homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Battle of Britain + Battle of Britain II Here's what happened (Continued)

Folks,
At 10:30 AM the temp is 78°F. The humidity is a damp 66% and visibility is reported to be 10 miles. The sun has his hat on at a jaunty angle today. We'll enjoy the high 80s with blue skies and, at the moment, an 11 mph wind coming out of the SW.

Fittop:
My uncle Ray lived right across the road from the Petty compound in Randleman, NC many years ago. As a kid I would visit my cousins in the summer. Back then you could just walk right in and say "Howdy" to the soon to be legendary neighbors. I know this because one of my cousins (the one who became a FAC pilot in Vietnam) and I just strolled over there and met them. Meeting Richard Petty that day was the pinnacle of my own limited NASCAR experience. I am smack dab in the center of the NASCAR world and I have never been to a race.

I have always been far more interested in open wheel and endurance racing. Sadly, I have never been to the Brickyard but I have flown over it. What a treat it was when Garner's movie "Grand Prix" came out in 1966 then McQueen'sdocu-movie "Le Mans" in 1971 hit the big screen. That film depicted racing in the 70's in the world's toughest endurance race. Both actors were exceptional drivers and proved it in both these movies. WE could not get such races on our TVs back then. There was no Cable or satellite TV available to my knowledge in my hometown.

No one should care what I think, my friend, the more I learn the more I realize there is a vast expanse of knowledge and human experience that I do not have the time left to begin to know. As my opinions are based upon what little I have learned in 72 years, they must, by that definition, highly questionable. Ditto perhaps for all those political pontificates crowding the TV channels these days and others. My late wife used to say (all too regularly) that if Roger knew just half of what he thinks he knows he would be about half way to realizing how little he knows. When I was in high school, my mom once told me I had a head packed full of "book sense" but not nearly enough "common" sense. They were both right.