As the cold winds approach, and the leaves
fall from the trees, it is a sure indication to the Porsche enthusiast
that the non-Porsche driving season is fast approaching. As you read this
column our final competitive driving event of 2004 will be history. The
second Annual BMW/PCA challenge autocross was held at our home course of
Devens in Ayer on Halloween. The other driving event, which is non-competitive,
the annual Fall Tour, will have taken place on November 7th, ably orchestrated
by long time member Dennis Liu. Check out our first in a long time Auction
at the MOT on the 13th of November. It will be a good opportunity to pass
on some of those “must have” car parts, posters, calendars etc. that have
been sitting for a bit too long.
Our final event of the year is the Annual
Dinner, this year at a new Country Club in Stow Mass. (no we wouldn’t ask
you to travel to northern VT. to see each other in December.). This is
one of only two dress up and dance social events the club holds, so take
advantage of it and bring the significant other (It will get you some brownie
points for those other events that you want to attend).
Next year, although not even here for
another few months, looks like a blockbuster of a year for activities;
The usual 5 autocrosses, a school (this time at NHIS with the DE group),
the Ramble, a bunch of track events—two at NHIS; hopefully a couple
at Mt. Tremblant, the Glen, and one at the new Calabogie track in Canada.
Next year’s Ramble takes place on April 30th, this time to Lake George
NY. Another highlight will be the 50th Porsche Parade in Hershey PA (for
those uninitiated this is the National gathering of the faithful which
moves throughout the country—and Canada—each year.). We’ll also have an
assortment of rallys, and once again a fall tour.
A special meeting that I have volunteered
to organize for early next year will feature Car & Driver Editor Brock
Yates, the inventor of the infamous Cannonball Baker Sea To Shining Sea
event (basically a race across the country), and the One lap of America,
a slightly more socially conscious tour to various racetracks around the
USA. Although plans are not quite final we are looking at a mid-February
Saturday night at a local hotel. Plan to attend this special event as it
will be very entertaining, informative and a great way to break the “cabin
fever” that is sure to affect us all by then.
Instead of tech issues this month, I will
pass on an interesting email I received; anyone over the age of 35 should
be able to relate to this.
SOME ARE NEW, SOME ARE OLD, ALL ARE
TRUE. TOO BAD WE REMEMBER. BETTER
REMEMBERING THAN NOT HAVING A PAST.
BUT, FUTURES ARE GOOD TOO.
"Hey Dad," one of my kids asked the other
day, "What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?"
"We didn't have fast food when I was growing
up," I informed him. "All the food was slow."
"C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?"
"It was a place called 'at home,'" I explained.
"Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa got home from work, we sat down
together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on
my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it."
By this time, the kid was laughing so
hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I
didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the
table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood
if I figured his system could have handled it:
Some parents NEVER owned their own house,
wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had
a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving
charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears
AND Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.
My parents never drove me to soccer practice.
This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that
weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have
a television in our house until I was 11, but my grandparents had one before
that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored
plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and
the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was
perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's
lawn on a sunny day. Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV
to make the picture look larger.
I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza,
it was called "pizza pie." When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my
mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my
chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.
We didn't have a car until I was 15. Before
that, the only car in our family was my grandfather's Ford. He called it
a "machine."
I never had a telephone in my room. The
only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line.
Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you
didn't know weren't already using the line. &g t; Pizzas were not delivered
to our home. But milk was.
All newspapers were delivered by boys
and all boys delivered newspapers. I delivered a newspaper, six days a
week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which I got to keep 2 cents. I had to
get up at 4 AM every morning. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents
from my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who gave me 50 cents
and told me to keep the change. My least favorite customers were the ones
who seemed to never be home on collection day.
Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut.
At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours
was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know
what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't
allowed to see them.
If you grew up in a generation before
there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with
your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut
laughing.
Growing up isn't what it used to be, is
it?
MEMORIES from a friend:
My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's
house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola
bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I
knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought
they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the
bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to "sprinkle" clothes with
because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.
How many do you remember?
Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard. Heaters mounted on the inside of the
fire wall. Real ice boxes. Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner. Using hand signals for cars without
turn signals.
Older Than Dirt Quiz:
Count all the ones that you remember not
the ones you were told about! Ratings at the bottom.
1. Blackjack chewing gum 2. Wax Coke-shaped
bottles with colored sugar water 3. Candy cigarettes 4. Soda pop machines
that dispensed bottles 5. Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes 6. Home
milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers 7. Party lines 8.
Newsreels before the movie 9. P.F. Flyers 10. Butch wax 11. Telephone numbers
with a word prefix (Olive-6933) 12. Peashooters 13. Howdy Doody 14. 45
RPM records 15. S&H Green Stamps 16. Hi-fi's 17. Metal ice trays with
lever 18. Mimeograph paper 19. Blue flashbulb &nb sp; 20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys 22. Cork popguns 23. Drive-ins 24. Studebakers 25.
Wash tub wringers
If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older If you remembered 11-15
= Don't tell your age, If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!
I might be older than dirt
but those memories are the best part of my life.
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