Dirt-Dauber 365 TT for Ground Sport Motorcycles

Jim Roche, Dirt-Dauber 365 TT for Ground Sport Motorcycles, in progress in 2010, color pencil on paper, 33 x 50 inches

JR: My daddy was a State beverage agent, bless his heart. Daddy was, a veteran, a two-time veteran, and a highway patrolman, but then he was a beverage agent. One of the nicest memories I ever had, in 1956, when I would soon be entering high school, my daddy was given a special car. It was a 1955 Chevrolet. I can’t help but tear up thinking about him. It had a Cadillac engine in it because they had to catch the “bad guys.” There was none of this pull over and call ahead for a road block. You either caught him or he got away. It was just that simple.

Museum: Then, it wasn’t a regular car, it was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

JR: It was a wolf in serious sheep’s clothing. My daddy could really drive. I will never forget him. We were a little older then. We were getting into cars. I had already built my little go-carts. So my friend Dennis and I, Daddy told us to get in the back seat. We went out Meridian Road, when you passed Mutt and Jeff’s, there was nothing until you hit Thomasville Road and then nothing, just a few houses. I will never forget my dad in that car. We got down in our seats with our big eyes open like this, and he took off.

Meridian Road at that time was just a canopy, a tunnel. I remember how it became so fast, as they say, that the telephone poles looked like a picket fence. We were rolling. I never forgot that. I always loved driving and I always loved speed. Over the years, everywhere I went, whether it was in California, or Missouri, or Arkansas, or the Ohio Basin, Georgia, Texas, I kept notes of favorite roads. Now, as I am in the twilight of that part of my life, I’ve decided to capture those, write down what I know about them, and make them into maps, those roads I have ridden; I know what’s there. Like I say, I never thought it would be of much interest, but the drawings, people come up to them and they say, “Hey, I know that place!”