Early Start
Jimmy and Roz Howard at Lakewood Speedway in the late fifties. Possibly 1957 when Roz was on his way to the MARC season championship.
“As with most kids back then, I started working at a young age,” Mosteller continued. “The rest of my time was spent at school and helping out at home since my father had died when I was young. As I said, one of the first jobs I ever had was in the dairy business, and it was no piece of cake. Every morning I left home at one a.m. and walked the mile and a half to Powell’s Dairy there in north Roswell. Would milk a dozen cows, then pour it up and load it for delivery. Mr. Powell would drive and I set out the bottles at each house. The man never stopped unless someone had a change of order, so I did a bunch of running along side that old truck. But he was fair. I got fed, fifty cents and day and all the milk I could drink.
“From there I would walk on to school and then come back in the evening and milk another dozen. I never had a problem sleeping at night for sure. And (I) didn’t mind the walk. But one wee hour I was going to work, strolling by the graveyard and accidentally flushed out a covey of quail.”
“Cuz,” he said laughing, “let me tell you, spooks or not, I wasn’t ready for that. A striped mule couldn’t have caught me. I didn’t look back until I got to Mr. Powell’s house.”
Jimmy, Eddie MacDonald and flagman Earl Coleman after Eddie wins another of many victories (probably at Columbus Speedway).
Jimmy did some horse racing while he was going to Milton High School in Alpharetta.
“I was an apprentice jockey and was heading in that direction as a career,” he said. “Then the war came. Three buddies and myself left Roswell to join the Navy. We thought the four of us could take care of the Germans overnight. We didn’t, of course, and when I returned home three years later I had put on a little too much weight so I went into announcing the shows instead of racing.
“I also worked in the local grocery and drug stores to continue helping my mother with our home. At that time if you had a place with two bedrooms and an outhouse you were in business.”
“Johnny Green was a salesman for Hav-A-Tampa Cigar Company,” Mosteller said. “I always put his product in a good location at the counters. Let me tell you, I could move those cigars. I told Pub Mabry (former mayor of Roswell) that he best be glad I didn’t go into politics, because I would have given him a run for his money. Anyway, Mr. Green told me when I got out of the Navy he would hire me as a salesman.”