Tommy Ivo's Kindness

By Bob Plumer

As I've mentioned before, Tommy Ivo & The Greek were my favorite heroes. I remember York U.S. 30 Dragway in York, PA, booking in Ivo's Buick dragsters. They all were lovely sights to see.

I can remember York booking Ivo in to run the jets also in the sixties.

Just short little story here about when Ivo was running his funny car at York one night. My stepsister Margie had never been to a drag race. I took her to York one on a Saturday and as we were going up it started raining. Of course, when we got into the track we found that they called the race because of rain. Everyone hung around during one of those bullshit sessions that usually happen at a rainout.

We get to TV and of course, his car is in the trailer. I explain to Tommy that my stepsister has never been to a drag race and I asked if it would be all right for her to go into the trailer to see the car. To my surprise, Tommy says, "I can do better than that." He had his crew roll it out of the trailer to show her the car and to explain the workings of a funny car.

Of course I felt 10 feet tall and my stepsister was amazed. She and I will never forget that night.

Margie finally did see a drag race later in the year and got hooked.

I thanked Tommy that night and I am thanking him again here. What a true showman and one hell of a nice person.

Plum

P.S. As I'm typing this it just hit me that TV had a TV show called Margie, my stepsister's name. Never gave that a thought until just now. Small world.