Winds of Change

General General Discussion
1

Has there been a change, an arguably insignificant one, that has really bummed you out? I know nothing lasts forever and things always change, morph, progress etc, but sometimes one hits you really hard.

This week Atco Dragway in New Jersey closes unexpectedly and it really hit me hard. Though I have not raced there in years, maybe 2017, and moved to NC in 2019, knowing it was still there was a touchstone for me.

When I was in college, years before I purchased my first firearm, I was a spoiled kid with a car not commensurate to my age and income or lack thereof. I got a 2001 WS6 Trans Am in February of 2001. By July I went to Englishtown Raceway Park for the first time and I was hooked. I met lifelong friends from racing, but slowly it’s all been disappearing. My best friend Ken, who I met through racing and the inspiration behind moving to NC passes unexpectedly in 2016 before the age of 40. I lost another friend to street racing on Rt3 in North Jersey in 2003. Another to cancer earlier this year. Out of large circle of friends myself and one other person still have our cars. Englishtown Raceway Park closed some years ago and now Atco and I find myself in a funk.

I went 12s for the first time at Atco. First 11s. First 10s. When I was in college I would be there at least 2 times a month in the spring and fall. I still remember my wife, then GF, meeting me there at night on a Thursday in March or October or November, freezing her ass off but never complaining just to watch me race.

EDIT: The shop that built my car, and sponsored me, closed its doors at the end of June. Im still close friends with the owner, and his two sons are super close as well, they both now live in the next town over from me. They are family, but the shop is gone.

Those times are gone and they are never coming back. It seems so insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but I can’t help but feeling like Im mourning the loss of a major part of my life.

This was back in 2012 and the best pass Ive had in my car.

[video=youtube_share;hRDqQvJi7t8]https://youtu.be/hRDqQvJi7t8[/video]

Am I just a little b*tch or have y’all felt the same about something similar?

2

No You’re just getting older and a bit melancholy at the thought of times past.
Happens to all of us.
Heart Attacks and Suicide, my circle of friends is becomming much smaller.

3

Definitely sad to see places that you have fond memories of going away.

On a lighter note… you’re gonna have to give us some info on that awesome car. It sounds and looks amazing.

4

Seems every year I’m slightly less able to do the things I love, that I just assumed I’d always be able to do.

And seems like every year they close or change something that I always loved.

5

Maaannnn, when I was in high school that was the car I wanted. Looks great.

Now that I could probably go buy any one that I could find, I have no interest in sports cars anymore.

I get the feeling you describe about once every couple of weeks it seems.

6

My cousin died last week; he was 9 years older than me. Yeah, it was sad, but what really struck me was that although he was married with kids and grandkids, his nuclear family, the one I knew growing up with his mom and dad (my aunt and uncle) and his sister have all died; that family is gone. That really makes me sad.

To a less existentialistic degree, my hometown has changed so much…restaurants, stores, all gone, renamed, bulldozed, whatever. Yeah, the passing of the years…

7

Absolutely. Although I have not had the heart-stabbing pain of knowing people who have chosen to take their life, I seem to be at an inflection point where my funeral to wedding ratio is like 5:1.

8

The current set up (same as the one in the video is a solid roller stock CID LS1, forged pistons and rods, stock crank, 102mm FAST intake and throttle body, Trick Flow 225 heads with T&D shaft mount rockers. The cam is large by huge, if I remember right its just about 0.700 lift. 1-7/8" primary, 3" collector stainless Kooks headers, true duel exhaust with x-pipe. Face plated T56 with Viper internals and output shaft, Pro 5.0 shifter. McLeod RXT Twin disk clutch. Strange 12 bolt with 4:56 gears and a spool. All adjustable suspension components, no rubber or silicone bushings, all metal heim joints, tubular front k-member upper and lower a-arms. Afco double adjustable front shocks, single adjustable QA1 on the back. 6 point roll bar. Factory ECU, obviously dyno tuned. Im sure Im forgetting some things.

9

Jack ass Colonel tore down the cannon gate at picatinny, they are still there today, but not the same size as they used to be. Some people want change for no reason other than they can say they did it. I was obviously much younger, but that was a shock to me that people would destroy history.

A much more recent shock of disgust was girls deciding they could go out to the store in pajama pants and slippers.

Going on calls as a cop and arresting the kid of someone you had arrested when they were that age.

Seeing military buddies and how much they have aged.

10

I ordered the wife a 97 Formula back in the day & was getting ready to juice her up when she came home & said she was pregnant…told her a car seat won’t fit & she went out & bought one to prove me wrong. Tried put it in the back seat & had a case of turrets & then a honda accord. I got my case of the hot rod bug out of me with a 50th anniversary Camaro ZL1…there were guys on the camaro6 forum getting 10’s factory, but I really enjoyed her for the twisty’s. It was a fun car.

The main deal I see happening with me in regards to change is I’m just not mad at big deer like I used to…seems I pay a lot of $$$$ every year to enjoy campfires & keep the freezer supplied with venison. I have way more fun shooting yotes than I do whitetails. My passion for wing shooting is still in full stride & can see the whitewing opener on the horizon. Hope that never fades.

11

The last time I shaved was the day I got married 14 months ago.
I’m 62, it was really odd to shave and slowly reveal to myself that I had turned in to the spittin image of my Grandpa.
I reconnected with an old militay buddy and his wife recently, 40 years have passed since I saw them last. Dude looks just like his Dad.

The one that spooks me though is a kid from an old Platoon I had about 30 years ago. The guy was nuts and fun and always was up to some BS. Guy got out, knocked out his degree and was, from what I understand making a solid six figure income, Wife, kids, house the whole thing.
Homeboy, who was the funniest life of the party guy, smoked his pistol in the garage.
Not as much as a clue what the F happened to him.
Just Gone.

12

Yes. When I read the OP I immediately thought of Bay Meadows (horse race track) in San Mateo, CA. My grandmother loved betting on the ponies. She used to take me there when I was a young boy in the 1960s. It closed in 2008 though I hadn’t heard of it closing until years later. “Insignificant” as you say, but it kinda “bummed me out”.

That said, I’ve visited places in my past that I thought would stir fond memories but didn’t. Bay Meadows would have probably been no different, but the fact that it no longer exists hit an emotional nerve.

13

No one gets out of here alive is what I’ve heard. It sucks as you get older when you realize for all intents and purposes your best days are behind you…NO ONE gets better/stronger/faster as they age, and people you love start to move on. I guess that’s why we all eventually pass, it’s a clock ticking from the day you were born. Damn, depressing for a Friday night I know!

On a lighter side note, any of you old bastages out there remember the Scorpions song “Winds of Change”?

14

You know my story. I honestly do not dwell on it but I would be lying if I said I did not think about my mortality from time to time. I am not afraid of death, I am sad at the thought of not being here for my family.

15

In 1969, I was an 8 y.o. watching the Apollo 11 mission on live TV. Sitting beside me was my great-grandfather, born in 1881. Here was a guy who spent much of his life without electricity or running water, farming with mules and draft horses. Although I loved his stories, I didn’t fully appreciate the walking time capsule he represented at that age. I recall him telling me that the world had changed so much in his long life he didn’t feel at home in it anymore.
I understand what he meant now.