Fast cars and gritty teeth

When you were younger did you ever say, “I will never…….”   Fill in the blank—drive a minivan, let my children have a motorcycle, allow my kids to play video games, sit and watch dirt track racing….

Last weekend I found myself doing something I thought I would never do.  Racing of any kind was not on the radar in my family. My parents never took us to any kind of car race, motorcycle racing, nothing of the sort.  The closest we ever got to racing was the Standardbred racing at the county fair.

So when my husband said, “Hey, you wanna go to Butler?” I said, “uhm….sure.”

Growing up in the south, dirt track racing was his the thing to do on Saturday night.  He watched it on TV, he went to the track, he loved every minute of it.  I have never known this side of my spouse, we never had the time or the energy to take four kids to the dirt track on a Saturday night so this part of his personality has been muted….until now.

Sitting in the dirt covered stands we watched as all kinds, colors and shapes of cars sped around the oval. As they roared by and skidded around the corner I found myself enjoying  this strange spectacle. I picked out my favorites and cheered them on as they went by.  When all the cars would get in formation before their race and the announcer suggested everyone stand and wave to the drivers as they went by, yes…I was standing and waving with the rest of the crowd.

We sat there until midnight rubbing the dust out of our eyes, clearing the grit from our mouths and listening to the announcer say things like, “the track needs more gription.”  Is that even a word?

A new world has been revealed to me now; the world of fast cars, dirty hair and the necessity of earplugs. 

I wonder which  ‘I will never…’ statement will happen next?