What I Did On My Easter Vacation
4/25/2014
PattyKay Lilley
I bid
you welcome gentle readers, to a column written in a somewhat lighter vein than
some. As I typed that title, I felt as if I were back in fourth grade,
beginning an assignment for Sister Rose Margaret on the first day back in
school after the Easter Holiday. Oh, Sister Rose Margaret, of
the Sisters of St. Joseph convent, serving Sacred Heart Cathedral School in
Rochester, NY at the fourth grade level. That meant we were all around
nine years old at the time, and if nuns were race drivers, Sister Rose Margaret
would have been Dale Earnhardt. Some of them were tough old gals, especially
with ruler in hand, but "Rosy Maggie" as we affectionately called
her... when she wasn't in earshot, don't you know, didn't need a ruler. She
could stare you down and scare you into submission. She wasn't old either, and
she didn't walk, she strode... long, purposeful steps with elbows swinging, that
got her from way over there to standing over your desk in less time than it
took to say, "Yes, Sister." I always imagined she could make the trip
from home plate to first base in record time as well, and probably had done so
at some point... sans habit.
We now
return you to your regularly scheduled column, already in progress. Now, in my
sundown years, there is no Sister Rose Margaret to give a hangnail what I do on
Easter or any other day, for that matter... so I tell it to you, my gentle
readers, and you read it because you love me... or, maybe not. Easter is no
longer a day to cook copious amounts of food for husband, daughter, boyfriend du jour and in later years, after the stroke, my
precious Aunt Isabelle. Put quite succinctly, it's a day spent alone and there
is no race to watch on TV. That has never bothered me much, as I have a library
full of old race tapes, scratching and clawing to be released from their
cabinet confines and come to life once again on a VCR. Ah, but technology, much
like time, marches on and though I do still have a VCR, for the purpose of turning
VHS format into DVD format, it's now considered an old and outdated method of
video reproduction. Today, there is YouTube!
That's a
tool well used on these pages to depict things with so much more clarity than
mere words can convey. It's that thing about one picture being the equal of a
thousand words, which means that you, my gentle readers, get spared those
thousand long and droning words and may enjoy a short and instructive video in
their stead. Alleluia! And so it was that on Sunday past, your scribe turned to
YouTube rather than the library in the office. With no real point of reference,
I asked for something from 1994, 20 years prior to today and it seemed right
and fitting that the first full race to be offered was from Richmond, where
they'll be racing this coming weekend.
This
wasn't the spring race, but the one in early fall... the scene of last year's
debacle over a spin to win move that didn't produce quite the desired results
and still has some folks a bit queasy in the tummy over the goings on of the
day. But this was 20 years ago. There was no Chase. There was no Brian that
most of us knew about anyway. There was merely a race on TV, the 24th race of
31 to be run in 1994... the year of Dale Earnhardt's
last Championship... Jeff Gordon's sophomore season... and
not really notable for much else. One familiar note was that the race
had been in rain delay for some time before we, the
viewers joined just before the green flag... and there was not a Boogity to be
heard.
You're
probably thinking I did a Lady in Black coverage of the race just for fun.
Think again. I did take some notes as I watched, but they were more on the
broadcast quality, with only a couple of comments on the race itself. I won't
spoil the end by telling you who won, but a bit later I'll give you the tools
to either watch it for yourself or check the ending the quick, but no fun way.
The
race, for the record, was the 1994 Miller Genuine Draft 400 at Richmond
International Raceway, and ran on Saturday, September 10 of that year. The race
broadcast was on TBS. How many of you recall that TBS ever hosted races? They
did three or four a year to my recollection, and I vividly remember that they
were so far down the broadcasting food chain that when they covered the fall
Charlotte race, they were always interrupted by "sun spots" affecting
their rather outdated satellite. Note to self: Ask Humpy why Charlotte put up
with that for so long.
The
"Boys in the Booth" as I'm prone to call any broadcast team, were Ken
Squier and Chuck Bown, a
driver that had suffered an injury to head, eye or both at Pocono that year,
ironically while driving for Bobby
Allison. Though not a regular in the booth, Bown provided good color comment for the very experienced
Squier. Of special note... are you listening FOX... neither gentleman
was ever seen on camera throughout the entire race. They were only there as
background voices, describing what was on your screen at the time. (That was a
bit of a shame, as Chuck Bown was one of those
drivers gals liked to look at. Really easy on the eye, if you take my meaning) Serving
as pit reporters for the evening were Rick Benjamin, Dr. Dick Berggren and
Randy Pemberton. All did an admirable job, but it brought a smile when they got
excited over a 20-second pit stop. Good ol' days indeed!
The
grandstand crowd was the usual for Richmond over many, many years; it was a
sellout at capacity, 72,000 fannies for a like number
of seats that year. One thing that did raise my hackles a bit was the number of
fans wandering about at track level with only a catch fence between them and
the action on the track. Yes, there was a low concrete retaining wall, but how
many times have we seen a car top one of those and "fly" into that catch
fence, spewing parts and pieces all along the way?
Oh, the
things we forget far too soon... there were noticeably fewer commercial breaks
and the ones that did run were only a minute or two in length, and we were back
to the race. Today it seems we watch commercials, with short breaks for small
segments of the race, interrupted still further by different Boys in the Booth.
There was no scoring crawl. Instead, perhaps every 15 minutes or so, a graphic showing
5 positions at a time would appear at the upper left of your screen, which is
notably the least intrusive place available. The only other thing we saw on the
screen aside from cars racing on track were occasional prerecorded short
interviews in which Squier or Bown
would "ask a question" of a driver; then, the graphic would open at
upper right, showing the questioned driver answering from his own lips. Of
course it was staged, but it was actually kind of cool, and something I'd
forgotten ever having seen.
The race
was only slowed by 5 cautions, 2 of which were for debris... of the visible
kind... and the race ran green from lap 260-400. Another fact that I found
telling was that there was not a single penalty handed down for speeding or
doing anything else on pit road. Recall, this was well before the electronic
speed controls that the teams all begged for were implemented. If anyone had
ever heard of aero-push in 1994, it wasn't evident either in the booth or on
the Richmond track during this race. There was passing galore, at all parts of
the track and throughout the race. How do I know? Because the cameras showed
it!
TBS was
never one of the wealthy networks, and I doubt their camera count back then
came anywhere near that of any network today, but those men behind the cameras
knew exactly what they were doing. This was another case where if one watched
closely, one could pick up on the fact that the lead was coming from the
camera, not from the broadcast booth. The camera caught action on the track and
the analysts began to describe it. If you watch this one, you'll also see a lot
of pull-back shots that make you feel as if you're right there in the stands,
watching the cars pass by beneath you. Excellent shots that never seem to occur
today, but the close-ups were astounding as well. There was some in-camera, but
never for more than a few seconds. When those cameras zoomed in from the
outside of the car, I swear you could look right into the drivers' eyes. I
remember shots and angles such as those, but haven't seen them in years!
Well
gentle readers, that's the race I watched on Easter Sunday, and when I was
through I wrapped myself around ham glazed with honey and pineapple, candied
yams done with clover honey and fresh orange zest and asparagus, just because I
love it. I purposely didn't tell you about the race itself or who won, just in
case you might like to watch for yourself and compare it against what we'll all
watch come Saturday night at Richmond. If you'd just like to know the details
of the race then a click right about here will take you magically to the
proper page of racing-reference.info. I would still recommend making time to
watch the race. It was a great one just to enjoy.
Now, for
our Classic Country Close-out, this song is almost as old as I am, written in
1939 by Scott Wiseman. It is performed here by Wiseman and his wife, Myrtle
Eleanor Cooper, better known as Lulu Belle. Together they formed the well-known
duo of Lulu Belle and Scotty, appearing as regulars on the WSL (Chicago) Barn Dance
and later on WSM (Nashville) Grand Ol' Opry, radio
version. Though this is their own recording, I have one I much prefer, by Red
Foley and Judy Martin, the stage name used by Foley's wife. Alas, that one is
not on YouTube so it exists only as an audio file on my computer. Note to self:
Must talk with Jim about music rights. The song is entitled "Remember Me,
When the Candle Lights Are Gleaming", and if you've only heard it by
Willie Nelson, well, sorry Willie, but then you haven't heard it. This is truly
old Country, as it sounded on old radio, but it's what folks of my generation
grew up loving... because it's all there was. Remember, I predate TV. I have
two hands-down favorite songs in life and this is one of them. My guess is, you'll probably hear the other one soon.
Be well
gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!
~
PattyKay