History Hub

Long before million-dollar sponsorships dominated the motorsports world, drag racing was a dangerous, underground hobby. Hot rodders in the late 1940s ruled the streets, constantly playing a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse with local police. But one visionary from Santa Barbara changed all that, transforming a dangerous hobby into a legitimate, organized American sport. His name was Bob Joenhnck, but to me he was just Grandps. My grandfather enlisted in the Army out of high school. He served in England as an aircraft mechanic , a role perfectly aligned with his mechanical talents and passions. When the war was over, he returned home to Santa Barbara and turned his interest to cars. In the late 1940s, he operated a two-pump Texaco station at the corner of Mission and De Lavina. From what he told me, that single-stall garage was the ultimate hangout spot for gearheads. He used to tell me about his drives down to Los Angeles to pick up parts from his friend Vic Edelbrock Sr. (founder of...

Saving American Faith Imagine living in a world where your local tax dollars directly paid the salary of a preacher you didn't agree with. If you skipped his Sunday sermon, you faced a fine. If you preached without a government license, you went to jail. For many in early America, this wasn't fantasy. It was daily life. Today, we take the phrase "separation of church and state" for granted. We view it as a foundational, obvious pillar of democracy. But in the early American Republic, it was a radical, explosive experiment. It didn't happen overnight, and it certainly didn't happen because everyone suddenly got along. Instead, it was forged through an unlikely alliance between elite, skeptical intellectuals and fiery, passionate religious rebels. The Problem with the "Good Old Days" Before the Revolution, ten of the original thirteen colonies had official state-sponsored religions, heavily funded by mandatory taxpayer dollars. Only Rhode Island, Penn...