Dick Beaty, call BR-549

We were in the Talladega Superspeedway infield media center in the early 1990s — probably 1990 or '91 — and someone got on the PA system.

"Dick Beaty, call BR-549," the man's voice said; nothing else.

I had watched the old "Hee Haw" TV show years earlier, and I remembered the Junior Samples skit. The phone number for Junior's fictional used-car lot was BR-549. "Call BR-549," the super country Junior would say each week to canned laughter.

The late Dick Beaty, a nice man I talked to once or twice, was then the Winston   Cup director. I don't know if Beaty replied to the message. The announcement did draw laughter in the media center.

Contact: I can be reached at tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com. Also, my Twitter handle is EDITORatWORK.

More entries from TARJ

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

EDITOR@WORK blog entries 

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• What I do when I'm editing

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn•

Entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 12 years with my dog Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• YIP! YIP! The stereo-sound huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!