This video is doing numbers on TikTok, but I wanted to share it here because I am so proud. The man being featured is my uncle Steve Smith.
Steve has been building drag racers & custom cars his entire life.
My grandma before passing away would tell the story of how when he was 10 or 11 years old - she came home to him taking apart the engine in her secondary vehicle (reserved for fancy outings).
She asked him why & he said he wanted to know how it worked outside of a schematic. & she told him that as long as he put it back together the way he found it, it was fine by her. & what's more - he put it back together from memory without even looking at a diagram!
If anything went wrong with the car, my grandma had him fix the car & it was that way until my grandma passed away. She never paid for a mechanic in her life again.
When Steve was a teenager he spent most of his time at the OKC Racetrack & raced with drag racers he built himself.
Also, as a teen he won the Bethany, OK wheelie championship by riding over a mile nonstop on his motorcycle on a single wheelie position.
All throughout my childhood he always had cars around in various stages of fixing up.
The city of Bethany refused to sell him the property next to his house to open his own auto garage. He had worked for Diffee Motors most of my life up until then. So he moved out in the country & opened his own garage.
Steve has been on several mainstream auto shows being featured for his custom work. He also built a custom car for one of the guys on Duck Dynasty. He was also offered a permanent role on an auto TV show, but he turned it down because it required moving out of state.
My uncle Steve is one of the sweetest, kindest & most generous people you will ever meet in your lifetime. He's as smart as a whip, has never met a stranger & gives the best hugs!
It just makes me so happy to see him getting the recognition he deserves.
The picture below is of him at a family function sitting next to his wife, Nancy.
Today in Hip Hop History:
Wu-Tang Clan released their debut single Protect Ya Neck May 3, 1993
Today in Hip Hop History:
Nas released his debut album Illmatic April 19, 1994
On this day in 1964: The same day the FBI found the bodies of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andy Goodman and Mickey Schwerner, singer Harry Belafonte heard SNCC needed at least $50,000 to survive. His friend and fellow activist Sidney Poitier delivered $70,000 that they raised to the Mississippi Delta. When they landed at the Greenwood airport after dark, a pickup truck filled with white men pursued and rammed them. The two performers made it to their destination, delivering the money to keep Freedom Summer going. “We knew if we never did another thing together,” Belafonte recalled, “This was to be forever cherished.”
Today in Hip Hop History:
Flavor Flav was born March 16, 1959
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