Valentine’s Day first became associated with romantic love in the middle ages thanks to Geoffrey Chaucer (he spells his Geffory like Bodine does) and it became the norm to give flowers, candy and cards. Geoffrey was the great, great, great, great, granddaddy of holiday rip-off sales. It spawned from there and has never stopped. I heard on the news last night that the average guy is expected to spend $148.00 on his sweetheart while the average lady will spend $67.00. Frankly, with the economy what it is, I was absolutely shocked to see the prices in the local Hallmark Store for a Valentines Card. I left the store, came home, cut the back off a cereal box and colored it red with my Sharpie, and wrote “I love you” on it with my silver Sharpie, and that’s what Ann got. Ann got me, actually, both of us, a huge bag of York Peppermint Patties. See, for an older couple, we are still quite romantic.
Going further on Wikipedia, I explored definitions, meanings, explanations and every other conceivable reference to the word “Love” as that is the ultimate essence of Valentine’s Day. Although the definitions are numbered in the thousands, the best was that Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. You can love a person, an object, an idea, a principle or anything you may value in a capacity to incite a positive emotional response. I point that out because I have heard it said before you can NOT love anything other than another person because other things are just a strong liking or a passion. Before I get into the relationship of this Legendtorial to racing, let me tell you a little true love story.
I have a friend (yes that is possible for me)who was just a teenager, 19 I think, when he was helping me on my race car back in 1970. He met a young lady with whom he fell in love almost on first sight. He started going steady with her (remember that term?) on Valentines Day 1970. The first Anniversary of their “going steady” happened to be on the same day as the 1971 Daytona 500. For weeks before we were to leave for Daytona my friend beat himself up worse than the Allison brothers got Cale in turn three in ’79 about what to do. He wanted to go to the race, but his lady had not yet become a race fan and the mention of missing Valentine’s Day for a stock car race was far from politically correct in that relationship. It was finally determined he would stay home to celebrate Valentine’s Day with his lady so we had an empty space in the back seat of my Plymouth for the annual trip to Daytona. That Friday evening, February 12th, as we were preparing to pull out of my driveway, here he comes broadsliding into my drive. He had just come from taking his lady out for dinner, bought her two dozen roses and a diamond engagement ring. With all that, he was going to Daytona. You may think the story ends there but it doesn’t. Later that year, the two were married. He joined the Navy and their lives together began. In 1976 he was stationed at Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville, Fla, so when I went to the Firecracker 400, I stayed with them in Jacksonville and we went to the race and yes, the WE included his wife who had become a huge race fan. Wait, that’s still not the end of the story.
He made a career in the Navy a retired about six years ago. The couple have two grown daughters and it was time for the couple to enjoy their life together. Then the wife had a debilitating stroke which has kept her incapacitated for the past five years. Still not the end of the story. I talk with my friend every couple of weeks these days and his love for his wife is still as strong as that February night in 1971 when we were driving all night to Daytona and those of us in the car had to listen to him all the way there talking about how bad he felt leaving her home. He never leaves her side now other than to go for groceries or to chop firewood in the backyard of their North Carolina home.
I hope you all enjoyed that true story and while it is a huge stretch to connect that to racing, I just wanted to tell it in honor of my friend and his wife and in honor of the upcoming Daytona 500. I also wanted to relay that story so we can discuss whether or not it is possible to say that any of us “love” racing. Can we “love “ it, or are we just fans? I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer that and I was not able to get through to Dr. Phil today so I guess I’m going to have to wing it.
This I will say: This is my opinion, but is also the opinion I have heard spoken by hundreds, if not thousands of race fans. The sport of Stock Car Racing is something that you absorb. It becomes a part of you and you a part of it. We are fans, which is short for “fanatics” but more than that, we are people who are drawn to a sport where passion is exhibited as in no other sport. We are watching our drivers race each other and the chance that something can happen that will take that driver from us. This is passion. But can it be called “love”? Love is a strong emotion as I stated in the beginning of this Legendtorial and I truly believe the passion a race fan has for the sport, the competitors and for other fans exceeds that of any other sport or probably any other organization outside a church. That has to be love. Nothing less. Anyone who disagrees with that can certainly state their opinion.
Another example of why this sport deserves to be called something we love. How many of you saw the Speed Channel presentation of “The Day” which concerned the date Dale Earnhardt, Sr. was killed at Daytona? I remember when a very young Jeff Gordon won his first Cup race at Charlotte and got out of the car crying. I heard many, and I do mean MANY comments about this pansy-ass cry baby winning a race in a rainbow painted car. Watch that special about “The Day” and see the tears from D.W., Mikey, Richard Childress, Ty Norris, Chocolate Myers and so many others interviewed. Those were tears of Love. Dale Earnhardt was loved, is still loved, and will always be revered in racing folklore. Watch and then e-mail me and tell me that YOU didn’t have at least misty eyes.
There will be some of you listening who will think this Legendtorial a joke, a farce, or totally out of place on Racin’ Through History. This weekend activity starts at Daytona. Our sport is back. I am betting that most everyone listening tonight will be watching an awful lot of television during the next 10 days. I would guess that a week from Sunday the discussion will be back and forth about the Great American Race. I would expect the Forum posts will heat up and no telling what the subject of next week’s Legendtorial will be. Have to wait and see about that. Next week we will know who has the pole for the 500 and what the speeds will be. We will talk about how much we love the fact that stock car racing is back. Note, I said “love”. Do you want to dispute the use of the word?
E-mail me at legendtim83@yahoo.com and follow me on twitter at legendtim83
