(originally published here on 11/26/08)
As I mentioned in the comments to a TA post several months ago, my husband is now the proud owner of a restored 1940 Ford pick up truck. The Mason family, specifically dad Jerry, son Allen, and assorted relatives & friends, have been working quite a while now to transform the rusty wreckage of a Georgia farm truck into the sleek black & chrome splendor in the accompanying photo.
It’s the other photos down there at the bottom I want to write about on this Thanksgiving holiday, though. The folks who own Mason’s Hot Rods (Rods, Parts, & Restoration) are South Carolinians from the Spartanburg (pop. 39,407) area. All bets out on the table right now might be for the Mason family/friends’ profile to somehow fit one of Hollywood’s favorite stock characters, the clichéd small town Southerner: narrow-minded (& of course rednecked) men who value their trucks & hunting rifles over their wives & sweethearts, those long-suffering ladies always silent in the kitchen, emerging only to hand their hubbies another cold one. In other words, “some” might think these Southern folks a compendium of the tattered images the U.S. has been fed over time about the inhabitants of the rural South via television, movies, & mainstream media.
“Some” would be every kind of wrong.
Southern Clichés, meet The Masons. “I didn’t vote for no Bush!!” paterfamilias Jerry bellowed across a production trailer to my husband once (we met the Mason clan & friends due to their remarkable expertise as mechanics- they’re much in demand working on car-oriented movies such as the “Fast & Furious” series). Right after the election of Barack Obama another local who is a close friend of the Mason family emailed me to say, “Just think, Maureen, if we lived a little further up the road we could have been part of that landslide!” Spartanburg is about a half hour’s drive south of the North Carolina border. And say, did you know Junior Johnson publicly endorsed Obama for President?
Which brings us to more background info- Jerry Mason is a friend of Junior Johnson. Any NASCAR fans reading this may have already pricked up their ears. You might call Johnson the original “Duke of Hazzard,” that is, before he started on the racing circuit. Two painted portrayals of him engaged in his family’s former trade hang in the parts store/office of Mason’s Hot Rods, located on the periphery of the city of Spartanburg. I’ve stared at those paintings quite a bit- a youthful Junior behind the wheel of his moonshine-running car on a backwoods road, plumes of dust obscuring his wake, Junior & friends loading cases of white lightning into the trunk of another souped-up vehicle. Why was I in Mason’s Hot Rods at all?
We had traveled there for an annual charity car show financed completely by the Mason family, all proceeds of which go directly to aid the local poor & needy families of Spartanburg. A car (last time it was a 60s Mustang) fully restored by the Masons is auctioned off for charity during the show. Several hundred car enthusiasts brought their antique trucks & cars, hot rods, & trailers this year on November 8th for display, as well as to engage in swapping info, visiting, telling stories. The entire Mason family along with their friends worked the show as usual without pay, save for the free annual group dinner at a local Cracker Barrel that evening. Allen Mason’s wife Gina does her human dynamo act during the day of the show- simultaneously selling t-shirts for charity, collecting toys, directing the flow of work & the cooking, riding herd over it all with a wide smile, while Allen, Jerry, & the crew chat up the crowd, park cars, greet friends old & new. The price of admission? An unwrapped new toy for the local Toys for Tots program, cash donations for local charity organizations also accepted. A bountiful home cooked lunch is provided, all coming out of the Mason family & friends’ largesse toward their needy Spartanburg neighbors. Right now there are plenty of those.
The last time I was in Spartanburg I rode with my husband to a local BBQ place for supper. Allen Mason, the owner of Mason’s Hot Rods, was at the wheel. We listened as Allen described in detail the “family histories” of several cars he had bought to restore & sell. He wove the stories he’d teased out from each owner into the fabric of the South Carolina countryside rolling by us- it was each vehicle’s history, the tales of the various people who had owned it that really made for his fascination with these old cars. Allen Mason, native of the rural South- a business owner, a mechanic, a craftsman like his father & friends who are also deeply imbued with a love of oral history via their chosen profession. It seems to go hand in glove with the love of making an old vehicle purr under the hood again, shine, run like new, even race like new. They’d all throw back their heads laughing to hear themselves described this way, I’m pretty sure. After all, they’re just folks.
Folks who make up the warp & woof of our nation.
I couldn’t attend the Mason’s annual charity car show this year due to health issues, but my husband did. From sunup to sundown the Mason family and their friends (including my husband & his good friend from Phoenix AZ) toiled as usual without pay to hold their biggest car rally yet (see photo of Allen Mason & our friend Mike Price grinning in front of two station wagons that are filling up with donated toys).
In these difficult financial times, rural areas & small businesses are being hit hard. I hope Mason’s Hot Rods weathers the economic storm. Allen Mason confided to my husband that he's not sure he can continue having the November charity car show & auction in 2009, as the cost is starting to be too much in this tough economy.
It wouldn’t be fair to end this post without some links to car music, the kind always playing over the loudspeakers at Mason’s Annual Cruise In. Plus, it’s great toe-tapping music. Happy Thanksgiving to all:
Charlie Ryan & The Timberline Riders-Hot Rod Lincoln
Robert Mitchum (yes, that one)- Ballad of Thunder Road
Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble- Tightrope (not a car song, but somehow appropriate)
Willie Nelson- On The Road Again
And of course...
Waylon Jennings- Dukes of Hazzard Theme
-Maureen Lang




ALASKA: In a pit house dating to around A.D. 1200, archaeologists uncovered a cast-bronze buckle that appears to be East Asian in origin and older than the house in which it was found. The oldest known cast bronze in Alaska, the artifact may have been part of a horse fitting, perhaps traded in from as far away as Manchuria. It was probably used as a charm or noisemaker by a local Inupiat shaman.
TEXAS: The last issue of Archaeology detailed sites at risk (
GRENADA: People on the tiny island of Carriacou may have feasted on animals imported from South America over 1,000 years ago. Remains of South American animals, including piglike peccaries, armadillos, and guinea pigs—none of which are native to the island today—were excavated from prehistoric middens. The find suggests regular contact between natives and people on other islands and the mainland, but because the bones are scarce, archaeologists think only a select, high-status few got to eat these exotic treats.
ENGLAND: Using stable isotope analysis, researchers examined remains of infants from the crypt at Christ Church in Spitalfields, London, to study breastfeeding in the 18th and 19th centuries. They found that prolonged breastfeeding was common in the 19th century among this relatively well-off population, which does not necessarily agree with the idea that more women were entering the workforce at the time as a result of industrialization. The breastfeeding mothers of these infants may have had the means to hire wet nurses—or they may have been homebound due to an economic downturn.
SWITZERLAND: High-end Swiss watchmaker Hublot has created a wrist-mounted version of the Antikythera Mechanism, the mysterious 2,000-yearold astronomical machine recovered from a Greek shipwreck in 1901. It contains 495 precision elements in a 3x4-centimeter package. The manufacturers claim that it is the first watch inspired by an archaeological finding. Would a wrist-mounted sundial count?
CHINA: A cracked skull may be the oldest known evidence of interpersonal aggression among modern humans. A CT scan of the skull, which is around 130,000 years old and known as Maba Man, revealed evidence of severe blunt force trauma, possibly from a clubbing. Remodeling of the bone around the injury, however, shows that he survived the blow and possibly was well cared for after his injury—for months or even years.
JAPAN: An excavation at a train yard in Dazaifu has revealed the remains of two large, prestigious buildings, as well as expensive eating utensils and pottery. The finds, including tin and copper alloy spoons, Chinese and Korean pots, and Nara tricolored ware (the finest tableware in Japan at the time), date to the 8th and 9th centuries. The assemblage appears to identify the site as a diplomatic facility, mentioned in ancient documents, that housed and fed envoys from China and Korea.
PAKISTAN: 4,500-year-old Indus city of Harappa is thought to have been relatively peaceful. A new analysis of human remains excavated at the site found that while the overall level of violence in the city was on the low side for a statelevel society, it was not evenly distributed. Some communities endured much higher levels of trauma, inflicted on women in particular, suggesting a potentially brutal social hierarchy.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA: The seafaring Lapita, who settled the South Pacific more than 3,000 years ago, were not thought to have lived in Papua New Guinea. Findings from a new dig there have overturned that idea. The remains of several villages, including stone tools, shell ornaments, and thousands of pottery fragments have been discovered. The site is both unusually deep—including pre- and post-Lapita sequences—and perhaps the largest Lapita landscape yet discovered. According to researchers, the site opens a whole new chapter in Pacific history.
OMAN: It's often thought that modern humans emerged from Africa through the Arabian Peninsula by hugging its shores, which may have protected them from swings in climate. However, 100,000-year-old stone tools found in the Dhofar Mountains suggest that some people traveled over the now arid—though once wet—interior. The find adds another layer of complexity and understanding to the path that modern humans took on their way around the world.
CALIFORNIA: Over 7,500 years, the skulls of the Chumash people and those of their ancestors gradually shrank. Scientists think that these people, who inhabited coastal California for over 10,000 years, might have suffered a long-term health decline and growth impairment from exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), common pollutants found in oil and coal. The Chumash had extensive and increasing exposure to PAHs through tar, which they used to seal baskets and canoes, applied to the body as medicine, and even chewed like gum.
NEW YORK:During demolition at what was once Bellevue Hospital Medical College, a 15-pound metal box, sealed on November 14, 1897, was discovered. Among student registries and notebooks found in the time capsule was a vial containing spores of Clostridium perfringens, bacteria that live in the intestine. Bacteriologist Edward Dunham included them so future generations could check if they were still viable. They weren't, but doctors today might be able to observe how bacteria have changed since the introduction of antibiotics in the late 1920s.
LOUISIANA: In the time before bridges made the bayou more accessible, small rafts and cable ferries were the only path into the swamps and between plantations. Now, in a few tarred wooden platforms and some rusted gearwork, a river guide might have located the remains of Vester's Crossing, one of the last cable ferries—a boat pulled back and forth via cable—in the area. The site may become part of a heritage paddle trail.
NORWAY: As glaciers recede, hundreds of artifacts are discovered each year. One of the latest finds was a men's tunic or coat that emerged from a glacier in Breheimen National Park. Dating to the 4th century A.D., the wool garment—made with an advanced technique called diamond twill—is one of very few known from this period in Europe. Without close attention, many of the artifacts that emerge from melting ice will be lost—decomposed or washed away—before they can be studied.
SPACE: One of the next frontiers for archaeology is out of this world. Scientists in England are attempting to contact Prospero, a satellite launched in 1971, to see how its circuits have held up. First, they have had to rummage for the satellite's communications codes and build custom equipment, and now they are attempting to make contact by sending a simple signal. NASA has also begun drafting guidelines to protect three dozen lunar sites, including the Apollo 11 and 17 landing sites. The guidelines could include ground-level boundaries and no-fly zones—for when private spaceships (and even tourists) start arriving.
AUSTRALIA: Hanged for the murder of three policemen 131 years ago, Ned Kelly—the country's most notorious bushranger and outlaw—is considered both folk hero and killer. He robbed banks, wore homemade armor to his final confrontation with police, and reflected the tension between poor Irish settlers and the wealthy Anglo elite. Following his execution, Kelly was buried in a mass grave. Forensic scientists, ending decades of speculation, have identified his bones by comparing DNA with a descendant's. But his skull, perhaps separated as a souvenir, remains at large.
TURKEY: On the Gallipoli battlefield of World War I, where Allied armies, including soldiers from Australia and New Zealand called Anzacs, were defeated by Ottoman forces, archaeological surveys have revealed some of the battlefield conditions, which historical sources state were quite dreadful. In particular, it appears the Anzacs were eating canned or stale food, while the Turkish forces had frontline kitchens, suggesting they had access to hot meals. Other artifacts found include water bottles with bullet holes in them, fragments of barbed wire, and expended ammunition.
KENYA: From the banks of Lake Turkana archaeologists have excavated what they believe are the oldest "advanced" stone tools yet discovered. At 1.78 million years old, the handaxes are the oldest known examples of Acheulean tools, probably made by Homo erectus, and predate other examples by 300,000 years. Compared with older, cruder stone tools, the handaxes are heavier and have sharp edges for butchering, scraping, and smashing. The find raises interesting questions about which early humans first left Africa and what tool technologies they took with them.
EGYPT: An analysis of 15 mummy hair samples shows just how important styling was more than 2,000 years ago. To understand how the complex hairdos were achieved and maintained after death, scientists studied coatings on the hair with electron microscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. They found that the ancient Egyptians used a kind of fatty hair gel to keep their hair coiffed in both life and the afterlife. The absence of embalming materials in the hair suggests that it was covered during mummification.
EL SALVADOR:Under 17 feet of volcanic ash at the ancient Maya city of Ceren, archaeologists have discovered a raised road called a sacbe. Usually these roads, connecting temples, plazas, or towns, were lined with stone, but this one, which probably led to two ceremonial buildings nearby, was not. In the absence of the stones, the rapid burial by the eruption of the Loma Caldera volcano helped keep it intact for identification. 







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