6/8/04

The burdens of archiving

My wife and I will be moving soon, a task I dread more and more as each passing day brings me 24 hours closer to having to decide what will and won’t make the trip to our new crib in the ‘burbs. See, the problem is that I’m a collector, or as I prefer to term it, “an archivist.” I have literally thousands of automotive magazines, team promo kits, and pieces of motorsports memorabilia dating back 20 years or more and I just can’t bear the thought of parting with any of them.

I think most of us journalistic types are this way. We save each and every publication that crosses our paths in the firm belief that “they’ll come in handy someday.” Yeah, when I finally decide to produce the definitive work on NASCAR from 1990 to 1995, that complete set of weekly Winston Cup Scenes I have in the attic from that era will be a great source of material. Seven years ago I lugged those 250-plus newspapers all the way from Toronto to Atlanta in three big, heavy boxes and then made another move with them once we got here. I bet I haven’t looked at even one of those papers since my subscription ran out nearly 10 years ago and they‘re probably all yellowed and crumbling with age, yet I’m still tempted to load them one more time into the U-Crawl.

And having this stuff certainly doesn’t prevent me and others of my ilk from acquiring even more. Each year, I get an updated version of the NHRA and IHRA media guides. But would I throw out the previous year’s editions? No way! It just wouldn’t seem right. The same rule holds true for team press kits since you never know when you might need to see a team’s livery for a specific year or find out who was turning wrenches at the time. Of course, I’ve never had occasion to put this theory into practice—but the point is, I could if I had to!

I know I’m not alone. When the U.S. Nationals were rained out last year, I joined our large editor, editor at large, and several others with ties to Drag Racing Online at the annual memorabilia show staged at a hotel not far from the Indy strip. As memory serves, the Burkster paid what was probably far too much for the original technical drawings of some long-forgotten racecar, and I’m willing to bet those plans are now languishing in a mailing tube somewhere at DRO world headquarters. But he really wanted those plans because like me, he’s an archivist of the sport, a keeper of the flame, if you will. And I can’t throw stones anyway, because I left with a LP recording of hot rod tunes and several drag racing comic books from the ‘70s. Ahhhhh, those memories of youth will cost you every time.

Closer to home, I count no less than a dozen subscription magazines in my mailbox each month, with at least half dealing with hot rodding or drag racing. Do I read them all? Yeah, pretty much, but do I recall all I read? Nope, no way. So, just to be safe, I save every last one of them, first in piles on or around my desk, then in boxes on the floor, and finally they’re relegated to the attic to keep company with all those stories about Davey Allison and Harry Gant. Hey, I figure they’ll come in handy someday.

I’m also a sucker for drag racing die-casts. But not those ultra-detailed, high-dollar 1/16-scale dragsters they sell at team merchandising trailers. No, I prefer the-cheaper-the-better, little 1/64th-scale cars you find at Wal-Mart or the local dollar store. As long as it has a parachute and/or wheelie bars on the back, I’ll buy it. And even now I take every car out of its packaging. I know, I know, it greatly lowers their value as “collectibles,” but I’m more interested in watching them roll across the table or floor. Again, I think it’s a throwback to my past when I spent many hours getting that Hot Wheels track just so, with each succeeding piece bent just a little wider and lower to make sure the cars didn’t get hung up on the way down.

Anyway, I know I’m going to be faced with many “Do you really need this?”-type questions as our packing is about to start. And it’s going to be a challenge sometimes to justify my answers, but as an archivist I feel it’s my duty to stand firm. I owe it to the sport—and besides, I want to keep playing with my cars for as long as possible.

Race safe,

tocher@dragracingonline.com