Drag racing through Gettysburg before there were cars

The horses resembled harnessed dragons. With each breath exhaled through their nostrils, the horses’ breaths turned to vapor resembling smoke from fire-breathing dragons. They pawed at the snow on the street, waiting anxiously. A sleigh with a driver sat behind each horse. The young men in the sleighs grinned at each other and at an unspoken signal, they snapped their whips and the horses leaped forward pulling their respective sleighs behind them. While the sleighs might be typical vehicles of the day, if one driver was Frank Deatrick, then he would ride in a streamlined speedster that would draw as many appreciative glances as a Ferrari would today on the roads of Gettysburg. Deatrick’s sleigh, though costly, was fast and designed for racing. “Suddenly there was the thud of rapidly galloping horses hoofs, and homes empties along York and Chambersburg Read more…