Coming of Age...

One of my brother Mike's most vivid memories is the story that he often tells about the day he realized he was getting old. Nothing earth-moving at all really, he was simply driving down the road one day and passed me driving a motor vehicle of my own. It just didn't seem possible to Mike that his little brother, Van, the youngest of 3 boys, should have a valid driver's license and be shuffling in and out of traffic as if he knew what he was doing.

About a decade later I was driving down the road and a Chicago song came on. Instead of turning the station, I just sat there and enjoyed it. For years, I officially recognized that particular day in history as my cue that perhaps I too was getting old (ha ha). What happened last Saturday at Mooresville, however, is my new official, "I'm getting old story."

I was fortunate enough to attend my first IHRA Pro-Am event in years this last weekend at Mooresville Dragway. As I stood there in the staging lanes watching Super Stock form a single file line, I began to think about the first time I ever went to Mooresville. The year was 1989, and my pal Tim Starnes of Hickory, NC had a high-winding Modified Camaro. Tim and his family let me tag along with them and attend this very same divisional race, only we called it World Championship Series (WCS) back in those days.

As I stood there last Saturday watching Mike Boyles and Steve McCreary exchange pleasantries in the staging lanes, I began to distinctly remember that both men were present at this same IHRA divisional meet nearly 20 years ago. I approached Mike and Steve and told them of my memory...so they too would have a brand new, "I'm getting old story." I told the story to Ronnie Skinner also, another competitor who was present both then and now.

I took a snap shot of Boyles and McCreary standing in the staging lanes Saturday, then I came home after the race and dug through my shoe boxes of pictures until I found one that I snapped in 1989 - a snap shot that also has both Mike Boyles and Steve McCreary in it. Launching from the starting line is Boyles' famous "Good 'Ol Charlie Brown" wagon. Pulling into the water box behind him is none other than the "Dog Gone Vette" of Steve McCreary. McCreary updated his equipment a few years ago to a little sport compact ride, while Boyles still bangs gears in his old, brown wagon. Both men still compete in IHRA Super Stock.

The swiftness of time takes me by surprise sometimes; last Saturday at Mooresville is a perfect example.