Hello DingBatters

May 24, 2013

Let's see where were we? Caught some fish last weekend, sorry, no pictures. Nephew Scott graduated from optometry school, sorry, no pictures. Went to Hershey PA for the annual OESP Expo, sorry, no pictures. But a good time was had by all, our names and pictures were not in the paper the next day; and MIL and SWMBO were out on the town in Memphis until 1:30AM, which by the way is 2:30 AM EDT. Come to think of it, just as well we don't have any pictures. 

This coming weekend is about more than the beach, picnics and family fun. It's morphed into remembering our deceased loved ones and race car drivers who died racing, a veteran's day, the start of summer and so on; but as I recall it was designed to remember those who died during service to our country. More often  than not that group was our nation's young and brave who came forward and paid the ultimate price. To say thank you doesn't even register on the scale of what you did for all of us, but thank you. 

From the South and 58 years old, hard to believe we didn't honor this day when I was a child. We remembered another day for another reason. 

I was fortunate to go to the Indianapolis 500 in the 1980's when the stands were full and the drivers included names such as Foyt, Andretti(s), Unser(s), Fittipaldi, Mears, Sullivan, Rahal, Bettenhausen, Rutherford, Vukovich, I guess I can stop now, but at the time it was a great mix of old and new in the greatest spectacle in racing. I was surprised at the crowd; I'm no prude but did not figure to see so many crazy drunks at 9:00 AM. Jim Nabors sang Back Home in Indiana, Linda Vaughn (Hurst girl) was in the parade lap, seems like Porsche even had a car there. And of course they dragged old Mrs. Hulman out to tell the drivers to crank them up;.What a day and what a rowdy crowd, but when the color guard blew Taps you could have heard a pin drop. Very emotional moment for 500,000 people

We move Jackson back to DC Saturday, so this picture is for you son. It is one of our refrigerator pictures and is one of my favorites. I never noticed that his "ride" is also featured in the background. He could spin a 360 on that on the terrace without hitting the wall. When he did it really well he would jump up and yell "Earnhardt." Have fun this summer, make a lot of money and enjoy those Ramen Noodles.  

Monaco Grand Prix early Sunday morning, Indianapolis 500 at mid-day, and the Whatever It's Called 600 in Charlotte that night. Racing's greatest weekend, safe travels