Kerry Earnhardt's Hometown History Tour: Growing Up Adopted & Meeting His Father Dale Earnhardt

about two two and a half hours trying to build up the courage to walk out back to the race shop to meet my dad for the first time here comes this truck pulls in get in the truck and dad at K and my Aunt Kathy now I'm kind of wanting to know more well I don't think this video really needs much of an introduction what are we doing here hey I'm carry on Hart okay remember me we're heading out to my hometown where I grew up it's a little place called enable North Carolina it's in Kannapolis I'm gonna give you my little history of my life growing up you know there's really not that much information about you prior to like racing late models and stuff like I think the youngest picture of you I can find on Google you already had a mustache yep there wasn't a lot out there I put some out with a couple people and uh did the dirty Moe download with Dale Jr and I did something with Claire B Lane years and years ago on XM Radio he really never told my life story outside of that Claire B was the most in-depth I've ever got they aired it and it had a lot of good reviews so must have done something right I know we get to see where those stories take place yes no one got to see these so this is when you were growing up as Carrie key yes this is what I was carry key so you know my mom and dad separated when I was about two two and a half years old and then my mom met this other guy named Jack key and they dated and got married and he adopted me when I was three and a half four years old so I grew up as Carrie key didn't really know much about my dad and all that stuff so this is a little area where I rode bicycles around all the time I had a buddy I went to high school with lived back there and we worked on little Porsches and Volkswagens kind of tuned them up and did some Baja buggies out of a couple of them had a little track in his backyard we raced around a lot all this area right here is where I rode bicycles around and tormented neighbors and people around here cut through their yards a lot of times and got yelled at and remember this is many many years ago so a lot has changed since then so this is the home from the time I remember growing up this is the first home I remember we had a house before this but I think I was four or five years old when we moved into the trailer park what year was this man don't ask me that wait you were born with 16 469 so 70 four or five so this big tree we're coming up on here at a little trailer that's got the brown big stripe on it that's where I grew up is that the same one that's the same one the same trailer a lot older and that little addition on the backside wasn't there a lot older and a little dirtier than it used to be so that's where we grew up and this field across the road is where we run around playing ball and throwing Frisbees and everything like that ride the school bus and we'd come through here and drop kids off and I had to stay on the bus and go to what used to be Peter Pan daycare which I really loved because the people that are at Pete Marie Walker were super nice people and it's all gone now but this used to be all playground and it went way back up to the other Road over there the house used to be right here that we would go and have lunch and snacks and everything had a big basement and then some I don't know it's like a modular home there now but this was the old fence that we used to do work in the front yard me and a couple of boys would rate yard and mow the grass and everything you know one time we was out there wrecking yard to have watermelon and this van come by and we decided we're going to throw Ryan at the van get away with it well I hit the van and they say I know it Slams on bricks and puts in reverse and we take off running and they had this huge tractor tire on the playground of course I'd jump inside of it and hide inside the Tire man and another buddy of mine Danny Horton We've ran in there and in my now he's married to my cousin Sonny Langsford he went to another location I forgot where he went but he went and hid had a lot of good times a lot of weapons Hickory switches were you under the impression that Jack was your dad yeah and they you know I had a great life we we fished he took me fishing a lot he loved golf so yeah we got play golf a little bit hitting golf balls and stuff and as I got older up in high school he got he ran he leased land and it was a driving range for you know hit golf balls so I worked there after I get off from high school this was a route we took on our bus route this used to be all but a dirt filled with ruts we'd ride motorcycles at all this right here back side of my mom's house that I talked him into Vines over here I'm getting to so we'd ride the bus around through here and we I was always wanting to get out of the trailer because yeah I just didn't like trailers I didn't feel safe in a trailer another neat story there's a lake right down there I don't know if you'll be able to see it back in there yeah back in there that's Kannapolis Lake so this house right here with the red car is the house we drove by every time on the school bus and it had a four shell sign in it front yard and I kept talking to Mom about buying a house buying a house moving out a trailer and I told her about this house so so she got with a realtor and we come up here and we looked at it and her and my dad Jack bought it so we moved from the trailer park to a brick house huh we actually had a home now how old were you when that happened ah I think I was six seven years old six years old did you have your own bedroom yes I had my own bedroom and it was this corner bedroom right here the corner windows that was my bedroom and the window beside it next to the front door was my sister Janine key JJ's what we call her JJ was short for Janet Janine because I couldn't say Janet Janine and so she stayed in that bedroom and then that back corner was my mom and dad Jack's bedroom in the front is the living room and so since then my mom has passed away um about three years ago and they sold the house and they got new people living there now so she lived there oh I went through High School everything living there I actually moved out of there got married and the first try so I was 18 years old when I moved out so yeah I lived there until I was 18. and a lot of fun story back to that Lake we moved into here I didn't realize the lake was right here about 150 yards away from the house so I would come in and either go through these Woods right here or go down to that house with the red Suburban down there and sneak in behind there it was a buddy of mine I went to school with we'd sneak in down through there and go down to the little Cove that come back off the lake and go down there fishing and there's no fishing there there's no trespassing so we'd always get chased we'd see the plane fly over and they have a little light on the bottom plane they'd turn on when it was above us and here come a boat with the game warden coming down through here security guy of what I call him yeah they caught him tiny but he was probably 350 pounds so all he could do is drive a boat so we knew we had it pretty easy with him so we'd always run away and get away from it but we caught a lot of fish there and one time there was about five of us down there fishing there's a little place you cross the Cove down there you walk across about Knee Deep and I walked across me and a buddy of mine named James Robinette and walked across a couple other guys down there Jeff trees a real good friend of mine and his cousin Chad were on this side and another friend over there stayed on this side the plane come over and I was like oh man we gotta go well Jeff trees lived in that direction so him and Chad come across the Cove went up through the woods towards your house and I was going to walk down the back of the cove and come out way down about three more houses down past that red Suburban so I get away well we was walking down through there me and James and he was behind me and I seen this guy squatting behind the trails hey how you doing I seen the badge and he was a police officer it's like James run so I turn around and ran right in James the next thing I know there's three cops on us so we got caught finally yeah and I was 15 years old then about to turn 16. and so we got hauled out they actually took us out to the way James and them went first they handcuffed me and James around the pine tree I was on one side they hadn't kept us in the officer that sat with us it was his last week and I kept trying to talk him into letting us go and he wouldn't do it I was like tell him we escaped or something I don't know but he wouldn't let us go so he ended up taking us out putting us in a police car and carrying us to the police department my mom worked third shift so she was asleep and James's dad he was a truck driver so he was on the road and he just got in so he was asleep and so we got stations like he got one call Who you gonna call so I called my mom of course she didn't answer because we didn't want to call James's dad because he's a big mean guy now he was a nice guy but I knew it was going to be rough we had to call him so he ended up having to call him and waking him up and he came and got us it took him a while but he probably showed up and got us and got us out of jail Billy wasn't in jail but we sit in office when we got out I was like where's my fishing rods because I had five fishing rods and I had three and James had two of them I said where's my fish rods I said well you know we've got a couple of them but we broke two of them so you broke two of my rods y'all got to pay for that so there's like no I said y'all were trespassing I said oh that's my rides you got to pay for the end buying me two new rides please for me so I got two new rides out of it and it was fun because I would sit here and watch you know the patrol cars come by whenever I knew people were down there fishing and we'd wait till the police officers left and I'd go down and walk the banks and find fishing rods and stuff where people would leave them running from the law so it was a lot of fun all these years I was sneaking in fishing at this Lake and this that's a well-known Lake for big fish a lot of big crappy two to three sometimes four Pounders out of there they asked for eight to ten pounds which is really big for a lake like yes and this is a reservoir where the Town gets the water from so that's why it was illegal to fish in it so I grew up on these roads here of course you see these Hills we had a lot of good sledding a lot of good bicycle riding and we'd always put a barrel out here and have a fire burning for the people sledding in the neighborhood did it snow every winter oh yeah it snowed a lot every winter and then so after time he left after we got caught tiny ended up leaving and uh Mr Black lived right here he had two daughters I went to school with Kim and Kelly black they were twins well he ended up being the gay Warden and he was mean he write his own Mama a ticket so we didn't fish much after that then by then I had my license and I was able to drive around to go High Rock Lake Norman wherever fishing so me and James my buddy would get off school on Fridays and take off to High Rock most of the time and fish up the High Rock on the banks you think he would have gotten as into fishing as you were if you didn't move into that house or have access to it like that yeah I was into fishing and like I said my dad Jack he took me fishing all the time we'd go all these little farm ponds and fish and you'd pay like two bucks and go in there and fish all however many people you had with you I always grew up fishing never did hunt with my stepdad or my dad Jack now I'm take you out and show you the schools and tell you some of the stories about the schools this Channel and doing these videos is our full-time job it's a lot of work and we'd like it to grow if you're enjoying this stuff it would cost absolutely nothing for you to help us by hitting the thumbs up button on this and if you're watching on a TV which statistically happy you are maybe you could pull out your phone or go into a desktop and leave a thumbs up the furthest I would ride to we'd ride up this store right here on the corner we had five different stores we could go to so we hit all of them during the week and this little building right here on the left is my elementary school it was enable elementary and in 2021 they closed the elementary school down and now I say church family life building and it was K through sixth some mean teachers and a lot of time with the mean kind of in-school suspension back then where you get in trouble you had to go to this classroom and do all your work and not even look at nobody I did that too Mr Eisenhower big old Feller and he was also a Kannapolis Police Officer at the time too so he would do this during the day and then go to work in the police department in the evenings and he he was a nice guy but he was mean if you were mean and got in trouble and the one time I'm a member of our teachers we had with this this school we changed classes we didn't stay in one classroom we would go to like a history of English and math and different classes like that and we had a math teacher she was really nice I loved her to death and I love math too so that might have been why it was her birthday so one of the students brought cakes this girl she brought cakes for her birthday for the class to eat her mom made but she didn't have no candles so me and a couple guys on the back side was her classroom we've jumped out of the window in their stores right there so we ran over there and we bought some candles from the store and come back and climb back in the window as we climb back in she'd come back into the classroom and caught us and it was for her birthday but we still got in trouble and that's one of the times I had to go to see Mr Eisenhower SS so we had a lot of fun and I can remember one time we were sitting here in a classroom right there next to the door right at that little Archway was my English teacher and I didn't like her too well she was mean a lot of main people here oh yeah a lot of mean people and she was really mean we think she had a night some kind of night activities going on that she did to make up for her pay or something I don't know if you know what I mean yeah she'd always kind of I'm as bad about not doing homework like I said I got off school and jumped on the bicycle and I got home and took off for the evenings and really didn't do homework so she come around and she's checking homework so I ain't got money she said you haven't learned anything either you know the ain't is not a word I see you watch one day it will be the dictionary I say it will be and now it is so I don't know if I had anything to do with that but you're a finder and tell her you told herself no I haven't seen her Miss Hedrick was her name I hadn't seen her after that and she was redheaded um pretty lady but she was mean and one time I was sitting there in classroom and I was looking out the window and just staring and daydreaming like I always do and a band came by and I had to backtrack later in the show here to tell about the story but a van came by and it was a blue and yellow van and this is at the time I was in the sixth grade and I kind of knew about my life what had happened with you know Jack adopted me and I had a dad out there and you know I knew who he was I'd done talked to him on the phone by this time that's all I did is got to talk to him on phone well a van came by and it was a blue and yellow van and he drove for Wrangler back then I always uh I wonder if that was him just checking you know right by checking on me and I never knew I never found out but I don't think he ever had a blue and yellow fan I think it was just coincidence we'll have to get that story later because it's a little out of the way to be able to do the route I want to do to be with everything sixth grade well I was going into my sixth grade year it was during in between the year fifth and sixth grade during the summer that I learned about my dad and got to talk to him on the phone which snuck off because my stepdad Jack he didn't want anything to do with me having a new any communication with my dad or anything so my dad's sister or brother Danny Earnhardt his wife Sherry or heart and my mom were real good friends and so one time we got slipped off to Sherry and Danny's house and Sherry had set it up where I could call and talk to Dad and so we had a little conversation and you know Mom we went in there and Sherry called and put me on the phone with him and I said hello and he said hey how you doing what's good there wasn't much to talk about because we really didn't know each other and no you know I didn't know what to ask him I was going into the sixth grade so I was young I had no clue what kind of questions to ask but we had a little small talk and he said hopefully we'll try to get to see each other sometime I said okay awesome we'll see I don't know if that'll happen but we'll see and that was it well that Christmas I ended up getting a present from Santa Claus but I found out it was from Dad it was a racetrack with an electric race tracks you sit there in control with the little finger fly cars and you had a little yeah slot car track so I played with that thing and it was of course you know had all the race cars and one of them disappeared one time it was the number three car that disappeared I don't know how but I feel like I do but I play with that thing into it wouldn't work no more and so that Lake I was telling you about officially and that's it right there that's Kannapolis Lake it's got a golf course on it so you said your Mom and Daddy's wife were friends did you ever meet Danny when you were younger not knowing that he was actually her uncle no whenever I went to you know called dads and talk to him for the first time on the phone that Danny was there too so I got I knew Danny because Sherry and Mama being friends um I didn't really know about the relationship I just thought it was friends but as you know I got to learn about Dad or who my dad really was my real dad was I learned then that Danny or Danny was my uncle my Mom finally told me all about all that and of course it was a secret deal I couldn't talk about it because of my dad's act I'm trying to figure out what's better if the like because it's like later here but then it's halfway across your face so I'm not sure it cuts off and so after that learning about you know who my dad was my my blood father I guess you call it you know I met Uncle Danny and knowing he's my uncle and got to hang out with him and you know we really didn't go off doing things we just kind of went to her house of time too and hung out and ate dinner and stuff like that when you were born where were they living at man I don't know that that's what I'm saying that trailer is the first house I know I remember anything about and I know it was a little white house but I don't know where it was at because I saw pictures of it actually I saw a picture of my papa Ralph holding me when I was I mean I was I wasn't even walking or maybe just the learning to walk at that time whenever he helped me in that picture but that's all I have is that picture and I don't know where it's at now because look some of my mom's passed and my sister JJ took care of all the papers and pictures and everything and it's funny how events in life happens and you know people spread out and go different ways and you'll like I ain't talked my sister JJ and a couple years just you know the way things go life goes different way ways you know we're on the road all the time with my daughter Kayla rodeoing and she's out in Oklahoma so she's between Oklahoma Texas to Kansas radio and we try to hit all of them to support herb I'm gonna do something I just learned that was illegal but we'll do it anyway because I kind of ring around this route just to kind of get an idea and I didn't know that this one road had changed the way it did so I grew up playing baseball and football through school and got into high school I started wrestling a little bit but for baseball we would practice right here at this field so that sound bikers had no left turn and I'm sorry I did anyway yeah woman behind me is looking at me like what are you doing so this is my junior high school right here in front of us this is the main building Courier Light Middle School called Junior High that's what I called it and so this is where I went to Junior High School and we had seventh through 9th at this school and during PE we would get to swim in the swim pool in the summertime that's where I learned I start swimming at that's how I like the swims right there in that pool and this was a good school we had a lot of good teachers never had any major issues you know I was still a kid and got a little bit of trouble less mean people here and there yeah less mean people and so that's where I went to Junior High School at and we had a vocational building because you know we grow so much so that little building over there with all the boards on it now was our vocational build like we had to cross to go over to there to classes I had social studies and English over here and all my other classes in the main building I had all my little notes written down but I left them nothing about them and so yeah I started driving when I was started in high school and that's where we're heading to now go ahead to my high school South Orion Raiders and this is where I learned about life as an adult it's about being an adult it took them a while but they probably got it into me my wife says they haven't yet but so this is my high school and that's our baseball fields where we played baseball um I don't know how late it is these days about driving through school campus but we'll find out what position were you in baseball I played pitching and shortstop and catching and of course our football fields back there we'll get around to that in a minute but this was my high school this South Rand back then whenever I went to school it was just this part right here the new Red Roof backyard I went in there back around the back it was just a little long building right here and then up to my halfway through my 11th grade they started moving pods in it's like little trailers they would set out on the back side behind this building here where that red Booth is they had pods out back there I didn't get a whole lot of trouble here that I remember what were you driving when you were driving yourself to high school well so when I was 14 years old my uncle my mom's brother bought a 65 Impala off Sherman floor brand new and they give it to my cousin in Georgia and then from there my cousin got another car and the Impala was sitting there so he uh passed it down to me and so I took over the 65 Impala and it set in the backyard it had the wiring harnesses burn up so it needed wired heart new wiring and everything so we sit there in the backyard for a long time and done nothing with it had a guy come by one day just stop and say hey I got a 72 Chevelle I'll trade you even the Chevelle was running and was able to drive just put a tag on it and go so that's what I did I traded for that San Francisco and that's what I drove to high school that's a pretty cool high school car yeah it was and then uh after that I bought me a 70 Chevelle so I had a 70 and a 72 Chevelle drive you know one different time just whatever whichever one I felt like you're just balling now it was a just a regular car but no SS it was just a regular Chevelle the 70 was a SS had a 454 four-speed hers four-speed Impala I wish I could I wish I'd never done that because that 65 pound had a 396 with the horse horse four speed and it was a really nice car about turned 16 the guy will come by and had a car that was running able to drive at the time and I was ready to go so that's what I did and back then they weren't those kind of cars weren't looked at how they are I didn't know it wasn't like that there's a boat a big old boat is what it was just gliding across so this is the back side this is our shop and electrical building where Freddy query and I can't remember my wood wood shop guy's name Mr Price uh this is where we worked on you know wood shop and our electrician and now they got Automotive in there did you know Freddy was a racer back then yeah I did not know he raised I was on his electric electric electrical teacher electrician and I didn't know about Freddy query until I actually started running Street stocks at Concord and that's where I learned about Freddie Curry you're like oh dang that guy was my teacher in high school what yep and so that's our football field over there with the field goals I don't want to go in there because we might cause a big issue with what days are these days in schools and stuff it's probably ain't nobody coming out yet so during the off season there's a big parking lot you go through that right side and it's a big old open parking lot there where the buses are and all we'd come down here when it snowed and do donuts and stuff and do burnouts you know when it wasn't snowing we'd still come down here and do donuts and burnouts and stuff one time we got in trouble got caught but they didn't do nothing just told us not to come back to win yeah back then that's what it was yeah these days they want to call the law and lock you up and everything it'll take your parking pass that's what happened to me when I did that I didn't even have a parking pass we just came here trying to find a spot to park so that's my school days what was your first job I'll get to that I was you start talking about like having all these Chevelles and stuff like what are you doing yeah well I'll get to that so now we're gonna head out I'm gonna head out to Jackson Park where I played baseball to get to that story about learning about my dad you know growing up in Kannapolis we'll get down to that shortly but you know it was called idiot Circle it was just a loop around a median downtown Kannapolis and everybody just circled around or you know parked on the side of the road and hung out so of course you know we driving cars you always Cruise the local area so we'd hit Kannapolis and do a couple laps there and we didn't hit anybody we've seen or node or hung out we always shoot down the Concord and run that strip and I always knew a lot of people in Concord so we go down through there and ride by a couple laps and find out where everybody was hanging out in what parking lot and you parked in the gas station parking lot or was a store that was closed park in that parking lot and just hang out sitting on the bumper or probably a car or hanging out and waving at girls and whistling you know oh yeah honestly in my Chevelle I didn't do a whole lot unless Chevelles uh because I had to work on them I worked on all them by myself I didn't want to I knew what it was about then so I didn't tear them up but my dad had an S10 he'd give me the drive and I raced this mustang coming back from Concord Mall one time on backside on highway three it's just a long stretch nothing on it but Woods and I ripped out second gear at that moment when I was racing him but still it was pretty close race he had 350 in the truck it was built 350 and four-speed a Muncie four-speed in it so I did dog get pretty good and then he quit let me drive it was it a Jack's Truck no it was Dale's okay I just wasn't sure but what age you were doing this this is where was the crossover I was 17. oh yeah yeah I had to change transmission and everything make me tear it apart and do it over and I said no you don't want to do that I've never done that before I said if you want it to work if you give me another transmission I'll put it in there and then I don't know where the truck went after that growing up like I said I played baseball and football I played for this one as like a wreck team it was called uh Kannapolis JC's and my dad Jack he was the coach he coached all my baseball growing up except for when I was in the high school this is where we played baseball at a bunch of workers in here well we're gonna see if they have any problem with us pulling in um of course it wasn't like this back when I played this was all open field and we had one baseball field it was back in that back corner didn't even have that building there had a little porta johns for the restrooms and this was all grass parking right here and I don't know I must been like 12 13 years old I have white blonde hair my uniforms were green and had Kannapolis JC's on it through these games we play I always seen this woman with these two girls that always you know there and I'd be after the game walking out to the car and they would be there watching me walk and like Ah that's weird so maybe I'm that good ball player they're looking at me you know scouting or something I don't know but come to find out I was walking out one time and this woman come walking up with the two girls and so care Dallas yes I'm Martha I'm your memo from North Earnhardt and this is your cousin Jennifer and Ashland hi oh this is so what and she said well it's a long story he said just ask your mom about it so I just wanted to say hello and so I noticed y'all been out here watching and everything and I just kind of wondered what it was about and I said this is odd so of course you know I didn't say anything to my step dad anything he didn't see I don't know if he even saw it but we got home and it was step dad was out he had a building behind that house a brick house I was telling you about he worked on golf clubs and he was out in there shop working on a golf clubs building getting a set of clothes for somebody and I told my mama said yo I said that ball game this woman and these two girls always there watching me and you know like I'd walk out to the car and they said and watch me well today after the game I was walking out and she come up and told me she was my mama Lauren heart Martha and my cousin's Jennifer and Ash and mama said yep so so she told me the whole story then that's when I learned about my dad Dale Earnhardt so you would talk to him on the phone before but you didn't know anything about him but no actually I hadn't talked to him this is before I talked to you oh okay yeah this is before I talked to him this is how I knew when I told you about the story about how I knew about my dad this is where I learned about my dad okay my memo Earnhardt did you know you were adopted at that time not at that time I didn't so you thought that Jack was your biological father and so whenever I met my Mamaw and my cousins here that day and I went and talked my mama that night about it and that's when she told me the whole story about you know her and Dad got married and I was born and then they separated and divorced and then Jack and her got married and he adopted me and that's how I learned about who Jack was and who Dell was wow and so after that they came and you know I talked to him I started talking to him more and more and and Jack I I don't know if he ever I know he knew who Martha was and I don't know if he just didn't say anything about it or if he didn't see me talking to him but I talked to him occasionally every now and then and I told my memo I said when I get 16 when I turn 16 I'm gonna get my license and I'm first place I'm going is your house she said well you're more than welcome to come over so I said all right and so well at back up to after I met them is whenever you know my mom started telling me the stories and all the things and worked it out with Sherry for me to be able to call my dad okay that's how all that Circle backgrounds that's how all that happened is after meeting them and learning about who my dad was mama told me about Sherry and Danny and everything that's how I learned about them and then we arranged to be able to talk to Dad on the phone because I wasn't able to see him still um and my step dad Jack my doctor dad he didn't know that I knew all the stuff I knew at that time I don't I don't remember how Jack learned about me knowing and learning about my dad I don't know how all that came about but when I was I'm jumping ahead here we'll go back to that what's up that Lake internally finding out that it's it's all it's all confusing um were you mad were you no sad man I wasn't mad I was just confused and had thoughts of why and how you know what all happened at that time when I met them but as me and my mom taught more and more I became to understand everything um you know they're very young kind of the story I lived as they were young and they got pregnant and got married and had me and it just didn't work out um because I think I was two years old roughly the area whenever they separated I think like I said of course Jack came along and that's that's who I grew up with as my dad was Jack and I had like I said I had a great life with him he taught me a lot about you know fishing and golfing he helped me work on cars in the garage occasionally almost you know 70s Chevelle and 72 Chevelle at that time I didn't know a lot about automotives and like the Impala was a I mean it could have been you know re rewired could have been your wire harness I didn't know but he wasn't in depth in that that deep into auto mechanics to know all the stuff about that so that's why that Impala never got finished was there a difference in the way you saw the world before you learned all that and then after it I did it yeah I don't think it changed me it just I always had that wonder what life would have been or how life would have been if the outcome of their marriage had been different and you know I always thought well if that was the case we would as as I got older I always wondered if that was the case wherever Dale Jr and Kelly be and Taylor where would all that be right now would they even be here it would have been with my mom if they had to stay married or would they just had two kids and quit or I don't know um you know my dad was married Teresa was his third wife so as I started dating and learning about life I got a girl pregnant when I was 18 and we had to get married but we didn't have to but we thought it was right then dude we got married had Bobby my oldest one and then two years later we had Jeffrey and the day after he was born I left because it just didn't it wasn't right it didn't work out we wasn't a good couple it just wasn't a good marriage so I chose to leave and still had visitation rates on weekends every other weekend for my boys and all but and I guess that's when I seen you know how it could happen with Dad Mom being young and getting married and it just it wasn't it didn't work did it kind of bring that full circle like to understand it better yes it did um like I said you know I never thought when I learned about that I never thought about why he walked out on us or anything like that I never thought that way I just you know I thought what life would be if things had been different or how can how can our life maybe come back together sometime and then one day that all happened going back to our Chevelle days like that I was had the vehicles and stuff I had two jobs this was my second job right here yeah there was a gas station and it had three Bays we worked on cars the first one with the North Carolina inspection station was our oil change Bay another two was our mechanic side where we do transmissions and all kind of motors and everything and so I pumped gas right there the gas pumps are going down this all changed but I worked for a guy named Bob Benton that was Bub's Automotive back then and I've recently reached out to him um about getting some stories maybe have him to meet us here and talk and maybe have some pictures and stuff but I learned through his wife and this has been I've seen him about three months four months ago and he was perfectly fine but his wife said he's gotten where he don't remember things now so he's not in any shape to be yeah getting about because they don't remember things and she was going to try to find some pictures and she couldn't find any for me so we have the building to show for it use your imagination yes so there's two gas pumps there I'll be in there changing oil and you know big chaining here ding ding there's a little bell that says somebody's pull it up get gas so I'd come out and pump the gas would pump gas wash the windshield checked oil for him while he was getting fuel and so I get done pumping gas I go back and finish the oil change and back then we didn't really have waiters where they come in and get all changing weight they just dropped the car off and leave it with us which was nice because you wasn't in a rush and you know might mess up something did he ever mess anything up no I didn't uh bub taught me a lot he was a he was a good mechanic and uh he was a highly sought after mechanic after he closed this down a couple of the dealerships local uh hired him to come in and train some of their employees and also to do some of their work he was as good of a carburetors four barrel carburetors hard to find somebody to rebuild them and get them tuned right and he was one of the Masters at it it's sad to see you know as life goes and we get older things happen and it's sad to see him in the state he's in right now because he was a fine fella he always called me Rascal he said you rascal you and the how did you get that name I don't know he just called me a rascal he always rascal you and uh you know just picking at me so I was out here pumping gas one day and I was in high school still and this is the time when I was about 18 years old about turned 18 actually I was still 17 about to turn 18. a couple weeks away from turning 18 when we found out my girlfriend was pregnant at the time and we you know talked about getting married her dad was a preacher he was a Church of God preacher so you know what to say about Preachers Daughters yeah alert um so I'm sitting here pumping gas in this blue Camaros redhead girl always come in here and get gas her dad had an account with us and I sitting there pumping her gas one day and this truck pulls in the pumps were right on the other side in two three cars lined up there but where that median grass is she was on the opposite side she'd come in this way and pulled in and here comes this truck pulls in and just Slams on braces get in the truck and I'm dead and of course you know I learned about that and got be around him and everything at that time so come on get in the truck I said I can't I got you know I'm pumping gases I don't care getting a truck I said Bob he comes out I gotta go I'm sorry I'll be back hopefully so I jump the truck we ride around dad's like so what y'all going to do I said what are you talking about he said you and your girl I said well I said we're gonna get married we've got a baby on the way he said yeah I know I said maybe you ought to do something different I said no I don't think so he said it's not right it's not gonna work out I said today you don't really know her I said you know we made mistake and we got to own up to it and we got to make it right you're making a mistake he's already sent you off to boarding school that military school that Dale Jr and Kelly went to I said ah you can't do that I'm I'm you know 18 almost you can't do that so I could do whatever I want I'm like well maybe you can I said but no I don't want to do that so I think it's the right thing to get married and try to you know support the family it's well I'm just telling you it's not gonna work out so you take my advice or do whatever you want to do so just remember what I told you and he was right like I said about three years almost is what we were married before I left so I made it two and a half to two and three quarter years so I feel like I Buzz ride a little bit when you beat him yeah yeah but yeah I remember that was a scary ride when you come in there and got me so that was a job I would come and work right after school I'd come in there get there about 3 30. pump gas and change oil did you know I've got to change belts and all our dators of it and the major mechanic he wouldn't let me do the big stuff so after I would get off from there I would head over to my other job which is the first job I ever had another time the getting the truck story were there many of those like dad kind of moments oh yeah yeah I mean so after I talked to Dad on the phone one time he was going to have an appearance in the dealership here in Kannapolis it was a Winehouse Motors and he was supposed to be there at this race car and signing autographs and I talked my mom in to bring me up here to meet him for the first time so she she followed it for a while probably should give in so it was right at right at Food Lion so she parked in Food Lion parking lot and let me walk across the street to White House Motors and the car was there on the trailer there's Monte Carlo the blue and yellow ranger cart and so I went and set up on the fender well bought a car and waited and waited and waited and waited and waited and you probably to come out and said you know he wasn't able to make it some things come up and he wasn't going to be able to make it certainly man jeez you know I thought it was gonna be a good time getting to meet him and now looking back on it would have been a good time at one of his appearance that we meet you know and he's got these people he's got a entertain the funny thing is a secret deal because my dad Jack he didn't still wasn't okay with this all happening and so my mom sent across the street at Food Lion on the corner Lena gets the telephone post and on the sports page of that Sunday's paper this is on Saturdays both that sports page on Sunday's paper was my mom Lynn against that telephone pole Dale Earnhardt fans are lined up and there's your mom so we had to get rid of that paper real quick in the agent before campers being everywhere she still got busted yes and so here's a little bowling alley we used to come to in Bowl wet we come here on the weekends and bowl and Saturday I was on Saturdays during the day we'd come there and Bowl my mom bring us up here but on Friday nights this is before I got my license Friday nights we'd go roller skating and actually it says it's still open we came by the other day and there was people packed in there the parking lot was full I thought it'd shut down but it's still open I remember having lock-ins there you come up here on Friday nights and skate and they lock the doors and stay all night skating sleep on the little benches they had this right here is called Skateland on the left there the roller rink doesn't look like much has changed no the building's the same same sign yeah everything's the same was this with the inline or with the four in it it's the square four yeah there's a old school roller skating so here's my first job the old Pizza Hut she's all revamped now though there's a drive-through used to be in the back right here that's where I started working I started out washing dishes and Dan I can't remember Dan's last name he was my manager back then he was a cool guy he had real blonde curly hair he was really fun manager he had he didn't he wasn't mean he you know he knew he was here as a teenager working to make money support your habits on weekends chasing girls and racing cars up and down the streets so I started out washing dishes and I went working at the drive-through window taking care of the customers in there and then I went to making pizzas like that's true we had we'd make the dough at night before we close and it would sit in the cooler all night long and get up next day in this big old trash cans of old gray trash cans on wheels we make them in that and so whenever it comes next morning the crew would come in and roll out the amount of dough that you need to make a pizza with different sizes and then like I said that's after I got off from the gas station first after I get off of school this is where I came to for my first job and making pizzas and we'd work all day and at night we'd close around 11 o'clock and we clean up until one two o'clock in the morning because we was having fun we'd had a it was all tile in there the floor was tile and you had boots and then you had a the salad bar yeah we had a salad bar out there in the Middle where you get up and make your own salad and so after we bust the salad bar down put everything up it's time to mop so we take the mop soapy water and just throw it across the floor and we'd get in the back at the drive-thru we didn't take off running as a straight shot through the front counter and just see who can slide the feathers yeah and who busted butt more which I did a couple times so after I done making pizzas I started busting tables a little bit tried to see what it was about getting tips and I didn't like that too good to be messing with dirty dishes and stuff that people eat off of when I was washing went back because they were you know you had your hands in soaking water and all but I hear you didn't you had a rag you wipe your hands on how many times you wipe your hands on that same rag yeah so I went back to making pizzas and of course you know back then they had the cups that you had measurements for your green peppers and your onions and different things you had certain amounts you had to put on each size uh no I had them plastic gloves I just grabbed them and throw a bunch on there I mean I made a lot of pieces of a lot of ingredients and I had a lot of friends would come through to drive through and I'd slip them a pizza or two every now and then and the sad thing though at night after everything's done all that dough that you had made that you know that night before what was left you had to take throw in a dumpster and it was like man why can't we make these and you know okay take them out to the needy people or whatever and you couldn't do that just because of food whatever the food Association rules were you couldn't do that so I would make a lot of pizzas up and take them to buddies or over to my dad's Race shop and hand them out over there because they were working late nights over there so I take all the pieces I can make and I make six or seven pizzas at night after we close didn't have to pay for them either so that was a lot of fun damn my manager he was he was good with that he let me do that so that was neat but so yeah this was my first job and this is actually where I met Bud Benton he come in here and him his wife came in here and eaten he's that's when I was busting tables I was walking through there and he said hey so you work on cars I said well I don't really work on cars I kind of know a little bit about them so you change oil I said yeah because you know how to pump gas I said where yeah I pump my gas he said why don't you come by and see me give me this card so that's whatever I went and talked about Benton and got me a job at the gas station so he posted you from Pizza Hut and so I told Dan my managers hey man I got a job that's in you know working in cars around cars that I like cars I see you mine if I change my ears up he said no I said you go ahead so like I said I'd get off of school but three o'clock and go over there at 3 30 and start pumping gas changing oil to five we closed the building at five and then we come over here and work the Pizza Hut and close it down in night times you made any pieces recently yeah I make pizzas at home you recommend Pizza yeah I love my pizzas everybody loves my pizzas we I'll make some good pizzas I don't make my own dough but I do all my own ingredients and stuff and of course that building right there at Kannapolis Family Restaurant used to be a place called McCabe's it was Rosie's design right there I see it McCabe Steakhouse that was a high-end Steakhouse like for proms that's where everybody took their dates for dinner I've been there four times I've been to three four probes in school in high school for three years but my year after I got out a buddy of mine went into the Marines and he called me up his girlfriend fiance at the time wanted to go to the prom but didn't want to go because he wasn't here so he caught me up and asked if I take her and I took her as for him Rhonda sellers actually ran across a picture of that the other day I was going to do pictures of me and her that was kind of awkward but interesting like fill in everybody's like oh what's going on here somewhere else I'm just doing a favor yeah right yeah so I told you about talking to my mom my mama at the Ballpark you know and told her whenever I got my license I was going to come first place this was going to be to her house so I got to stay out of school one Friday and my mom took me up to Salisbury a little DMV station up there and got my license then went back home and dropped my mamas off because I had my 72 Chevelle at that time that's why I did my license test Drive-In so I dropped my mama off and so I'm gonna cruise around and go riding so I just you know be careful so first time out soloing back then you have to you have to wait when you got your license you're able to go so I come up through here in that 72 Chevelle and roll through up here and I parked right here and this is from my Memo's House this is where her and Ralph had their life and raised their kids and their Race Shop my grandpa raced out of is in the backyard which we'll go walk around there and look at and that's where my dad raced out of so let's jump out real quick so I got in the car and I walked up just I cut across the corner because I was hiding from the shop back you were trying to hide on purpose yeah I was trying to hide on purpose because I was I was going to meet my mommy going to hang out with my memo and meet someone for the first time and it's actually going to happen so I walked in my mom met me at the front door and we went in and sat in there and talked and she's like well you ready I'm like no no not yet and I sat there probably about two two and a half hours trying to build up the courage to walk out back to the race shop to meet my dad for the first time finally I got the courage up and we walked through and you go through the living room into another sitting room into the kitchen and when you get to the kitchen you come into a little hallway to the back door and so I walk out the back door and I hear all this laughing and commotion going on and tools clinging together music playing so I walk out the back door and I come down and does a couple cars parked here and there and it was like Tony Senior and Dad Rick boss you know all them guys here working on race cars so I come up and everything is locked now but Open Door walk in and Dad is sitting over in this corner on that bench back there working and when I walked in Tony Jr or Tony Senior and Rick boster working on the cars right here there's two cars in here and my dad stops and looks up and everything gets quiet it's uh hey son so what you doing I said well I said I come in and say hello and meet you and we sit there and talk for a long time and Tony Senior and Rick boss we all just hung out talking and from their own you know Dad's like well so you know we need to start hanging out more so we kind of I don't remember what all we did but you know we during that time he has bought this place over on highway three and did all the race shop stuff over there so we kind of wrote out there and this is when he still had the woods and everything so I was out there and he had a little brick building for the office which is a house is all that was there so we kind of rode around the farm he would have shown me all the stuff and all his plans and everything and speaking of the devil there's my Kathy yeah well Shelly didn't call you but I just talked to Shelly oh you remember now I think you were talking about cars being in there and you came outside then you started coming here more oh yeah well you know I was talking about how dad had to property at Highway 3 which is now Dale Earnhardt Incorporated it was just all pine trees and woods with that little Brick House on it which was an office at the time and uh he built a little shop in the back there's like a storage building basically it's a metal big metal building and he moved all this operation over to highway three and you know I got to start that's where I mainly hung out with dads over there at the race shop at Delaware Incorporated I was there saw them tear all the trees down out front where the big buildings are now it'd just be all pine trees the brick house is not even there no more you know we had a lot of fun getting to know each other and being together I remember after we met here he invited me to come over for Christmas and stay Christmas Eve and wake up and do Christmas morning with him Kelly and Doug Jr well I'll back up before that he invited me to come by the house and meet Kelly and Doug Jr and Theresa and they lived over on high on Lake Norman and I remember going down pulling up to the house and Dale Jr's in the front yard playing with a couple buddies playing football and he's a little thing you know a little B thing and I get out and he looks and waves and goes back to playing football and I go knock on the door and the door opens and then shuts and then dad comes to doors Teresa answer the door so she opened and shut door and told Dad I was there I guess and Dad came and invited me in and called Dale Jr in we all sit there and I got to meet Kelly she was inside down in her room and basement and I got to meet Kelly Indo Jr and got to start talking with them and kind of learning each other Dale Jr of course a lot younger than me so at the time he was butting about knowing who I was even more about playing with his friends me and Kelly you know hit off pretty quick um of course her being the sister she's mother in because she pretty much took Cara Dale Jr when Dad was on the road all the time they had a babysitter but Dale Junior and Kelly were pretty close and Kelly matured a lot quick um so I think that's what made it easier for us to connect right off because she knew the story behind uh you know my life more than I did at that time kind of went over a couple parties he had it like I went over there and hung out with them and got to play on the boats and the you know water toys and everything and then he's like we know some we got Christmas coming up once you come and you know stay with us Christmas night or Christmas Eve and wake up and do Christmas with us and I was like oh yeah that'd be fun so we got to do that and I don't even remember the gifts I mean I know I didn't get any gifts for anybody because I I was you know I had my cars I was supporting um it was all new to me so something different and it was a lot of fun being able to wake up at Christmas with him um and Kelly and Doug Jr kind of felt odd that I wasn't with my mom and dad Jack but that's just what happened so that's where our story went that's crazy to hear all of that when you're standing yeah right here right right here where he grew up Kelly already knew you existed before yes yes yes Dad and told her about me and you know Junior like I said he was young he didn't care about that stuff and you know like all those boys we went into that stuff I don't remember a lot of stuff in my childhood yeah I remember you know riding bicycles around the neighborhood and through the woods and stuff and having motorcycles and stuff like that I don't remember family stuff I guess I see so you never really did any working on cars or anything at this garage never have you know not here like I said about time I come here is whenever he had that property on Highway 3 he was developing into a race shop and moving everything out there so that's where everything happened with him working on cars and race cars and stuff like that which might be another show one day hopefully it is I think everybody's nice to learn about my life growing up and you know a lot of people more people are knowing about you know how I was raised now than they have in the past because of the stories I've told I had when I done Dale Jr's podcast I had several people that hit me on Facebook and said I didn't realize you had that kind of life that's that's the Life I Lived you know I was adopted when I was young and grew up not knowing my dad and then we reunited and had a great life you know and they've said that they felt comforted knowing that there's other people out there like that and there is there's a lot of us out there you know didn't live in our original family life I guess you'd say yeah they've been adopted and raised by a different father or different mother I think it's interesting to learn how many there is out there it's fascinating and it is crazy that it does help people yeah it is you wouldn't think you wouldn't think that and you know on the street in Kannapolis I've run into a guy and he'd come up shut my hand in tears man and it's like man he said your your life is just like mine the story you told on Dell Junior download is what I've lived that's my life and we sit there and talked about you know his dad not having anything to do with him you know having the connection or anything until later in life when he got older and mature and basically an adult and they reunited and have such a great Bond now that they never had you know growing up so it was really cool yeah well let's head to Kannapolis where everything's happening all right pulling out of this spot on that day what do you remember you don't remember anything no you don't remember driving home thinking wow that just happened like none of that I guess it was I mean I thought I remember it being a special meeting Dad and getting to see him for the first time and the experience we had was just easy it wasn't you know I didn't have no expectations whenever this all happened I didn't know what to expect what to think or anything like that so is like it just it was like just patent it's like it's been normal all the time the whole our whole time you know it's just I walked in and we just connected and really didn't talk about like the reasons why it all happened the way it did we just talked about you know getting to see each other again and being able to be together again and doing things that yeah family does so if you were you know working on cars and not street racing or anything like that but in high school whenever you did meet him and started to get to be around race cars more did that just pour gas on the fire of one stuff with cars it did I mean it made me more interested in cars and wanting to learn more about cars like I said whenever I got to be around him and hanging out with him I was working in like I said the gas station and Pizza Hut and then as we come to find out we were pregnant I ended up going to work at known the cotton mill around here known as field Crest Cannon and I worked at uh Plant 16 which is up in Salisbury I worked third shift up there and started renting a single wide trailer for me and my wife and our kid that was going to be coming at that time just to you know like I said support my family and honed up to what I've done if you like this Hometown History tour format we have also done this with Mark Martin in Batesville Arkansas and Kenny Wallace in Valley Park Missouri and statistically a lot of you watching are several years older than I am I'm 26. if you hit subscribe on the channel it does not cost anything all that does is it will show you when we post something new that's it that's what that means so if you don't even have a YouTube account you can make one or sign in hit subscribe and then when you open YouTube and we have a new video it will be there for you to see it you won't have to look for it downtown Kannapolis this is where all the cruising happened and like I said back in the day this was a median in the middle and they had parking on the side like these right here but it was one one lane this way and the big median Mill and you Circle and come back like traffic but this way on this side of the media and traffic went that way on the other side and you know when textile industry struggled and everything happened Fieldcrest Cannon shut down it had the Twin Towers is what they call the Smoke Stacks for the meal and the day that they tore them down and that smoke stacks fell this town just crumbled it just fell apart nothing have much businesses going on it just bake it just did you remember what year that was I do not I could look it up probably yeah you probably look it up you run up that street and it went all the way up on the right side of them trees you go all the way up to the very end and turn around and come back down and just make a circle a couple times and like see if you see anybody you knew you kind of stop and hang out and talk a little bit or if you didn't you cruise on the Concord so it was back and forth all through tonight so after the meal shut down everything just died here it was dead but nothing here and this group come in I want to say probably five years ago I mean these water fountains wasn't even here none of this was it was just a bunch of old buildings and a guy from Florida named Kent and I didn't really know all this until two years ago a guy from Florida come down and bought the town and hired a guy to come in and re re-do the whole town and build it back up so I got a phone call one day and this guy named Ken lingerfelt called me up and said hey said my boys got a brewery Downtown Kannapolis which is old armored Beer Company here he said that he does donations every month he likes to donate to Charities because they they're about giving back their veteran owned and they do a lot for veterans oh no y'all come on through don't don't let me hold y'all up come on in yeah yes and so he called me up and said hey my boys wanting to donate to your charity so I just want to know what your charity was I said well I don't have a charity but I work with a youth Rodeo Association that I run it was a I called a junior SRA is kids from four year old four years old up to 18 years old and it's the oldest youth Rodeo Association of east of the Mississippi my daughter started rodeoing so I went on the board and then I started you know running being the vice president but running the whole organization and I said well let me come and talk to y'all so he said yeah I get a couple you got any military friends or law enforcement bring them on in with you so I brought a buddy of mine his uh he's a K-9 Officer for Highway Patrol and he's also a FBI and then my son-in-law was a probation officer so I brought him in and we sit here and talked we couldn't ever figure out how to work it out so we ended up creating our Earnhardt out Earnhardt outdoor beer which is a it was an ale at the time it's called a can apple sale and so for the proceeds from that I took and donated back to places I wanted to do like a scholarship fund for the High School Rodeo Association to help the high school kids have a little money to go to Scotland there's College on them and do you know a couple little things in the outdoors with outdoor groups stuff like that so it went from that to a coffee shop up the road that we do our hard Outdoors coffee with also and then from there there's an Old Town Soap Company that contacted us and we're now doing Earnhardt outdoor body line men's body line of body sprays and shaving cream just a lot of different things so I'm working a lot with that and we launched with one cent and now we're actually getting ready to launch another scent now so and I think it's I think it's kind of cool yeah I got up on me I like that um so it's kind of cool that Kannapolis was known for Earnhardt and you know it has since been you know destroyed with the economy and everything the way it happened with the meal and all to actually bring the Earnhardt name back into the town since this revitalizing and growing I thought it was neat to have you know learn hard outdoors in downtown Kannapolis and I like working with local you know businesses like you know the brewery the coffee shop and the soap shop is all local owned it's not no franchises or anything like that so let's go up here and buy it I got both my aunts up here waiting on us they're probably mad at me but that happens often and I thought I'd have them to meet us up here around the statue because uh Kannapolis many years ago contributed a statue in Dad's honor and a special place to meet up because this town meant a lot to my Mamaw and the statue meant a lot she would come here and take pictures with people just coming to see the statue and she would always come in and uh hey how you doing and take pictures so I thought it was pretty neat and I thought it'd be interesting other than the noise makers over there it may be loud but they're building something yeah I mean that's the part of the Town revamping yeah you got to have construction going on for that to happen so we just deal with it hey [Music] you got your Jitters out of you yet you got your tutors out of you well I've only had long call on me this morning she came and tried to arrest me earlier I know neighbors all hanging out checking out that's how we keep up she keeps those tabs on everything okay I do too I ride by the river down there yeah see how Shelly's doing yep by last minute call Shelly it's added to the front yard I know oh my gosh yes but it looks good it does I'm proud of what she's done so this is my at K and my Aunt Kathy hello I asked him to come up meet me here but through the through this I've learned a lot of stuff that I didn't know oh really yeah I thought you know my mom lived up the road and worked at media need us and I thought y'all knew a lot about Kannapolis and grew up well technically being down here we came to the movie up here a lot yeah we did come up town occasionally you know but we were in the county schools at weinkov and so we didn't can't town all the time I do remember coming up town with my friends to the movie and that's basically it and I even remember Nancy Wyatt that lived down on Pennsylvania she and I think walked uptown well that's when you were older when we were little mama would calls Charlie Sinclair the taxi cab man I remember him and he would come to the house and it was Kay and me and Dale I don't remember Randy coming my mom always had a house full of babies and bring us to the GM theater on Saturday afternoons and we'd for the Saturday matinee yeah and Betty that was a big deal because Mom and Dad didn't let us out of their site much and so we we were like we're free we're free at last you know and Charlie would come back at the end of the matinee and pick us up and take us back home and we were probably seven eight nine something like that maybe I don't remember it but I'm sure it happened so if that was on Saturday afternoon where was my mom and Papa at home but Daddy was always racing yeah he was gone a lot during that time daddy was racing six seven days a week I mean you know he'd come home after a race get his car ready and leave again in the afternoon be gone again yeah I remember Saturdays he was going to race Thursday night was Columbia and then Saturday night was Greenville picking Speedway yep because I remember when I got old enough to drive I remember getting a driver home actually or part of the way or Never Getting to drive home from one of those races I don't remember which one of us yeah in the tow truck no we're just in car okay okay all right let's see yeah cool you know back in the day mother pulled they pulled the race car with that green Oldsmobile yeah and yeah Green was right that was very unlucky yeah Dad hated green and peanuts the day mama bought daddy a new pair of shoes to race in back then he drove and slip on canvas shoes and they were canvas and they were black and they just said I'm not wearing them green shoes and mama said Ralph those girls shoes aren't green well they had flowers in them no they had little tiny Stripes stripes and they had a green stripe and he would not wear them she had to take them back wow no he had really big surprise yeah but he pulled with the green Oldsmobile that's cool you know I'd love to have memo here because this place is special to her yeah but every time we stop by when we'd go to lunch or something we'd ride up to [Music] who I am yep so two guys just walked through and I said hey you want to go over and do this did you no no no no no but mama would have remember I was disappointed I'm his mama yeah I told him a story about you know ma'am all caught up here but um I thought it'd be the same to be y'all too friends that way yeah some people stayed friends and would come back and see her yeah there's a lot of stories of memo just letting anybody in the house oh yeah this was 2015 I had just come here just to like go to the RCR Museum basically from Pennsylvania going on an E5 I see the sign for Kannapolis and I think that's where Dale Earnhardt's from I just took the exit it was like go drive around and see this stuff same stuff we're looking at now and we drove by the house and I saw the stone three in the front yard and I just thought oh you know whoever lives there must you know know that that's where Dale grew up I never would have thought that his mom would have still been there so and me and my friend we go to The Waffle House down across 85 and I pull out my phone and I'm reading about stuff and I find out that she still lives there and she's the same age as my grandma and I also saw the stuff about her liking to talk to people about Dale and my friend was with me he's like no man we can't bother her we don't want to do that and I'm like dude she's the same age as my grandma my grandma sits inside all day watches TV and we'll talk to anybody about anything and loves it we should go there and just see if she wants to talk she might like it so we did we go up he didn't want to get out of the truck we were in that Escalade by the way before it was a race car we got out rang the doorbell she is on the phone and she opens the door and kind of puts the phone down and she's like can I help you boys and I'm like yeah we uh we heard you like talking to people about Dale so we wanted to stop by and see if you were home and she was just like I don't know if this is a real phone call or what she just took the phone and goes hangs up she's like what do you boys want to know that's what she did There's memo I called her from work one time and I I said what are you doing she said I'm talking to this nice young man I said mother we told you not to let people in the house she said we're not in the house we're sitting on the front porch easy access was fortunate you know the right people always showed up she said race fans aren't going to hurt me she said they're all good people all good people is what she always said they're all good people she was a charm for sure you know when Dale first was killed at first it hurt her for people to always say you know that's the most devastating day of my life and she said well how do they think I feel I was his mother but then over time it made her feel good that that many people love Dale she said just the fact that that many people love my son that's when she started sharing stories and wanting to hear stories about Dale because that brought her comfort food but after you know a period of time at first it was hurtful but I think she would not when they would show clips on TV she wouldn't yeah she did not want to see him talking right yeah yeah it's hard even now for I mean there's so much and it's good for his kids his grandkids his great grandkids because they will always know what he sounds like what he looks like high Walt hi tall you know how he moved and that's not everybody doesn't have that you know for their legacy so to speak but yeah he does well I've told him the story about how I first met dad all you know took him all the schools I went to and the story is about the first time that Sherry Earnhardt lined everything up for me to talk to him on the phone one night and went over there that evening we sat there and talked on the phone for you know 10-15 minutes and then you know I got a Christmas gift back following Christmas from Santa it was a racetrack and um with the race cars and of course you know my dad Jack yeah didn't want anything to do with this me knowing anything or having any connection with him and so I guess I don't really know I never I never asked I never asked but um I told him about the time I met my mole the first time at the Ballpark where I played Paul when uh told him the whole story and I've been trying to remember the story of the first time we met I got a memory we used to go roller skating at the skating rink do you remember that did you ever go roller skating yeah okay going over behind Pizza yeah yeah well we were there me and the kids I don't know if Pam was with us because we used to take our kids Brad and Mark and Ashland and Jennifer and you were there and we talked and I told you who I was and there was one or two times that we did interact when you were little now I don't remember how old you were you couldn't have been more than probably 10 it may be younger I don't remember but we did see I don't remember that I know I knew you didn't that's the time you did the podcast with Dale yep I told Bill I said I got other memories and he said we won't be on the podcast I said no well I I remember memo I remember playing ball and after the game I was going out to the car and this woman and two girls sit down and just watch me and finally my mom come up one time after the game and says hey Carrie I'm your mama Earnhardt and this is your cousin Jennifer National and I'm like that and I didn't know about Dad before this yeah this is the first time I learned about my real life how my life was a bunch of blood Ken yes Dale came to the nursery one time and talked to me and he said Carrie Jackie is wanting to adopt Carrie and he said what should I do I said Dale I hate you I mean I just told him my feelings and I said but I know that's your decision and I think he thought he couldn't pay at the time he was not sales right right right right it was not able and um but he did I let Jackie adopt you then but I know mother did her best anytime that lataine would let her see you I mean she could come and see you but Dale couldn't but I know mother came to see you when you were little you wouldn't remember right and I remember that one Christmas when she took her Christmas gift and they wouldn't let her see I think you were older then and she was devastated and after that that you know she couldn't see you in the morning I guess it was about your age and they were afraid about you having questions right but I tell you when latane left there he was never the same person it changed him he changed his whole personality he was because Dale was a good dad and provider he worked every day but montane was on the second shift and he would bring you over to Mamas and Daddy's and Mama would play with you know take care of you as a baby and he'd go out and shop with Daddy and work on race cars well attain did not like that she didn't not like that at all and whatever their reason for left leaving him I don't know but it devastated it changed his life well I never like Brazil presented anything or questioned why and I never knew what all transparent I don't I don't know so I'm envisioning that they were high school sweethearts 16. and maybe got pregnant yes and then got married yes so see how long were they married you were a year old I was a year old when they separated okay and we always just said they were too young so maybe if it wasn't even a year married not really because she was pregnant she was pregnant so they probably wasn't married yeah and I know I've seen a picture of papa hold me when I was about two years old two and a half years okay and I I don't know where it was at but I know and I don't know where the picture's at now but mama had it and showed it and the two people that sadly that could tell the whole story it's sad that you know they yeah they're the only two that know the whole real story it's their story to tell it's hard to tell because you know I was living my life you were living your life and she I remember bits and pieces she remembers bits and pieces now I'm kind of wanting to know more yeah um and and like and the sadness series gone and Danny's gone but too they knew a lot more they knew more than anybody because mama and Sherry were friends they hung out together the debt because Sherry lived right beside lataine and believing they live side by side so they were free growing up yep and so that's why Sherry was the one that hooked up the phone calls right because she was close friends I know we we did some things with Sherry and Danny and I didn't even know I just thought they were friends I didn't know they were family yeah at the time yeah until after I met mama that's the hard part is all the ones that know are gone that's interesting because like with me I had a girl I dated and we got pregnant and I thought marriage is the best thing to do and support your family and not quite three years where I leave I walk out which was the best thing yeah because it wasn't right it wasn't going to work yeah it wasn't gonna work and you know hindsight listen to Dad I wish he would have sent me that military school he threatened to see me too at that time but I got two great kids I just think it's interesting how a lot of my life is similar to his and it's just coincident it ain't that it's because you know he's my father it just happens that way but it does kind of connect it does I think yeah him and daddy were a lot alike that way they could they knew people better than most they could foresee people's personalities somehow they were very similar in the fact that they had a few words to say and when they were done saying it they were done we're done yeah yeah but as far as Kannapolis and uh and uh workers of Kannapolis my mother you know she worked at the donut dinette she worked at Nita's and when we were little we didn't have a lot of real interaction with Kannapolis than what we said coming to Woolworths and going to the gym theater but as mothers started working in those places she really developed a lot of relationships with people and the infrastructure of Kannapolis especially the donuts and especially the donut dinette but then it needed some of them everybody that had new babies come there to buy their babies Christening gowns or baby clothes or a baby gift and and I'll meet people even today they'll say oh I just met your mom was so precious you know I bought my baby's first dress it needed and I didn't know who she was and she was the most gracious person you know growing up mama had boom boom boom five kids and she never had to work right Daddy's provided and raised five kids racing and left her debt free home paid full money in the bank when he died young at 44 45 years ago 45 and you know so she never had to work and her mother went to work at Aunt Ruth's Greenhouse well she did work at anything but that was for a little spending money yes because she wanted a washer and a dryer oh yep we had a ringer washer on the back porch wow in it one time back out and I have it in my house ouch you got it oh wow because daddy wouldn't buy anything on credit you had to pay for cash we never he never I wish we lived by that today mother never picked it out either oh really he would go and buy a bedroom suit bring it home and it'd be there when she are he bought it she had to be happy with it yeah wow truck that that they found sun in yeah Dale Jr's got bottled with cash okay so I know whenever I started coming around the family remember I worked at Nita's and she's worked there the whole time yeah and that's all I knew I didn't know about that donut done it I never knew about that one so in Memo's House now how old were y'all when y'all moved in there or seven maybe no you were in the first grade because I cried so you started the first grade but I had to start with almost seven that's true because of my birthday is in October and I cried because I want to go to school I cried because I didn't want to go oh yeah my first whooping we still live down in an apartment and for some reason she got to go up to Grandma's and they wouldn't let me go and so I hid in the closet and Mom and Daddy was in their kitchen and I got mama's red high heels and I snuck out of the house and I went up and the boss lived on the corner and here I went clumping in them red high heels I'm going to Grandma's you know I was Billy badass grandma and so I heard Daddy coming and I'll hit in the wardrobe I said Grandma please don't tell him I'm here I can't lie to your daddy Kathy and he switched me till I wet my pants oh wow and I never run away again and you know I remember every whipping he gave me and while it was four and that was it oh wow yeah well I noticed I didn't consider it child abuse I never considered getting beaten a child abuse I mean I had welps on my back and my butt better behave yes yes well we learned in fact we learned nowadays they don't they taught us they want respect well I know one time when I was a I was a cheerleader and I was maybe seventh grade oh I'll never forget this and my grades were really bad and daddy would and she's a straight A student no yes but I had a feeling great in something and he would not let me go to the Ball Game to the dance to anything and that was it you better believe my grades were better than next oh yeah that was I couldn't do anything I couldn't go play with my buddies or anything and he stood by the rules yeah if he told you something you didn't say but why not or but Daddy well please back mother all day but Daddy you asked once yeah well I just knew the town meant so much memo and it meant a lot to me because I grew up cruising here and you know coming up here shopping and me and my friend Kay Smith okay Keener yeah she had a GTO and we'd come and cruise through every now and then but it wasn't our regular hangout right our regular hangout was Whataburger number five that's not there anymore over there right there where Walgreens is on the corner okay yeah before that yeah but um or we'd go down to um right across from the hospital in Concord Martins Martin's Drive-In which they've moved it which was the Concord people right so we hung out kind of with both that's what I did you know I did the same thing yeah I remember this ceremony with this the Sam Bass and I were on the committee to choose the sculpture of Clyde Ross Morgan great man um a lot of the details you know we chose on the committee of course Theresa had the final say what was done they're very emotional very emotional time I remember him coming to mother's house and Danny had kind of the same body structures I remember the ceremony going on with the Statue and you like said you was involved with the board and everything and how much how special was the memo especially to a lot of us memo was very emotional that day yes and I know you talked about the guy you worked with in Arizona and how it was delivered with fans and all that's pretty neat but let's go look and see what the statue is really so you said it came in pieces like it was in pieces they put together you remember no I don't know that's one piece this was impeachable the base okay it was laying on a trailer strapped down he was laying on a truck well and I'm I think whenever we've done the ceremony we all sit over there right wasn't we all sitting over there I think I think we were over there because it seemed like I remember I was facing Main Street I got Street pictures at home we did face memes I think we did yeah and I think it's pretty cool because they've got everything I think there was fan fans right [Music] I remember that day it was pretty neat and that was they had had not built this while we had no no no no no the park wasn't built at all I don't even think the bricks were here I think it was just this statue that wasn't an amazing job at me this it's him and what we wrote in our handwriting is well see I didn't know about all this I wonder why I didn't do nothing like that oh up there oh yeah we love you and miss you always be in our hearts forever your family that is cool see I didn't know about that until now and then Clyde Ross did that sculptured by oh wow he was about this tall in life yeah you always look it up to him this thing like it yeah he was a little taller he was six foot Well everybody's taller than you six one yeah I'm 6-1 I was the same height he just barely your height yeah but he seemed bigger than mine he did the statue of Nadine scene bigger yep and he was from the day he was born he was large and in charge well I'm gonna say it like we talked earlier the lining in that caskets wore out from him rolling over rolling over and the stuff happened in the world today and family and racing and everything yeah bicycle races at home back in the day yeah yeah imagine what it would be like today I bike apart we didn't get anything with Wells on it that he didn't take apart whether the wagon a tricycle or a bottle well is he souping it up or what yeah he's working on making them faster off of it say we never got everybody didn't get one we got one to share oh okay we had a Rosemary's bike yeah and so Dell always took things apart and made them his I remember him riding a bicycle sitting on the handlebars and this loved the adventure yeah and he wanted to race and that was the that was part of the problem with his marriages right he wanted well Jason came first I think he accomplished all that he realized that wasn't most important it was a little bit you know that what three days before he was killed he told Daryl Walter Daryl I've got it exactly he did he did I've got it at all and and I grew up as a family you hug and love each other and yeah you were obviously he did too yeah but he never said it no he never hugged but our daddy did he was not a big hugger up to that weekend he did and I have to share that I did get a few hugs because I was traveling with them all right she was there yeah I mean daddy wasn't a hugger I don't remember daddy hugging and saying I love you or and I remember I raised at Daytona in the dash series that Friday and then that Saturday morning I left to come home and I told him bye and he give me a hug and tell me he loved me and told me about it was like the third time he's done that um but I mean I felt him getting more personal and more involved involved to be involved I think it just had a little more time yeah that's not God's plan well none of us are promised to Mars last year Kay and I left for the beach the day after that but it was in June yeah this year's in August yeah well I love you Kerry I love you more as mama always said I'm just happy to be I'm happy to be yeah we're happy we're gonna have our time together absolutely a little bit that we have a houses have a niche here a little bit here or there that's all we can do oh please yeah I didn't want to interrupt the moment when you were standing there your feet and your knees were exactly like the statue oh really 100 blue with Dad back when dad first started racing and how let them kind of tell you the story because I wasn't around them but um I understood there was a connection made between someone higher up in either short Motor Speedway or NASCAR that connected this guy with my dad turn left and then the destination turn that thing off and they joined together and I'll let him tell you the story because it's interesting story about the car and the color of the car and all that was it humpy wheeler I don't know if it's humpy I don't think it's humping I gotta find this guy first and I'm not handicapped so I can't park there not I mean physically I ain't but mentally I might be this looks good to me but what I what I understood is like last I think it's Lance Rick Richard and Bill France when Dad in 1979 Maybe dad was gonna run a limited schedule and he taught Mike into the sponsoring dad is the story I heard and then Dad went on to 1980 winning the championship yeah so I'll I wasn't around at all this time um Bailey won the championship win right yeah they're just picking up the stories um Mike wasn't the owner of the car he was the sponsor has sponsored it too okay because he bought it from Austin okay that's pretty cool yeah it is I've never seen one of these particular ones up close before that's probably just like a little dolly Hammer to beat it out yeah instead of a roller now fill in the factory bumper and stuff yeah just rivet it through the bumper and see they had to cut the bumper to make it shorter yeah welded it back and then Chrome that's unreal was that the Oldsmobile had a more aerodynamic nose and the Chevy did so for the speedway it's amazing looking back at stuff how they did like all the fabing and everything you're a wish that you could have been around to drive the cars of this era [Music] um it'd have been interesting I think it's been a lot different for sure they've been cool to actually try it out did he just keep this car the whole time did he like sell it and have to find it again wow [Music] here we have two Chevrolets one like I said is on the trailer and the other one is that Mike's house in Nashville Tennessee oh that thing stick too yeah imagine wearing that um Talladega 100 degrees outside all day be hot it's a large the large kids oh yeah that is so cool though I didn't Barrel we got all kind of rape uniforms in them Indy a lot of a lot of the Indie race uniforms and Michael big and indy cars and another main reason I wanted to come out here because I know after your Dad's passing and everything you know my mama she was very passionate about Kannapolis you know what for someone to get in contact with my mom to have her to come up and sign autographs had to be very special for her it was Unreal she was the nicest person I mean she she really looked forward to coming in here yeah I mean I know she's told me about times that she was coming in she'd come in and signs to the Big Bus people come in from different places all over all over everywhere and so that she'd come in here and sign them sell sell her cookbooks like he was talking earlier and um her and uh Jeff Gordon's mom done the cookbook I don't know why I can't remember her name all of a sudden but that was a pretty special time for men while she's like she liked what I was involved with that she was proud of her cookbook and proud of wanting to be somewhere to sign autographs and I don't know I can't remember Carol that's it I can't remember how old she was when she started ever up till she couldn't go no more yeah she drove over here every time oh yeah she'd drive that car right over here we go out there and get her and help her bring the books in help her uh you know get set up and everything and get her I'd get her a bottle of water and put it on the table and I'd sit down and talk to him yeah so she'd tell all kind of stories and that's the table she said that right sit right here so people would come around this way and they'd come up and line up there'd be people lined up all the way out the back door oh signing autographs that's pretty neat and uh but I went to lunch with her quite often and I know one time she drove one of the first times we went to go she drove and ever since after that one time I drove because she scared living pee out of it she was a Lead Foot he said you want us to come get you we'll come get you yeah no problem right okay yep and then after that so I started taking her driving to lunch I'd pick her up and drive and I hear stories of her and a group of girls would get together and go to the beach and she would always drive she wouldn't let the Bay Drive they'd go to The Townhouse Restaurant and said that she she would always get there like 40 minutes earlier than what the rest of them because she was so fast if Roger would line up a tour if they'd be here at one o'clock she'd be here at 12 30. really yes getting ready and set up ready I mean just happy the Lark gets to get ready and I'd go get her from felt pins and and some Sharpies and she had this she had this brochure it was uh I think it was something like a Dale Trail if she had signed those she had signed anything people would bring stuff in uh the only thing I never saw in was a hood oh really a little bit of a car I'm surprised but uh yeah we would come in and uh you know and sign cars they'd sign hats they'd signed shirts all kind of I mean she just signed everything and what was good about her was when she'd get through signing them then after said can we have a picture with him if she is staying right here in front of this car and get a picture really yep well I know we we met with that Kathy and K earlier and that's you know one thing they touched on his house she would she never met a stranger she always you know they would always fuss her about letting just anybody in the house and she's like these people are good people they're race fans well that's that's why I was telling you a while ago about the people that would come down I right over Michigan and they came down toward the curbs Museum here and uh she said this we came down to buy a cookbook and I said Well ma'am I don't have any cookbooks here uh I said Martha always brings them with him we go out and unload them out of a car and bring them in when she signs autographs and uh she said well I want to buy one and I said okay hold on a minute so I went to the office and I called her up and asked her I said these we got some people from Michigan wanting to buy a cookbook and I said would it be all right for me to come over and get one and she says no bring them over here yeah don't come get one just bring them with you bring it with us memo she said have them follow you and come over here he says I'll sign it and everything right in front of it oh wow and I said okay so uh I took her I took him over and she she didn't stop one she was meeting us at the door yeah and had the door open and she says come on in they went in there in the living room in that big room in the front and that's where they sat for 20 minutes and that was that was Memo yes her that was her well I don't want to take much of your time I just wanted to come by and get this story because I know Memaw always talked a lot about Mike Curb and curb racing and a lot of stuff she's done and you know how Mike she enjoyed Mike thinking about her and helping her out too yes I appreciate it I appreciate it thank you Gene come on by anytime all right oh speaking of if you're ever in the area you've got to get by curb Motorsports it's not just all Motorsports they have the North Carolina Hall of Fame Museum for music musicians and everybody anybody that's from North Carolina anybody from North Carolina we do an induction ceremony every October oh wow anywhere between Ronnie and Millsap Charlie Charlie Daniels all kinds it's all kind of stuff that's pretty neat I know you showed us a car Leann Ron's first car here a Viper a first car is a Viper yeah oh wow I mean I think my first car was a Volkswagen mine was a pickup truck mine was a 65 Impala I wish I had my power back if I knew back then what I know now I'd still have it but I ended up with the 70 and the 72 Chevelle so another show for another time yep speaking of nutshell for no time I appreciate y'all joining us and uh maybe we'll see you down the road about my racing career hope so you gotta leave a comment if you want to see that blow it up down there yeah boy please well this was the longest and most I don't know probably most profound video we've ever posted if you just considered the broad range of Life events and lessons that Kerry talked about it took a lot of effort to make it so if you enjoyed it when you're watching on TV do us a favor pull your phone out hit thumbs up on this and leave a comment because we know over half of you are watching this on a TV and you don't have access to control and you know typing stuff like phone or computer viewers do but we want to hear from you we want to know what you thought was the most interesting what you want to hear more about and it helps yeah it does it helps us if you if you enjoy this history doing something as simple as clicking the thumbs up or leaving a comment or engaging with it helps it grow which helps us make more videos for you to watch and if you want to watch more of them you click the little Bell on the subscription button it'll give you a notification but I think if you're on a phone you go into your settings and enable subscription or enable push notifications from YouTube and it'll actually like tell you when there's a new one if you're just appreciate us that much and you want to support even further you can go to stapletonautoworks.com and find the stuff behind us we'll pack it and ship it right here we got this Good Wrench looking one and a matching hat which I'm wearing right now mine might be dirty because I work in it they're Richardson uh Ferguson 112 mesh back one size fits all unless you have an abnormally large head and the one I was wearing in here was this Winston styled one yep that's it that's the back of that one and we have matching hat for that and decals too if you're uh wanting to be involved but aren't able to get a shirt you can get some stickers will give you like five stickers for nine bucks it's like all the Retro type logos and if you're still here and wanting to watch more you can find the same format Hometown history tour video that we've also done with Mark Martin and Kenny Wallace in their respective hometowns so go to the channel page check that out and uh trying to remember something from this learn something there's lots of cool stuff there

Channel: Stapleton42

Views: 1,034,987

Keywords: lsxcalade, escalade, turbo, twin turbo, stapleton42, Mitchell stapleton, 427, lsx, dyno, 2000 hp, 4x4, big turbo, suburban, yukon, denali, dale jr, rmrw, boost, v8, ls1, esv, boom tube, daytona, Alex bowman, suck it, monte carlo, first gen monte, ls swap, pro touring, lsa supercharged, iroc x pipe, dr gas, vice grip garage, amc dealership, junkyard, sterling marlin, nascar, engine tech, factory, made in usa, nostalgia, classic, audi, v10, mark martin, dale earnhardt, lake speed, 358, r07, sb2, c3, f1

Id: lso2UJwWHII

Length: 109min 42sec (6582 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 29 2023