Review By Jim Clark (The Hot Rod MD)

This book is titled “The Little Bastards” and is different than most of the books featured on Hotrod Hotline because it is fiction rather than fact-based and includes no photos.  The Author “Jim Lindsay” is a gearhead like most of us, and grew up in a small Oregon town during the 50s where he experienced the same trials and tribulations that many of us did during that era.

Unlike other authors of books from this era Jim has chosen to recount what it was like by creating a ficticuous group of young men that belong to a loosely formed club, named by others as “The Little Bastards”.  Their story begins in adolescence, before they reach the age required to get that all-important driver’s license and first car.

“The Olsen’s were the prettiest girls in our side of town and getting prettier every day, if you know what I mean.”  With the changes they had gone through they had become way out of our league.  I’d watched my dad drive enough times and knew about how the clutch and the gear shift worked, I just had never gotten the chance to get the feel of it.  So I put in the clutch, pulled the gear shift back where low was supposed to be on a column shift, and let out the clutch.  It just jerked a couple of times and killed the motor.

I thought the girls were going to laugh themselves sick.  I had accidently gotten the thing in high gear instead of low.  It’s hard to think when you’re in the company of two girls who look like teenage movie stars but are acting like children.  They could have wet their pants they were laughing so hard.”

The story continues through their school years on into their post-graduate years and their discovery of the opposite sex.  Lots of car activities are included in the tales and if you are the kind of person that likes to read, then you will appreciate the author’s unique ability to paint a picture with words.

“What about popping the hood?” I asked.  “I’d kind of like to know what you got in there that kicked my ass so good.”

“It’s just a little ole six I got out of Uncle Bill’s beer truck.” He said.

After seeing the contents between his two front fenders I was feeling a little better about my little 239” stock Ford flathead.  Instead of the 50 Chevy six I was expecting, it was a 270” GMC he had gotten out of a delivery truck and it was all chromed out with three carbs and a split manifold right below the Vertex magneto.  Hell, it was a full-blown hot rod.

His writing style invokes images from the past that take the reader back to their own remembrances from that same era.  The five-year saga unfolds chapter-by-chapter with a continuous flow of ah-ha moments.  Its old-fashion story telling, without the “PC” message.  A refreshing break from the digital barrage we are subjected to on a daily basis.

About the Author

The author of two previous titles, “An Average Hot Rodder” and “The Bob Duedall BComp Story”, Jim Lindsay was born in Corvallis, Oregon in 1947.  He was raised on a farm that sustained him and his family near the small town of Shedd.  After eight years of education in a two room grade school, he attended and graduated from Albany Union High School during Cold War 1960s.  A stint in the Navy Reserve and a year and a half of college was followed by 42 years of farming.  Jim is a novelist, hot rodder, drag racer, and pilot of a land speed racecar.  Visit him at http://jimlindsayauthor.com/.