In a message dated 9/14/2005 12:05:38 PM Pacific Standard Time, WXFORDS@aol.com writes: If you ever hear the term "hard road" you can bet they are from Southern Illinois. When they started paving the roads people in the local area would call them the "hard road". lol. You have to know the difference between the black top and the hard top when it comes to roads down there. Hard top refers to the highway and black top to the asphalt roads. When the water was up, they used to put their Model A's on the railroad tracks and travel around that way. Susan