1/8/07
Happy New Year! I think…
Happy New Year to all you devoted readers of all that is Getting Nostalgic. This month we are going to delve deep into our archives and relive the best and worst moments of Getting Nostalgic from the past year. Oh, I can just feel the anticipation coming through the Internet ether from you, my devoted reader.
This is the column that resembles those hacked-together, end of year episodes from "Happy Days," "Laverne and Shirley" and "Joanie Loves Chachi." If you are Korean, you know indeed that Joanie loves her some Chachi. Sorry. Back to the part where we reminisce about something Ralph Mouth did, the screen goes fuzzy, and lo and behold we are back in one of my past month's columns! Sound fun? Too bad, it’s all I got this time. Okay, to make it a little more appealing, I’ll give you all an update on what is new with the people mentioned and maybe point out how right I was in my predictions. Or wrong (but that’s asking for a lot). Along with the sitcom folks, we got some help from some famous time travel experts also.
Mr. Peabody just sent the Way-Back Machine to August of 2006. And here we are! This was the month I made my triumphant return to the hallowed halls of Drag Racing Online. In my absence, Mike Bumbeck filled in and did a great job. Mike moved over to Mopar Max Magazine and has since moved on from there to pursue other gigs. The Nostalgia Pro Comp Association came up and we talked about that burgeoning association. What a great year they had in 2006, and 2007 looks even better for these folks. They have eight dates on the books and are running all of their classes at the Goodguys Indy race in June. Next we had a teaser about Joel Gruzen and his new gang, the Nostalgia Eliminator Racing Association. They ran one race at Barona Drag Strip and it was a resounding success - how could it not be when it was also a Fox Hunt! And they are coming back in 2007! Congrats, Joel and crew.
H.G. Welles just fired up the time machine and with a cough and a sputter we are back in September. Not much to relive here except for my DNQ at Boise. It would be nice to know if the box of money is still sitting on the counter at the self-serve fruit stand out there.
Carl Sagan thinks he can make October a little more appealing. Oh yeah, this was when I thought I would get cute and offend everyone south of wherever the south starts. We talked about a race to be held at Bradenton, Florida, on November 4th and 5th. They had it and all I got out of it were the winners' names! Matt Gilmore in Open Outlaw, Charlie Willimas (note - is it actually Williams? Did Jeff misspell this last name?) in Muscle Car 10.5, Bill Lee, Jr. in Open Comp, Kevin Macnicol in Bracket Box, and Derek Putnam in Bracket No Box. Congrats to everyone who competed at this event. Let me know what others you folks have planned in the land of the sinkhole. Next, I went on a rant about how much I loved the Goodguys. No one cares. . .next.
Einstein chimes in and reminds me of November...right. The now famous Stuff Happens column. Lots of Halloween candy went into that piece of work. Not much to relive here. Unless you want to bring up how I was completely wrong about M&H requiring the AA/FD guys to run 10 pounds of air in their tires. This happening after a few very scary incidents at the California Hot Rod Reunion. I neglected to ask anyone just how much air they were running before that weekend. I guessed it was around 6 pounds. So, I thought 10 pounds was a knee jerk reaction. Come to find out, most of the hitters were running around 8 pounds. I was wrong. Then, I tried to suck up to Phil Burgess. That got me absolutely nowhere. Another banner month down.
Finally Steven Spielberg pulls up in the "Close Encounters" Express to bring us to December. In preparing for this month's column I put out as many feelers as I could to bring you some race dates for this year. I thought I had it nailed. The dates would soon be pouring in! Hello? Is this thing on? Nothing. Nada. I pulled some dates from a few message boards I lurk on. I guess it’s all a big secret where you folks are running in 2007. I also mentioned the only team to send me regular updates on what they are up to, my favorites, The Frantic Fueler team! What’s new with these guys is a cool Youtube video you can view on that popular website.
So there is my version of a cheesy "Happy Days" year-end episode to satisfy the network brass.
What’s new? Well, it’s awfully quiet out there. Since I stopped wasting my time posting on message boards, no one talks to me anymore. I got ticked at the Nostalgia Funny Car Association and they stopped sending me information. The AA/FD guys are too busy keeping their schedule a secret, so I really don’t have anything ground-breaking to report. Also, the Agent 1320 guy gets all my scoops before I can write about them. What I do know is that Fontana Auto Club Dragway is hosting an open test and tune on January 14th that is shaping up to be the Nostalgia Fuel pre-season bash not to miss! I also know about a VERY secret test that will happen midweek in January at Auto Club Dragway that will involve a very anticipated team. I’ve been invited, so if I get permission to talk about it, I will. If not, Agent 1320 will leak it anyway.
Maybe next time I’ll tell you what Mendy Fry is going to do in 2007 (for now, I’m keeping it a secret!)
Lastly let me say that Mike Aiello will be greatly missed. Even though he worked for another webzine, he was my buddy. When we saw each other he liked to remind me how I smoked him in at Pomona one year while he was shooting on the wall. I guess the wind was right and he couldn’t get out of the tire smoke and nitro. I always countered with “You journo guys like the big burnouts right?” He loved every minute of it. Godspeed, Mike.
