June 23-Patick Countian, Billy Martin story in Roanoke Times

Souce: Roaoke Times June 23 2012. STUART — Officially, he's a senior citizen. So what? The No. 1 go-go guy of the AARP clan around these parts loves living life in the fast lane. Face it, there's nothing slow about Billy Martin. Talk about your basic 65-year-old human live wire. Not much lounging in the living room easy chair watching television for this cat. Hey, Martin has way too much going on for any such prolonged respites. If he's not on his early morning 5-mile walk, he's pedaling 10 miles on his bicycle on the back roads of Patrick County. And if he's not hauling a truckload of watermelons from South Carolina, he's hauling the mail in his late-model stock car on Saturday nights at Franklin County Speedway. "I'm really just like a kid, sure 'nuff," said Martin, breaking into laughter. "I just love doing stuff. I stay on the run pretty much all the time." Since retiring from the Virginia Department of Transportation seven years ago, Martin's work schedule has started every Monday at 3 a.m. That's when he climbs into his snazzy red Ford pickup truck and makes the four and a half hour trip to Columbia, S.C. Like clockwork, he picks up the 150 watermelons that he then peddles on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at his roadside stand on Virginia 8. It's a gig Martin knows well. His father, Aubrey, sold watermelons and apples until he died, at 96. "I started going with him when I was 6 years old," Martin said. "When I retired from VDOT, I said I'm going to down to South Carolina where he used to get all his stuff. I'm buying from one of the same men he used to buy from. "And it's fun. I'm going on the same ol' back roads that he went on, too, and I have even stopped at some of the same places and ate. It brings back so many memories. I made a little bit of money off that first trip, and I've been going ever since." None of the loot has stayed in Martin's pocket, however. Every dime has gone for college tuition fees for his niece, Jessica, and nephew, Gideon. "All this watermelon money has gone to Virginia Tech, where both of them graduated from," a grinning Martin said. "I'm glad I've been able to do that. Trecia and I didn't have any kids, so we wanted to help them out. We wanted to make sure they got whatever they need." Said Trecia Martin: "We've been blessed by a wonderful niece and nephew. They are our godchildren, and they have a wonderful mother. I tell people that I have two children that I didn't give birth to. Jessica is 27, and she's a speech and language pathologist. Gideon, who is 21, just graduated from Tech in mechanical engineering. Both graduated with honors." While Billy Martin confessed he didn't know much about coaching, he also helped out with Jessica's basketball team and Gideon's Little League team when they were growing up "I had never coached before," Martin said. "So I bought me a book and read up on it. I didn't play sports in high school. I had to work all the time." Watermelon Man Those are the words in the decal that runs across the top of the front windshield of the race car Martin runs at Callaway. Racing has run in his blood since the late 1960s, when he started running at dirt tracks in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee.