Forty years ago! I cannot believe how time flew and how we progressed from the local dime stores, Philadelphia Sales and Western Auto to Walmart. Bank of America to HDTV.
Being the Bi-Centennial you had the patriotic look going on with many of the drivers but pictured above is Herbie Green of Elmira, NY. At one time this Late Model warrior even drove a rather cool looking Ford Torino sporting his usual #88 car.
Back in the seventies we had fins and hatchbacks, spoilers and Superbirds. By that time I was also twenty years old and in the military for just about two years, working at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville, Arkansas.
At that time I worked in the 314th Field Maintenance Squadron in the Survival Equipment Shop and was an Airman First Class. (E-2)
Going back to New York or any hometown while serving is about a big an event as getting a card from your honey in Basic Training. Nearing home you would see the Exit for your town and feel a warmth and sense of community. I got my first car, a dazzling 1974 Gremlin-X. I remember listening to Olivia Newton John and a song like, ‘If Not For You’ resonating with me as I went by the track, now closed for the winter and I conjectured as to what was happening and who was winning what.
This program was the 25th Anniversary of Eli Bodine’s Chemung Speedrome. The older version that is and often featured drivers like Geoff Bodine and Brett Bodine both. I am not sure if Todd raced there but he probably did. And Geoff won a lot of races at the track his family built.
One of the coolest features in the program are the ads. You can see what was being sold as far as cars, TVs and Refrigerators. It just seemed so much more simple although by now the Vietnam War was over and Jimmy Carter was the President of the United States.
Gail Barber was the featured driver and driver of the week for that week. He moved from the Late Models into the Modifieds with modest success both, both there and at the Old Shangri-La which also shut down there for awhile and was relocated and known as Shangri-La II these days. At the old Skyline Park. The park is gone and the track is nice but part of me thinks back to when I was a kid and this small park located on a hill was a fun spot.
I remember riding bumper cars and some hippies crashed the party and the cops were called in. One of the hippies decided on singing a song at the cops arrival which probably featured Dick Casterline, the driver of the #577 Pontiac.
The times were different yet the same. New ticket takers, track owners and a lot of new drivers and fans but the legend of the Speedrome stands resolute against those changes and future generations of drivers and fans forget or never know of 1976 and boldly tell their elders they could care less. But the true racing fan cares because it is those who shared popcorn and discussions of the great past where drivers did not wear helmets and if they did, they were not like today.
Watching the train wreck called ‘Nancy Grace’ I feel she is in other people’s personal space. If it were not for the downside of humankind, she could no longer embrace these dramas and shriek like a bloviating banshee bartering time for bits of gossip. If she missteps, her paths will be glacial thumbprints upon an arid land and her legacy will be those chains that Charles Dickens spoke of.
The gold standard of any objective is the bandage that stems the flow of further missteps. Like a ‘Deer Crossing’ sign strategically located, a berm against recklessness and a speed bump for good measure. Mercy for the deer and the pot of gold that is in each of us but seems so utterly far away, so abstract and so transient. So lost among the evil tree and thorny twig.
An example of tyranny might have been the fight between Tesla and Edison. A thing that benefitted all of us was twisted and bent for an invention or the claims of it. And as a legacy to true wit, a withering white tombstone in the alternating sides of man.
Those I like to call gossips can take any truth, co-opt it and then make themselves a martyr. There are no intentions to mitigate suffering but to make a puppet show over the pain and sadness of others. I cannot be part of this. Like Tiger Woods, what were the justifications? Indeed, he did run afoul of his wife and the sanctity of his commitment. But this is no sin against me and he knows his commission all-too-well, but do we gather interest from it? Is anyone’s life made better by this illicit banter? If so, let me know where.
This kind of hyperbole masks over the sad Seraphim’s sigh, this symbolism, this carnage, and this, without a real tear in the sophist’s eye. A funny little aside in a life full of contradictions, idle passive expressions like “standing shoulder-to-shoulder”. Sounding more like an electric fence grounded out in brackish water.
So now the Rebel Flag is the symbol of suffering and hate but does burning it’s alleged intentions put a meal on the table or correct a huge wrong? Is Eric Garner coming back to us, like a Phoenix rising from it’s ashes, who most likely is most worthy of pity? Most deserving of our love? Selling a cigarette, and getting rich? A headlock dreadlocked traded for a headstone.
The little miscreant who destroyed nine lives, is fit for a hanging for the blood on his hands. He represents no one but the brain-damaged and hateful ones. No flag represents that any more than a potato chip being a vegetable.
From Casey Anthony, to Foxy Knoxy, the truth is hidden like a fiber optic wire in a sea of circuits. We want witches so we can revile evil but every time we do so, another alter ego appears like ragweed among us. Another person to complain about. From the deviancies of Jared, to a man named Jed. We have trouble keeping our boiling caldron fed. With corpses of tiffany and trinkets of cubic zirconia we lavish both contempt and praise and not sure what witch is which.
So Nancy fires her salvos like a Gatling gun severing reality with a wag of her tongue. If this drivel flooded our drive, we would sandbag the river until we fixed the levees. Let us find some good words to say about each other, find food for the hungry, clothes for the naked and hope for the hopeless.
My favorite commercials are the ones where we pay it forward or the ones where we see the good in each other.
If we put our minds to it, Reality Shows and Gossip Shows would give way to feeding the entire world and maybe the cure for cancer or other diseases and to let others live without the need for slogans, avenues or road blocks. No more barbed-wire bounding both sinner and property but halos freely dispatched to a dying world and thirsty world. No more cannons and no more experts. No more pollen from poisonous plants and toxic people.
Better we mind our own business when that business has no place in our lives unless we wish to hug them or share our blessings. Even an offender of whatever needs to be watered right or the bitterness of that root takes hold and diminishes us all.
The last officer was killed just after helping a hungry boy.
Being an independent person and having my day out to do shopping for my cat, I went to Wally (Walmart) and I never got to check out.
Overview
It was an otherwise sunny morning except for the Chicken Hawk snoring and the consequent lack of viable quality sleep. Being overly anxious 110% of the time my tolerance for silly people was reaching a nadir, the stress of GAD knocked me down and out.
Comparative Review
Unlike most books and narratives on the topic of recalcitrant brain waves, this is both comic and serious. It plumbs the depths of medical malady and the lack of a coherent understanding of protocol.
Gaps in the Story.
Due to being advised of some of the particulars, some of the story remains incomplete but the upshot is the fact that now I have a record of seizure activity. So bear with me as I elucidate, I say e-lu-ci-date there son!
Contrasting Opinions
The time was about 7:30A.M. on Thursday, June 11th. I had what was told to me by hospital staff that I had a grand mal seizure that lasted over 30 minutes and that my condition was serious enough that I had to go to the nearest ER that was only about a mile or two away. Of course, said Chicken Hawk or Hawks as the case may be presented a conflicting story.
All I do remember are two to three snippets of consciousness after I had fallen or during it, whatever that means. I was shopping for my cats and although I am a portly bird, I do have a liking for the critters. Anyhow, I had pretty much wrapped up my shopping and was getting irritated with some of the shoppers when suddenly, I felt like I was in Emerald City and the whole seemed to shimmer and was like looking through stretch wrap. Not quite opaque. I felt my legs buckle once, then twice and then I started to fall and as I did cried out if anyone had noticed.
I remember talking to people and evidently postictally I became in their words ‘Combative’ and I was put in restraints. I even have a picture of me lying on the stretcher with my wrists restrained behind me facing down.
At the ER I woke up to see my mother and brother standing there and then one of my sisters who by the way is a nurse. At least that is how the story goes. After she left I was changed into a hospital gown of sorts because sometimes incontinence happens when you do your happy dance. Among other things.
I was given Ativan I believe to reduce aggression and my brother told cops and staff at the hospital that I am the least combative person that he knows. My mom surmised that I may have stopped taking my meds but that is something I do pretty well, aside from putting the hustle on the hens. You have to keep sharp with them.
On a follow up at the VA hospital I had referrals for an MRI and EEG. The MRI was pretty close to the last one with some issues correlating to my age but the EEG indicated potential of Epilepsy. So now, for at least six months I cannot drive and that will put a crimp on my dating exploits with the little honies in the coop.
Actually there is a honey that has helped me recently and will be coming back soon but more details on that later. She took great care of me and I have taken a very big liking to her tail feathers, if you get my drift there son!
Conclusions
For every downside there appears an upside and sometimes you must look for it and Chicken Hawks will be what they are and your best lady egg layer can provide a softer fall. My advice is don’t overlook the golden eggs, for they are numerous and well-timed and that one will make you forget the rest.
References
GI Joe with the Kung Fu grip, He who will remain nameless (Chicken Hawk), the cashier that called my mom and my mom for locking me in the attic. Oh and do not tell the Chicken Hawk I referred to him, cause he is a bit slow.
The story was true with a few awkward embellishments, if you know what I mean?
Whenever you talk about women in the sport of racing, one cannot forget the Queen of Auto-Racing… Jean Lynch. Officially too, as more than once she has been the Queen of the King’s Royal at Eldora Speedway. In her last year as Queen she got to crown the King himself, Steve Kinser! This is one of the biggest events in Sprint Car racing and is located at Tony Stewart’s track in Ohio.
But King’s Royal is but another gem in the crown as M Lynch works the World Racing Group as a Public Relation’s person, keeping America informed about the Winter Nationals in Florida at both Volusia Speedway and East Bay Raceway Park in Tampa, Florida. Events can last over a month at East Bay and features the Lucas Oil Late Model Series, which arguably is the track’s favorite event.
And her induction into the Sprint Car Hall-of-Fame in Knoxville, IA in 2014 is a reflection of the dedication to the sport. I have first-hand knowledge of her love of these events as she was in attendance at the 2015 Chili Bowl in Oklahoma in which rising star Rico Abreu won.
I have worked with Jean Lynch for about 25 years doing the Nationals there and as well many of the large races events like Super Dirt Week in Syracuse, NY, Williams Grove Speedway in Pennsylvania and the grand finale at the Dirt Track in Charlotte for the year’s final events. A week of World of Outlaw Sprints and Late Models and New York State’s Big Block Modifieds. These events are must-see! The top talent in the Sprint Car Championships, along with the Pennsylvania Posse with the Western Part of Pennsylvania driving ace, Ed Lynch Jr, winner of 220 A-Main features. Oh, and her husband who is also in the Knoxville Hall-of-Fame as well, Ed Lynch Sr. There is a third generation starting to race also, Sye Lynch.
In addition to the top runners Swindell, Stewart and Larson, several Oklahomans will be competing for the Chili Bowl title this year. 2013!!
They include:
Danny Smith, Sand Springs
Michelle Decker, Guthrie
Trey Marcham, Oklahoma City
Alex Sewell, Broken Arrow
Jonathan Beason, Broken Arrow,
Blake Hahn, Sapulpa
Matt Ward, Glenpool
Chett Gehrke, Broken Arrow
Eric Fenton, Jenks
Blake Edwards, Claremore
Mike Goodman, Broken Arrow
Wayne Johnson, Oklahoma City
Kip Hughes, Enid
Justin Hendricks, Stillwater
Brandon Hahn, Tulsa
Tim Kent, Bristow
Evan Sewell, Tulsa
Danny Jennings, Norman
Tyler Robbins, Collinsville
Cameron Hagin, Broken Arrow
Hannah Adair, Tulsa
Billy Lawhead, Tulsa
Christopher Bell, Norman
Tyler Edwards, Salina
Matt Johnson, Edmond
Coby Hughes, Collinsville
Kevin Bayer, Tulsa
Harli White, Lindsay
Tyler Thomas, Collinsville
Jake Rosario, Guthrie
Dustin Morgan, Owasso
Waylon Weaver, Claremore
Layne Himebaugh, Collinsville
Brady Bacon, Broken Arrow
Jesse Frazier, Tulsa
Harli White is just one of the more interesting stories in all of auto-racing. This young woman is a racer and a whole lot more and we are going to leave a story that featured on ESPN.
VIDEO: ESPN feature ‘Forged Through Fire’ tells story of Lindsay racer Harli White
Below is Harli White’s Web Page. You younger fans and especially race fans here is more than a race car driver but also a survivor.
Jackson began dirt track kart racing at the age of six, graduating to asphalt sprint car racing in 2006 and briefly racing late model stock cars in 2007. She has had wins at racetracks throughout the Northwestern United States and in Canada.[1][2][3]
Jackson holds sprint car qualifying speed records at Magic Valley Speedway in Twin Falls, Idaho[4] and on the old track configuration at Meridian Speedway in Meridian, Idaho.[5]
Jackson is the youngest driver and first female to win the Northwest Sprintcar Racing Association championship, doing so in 2011 at the age of 19, also becoming the first Ford driver to do so.[6] She was also the inaugural Canadian-American Western Winged Sprintcars champion in 2012.[7][8] In 2014 she finished second in the western portion of Davey Hamilton‘s King of the Wing Series.[9]
She is also the only female driver to win the prestigious NSRA/WWS Diamond Cup at Meridian Speedway, winning it in 2011 and again in 2014, as well as being a two time winner of the Naylor Memorial Classic[10] and the 2012 Daffodil Cup winner at Western Speedway in Canada[11]
Sierra Jackson has been racing for over 10 years and she is but 22 years old FB. Check out her facebook racing page too. But this young woman is more than a pretty face, she is a darn good driver and needs sponsorship as most drivers do.
This 17 year old has a lot of upside too and familiar last name too. She is making her mark and doing at a very competitive class. She is currently racing in the 305 division but expecting to move up next year, probably the 360s. A lot more competitive, seat time will prove if she has the talent to move on to the premier division, the 410s. With roughly 900hp, Knoxville’s 410 division and racing against the likes of Danny Lasoski, Ed Lynch Jr., and Terry McCarl would give her another boost, but first things first and that includes this year and next.
Keep an eye on her also, because she is in this class of talented drivers.
Jessica Zemken – The former girlfriend of Tony Stewart, she can more than hold her own and she proved that in Canada racing against almost 70 other competitors and though she is 29 years old she is a force to be reckoned with.
McKena Bell – McKena has two Xfinity Series races to her dosier and I suspect they won’t be her last. This two time participant is raising eye brows and has competed with the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East tour.
Please check out the sites above and if you know anyone who would like to sponsor these drivers then they would greatly appreciate it also. Their careers will be successful and it will be talent that wins and not gender or who they know.
Floyd, Times Are Changin 