Like ghosts from the past, old-time dirt track drivers who gave birth to modern-day NASCAR have descended upon Mount Airy, giving visitors and residents of the town a glimpse at what life was like a generation, or two, ago.

Old-time cars, used for racing and for running illegal whiskey, have been on display, along with some of those drivers from a by-gone era. It has all been in conjunction with the White Liquor and Dirt Tracks event put on by the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History, celebrating the roots of American racing.

I have to admit I don’t have a lot of history with racing, though I do enjoy watching it from time to time. My “history,” if you want to call it that, is visiting a little paved track in Callaway, Va., a few times when I was a boy, alternating between watching cars go around the track and watching my grandfather standing and yelling with excitement at several points during the evening. Neither my dad nor I really knew much of what was going on, other than some guy named Rick Mast was lapping the field numerous times every race his car was on the track, but it was clear my grandfather understood and appreciated the sport.

Racing isn’t really in my roots. The closest thing I have to a family history with racing is my father telling me stories about driving from Roanoke, Va., where he and his brothers lived at the time, to Martinsville, Va., to watch a few races. Most of you will recognize Martinsville as the site for a twice-annual visit by NACAR’s Sprint Cup division, but back in those days the track was made of dirt.

“When we got there I was amazed,” my dad once told me. “I had never seen so many people with red hair. Everyone had red hair.” A couple laps later and he and his brother figured out it wasn’t some genetic oddity which seemed to make every racing fan’s hair that color. It was good old red Virginia dirt being flung into the air with each pass of the race cars.

I’ve taken my own sons to a couple of dirt track races, and I have to say it is a thrill. You’re pretty close to the action at most small tracks, and the rumble of those engines is hard to describe. Even if you know nothing about cars or racing, it’s still well-worth the cost of admission.

When it comes to white liquor, or moonshine as it was called where I grew up, my family has a much closer association. I’ve never tasted the stuff myself, but my father tells me stories of his boyhood days. A lot of kids can tell you they worked on the farm, or milked the cows every morning. My dad will tell you he tended his father’s still.

Even today I think if he gets within a mile of the stuff he can sniff it out and even tell you what the base ingredient was.

My own grandfather served time in prison for making moonshine, although I have to admit to being impressed with not only the fact that he made it but that he often flaunted it out in the open for years and was caught only once. To hear the family tales, he even set up a store once, with a few items inside to make the business look legitimate, but with a constant supply of moonshine for sale out back. Even the local police came by every once in a while, but never caught on to what he was doing.

I can’t exactly encourage you to find and visit any local sources of moonshine (not that I know of any, really, I don’t), but I think you’d find it a lot of fun to check out the White Liquor and Dirt Tracks display in Mount Airy. It continues today, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the museum and there will be a showing of Thunder Road at the Downtown Cinema at 2 p.m.

John Peters is editor of The Mount Airy News. He can be reached at jpeters@mtairynews.com