Sorry to say it but I do not make a practice of going to certain things: Food buffets, NASCAR events, K-Mart or Drag racing....
Well, maybe the verb tense is I "didn't"...
You see, this weekend, I found myself at two events that made me feel about as far out of my comfort zone as could be appreciated (or unappreciated...)
I went to Nightfire Nationals at Firebird Raceway with my good friend, Michael Boerner. He is a self-confessed "GearHead" and invited me into an evening "in his racing world"...
I 've never been to an Idaho event where I knew NOBODY - except one friend, Tim Cowles ( apparently another closet GearHead). There were hundreds and hundreds of people who know stuff about cars about which I have no idea...little kids who watch the scoreboards and hoot and hollar at certain times (which meant NOTHING to me). In the past (like Friday afternoon), I would have just dismissed them as blue collar red necks (it covers both political parties, I suppose).
Fast forward to Friday night: I'm sitting there, slack-jawed at Funny Cars (20 of 'em) powered by Nitro - every single one POWERFULLY vaccuuming my undershorts at gusts of over 200 mph. It was one part Mideval Jousting, one part Military Warfare with a quarter cup of shock and awe.I asked one guy standing with me in the pit area why he has come to these events for decades: " It's a sickness...at 230.3 mph".
As the evening wore on, I just came to the conclusion that I have been a snob: I formally saw many of these Gearheads as being low-class, screaming NASCAR-ites....talk about being a nose-in-the-air guy!! Instead, what I saw Friday night were families, couples and individuals having honest clean and FAST fun. Sure, sure a couple of the girlies in bikini tops made me wonder if I was really that far off in my initial observations...but...not so.
To top it off, the next night I went to a buffet with my bride and saw the greatest amount of tonage of human beings on the planet...and my "snob factor" tried to kick in again...but my nitro-smelling nose wouldn't allow itself to be lifted up in the air...nope, not at all. We sat and people watched and saw moms and dads with kids enjoying a night out....and whole lot of food, too. It's just all of us, enjoying life...except, I suppose, the snobs (like I was) whose noses and elitist attitudes tend to put a damper on anything "not theirs".
Well, not anymore. Just call me Butch or Bucky or Big Den. Then smear my face with hot-baked sweat and nitro-coated nostrils. Let me have fun with REAL folks who can teach me and then send me into the buffet line, baby.....
Den
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