I was trying to ID the bike. If he is about 14 years old in the pic, going by the amount of merit badges, then that would be around 1946. And the bike is probable 6-10 years old in that pic, so that would make it a 1938 or so bike. Going by the straight downtube, that would be about right. Roadmaster chainwheel maybe or Huffman, I'm leaning toward CWC.
Big Daddy is still with us, he's 88 years old. I looked for his birthdate and found this:
"Garlits was forced to retire from racing in 1992 – at the age of 60 – due to a detached retina in his eye. He made two brief comebacks in 1998 and again in 2003, attaining a personal best of 323 mph in 4.7 seconds (on a quarter-mile, before NHRA scaled back Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars to 1,000-foot lanes)."