If you’ve been fortunate enough to make several orbits around the Sun (i.e., you’ve been around a long time), there is little doubt you’ve acquired some amazing stories and memories. You may have made a lot of money in life along with obtaining quite a few friends, but when you put your head down on the pillow at night, those memories and stories undoubtedly flood your subconscious mind. Sometimes we need little reminders of the memories and henceforth the reason for some of the “stuff” we have sitting around our homes and shops.

Of course, to quote the late comedian George Carlin, “Have you ever noticed that everyone else’s ‘stuff’ is s##t and your s##t is ‘stuff’?”

Memorabilia is a big business today. In 2008 when the famed Yankee Stadium in New York was demolished to make room for a new facility, extra security guards were on hand at the final game to ensure fans weren’t walking off with a piece of history. Although, several pieces were sold to fans and memorabilia collectors anyway. And when the Dallas Cowboys’ Texas Stadium was razed in 2009, several components of the place were sold to fans.

Drag racing may not be quite as popular as Major League Baseball or the Dallas Cowboys, but there are still memories to be acquired.

In the mid-‘60s, a cinder block tower was erected at Atco Raceway in New Jersey, remaining operational until 2006 when a new state-of-the-art tower replaced that iconic building. I always felt when that cinder block tower was demolished, there should have been a party. None such existed when that building disappeared. But what happened to the many cinder blocks used in its construction? And what stories could those tell?

I know it’s not exactly a piece of Yankee Stadium, Texas Stadium or even Atco Raceway, but on my shelves is a section of broken concrete from the burnout box at nearby Beaver Springs Dragway, signed by the original track owner who was the one who poured the concrete decades ago.

How many other things do we have as keepsakes in our “man caves?”

The problem I have with them is they only really mean something to the person who saved them. But is there anything wrong with that? I don’t think so. It allows us to remember where we may have been or something that triggers a smile or a positive response to something from our past.

They say you can’t take it with you, but a story I came across may refute that premise.

East Coast Nostalgia Hall of Fame inductee Joe Boggs didn’t take any money with him into the afterlife, but he made sure he went out with nitro in his casket. A nitro junkie, when Joe passed away in 2016, his family chose to make sure two small bottles of nitro were buried along with him. That’s passion!

How many of us have stacks of old magazines lying around our homes? I still have a tendency to pick some up and read through them again. It allows me to bring back up the memories I had while either purchasing them in the first place or reading the story for the first time. Remembering where we’ve been can sometimes help us chart the course for where we’re going. That may sound like some kind of “fortune cookie talk,” but it’s true.

In my earlier days, I somewhat despised listening to the talk of drag strips long since gone. I don’t think I cared; now I do. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but the more “trips around the sun” I make, the more I begin to appreciate where I’ve been, as I believe we all should. We may not have any money (and as a racer, there’s probably some truth to that) but we do have stories; stories which are grounded in memories.

What are some of your memories?

When the Las Vegas Motor Speedway two wide was demolished to build the 4 wide, Jeff Foster held a guard wall signing party after the last race, where those that were there could sign the wall and I think Jeff still has that portion on the property somewhere.
When the Las Vegas Speedway Park was razed to make way for the new LVMS, the contractor that demolished the tower was a client of mine, and I happened to be on site when the tower came down and I was able to score a piece of the interior wall out of the rubble. I had lots of trips and memories down that old track.

I have been racing for almost 65 years--still racing. I imagine I could tell a few stories especially of tracks I have raced at that are now gone. And also the friends from racing that are gone. Good memories and bad.

When Heartland Park Topeka tore up and replaced the original track, they sawed up and sold 6 inch squares of the racing surface that were about 8 inches tall, I bought one from the starting line area, because so many national record runs and legends of the sport had laid HP, thunder and rubber down on it, (as well as many of my own, ha).
Funny you mentioned the old Texas Stadium. As a lifelong Cowboys fan, I signed up when they began auctioning off items before the final game was even played in 2008. Some of the prices were too rich for my blood, but my upstairs man cave does have one of the 10 foot wide, custom painted 1-inch-thick wooden signs that they had over each stairway portal to the lower levels. Painted in the 1970's, Section 7, says Pepsi and shows a placekicker at ready in a Dallas uniform, and the holder has a bottle of Pepsi in his hand instead of a football. I won it for $102, and afterward attended the final game, took a picture of the same sign as it hung in the stadium. (I think that was genius on their part to sell the stuff before closing the place down).

Here’s something for you. In a dresser drawer under some T shirts I have ET tickets from many NE tracks. All hand written.

A few years ago the tower burnt down at Famoso Raceway, Bakersfield. They did a fund raiser to rebuild and everyone that contributed got a plaque on the wall with their name on it. If you go there check it out.

I worked at a small little hole-in-the-wall track almost 30 years ago, and our 'uniform' was a simple T-shirt with the track's logo and "TRACK OFFICIAL" on the front & back.

the track closed-up in 2001, but I still have that 'uniform' (and it still fits, too!)

I carefully wash that shirt in cold water, let it hang to dry, and keep it in the front of my closet.

It is my 'go-to' T-shirt when I visit the local tracks these days, including last weekend