Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Three Things for Father's Day

Since it was for Father's Day, I waited until today to do this week's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy Seaver.

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1.  It's Father's Day on Sunday.  Tell us three things about your father, or one of your grandfathers (or another male ancestor), that have influenced you in your life.

2.  Share your response on your own blog or in a Facebook post.  Please share a link in Comments on this post if you write your own post.

I've been thinking a lot recently about my father and racing, so that's my focus today.  And yes, his interest in racing has influenced me.

1.  The fact that I grew up watching a lot of racing in person and on TV meant that I ended up seeing a fair number of car crashes.  I grew up with a healthy respect for the damage that cars can do when they go fast.  It has influenced me to drive the speed limit perhaps a little more than the average person does.

2.  I cannot think of Memorial Day weekend without thinking of the Indianapolis 500.  We knew every year when Memorial Day came around what my father, and by extension we kids, would be doing:  The TV would be showing the Indy 500, and we would often watch it with Daddy, or at least I would.  I don't really remember the specifics of the races, but I remember watching them with him.

3.  I have an unusual recognition of certain landmarks.  Once I was driving east on I-10, and to the north was a huge empty lot with a big pile of dirt in the middle.  I kept looking at it as I was driving past because it seemed oddly familiar.  I realized it was the former Ontario Raceway, which I must have gone to with Daddy to watch some races.  Even stripped down to nothing, it rang a bell.

The same kind of thing happened to me when I drove from the San Francisco Bay area to Milwaukee in the summer of 1993 for a convention.  Heading east on I-80 this time, as the highway transitioned from Nevada to Utah, I saw a sign with Bonneville on it.  I was trying to remember why I recognized that name, and then I saw the vast expanse of white that is the salt.  I suddenly shouted out, "It's the Bonneville Salt Flats!" (which kind of surprised my traveling companions).  Daddy used to watch when people raced and did speed trials on the salt flats, and I watched right alongside him.

Lynn Sellers