I'm going to stop right here and cut off this "highlights of my vacation" jag and get editorial for just a moment. The California Hot Rod Reunion draws me every year because it's

ADVERTISEMENT

spontaneous with only a little of the effects choreographed. Yes, the promoters of the show use words like "geezers" and stuff to build the show and it justifiably is aimed at racers and fans with experience. However, it's obviously more than that. If nothing else, it shows that race management can loosen the reins on the crowd a little and run little risk. During the whole weekend, I did not see one fight and I only heard the "F" word seven times.

The show has the best program (at $8.00 it's a bargain) and the Friday night social at the Double Tree Inn with all the race cars is the biggest social event of the season. Yet, despite the gray and the guts, these race folks have a camaraderie and sense of the wild really scrubbed out of recent generations. (True, it's been awhile since I've participated in a drive-by shooting, but you get the idea).

I like hip-hop and punk way better than the older music, but Gene Vincent or Eddie Cochran is infinitely more preferable than the way over publicized Faith Hill or Britney Spears. One pair is genuinely footloose, the other sports- learned corporate chic. There is none of the latter at Bakersfield.

Some of a cynical bent might say, the reunion represents the wild old man's last gasp. However, if the revelers and organizers at the California Hot Rod Reunion continue to hold this show as it is, and don't "fix" it, there will be future generations of "wild old men (and women)" at coming reunions. Infectious and contagious, this show has almost as much potential of creating new drag race fans as do the current races themselves.