I can just see myself now – hopefully I live this long.

I’ll be well into my seventies, sitting in my in my lawn chair, in my day clothes – under a shady tree - waiting for someone to come by for a visit while I listen to the golden oldies or a ballgame on my permanently portable, surgically implanted - Apple G100 micro Mac computer gadget – complete with embedded ear audio (EEA), virtual video specs (VVS) and total voice recognition (TVR). You see, for my 70th birthday my family gave me the latest and greatest technology, so I’m all connected and wireless - they even chipped in for the optional pacemaker, which I needed anyway.

Perhaps my grandkids will come by to see their Grandpa.

“Grandpa, Grandpa!!! - can you tell us about the old days again? “
“Sure my little Goldie’s, I’d love too, what would you like to hear about?
“Can you tell us about those great times you had the racetrack?”.
“Yea – we love to hear about your old racing hero’s again”….
“Well, Okay”.. “Are you sure?”
“Oh please Grandpa, PL-EA-SE”….

“Okay, settle down then” …
“Well, It was a beautiful day back in 1991, and Reggie Ruggiero had just won the Race of Champions driving the Mario Fiore #44. Believe it or not, he started 50th out of 52 cars and….”

“But Grandpa… you always said that Ruggiero started driving the Ed Close #69 back in 1990 ”…
“Yea Grandpa and wasn’t it the 1988 RoC that “The Reg” started in the second to last row and won?”.

“Grandpa – are you feeling okay?” Grandma!!!!!

Damn!!!
How will I ever be able to keep my facts straight when I get older? I have a hard time as it is now.

Recalling youthful memories when I’m in my golden years may very well be a foregone conclusion - but I’ll always remember this day well. It was September 25th, 1999 – It was moving day for the Goldy family and push was coming to shove. There were going to be several things that we just couldn’t take with us. The “pack rat” in me was starting to get that uneasy feeling. I knew I was going to see some heavy casualties. In the basement, over in the corner (and stacked very nicely I might add) were all of the racing publications my brother and I had acuminated over the years. All those crates of old Speedway Scenes, Pit Stoppers, Hot Rods, Trackside’s, AARN’s and more – a substantial amount of racing history was on the chopping block.

The decision was made. We did the unthinkable – we piled into the truck, every anxiously awaited periodical and subscription, every hard earned .50 cent Pit Stopper and racing program. I recall those days of waiting for the “Hard Copy” subscriptions to be delivered by the trusty mailman. It was then I could get more in depth coverage and scoop of the past weekends racing action, I can only vaguely recall their storylines now. There was also the monthly magazine – what feature story would I be sinking my teeth into? Maybe there would be a feature on a Modified driver with pictures. I always hoped so….

The mighty race result pioneer, Paul “Tremaine” Trowbridge and his Checkered Flag announcer report got you the top 10 rundown as soon as his faithful network of track reporters called in their action. But as the weekend wore off and the approaching race weekend eminent, the racing periodical that was carefully delivered to my mailbox, always provided closure from the previous weeks action – full results, pictures, opinion, race stories as well as the upcoming weekend’s race hype. It was a beautiful thing.

With the truck loaded, we headed out. On this September day we weren’t heading to the racetrack to take in a fall racing classic like countless times before. On this September day we were driving all these beautiful, fact filled, racing publications to the dump. To the dump I say. Oh the horror…

But wait – I have an excuse - you see, my small family and I were moving into our first real home – it was a stressful time, I had to get rid of them – I didn’t have the room – honest.. or so I thought at the time. Turns out now, I do have the room – why I have plenty of room for many publications. I mean, if we have room for “Country Living’s” and “Cooking Light’s” and basement space for boxes and boxes of crap… Urrgggg… If I had only planned right. Good lord, I can’t stand myself.

We stood there at the back of the pickup truck, hurling these crates of racing papers to their untimely demise. I took some time to flip through a last precious few. I caught a few covers – Bugsy, Richie, Reggie, Ronnie…. I opened a few to look at some pictures. This was not easy, saying goodbye.

The stench of the landfill made my stomach ill – smoke filled the horizon as trash was being burnt on site. Would someone come and rescue our racing publications? I couldn’t bear the thought. I held onto a few of my favorites – so very few. We drove away - off into a land that seemed colder and bleak, one without history and forever changed.

That was 6 years ago…
And now….. I want my stuff back.

I’ve been looking for information lately. Results, stories, facts – pictures. Yes, I’m well aware there are several of those “on line” resources – (thank you, you know who you are)… but to be honest, it’s not enough. So it’s not so hard to find out who won the Sizzler back in 1984 or who won the championship at New Smyrna in 1994. But I need more info, for what you ask? Well, nothing really – I just want to know for the sake of knowing where exactly Marty Radwick finished at the Park on any given Sat night. I want to be able to look, at my leisure – without searching Google – who won at Riverhead whenever.. maybe it was “The Flying Dutchman” Fred Harbach or Don Howe, or perhaps it was some guy named Park - Bob, Bill or Steve – well damitt, I’ll never know now cause I threw away the central Goldy library for all things Modified – all for the sake of freeing up some basement space and taking “just the things we needed”…

The things we hold onto and the things we get rid of in our lives – well, let me just tell you this – you all should think long and hard before you throw something away.. I mean – you might just want it back someday. And when that happens, you’re left where I am – up the creek and….. trying to paddle around the web looking for what I had readily available at my fingertips – well – I’ll tell you, it’s very hit or miss out there.. Again – a big thank you to the hobbyist, those loyal folks that have taken the time to understand technology and create websites that house some of our racing history – past and present.

But I’m telling you - you can’t replace the Hard Copy. The smell, the feel, the text – it’s like an old LP record, sure CD’s are all the rage, but it’s the old record album that really brings you back. (Boy, I’m really sounding like I’m 70 something - huh?)

I know we have some MSS staffers working round the clock to come up with some historical data – what a chore this must be. I’ll be very thankful when we have more of this data at our fingertips. I recall a couple of years ago someone on the mighty message board offered up their collection of publications – and just a week or so ago I see Ted Baxter just dumped his own collection of Speedway Scenes… Ted, I hope you don’t regret this in later years.

Yes – I do have the future and currently there is a wealth of current information out there – but it’s the past that is nice to recall, even better when you have your facts straight. So when I’m old and gray or just gray – don’t be giving me the business because I was off a few years or I mixed up who drove for who, when..

Now where was I?

Ah yes – telling my Grandkids about “The Cookie Monster” - Mike Stefanik…

“It was 1998 that Stefanik won 13 races, in that…… that #15 car… I swear…. “
“Grandpa, try and relax…. The medication download is almost finished; it will kick in shortly….”

Send mail to: Chris Goldsnider