Today is the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. For most of my life this has meant one thing - watching or listening to the Indianapolis 500. I lived in Indianapolis from the ages of three to thirteen, and returned to Indiana for college. Living in Indy, the 500 was blacked out locally, so we listened to the 500 on the radio. Its hard to describe what the 500 meant for us back then. It was kind of like listening to Ernie Harrwell call the Tigers games on the radio - except that the entire baseball season happened on one Sunday.
I love the tradition of the race - the Purdue All-American marching band, the national anthem, the invocation, Taps, Jim Nabors singing Back Home Again in Indiana (not that I also have that song on my iPod), and a member of the Hulman family saying "Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!"
It's been twelve years since I lived in Indiana, and as the years have passed and after the split of IndyCar and Champ Car, I no longer follow IndyCar racing, and I don't care very much about the actual race. But I still put the race on the DVR, if for no other reason than to watch the pre-race ceremony. I still love some Jim Nabors. I love my life in Detroit - I don't dream about the moonlight on the Wabash nor do I dream about my Indiana home. But I think I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the tradition of that Sunday in May.
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Abe and I listened to the radio broadcast for the same reasons why the race is on your DVR. I had to sing along to "Back Home", too.
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