This year’s Maple Leaf Festival will feature three events running throughout the week. They include the "Show-Me Missouri Fish" Mobile Aquarium which will be located on the Carthage Fire Department parking lot from October 12 through 18. The Powers Museum will feature a special exhibit of Carthage entitled "Defense Begins at Home" during WWII scheduled for Tuesday through Saturday. The Maple Leaf Quilt Show will be held on Friday and Saturday, October 17 & 18. Applications for the quilt show and other events are available at the Chamber of Commerce Office.

The festival will kickoff with the Maple Leaf Showcase on October 9, followed by the Night of Gospel Sing on the 10th. An Old Time Bazaar and the Maple Leaf Little Miss and Mister, Junior Miss, and Queen Pageants will take place October 11. Sunday October 12 will feature the annual Family Fun Walk, followed by a break in events until Wednesday when the Maple Leaf Gospel Sing will take place. For further information contact the Chamber at 358-2373.

NASCAR to the Max

The Southern 500 has been run at Darlington (SC) Raceway on the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend since 1950. It is no wonder that traditionalists were saddened earlier in the season to learn that this year’s Southern 500 would be the last on the traditional weekend. The sanctioning body is moving the race to November in 2004 in favor of a race in California over Labor Day weekend.

The 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval has been called the "Track Too Tough to Tame" among others, most of which are unfit to print in a family publication. Kyle Petty suggested a few years ago that the track be filled with water and stocked with fish. Few are the drivers who have left the track without their "Darlington Stripe", a scar left on the car by coming in contact with the outside wall. The tracks unique design, a byproduct of the property available to the original owner, makes it difficult for pit crews to set the car up perfectly. If a car is good through one set of corners it usually equally bad through the other set of corners. It becomes a balancing act of making the car "not too bad in any corner."

Those fans bemoaning the loss of the traditional weekend were cheering the loudest when Terry Labonte ended his 156-race losing streak to claim the win in the final Labor Day event. Labonte’s last win came in his home state of Texas in 1999. The 46 year old Labonte is considered one of the series’ elder statesmen and is a two-time Winston Cup Champion. Many drivers commented that if they weren’t the winner they were glad Labonte was. Interestingly, Labonte’s first Winston Cup start came at this race in 1978 and his first career win followed two years later at the same race as well.

The series continues this weekend with more Saturday night short track action from the Richmond (VA) International Speedway. The ¾-mile track will feature considerable bumping and banging similar to Bristol two weeks ago. Points leader Matt Kenseth won the race last year.

My Dad was a real stickler when it came to us kids leavin’ toys or tools outside if we weren’t usin’ ‘em. When a thunder storm came up durin’ the night, I can remember wakin’ up tryin’ to remember if I’d put ever’thing back in the garage.

I still feel the cold rain hittin’ my bare back as I occasionally ran out in the dark to retrieve a socket wrench used for repairin’ my bicycle or onea my toy metal trucks.

The typical response to Dad findin’ somethin’ left in the yard was for him to put it somewhere it couldn’t be found or make the tool box off limits for an extended period of time. It’s tough bein’ a young boy without tools.

On occasion I wake up to a clap a thunder with the question of exactly where my Tonka toys are.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Metcalf Auto Supply

Click & Clack
TALK CARS

By Tom & Ray Magliozzi

Dear Tom and Ray:

I went to a quick-oil-change shop (I won’t mention the company’s name, but I think it also makes peanut butter) to get my first oil change for my brand-new, 2002 Dodge Caravan. After much difficulty removing the factory oil filter, the employees informed me that the post was now stripped and that they were unable to screw on the new filter. After towing the minivan to the dealership, the dealer said he simply grabbed a new filter and screwed one on. The dealer said that the post could not be stripped, since the filter is aluminum and cannot damage the metal post. Who should I believe — the quick-oil-change place or the dealer, who said the factory cannot damage the post by screwing on the filter too tightly? — Ron

RAY: Ah, another satisfied Skippy Lube customer!

TOM: Actually, it’s hard to know who was at fault here, Ron, but the good news is that your Caravan will be fine. No permanent damage was done at all.

RAY: The dealer was wrong when he said you can’t strip the filter post. The filter is not made of aluminum. It’s made of steel just like the post. And I know you can strip it, because I’ve dont it!

TOM: Based on the evidence you present, Ron, here’s my best guess as to what happened: The Skippy Lube guys, as well-intentioned as they were, tried to put on the wrong filter — a filter that was too big for your Caravan. So when they tried to screw it on, they couldn’t catch the threads. That led them to conclude that the post was stripped, and rather than mess around with it, they suggested that you go to the dealer.