In 1971 Memorial Day became a national holiday on the last Monday in May. My mother worried about whether the pineys (peonies) and flags (irises) would be ready for Decoration Day. Bill’s mother fussed about who would drive to Kalamazoo to decorate Bill’s father’s grave in the cemetery that he started and named “Mount Ever Rest” — yes indeed!
The 500 also took place on Memorial Day, but was later moved to Sunday. “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” creates many memories. It’s not only the race itself that’s important, it’s the experiences of people coming together. I love to see people enjoying themselves. It is an awesome thing to see hundreds of thousands of people gathered in one place.
Ah youth! Our son-in-law, Tom, told about how he and friends drove down from Wisconsin when he was 21: The night before the race, we parked the car a couple of miles from the track and slept on lawn chairs on the sidewalk. In the morning we lashed six cases of beer for the five of us to a child’s wagon to haul it to the Infield. Halfway there, the front axle broke, and we had to take turns dragging it the rest of the way. Even we couldn’t drink all that beer, so we started giving it away after the race, rather than hauling it back to the car. I suspect that they saw little of the race. The daughter of one of our friends admits that she went to the Kentucky Derby and never saw a horse!
Friend Jean Vrabel has been coming to the race for over fifty years. Several times we joined her in her family’s seats across from the pits. One race day it was so cold that we loaned her and her husband winter coats. After I became unable to attend the race, sometimes Bill went with his niece, Debby, and her husband Myron.
One time we decided to get tickets at the last moment and ended up in the short shoot, the fourth turn. “Zoom, zoom, zoom!” We barely saw the cars. Worst of all, the fourth turn had become a new snake pit. The restrooms at the track are very basic, and this one was worse than most. It had rained, and some women had obviously been playing in the mud and tracked it all over the restroom and coated the lavatories with it while trying to clean themselves up. Jean said that at least this year they didn’t run out of toilet tissue and paper towels.
A few years ago, I met Amber and Brian, the grandchildren of my Knightstown cousin, Brian Kelly. Knowing them has been one of the great pleasures of my elder years. This year Ryan, Amber’s charming partner who is a very successful financial adviser, graciously invited us to join them on Carb Day in the One America Suite. We were delighted. I had always wondered what being in one of the suites would be like. It’s pretty ritzy or, as they say these days, “cool.”
There’s reserved parking, and an elevator takes you up to the suites. The suite was nicely furnished; the outside seats gave an excellent view of the track; and Ryan had pit passes. The pristine ladies’ room had a tiled floor and walls and marble vanity. Beer, wine and soft drinks were dispensed from a bar. The yummy lunch was a Hoosier meal: fried biscuits, apple butter, chicken, beef, ham, mashed potatoes and mac and cheese. There were huge platters of brownies, cookies, melon and fruit.
While we were eating lunch at an outside table, Irvingtonian Andy Wilkinson who is a V.P. with One America and the son of Irvington acquaintances, introduced himself.
As we stood on the balcony when we were leaving, we saw thousands of people, standing and jammed together to watch the Journey concert. Not I, not I! What fun to feel so special — I could get used to the ”suite” life! wclarke@comcast.net