Midwest Chick's Place

B and I celebrated Independence Day in the best way we could think of–dirt track racing followed by fireworks (he took the pictures below).  

We celebrated in a place that the elites on either coast would never find and couldn’t understand if they did, surrounded by people who just want to be left alone to live life as they see fit (and guess what, the crowd was not monochromatic either).  

Surprisingly enough, in this crowd, a woman we knew from the snack bar at our local bowling alley a couple of years ago, recognized us and stopped to say ‘hi’.  She represents the American Dream–she was a short order cook at a snack bar and now is a supervisor at a cleaning business. 

The pre-race invocation, in addition to thanking our veterans, epitomized the American Spirit–the verbiage included “…and let the drivers be safe but race hard and give a good show.”.  Instead of ‘Amen’ I almost said “Murica Yeah”!

The crowd stood for the National Anthem–even the kids.  Families were everywhere.  Chili cheese dogs were consumed.

They had an Official Pace Car (duly labeled).  

During the post-race fireworks, they played Lee Greenwood over the speakers and guess what, pretty much everyone sang along.

After the race, leaving was orderly–everyone waited their turn.  People were pretty much laid back after having a really good night at the races.

Happy 245th Birthday, America.  I gotta have hope that as long as there are places like this, we’ll survive.