Comment:

Fick

This picture of Reading sure brings back memories of the mid-60s.  How many times I saw that exact scene.  I had a paper route and a little spending money, so every Friday two buddies and I walked down Reading Crest Ave, down Route 61 to Bellevue Ave and on to the front gate.  We sat in the same seats every week. 

I remember Lindy "tearing up" the track with his grader tires producing huge lumps of mud.  Someone else drove the water truck, spraying a deluge on the track.  Then Lindy would grade that with the blade and the tow trucks and other service vehicles would wheel pack.  By the time he was finished the track was so tacky it would literally pull the sneakers off your feet when you walked on it.  And it stayed like that all night, by the time of the feature the track was smooth as a baby's bottom. 

I don't know if anybody knew the secret formula Lindy used.  Rumor had it that he mixed calcium chloride and dish soap together, soaking the track in that the day before the shows.  Today the EPA would be all over that.  One thing I do know since I saw it first hand, Lindy worked the track every day of the week.  You could drive to Hot Rod's place and watch Lindy make lap after lap on his grader, and with that steel cylinder with the spikes on it (I do not know the name of it).  When Friday or Sunday came around all the shine and rubber were gone, the surface was a dull brown clay - perfect for racing. 

Lindy took good care of the track, the physical plant, not so much. 

What did Barbara Streisand sing, "misty water colored memories, of the way we were."