Wally Bell has a birthday??????????? How is that possible? I was checking the Gueness Book of Records last night and the oldest person on the planet is 113 and she isn't named Wally Bell. I assumed Wally was not so named because he quit counting at 113. Oh well, live and learn. I guess by HIS age, he should know it all.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY WALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tim
Don, I don't have anything that goes that far back but I do have one of Lee, Richard, and Maurice taken about 1957 or so. I got it from NASCAR back in the day when I, as a kid, wrote asking for pictures of Richard Petty and they sent me, free of charge and postage paid, three of four black and white 8X10s, one of which is the aforementioned pic. It is clearly marked on the back as copyright of NASCAR but as they no longer consider anything prior to 1980 as NASCAR, I'm not sure that still applies.
Oh, and thank you so much for your help on the pic of the 1966 Rebel Victory Lane. I'll let you know, but I think I have spotted myself.
Tim
My good friend, Johnny Mallonee, uses "memories" often. Elvis sang of memories (don't fuss Jeff, I'm not singing) and even Barbra sang about memories painting the corners of her mind. Several things today stir memories in my mind. Nope, I'm not the Statler Brothers, but do you remember these things?
1. "No street shoes on the gym floor". I thought of this when I took my 7 year old grandson to his basketball practice this morning and walked across the floor. Doesn't seem to matter any more but I remember when I was in high school in the 60s and walked across the gym floor in penny loafers, Art Baker, the gym coach, made the Sgt. Carter-Gomer Pyle confrontations seem tame.Come to think of it, Art Baker look a lot like Sgt. Carter and I did have about the same attitude as Gomer.
2. The baseball card bubble gum that was the size of the baseball card and always was so much fun to chew and blow bubbles.
3. Remember in the winter when those little puffs of ice crystals would poke up from the ground and they were so much fun to crunch under your feet while waiting for the school bus?
4. Remember summers when you played outside all the time, even if it was raining, and the only time you really wore shoes was to church.
5.Remember when the races were real cars?
6. Remember when NASCAR was the epitome of the sport?
7. Remember when you went to the dirt track near you on Thursday night, Friday night or maybe Saturday night.
8. Remember when Dink Widenhouse, Peanut Turman, Ralph Earnhardt, Sam Ard, Butch Lindley
Joe Penland, Lil' Bud Moore and so many others were our weekly heroes?
9. Remember when it was cool to go home after a race with the red dirt dust covering you?
10. Remember what it felt like to live and breathe stock car racing 24/7?
However much of that you remember, think you remember, wish you remembered, it's something to think about. What is it, 3 weeks til the Daytona 500? During the 60s, 70s. 80s and even the 90s, I could tell you from the day AFTER Christmas, how many hours and mimutes til the green flag at Daytona. Honestly, until I just watched the Michele Rahal report of Richard Petty Motorsports for 2011 on the web site PattyKay is hawking, I wasn't that aware of the days til The Great American Race is subjected to the television broadcast disgusting inso many boogity ways. However, from the report of Mr. Rahal, big things are expected from Petty Motorsports. The sponsors are in place and they have two pretty good drivers in Allmendinger and Ambrose. Just need to get some Petty Blue on those Fords. You can bet on this: If a Petty car wins Daytona, I will remember being there in 1964 standing on that hill of dirt by Lake Lloyd just big enough for one person but which allowed you to see almost the entire track. I'll remember '67 when we camped under a plastic paint tarp strung between our car and the fence in turn four. I'll remember 1979, when we saw Donnie and Cale sliding and realized that the 43 was next in line to win. There were fourteen of us going wild on top of the motorhome jumping up and down as Richard took that flag. An Orlando televisiion station filmed it all from the ground beneathe our motorhome. Never got to see the video but that doesn't matter. I lived it and I remember it. Thank God that, at least for now, I can still remember things. Some things. I don't remember what I had for lunch two hours ago but I remember watching that all Petty Blue number 43 take the lead from that Red Paul Goldsmith number 25 about the fifth lap of that 1964 Daytona 500.
Tim
Don, you are so on point it's actually scary. If you, me, and many others can figure all these things out, why aren't we paid the "big bucks"? What NASCAR has become is a colorful flash of Saturday night or Sunday afternoon Hollywood drama, or comedy, depending on the winner. It is sad that the sport to which I devoted so much of my life is now the passion of the fickle public of the electronic age which today has and I-phone and tomorrow will want a Star Trek type teleporter. What I wanted most, from the time I knew what it was, was a driver's license and a car. I know 16 and 17 year old guys right now who have NO interest in driving. Not many,but some and that shocks me. I actually know teenage boys and girls that don't know the difference between a sports car and a SUV and aren't even sure what a pickup truck is. As for remembering the past, you are, again, so factual. I have several stories of actual events I was a part of or witnessed as they happened, where some of the drivers, big names, of the 60s and 70s were totally overlooked by the
90s. I guess all fans now attend the Darrell Waltrip School for NASCAR history in which he teaches it all started in 1980. I sure would like to have a one-on-one with Jaws one day but he's too busy preaching the Gospel of D.W. and Digger.
Keep the pressure on Don. If you can find anyone in NASCAR to listen to you, go for it. Obviously they don't read the fans suggestions either here or many other venues where they are offered. The only thing Brian reads, if, in fact he can read and comprehend, is what Sponsors and television networks tell him. And as for network television, any network that would condone "boogity, boogity, boogity" at the start of a race, should be televising cockfighting from a pit in the Alabama backwoods somewhere. That is disgraceful.
Thanks for listening and thanks for expressing your thoughts.
Tim
