Men, forced to reside in the cave or face the wrath of a wife's scorn

Not meaning to sound sexist but the overwhelming statistics show that men, not woman, are forced out of every room in the house and now resort to hanging in "The Man Cave" in order to have a wall from where to hang a hood, a poster, or car calendar, the garage, man's last stand. Though the woman wants the garage to park her car we men must stand firm on the cement slab and defend it at all cost, this is our Alamo boys, dig in and defend it. Without The Man Cave there would be no local short track racing, this is the birth place of the race car, it was true in 1939, it is still true today. The garage, where ideas are born, where welders, grinders, wrenches and air tools whirl, hum, spin, hack and saw, where an ordinary car is "modified" to run the dirt and asphalt tracks of America...it's The Man Cave, this we must defend.

You've done well Bumpertag.

A Fish, deer mount, diecast replica, old arrowhead collection, no matter what it is, if the wife didn't put it there it eventually gets removed to make way for an old picture, basket, plate display or many of the others things that clash with a dead animal or car part. It's a losing battle, if you are ever to get any peace it's best to remove any trace that you exist in the house and tote it to the cave, where we belong....and don't track any brake dust back in the house!!!!

I love my wife, she does keep a neat house but, there is no room or place for my things there.

Interesting subject, men. When I and my other decided to cohabitate, I relinquished my modest bachelor's pad in favor or her more suitable and considerably more upscale accommodations. I was given an office in which my trophies and racing memories were proudly displayed and an adjoining "wall of fame". I was comfortable there. That lasted for nearly 4 years. Now there's not a trace of me in those places except in an occasional picture...with her, or course. Back are the paintings, other frilly things, and her vision board. I am included on the board, though...at least for now.. My stuff is now either in my office at work or in the garage. At times I go to the garage and sit with my stuff...and the cat.

We needed a 'dirty Santa' gift to take to a Christmas party this month. She came in and started glancing around my hang-out corner. Its not even a man-cave - more of just a pushed-to-the-margins part of the house.

Her: Do you still need this Richard Petty car with the decals falling off it?

TMC: Absolutely!

Her: What about this Richard Petty trivia game?

TMC: Put it down.

Her: {Scans the tops of 2 bookshelves where I have few Schaefer momentoes and a fishbowl of matchbooks collected from my years of travel.}

TMC: Don't even think about it. I have at most 50 square feet I can claim in this whole house with something on display. Everything else is in a box in the attic, garage or crawl space. Go somewhere else.

Men, do NOT be overrun. Stand firm. Do not allow a bowl of dried potpourri or a Yankee Candle jar cross your DMZ.

Robbie, don't think for one minute that you have claims to a room, she is eye balling that room and has been for quite some time, you've grown complacent my friend, you've let your guard down and think you are safe in a "room", you ARE NOT, eventually she will have that space you are occupying away from her things. Oh you can fight and make your life a living hell or, you can "cave in" like the rest of us.

And Jeff... Ah yes, the cat, old reliable. I have the dog, though she doesn't hang out with me in the cave she does manipulate me into thinking she will and then slink off outside to be by herself leaving me alone with my stuff.

Not much to the "allow my dog to come along" thought, Robbie. At times I think it was the dog to which she was attracted and she allowed me to come with him. Actually her best friend once said, "It's the dog, dude!".

It suck's being manipulated by the dog, too, JW. I know the feeling.

Man, this is funny as it can get!

I am absolutely delighted to see this posted in public. I was thinking all along that it was only me, LOL.

The truth is, I have a great and understanding wife, but it still seems to gravitate to: "this would look better here, why not put your 'stuff' in the shop"?

You guys have made my day, Merry Christmas to all.

Once you allow the first piece, it is as if permission for an invasion was granted. Just like BT and the loss of lure placement to a cherub in the Bass' mouth....sometimes they are subtle, but well thought-out maneuvers.

You know, this is gonna sound weird to most of you, but I spent so many 24 hour days and 7 day weeks not seeing my wife and children because of racing that the only single racing related object in my home is an 8x10 color photo of my late dad standing next to a 1982 Bud Moore/Dale Earnhardt/Wrangler Jeans Thunderbird at the old Richmond fairgrounds. I used to have a front left fender off our old '55 Chevy Sportsman car from Wilson County Speedway that moved to 3 or 4 homes before it found its final resting place back in the woods on my late father-in-law's Wilson County, NC farm. When I came home from the track/office, I just wanted it to be home. No racing stuff.

That's a great story TMC, and Jeff is spot on, if you give them an inch, they'll take a yard.

Yesterday she manipulated me by saying something about the honey left on the counter leaving it sticky. That led to my aquarium, more or less shoved to furthest corner of the kitchen where nobody sees the fish, and quite frankly they've been neglected, no harm done but, they just exist, nothing more, and the aquarium is a tad dirty. So, after hearing both of my shortcomings I decided to remove it, right then while she watched, there is no more aquarium. She won again, through the old sticky honey on the counter, she turned to the fish where I finally broke down and removed the last remnant from her kitchen. After that I got a box and went through the rest of the dining and living rooms and removed the rest of "me" from the house, it's done, she owns the interior (accept for the corner of the office where I'm typing) the rest is hers. But not the garage, nope, that sucker is mine!!!

My garage is full of HER overflow. All vehicles are parked in the drive.

Will, when I look up and down the street there are men, just like ME, just like YOU, that have been forced to reside in the garage or face the scorn of their woman. You are not alone Will Cronkrite, we must stick together, raise our crossed wrenches in the air....ALL FOR ONE and, ONE FOR ALL!

Dave, you need to go find that fender man!!!!! Dang it Dave, hang on brother, hang on!!!

Alas, we hear from a woman akin to the plight of the banished husband. There are exceptions, many of them, and I know if other woman read this they may take much offense to it. However, THAT is another story and might make for some good discussion, perhaps you could open that can of worms, eh?

Though it sounds like wife bashing, it's not, it' all in good fun until my wife reads this and then my a$$ is gra$$

Did I mention that my wife, Joyce also was a Darrell Waltrip fan??!! Woe is me. I took her to her first Cup race at Rockingham in Fall 1973 when Benny clinched the Cup Championship for LG DeWitt and took great delight after we were married on November 3 when Lennie Pond in the #54 Master Chevy Malibu beat out DW for Rookie of the Year. Joyce did have the good sense to never cheer for DW at Richmond, where we'd likely have incited a riot. She still maintained for many years that DW was "sexy", but had to back off pulling for him anymore after we started the Earnhardt sponsorship in late 1980. As John Lennon once opined, "The Great Griff moves in mysterious ways his woodwork to perform!"

PK & Robbie, remember that is/was HER description. She did have the opportunity one night to watch when DW made the mistake of showing up at Southside Speedway in Richmond with his Late Model Sportsman car and had his lunch handed to him by Ray Hendrick and Sonny Hutchins. Unfortunately, she and I were not at Langley Speedway in Hampton, VA later in the year when DW talked Joe Carver into staging a match race between he, Ray and Sonny. DW finished third of the 3 cars, with Ray winning. To my knowledge, DW never showed up again at a Virginia weekly track, but confined his outings to Tennessee.