Plate sale a hair-raising event
By Kim Hasty
The Sandspur
Al Lowry went first. Despite the fact that he was among the men with the most to lose.
Snip. Snip. Buzz. Buzz. And his thick head of hair, reminiscent of, he says, a young Dick Clark, was gone.
"The last time I had a crewcut I believe I was 10 years old,'' he said.
But he didn't mind a bit.
He and several of Ronnie Hammond's buddies had their heads completely shaved in an effort to let their longtime friend know they're not going to let him go it alone.
Hammond, for years a fixture at Cumberland County Speedway where he raced his AMC Javelin in Sportsman races, is battling throat cancer and has lost his hair to chemotherapy.
Some of his longtime Massey Hill and Hope Mills friends got together to try to figure out a way to help.
So it was that, after the head shaving was completed, they saw to the cooking. A group of Hammond's friends got together at Monk Hair's place and cooked more than 300 pounds of pork.
"We had two cookers, and they were slam full,'' Lowry said. "It was a lot of fun.''
For the past few weeks, Lowry and Billy Johnson had been making plans, selling tickets. They had sold nearly 2,000 tickets at $10 each for a barbecue plate sale. The proceeds would go to Hammond.
On the morning of Feb. 27, they and their cohorts assembled the barbecue that had been slow-cooking for hours, along with baked beans and coleslaw, and made their way to Eastern Atlantic Underground on Russell Street in Fayetteville. The business is owned by Lowry's son Robbie, who also donated a rifle and shotgun for a raffle.
Sporting their newly shaved heads and baseball caps bearing Hammond's name, they served up plates of barbecue for hours. And they welcomed a speechless Hammond.
"He was pretty overcome,'' Johnson said.
Most of the friends in attendance have known Hammond through the good times. Lowry, in particular, has been on snow-skiing trips and horseback-riding excursions with Hammond.
Now the friends are there through the tough times, too.
"He would have done the same for me,'' Lowry said.
Sandspur editor Kim Hasty can be reached at hastyk@fayobserver.com or 323-4848, ext. 478.