I had the opportunity this past week, thanks to Dave Fulton and his loan of an 8 MM projector with a bulb that wasn't burned out, to go back and watch almost four hours of Super 8 MM films my Daddy had taken over the years and spliced together in no order whatsoever.  It was surprising to see myself at, like maybe 15 years old, racing bicycles on a road course we had built in the field across the street from our house.  There were like 8 or 10 other guys, all racing hard, and I'm sure pretending we were racing Riverside.  When I saw that appear on the sheet Ann and I had hung on the wall as we did not have a movie screen, that track flashed before me like I was there.  I remember 10 of us guys worked on that track for weeks as we carved it out through the field and through a thicket of pine trees and scrub oaks.  The total length of the track approached 1 mile and we would actually race 50 laps around that circuit.  That was one of 8 tracks we had constructed in the neighborhood.  We had our Darlington, Atlanta, and even a Daytona, along with tracks we just made up as we went along.  That's what we did after school and all summer long.  We would seriously run 500 laps on the Darlington track (about a tenth of a mile) in the morning and then 500 on the Atlanta track (about the same length) in the afternoon.  We did that six days a week, Sunday being the exception.  Oh, that I could be in such physical condition now!

There were scenes of races randomly placed throughout the reels, including action at Columbia Speedway, and one event my Daddy filmed at night with the old 8MM camera.  You can only guess how that came out.  But the earliest Grand National Race I was able to identify was the 1970 Rebel race from Darlington.  Several Darlington races are included as are races from Rockingham, Atlanta, Daytona  and Charlotte.  As we had press credential access to the pits and the garage, my Daddy was able to get some great shots of pit stops, on especially exceptional one standing in the Lenny Pond pit at The Rock.  Also a good one of a Benny Parson's pit stop.  Odd to sit there and watch those teams before the advent of pit crews practicing conditioning and stops.  It was quite a treat to watch those stops.

There were scenes of the very first motor home my parents bought, a used one on which my Daddy had added a platform to the top.  Several good shots of that motor home and what memories that brought back to me as we were parked in the infield at The Rock.  For reasons known only to my dear departed Daddy, he took it upon himself to devote almost 45 seconds of filming to the trash left by the fans in the infield as they left the track.  No telling what he was thinking about but considering he was not the littering type, there was a message in there somewhere.

There were also many scenes of my family life, birthday parties, Christmas, and just family events through maybe 15 years of my life.  Shots of the old home place. Many minutes of my brother Richard's different race cars through his career.  It was so special to watch that progress from the first old '56 Ford Hobby Car with the number 53 scrawled on the doors to the final Chevelle Late Model Sportsman which was as classy and fast as anything in the fields he raced.  He had a Bobby Allison Chassis and a Jack Ingram Engine in that last car and he posted some really good finishes.

So, now that you've been on somewhat of a tour through a part of my younger days, are you asking yourself what this has to do with racing history?  Perhaps.  But remember that my entire life, since the age of five, has been so intertwined with racing it is as though the history of racing and the history of The Legend are one and the same.   Perhaps that explains, in part, why this site, RacersReunion, means so much to me.  It allows me to pursue an effort to remain forever young by keeping the history of stock racing as accurate and true as possible.

A few years ago I knew an individual who always sought to chastise not only me, but anyone who would compare the old days to the new days, especially as those days pertained to racing.  That person would be the first to point out that our memories of the "good old days" overlooked the bad and just remembered what was good.  The person, always believing there was no error in his or her pronouncements , would become downright defensive if I should suggest that the   "good old days" were worth remembering exactly as they happened.   That person often stated that if we could go back, we would find we would not think so highly of those days.  Well, this past week I did, in a manner of speaking, return to the days of my youth and the days when my family was all together.   I truly believe those days were the halcyon days of which fairytales are written.  To the party who finds nothing but misery in the past, I think it is a matter of perspective and I'm sure my perspective contains happy memories and that person has only memories of the negative brought upon oneself by the attitude exhibited so often.

So, my friends, that is my perspective through the "rear view".  I have seen it again,  and enjoyed it, and although so much of the films was emotional for me, I'm very happy I got to see them.  I am hoping that I can find some affordable way to get all that film converted to DVD so I can watch them again and again after I return Dave's  projector.  Dave, my friend, in spite of your efforts to put me in the same class as D.W., you 're the best.  Thank you for what you did.

Now for the view from the windshield.  Little did I ever suspect, when I joined this site some six or seven years ago, that I would be in the position I am today.  I have made friends here who I'm sure will be with me for the rest of my life.  I have been to events with some of the true pioneers and heroes of racing and participated with them as if I were also one of the pioneers, thanks to my status as RacersReunion's Legend.  What I am doing now is allowing me to be active in efforts to see that history is preserved in the proper way.  It allows me to be a part of saying that someone who may never have won a race, but gave his heart and soul to the sport, is no less entitled to recognition than say, Richard Petty.

I was, in some aspect, a pioneer in the sport.  I was a race fan when being a race fan wasn't cool.  I was hanging around the pits in the 50s, getting dirty and getting to be around drivers I came to admire.  I learned some of the most colorful language of my life, exceeded only by the vocabulary I picked up in the Navy. I learned about race cars, race drivers, and race families.  I learned about being a fan from the inside out.  Those things are worth being preserved in memories more eloquent than mine.  There are stories in every driver, driver's wife, pit crewman and official who ever participated in the sport.  This is my mission, through RacersReunion, to continue looking through the windshield in pursuit of what it takes to honor those folks from the rearview mirror who may otherwise be overlooked.

Let me tell you a little story. RacersReunion has enshrined two classes, of 15 members each, in the RacersReunion Hall of Fame located in the Memory Lane Museum in Mooresville, NC.  If you haven't checked it out, you need to.  But the story I want to relay here is the day Jabe Thomas was inducted.  When Jabe came to the microphone to accept his induction, the speech he gave was one of the most touching speeches I've ever heard.  Jabe was truly honored by being named to the RacersReunion Hall of Fame.  After the ceremony, I talked with Jabe as he was leaving.  To say that day was a highlight of his life would be a gross understatement.  Looking through the windshield, I want to be able to see more folks like Jabe experience the honor of having their contributions acknowledged.  Jabe Thomas gave as much, if not more, than so many of the drivers who have been named to the top 50, the top 20, or whatever list of honorees somewhere.

The future of the sport can be bright.  As of right now, I'm not so sure where that future is going with television ratings in the basement and most races having fewer fans in the stands than waiting in line for tooth extractions.   Looking through the windshield, I see the ever changing scenery of things NASCAR has going on right now.  What I am seeing these days is mostly obscured by the smoke liken to that of spinning cars on the turn.  I'm not sure where we are going but I do see NASCAR changing rules and making efforts, although some only half supported by common sense, to bring the sport back to a strong position in the wide world of sports (not capitalized so as not to infringe on ABC).

I want to see the bright day through the windshield and I'm sure it's there waiting to be seen once the smoke has cleared.  NASCAR has come a long way since that first race in Charlotte in 1949 but it has not yet reached  the pinnacle.  There are those that say it reached the pinnacle in the 90s and will never return to that.  Perhaps not.  But I don't believe that.  I would rather believe there are those of us who see through that windshield and can determine the finish line ahead while glancing in the rearview mirror and being able to see what is behind us has made what we are seeing through the windshield possible.   After all, we, the fans, are the driver of this vehicle.  The wheel is in our hands.

During the run we did with Racing History Minutes, we used the "tag line" Honor the Past, embrace the present, dream for the future. I would like to think that those of us who are members of RacersReunion are doing just that.  To those of you listening who may not be members, join us.  It is free, totally, and you aren't spammed or solicited.  You can join us behind the wheel to keep the windshield "tear off" clear, and the rearview mirror adjusted to see those things important.