I spent the summer of 1966 with my father at his house in North Highlands,
California. This was not far from the Wingo home, and just
across the street from Jake Valenzuela's house. Now, dare I say, for a
seven year old boy spending time in Jake's garage was an education.
The Playboy posters were abundant and I still remember, well...
I recall it was very late when dad woke me up and told me to get dressed.
He said there was work to do at Jake's, so let's get going. I don't
remember where Sherman had run that night, Carson City perhaps, but he had
crashed and they were thrashing on the car to get it repaired for Calistoga
the next day. Me? I enjoyed the educational material on the
walls for awhile, then fell asleep on a tire before Jake's wife Barbara (did
I mention she had been a Playboy Bunny??) took me into the house and covered
me on the couch so I could sleep comfortably. Was I was spoiled or
what???
When I woke up the next morning the work was still ongoing with everyone
looking a bit tattered, to say the least. Now I liked the races but
was of no help working on the car, so I went and played as young boys do on
a sweltering summer day. I remember at some point they pushed-off
Sherman in the car (yes, on a public street) and the car fired which drew me
back to Jakes. The conversation was centered on "time" and getting
loaded-up fast.
Sherman was known as "The Quiet One", as I recall, and I seem to remember
that about him. The pickup was loaded, the car on the trailer.
Everyone was pretty jazzed that there was still time to make it to Calistoga
in time to make the show. Sherman started the truck and was getting
ready to pull away when I yelled for him to STOP. He gave me a
surprised look and asked, "what's the problem?" I grabbed a small gas
sitting next to the garage door, ran to hand it to him and said, "You'll
need this!" Now, I didn't understand the laughter of the others at
that point and was a little peeved by it. Of course, I now know that
it was probably Jake's lawn-mower gas and not important at all. What I
remember most, however, is that Sherman opened the truck door, took the gas
can from me placing it in the bed of the truck, smiled and said, "thanks
kid, don't know what we'd have done without it!" As he drove away the
rest of us cleaned-up and went our separate ways to get ready to head to the
races ourselves.
Sherman died in a qualifying run later that day, but I like to remember the
kindness of this man. I look back now and wonder what he thought about
this kid standing at the door of his truck and what many of the rest of us
would have done in that moment (like the laughing and dad's look of
disapproval). He could and perhaps should have been upset at
this childish distraction, but instead he made me feel like I had done
something important, and that is what I will always remember about
Sherman Cleveland!
