend that you would like to share with others in the Hot Spring County area please send a them to
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or mail or you can drop it off at the office at 219 Locust, Malvern, AR 72104.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 March 2010 )
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