They’re leaving us, you know. One by one, the giants of our past are slipping away. The day will come – and it will come soon – when they will all be gone, their stories ever dimmer memories. As we bid each one sad farewell we come to see that time is short and we are losing our heroes.
So much is lost with the passage of time. The stories fade and disappear. The places may either change or stay the same or vanish altogether and while we may mourn the passage of time that erases the places of our youth, there are still faded photographs that can rekindle our memories of what once was. We cannot preserve what is no longer there.
But the people, the people and the stories they can tell, can be preserved. Recall all the hallowed places of the past – Lions DragStrip, Goleta, Colton, Green Valley – and imagine now for a moment that they are still there, that you could still sit in the stands on a Saturday night and hear the engines roar and hang around the pits later and eavesdrop on the bench racing and the bravado. Would you not relish the thought?
Well, we can do that no more. The places no longer exist. Many of the heroes who invented a sport that became a passion are no longer with us. We cannot again sit with John Menzler or Bill Smith or George Barris or Joe Mondello and be entertained with the tales of the past, the stories of then and how it all came together to be now. Many of our pioneers are not with us today, having succumbed to the inevitability of time. It won’t be long before all of those we worshipped and admired in our youth, all those who we held in awe, all those who innovated the hobby and the sport we all love, will be gone.
To honor the past, we owe it to ourselves and to those who will come after us to preserve it. It is within our means to do so. The Quarter Mile Foundation is a privately funded project with a mission of capturing on film the first person histories of our industry’s pioneers and legends. But it is a race against time, as these legendary men and women are leaving us at a sad and increasing rate. Once they are gone, they are gone and their stories, their triumphs, their struggles, their laughter will be gone with them.
We must not allow our history to disappear, to become nothing more than faded pictures and faulty memories. Donating to the Quarter Mile Foundation will ensure that history will be preserved, that the tale of how we became who we are today as an industry will not be lost to time and that, in a way, those who blazed the trail will always be with us.
Before you do anything else, go to Quarter Mile Foundation and do your part to ensure this vital history lives on.
Sincerely,
Adrian Murray
President
Visit Quarter Mile Foundation – Project 1320 at: http://project1320.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network
