A Time Gone By

When I was young, there was a race track, just down the road from my great aunts house. During this time we were living there with my aunt. She had these huge orchards, and in one orchard, my brothers would park cars for people going to the races. They could really pack the cars in, and it was a great way for them to earn themselves some money. A quarter a car, added up, pretty good, with the amount of cars they could get in her orchard. Many times that orchard would be packed from the street, clear back into our beloved field, which we could walk ½ a mile back and hit the road, that ran behind it.

Many times, my brothers and I would go to the field behind my aunts house to play, and would end up going over to the back of the race track and sneaking in. Mom never knew about it until she started working there, in the kitchen, and we showed up one day to visit her. Needless to say, we didn't go there again after that day. I was 9 and 6 years different in age from my brothers, so I was pretty young when we would pull those shenanigans, and they would really catch hell for dragging me all over with them. { not that I minded, I always had fun no matter where they took me.} I was always happy to go anywhere they went, and always happy they thought to include me.

Long before the race track raced horses, they raced cars there. The old kind that looked like big bullets, can't remember what they called them, race cars I guess, ha ha. It was way before my time, quite a bit before my time, like before the 1920's. My grandfather had a friend who raced there, Grandpa was a mechanic for his friend. It wasn't until years later, when I was much older, and going through some old photographs of those racing days, I saw a photo of my Grandpa and his friend in his racer. His friend was none other than Eddie Rickenbacker, having read about Rickenbacker in school, I thought it was great, and a big deal that MY Grandpa actually knew him, but the others in my family had never thought much about it.. Never did know why, but I thought it was great, and I loved looking at those old photos.

Times change, the horse races left, and the race track became over-grown with weeds, and in time the stadium crumbled.

Now when I go passed it I see an Industrial Parkway, with booming factories, filling what was once a neat place to sneak off to, and where my grandpa raced with Eddie Rickenbacker. Ah, the nostalgia.

Rickenbacker, Edward Vernon, 1890-1973, American war hero and airline executive, b. Columbus, Ohio. He became a car racing driver at 16 and set numerous speed records. In World War I he volunteered for the air service and became the leading U.S. ace by destroying 26 enemy planes. After serving as an executive of several airline companies, he became president and general manager (1938-53) and chairman of the board (1954-63) of Eastern Airlines, which he built into a major passenger and transport system. A political conservative, he often spoke on contemporary American affairs. His book Seven Came Through (1943) recounts his 22 days on a raft in World War II after running out of fuel while on an observation tour. He also wrote Fighting the Flying Circus (1919).

excerpt taken from:http://www.answers.com/Eddie+Rickenbacker?gwp=11&ver=2.1.1.521&method=3