I have to admit, I've never been a "die hard" race fan. Of course I'm from the south and NASCAR is a ritual, I have favorite drivers and so on and so forth, but I'm not a crazed fanatic.I do, however, remember many moons ago visiting the Columbia Speedway every week. It was something my dad could do with us girls, since he had no sons, and he could feel comfortable doing it without being too "girly"!! We would meet up with other friends and family and would make an evening out of it. Like I said, the memories are few because I was so young, but have stuck with me all the same.April 25, 2009....yesterday, Columbia Speedway reopened for the Love Chevrolet, RacersReunion, Columbia Speedway Spring Festival. We arrived at 9:00am and I'm so glad we did. It was already packed and there was a line forming all the way down Highway 321 in Cayce, SC!!I was especially excited about the event because I have spent the last two weeks designing the souvenir program book that they were selling. I immediately bought two, one for myself and one for my dad, and set off to find all the legendary drivers that had come to see the old track again and sign autographs. My 1 1/2 hours wait in line for autographs was not without rewards. I was surrounded by men in line who had all kinds of stories about the old track. Some had original Columbia Speedway jackets that they wanted signed. Some had hats, shirts and other memorabilia and most had the souvenir book. It was great to see so many people come out to support an event that was free of charge for anyone who wanted to come!The best part of my "autograph line" wait was when I finally reached the table of drivers. Most people would expect these drivers to push you like cattle down a line and scribble a signature across the first place they could find, but not these guys. They WANTED to talk with you, share their memories and hear yours. It truly was an experience for me. When I reached the last driver there was one poster left of the Darlington track. He was trying to sign it to give it to me when an obviously overexcited fan saddled up next to me almost salivating. Of course, I let him have the poster. It would not have been fair of me to take that poster knowing that such a big fan was standing right beside me. I had already had the pleasure of doing the souvenir program. It was rich in memories in it's own right and I have learned more about racing in the two weeks creating it than I have known in the past 30-something years!!!!So the festival was a great hit. I'm not sure how many people showed up, but by the time we left it was packed like a can of sardines in your tackle box!! Speaking of...we left and hit the lake right after and spent the rest of the evening fishing. We caught nothing and after I downloaded my pictures I found out why. As we were fishing on one end of the boat our son was throwing out our worms on the other end!!! The fish were probably already full!!!Hope everyone had as great of a time as I did...and how about that Camaro?????????