reading obits
Ditch-Runner
Member Posts: 25,238 ✭✭✭✭
I find my self looking more often in the last year or so . maybe getting old or just to see who I knew has passed on ( and make sure I am not listed )
may not be a exciting or news worthy post just wanted to get it out there
any way reading thru them tonight I noticed a name from the past he was no relation or can I really call him a friend but he he had a big impact on me
as young kid .( I was 12 maybe 13 at the time ) my dad liked going to the local drag strip on Sunday afternoons and the whole family went along . one of my uncles (my moms younger brother ) loved to race . and also was huge influnce on me about cars and working on the them any way I got to know Roger by his cars ( I 'm sure he never even noticed me in the crowd ) he was 12 years older than ( I just found out then me ), but him and my uncle were pals
one of the cars Roger had back in the day has stuck with me and helped my love of cars . it was a dark green 55 chevy gasser big block chevy tunnel ram two four barrels 4 speed green plexiglass windows it had a tilt front end jacked up all the way around ( the old gasser style ) ladder bars that seemed to go all the way to the front of the car in my mind I can still see that car . would love to have it now .
his obit sure brought back a flood of memories including my dad and uncle both passed some time ago ( RIP ) but there tied to the memories of Roger
RIP Roger
Comments
I sure know the feeling D|R about the daily obit check! The internet makes it sooooo darn easy! Sad to say that I run across old friends, clients, classmates, and forgotten relatives on a weekly basis. I can honestly say that there are way more people that I have known and have known me on the "other side" than there are living!
I can relate.......
This last week I found two obits of guys I played many a racquetball match with in the '70's.....on through the '90's. Both a bit too young(heart and dementia).
Time's old......when you're having flies. :)
I check the obituaries every day and have for many years. There is not a week that goes by that I don't see someone that was a friend or someone I worked with, went to school with, or just knew. It must be a morbid curiosity that makes me do it.
I went to a viewing of a very close friend last Thursday. I got big hugs from his three daughters and his son, We shared stories about times spent together and had a few laughs. Going to funerals is something I have to force myself to go to. And I've been to a lot of them.
Dave the drag strip you talk about, would that be Pence's outside of Lockington? I used to go there a lot, years ago, and I remember a 55 Chevy that sounds like the one you described.
Joe
that's it 😁 just out side , Sidney ( I think it may have been in Lockington by location ) as a kid we would go then later on I would drive over with many of my car buddy's and race or just watch ( I was born in Tennessee but grew up in Sidney . )
my late uncle loved to race use to have a crap load of trophies from there and the small track north of Kettlersville 1/8 mile track he was what ever he drove he raced LOL family car 99% of the time
lot of memories I remember they announced a remolding and expanding then next thing they sold out to the gravel pit company a truly sad day for me and many others . I would say its been 35 + years since I even drove by the old place
last I heard the old track and cross over was still there but even that was years ago .
I remember one day they had a big pro stock special event day to bring in more people. for me it was exciting and sad the track just would not hold the cars would get loose about 1/2 down track just about every pro stock car thet showed up wrecked into the wall or each other .
they use to have the jet cars or wheelie standers like most small tracks did to keep interest up
I also remember two cars people loved to hate a pinto driven by a gal and a maverick ( that was a ex city water works car still had the decals on it . both bracket raced ran like 18 to 19 seconds they would just put them in drive and go in the bracket race category it was hard to beat them . may years later I worked with a fellow his uncle ? owned the water works car said he won many times over what he paid for the old car
oh well days of the past that will never be again 😪
Since the demise of the old country stores in my area I have to rely on the local paper for deaths etc . So I check the obits almost every day . Sad but true that at our ages we will attend far my plantings than we will marrying
Depressing note- ran across two separate obits of ladies that I dated in High School. Hard to connect that with the sweet 16 year old you took to the school dance.
One encouraging one, couple of years back- gent here in VA had passed. His wife noted there would be no traditional funeral services, but friends were invited to their place on the river Saturday afternoon for drinks and remembrances- where at dusk his ashes would be fired across the river from his favorite cannon.
I just liked the idea of having a FAVORITE cannon.
The best day I had up there was the day they had the big name gassers there. Big John Mazmanian, Ohio George Montgomery, Stone Woods & Cook, KS Pittman, and others that I can't recall. I also found a picture of 2 Green 55 Chevy gassers racing each other. One of them is probably the one you mentioned. In the early years, it was known as Pence's Dragstrip, but later on, they called it Shelby Raceway. I even ran my 65 Satellite there once and beat the guy I was racing. I used to take my girlfriend (Wife) with me, and she really got into it. The good old days.
I also was there when a friend of mine, I've forgotten his first name, but his last name was Longenecker had a Dragster that was pretty mean. One trip down the strip he lost traction, got sideways, and rolled it several times. The roll bar saved his head, but he broke both of his arms.
Joe
I know were getting way off course from the heading
I do not remember stone woods and cook ( I did see a youtube post on them great story ) and Ohio george all great name racers of the day some how I missed that day . dang it
I have a few photos stored away from the old days only a few sadly one is of my GF now wife while sitting on the bleachers and a few of some friends ( all departed now ) there was a black man ( not then it mattered ran a firebird out od dayton called underdog we use to talk to a lot I think I have a photo of his car ( he passed on many years ago a friend followed up and found out and th ecar had been sold off that was 20 some years ago also )
1st time I drove a car was at the place I was about 13 or so and had been flagging off the locals on the start line ( one of the test tune days ) when leaving my dad let me drive but we were still on the grounds of the race track in a 69 Torino it was not far but I will never forget it .
thanks for sharing memories it made my day
had 3 other guys in town that had the same name as me one even the same middle initial, two have been in the obits, one drown during a rain storm his truck was washed off a low water bridge. It made the local news then went state wide that evening, had 2 people call my sister and tell her I had died in this accident, had her and my mom trying to get hold of me most of the night as I worked midnights and never answered the phone at work till morning.......
I don't need to. My wife often says "So-and-so died. He was the second cousin of somebody we met once at a party eight years ago."
My Irish grandmother called the Obits...The Irish Sports Page...