One time when we were talking about borrow or bar ditches and crowns in the road, those terms are critical that make roadways safe during rainy conditions.

That reminded me of another road building term. When you hear about the amount of super in a curve, (which I guarantee most of you never have) that actually is short for Superelevation. That is how much slope there is in a curve or how much tilt there is.

If you notice racetracks have varying degrees of slope, depending on the speed that will be used during a race. A highway curve is no different, except the amount of super is much less because of much lower speeds.

Where I’m going with this is back when we ran FM 1431 East out of Marble Falls home to Smithwick, there were several curves that were lacking in the amount of super, but non as treacherous as the curve at the turnoff to Fry’s Camp. Either there was a complete miscalculation in the design of the original highway (it was corrected when the road was rebuilt in the early 1970s) or they never intended for a car to take that curve at more 30 MPH.

If you drove that road often, you could develop a technique of going into the curve low, meaning almost hanging a tire off the road in the oncoming lane when eastbound and by the time you came out of the almost 90 degree curve you would almost be off the right side. Depending on the vehicle, the speed would vary, but in our 1966 short wheel based Chevrolet pickup, with practice you could actually let the rear wheels break loose and slide or drift. This was because it was so light in the backend.

I think this is what happened when Grant Ray Thompson talked about one time of getting down in the floorboard in an act of prayer with Kenny Lewis at the wheel, most likely traveling in access of 90 MPH.

Luckily the adjacent field allowed a driver to see what was “around the corner” and there was much less traffic back in those days.

Of course times were different back then, as were most teenagers and adults driving habits, especially out Smithwick way.