Sunday, July 29, 2012

A Walk to the Track ... and Back


As you can see, I had a "post position" for this shot 
of the sports car race Friday afternoon. The fencing,
steel cable and poles are all there for safety concerns,
but after having spent 20 years at the track in spots
unimpeded by the poles, it's frustrating to not be able
to take nice action shots of the racing.


On the way, I passed campers in the Coke Field, inhabiting 
everything from tents, trailers, made-over buses
and RVs of various sizes. I figured the people who have
this RV were doing their part to help women who
might not have health insurance, avoid
the expense of routine health exams.
How very, er, thoughtful.


About 30 minutes after the start of the sports car race, 
a massive plume of black smoke arose behind
the grandstand outside Turn One. I went to the top
tier of seats to see what was going on and saw
a structure fully engulfed in flames. In addition to providing
facilities for RVs, the site is a trailer park 
where people have homes. I later found out
that the air conditioner on an older RV is believed
to have overheated, starting the fire. No one 
was inside the vehicle, probably at the track,
so no one was lost or injured.


After the storms broke up and moved out of the area, 
the sun returned, bringing its best friend, humidity.
School is out for the summer, leaving this vast expanse of
the parking lot at Speedway High School, to absorb
the heat and reflect the glare from the early evening sun.


As I got closer to home, I walked through the park
where I found the playground full of little kids,
swarming all over the slides, swings, and climbing wall.
One of the soccer fields was being used
for a game by boys and men, while the other
corner was the scene of a sandlot softball game,
with teams made up of young men and women
of varying ages - teens to twenties. I was invited to play,
but whatever athleticism I had has become 
a white turd, spent and annoying.

The odd thing, which I think is most telling about the
changes over the past several years, is that virtually everyone
I saw in this neighborhood park was Hispanic.
A few African American families were present, but 
only one or two Caucasian kids dotted the mix.
This was not an accurate representation
of the neighborhood's population, for sure,
but more a reflection of the economic resources
available to the people who live here.

3 comments:

dive said...

Wonderful post, Speedway.

An Aston Martin in the rain? How very English.

I have to admire the ingenuity of the American beer-swilling male sports fan, but I bet they'd have run screaming if I offered them my manboobs to test.

How nice to see that not everybody over there sits in front of a TV in the air con, larding their fat asses with junk food (sorry; that's the European view of Americans); some folk still get out in the fresh air and have fun in the park.

Speedway said...

Thank you, Dive.

I admit I was very tempted to knock on the door of the RV to request a mammogram, just to see what they might have rigged up for an X-ray machine. Besides, I wanted to see the expression on their faces when I congratulated them on helping middle-aged + women keep their med expenses in line.

dive said...

Hee hee.