Memories... Stock Car Races

So last night over dinner, we (Mr. Brown Eyes, my mom, and myself) were discussing my youth.  I guess you might say I wasn't a party animal as a teenager.  It really wasn't something that really appealed to me.  Wasn't really interested in beer or parties or that sort of thing.  Didn't care if you did, but it just didn't work for me.  Wasn't interested in being popular or any of that stuff.  What was I so busy doing that I wasn't interested in the other stuff?   Racing!

Our family has a history with cars - more specific I'd say stock cars.  On Friday nights and sometimes Saturday nights too we'd all go to the race track in our home town.  My uncles - Ron, Richard & Gary got together and got into racing. Eventually my dad joined the crew as well.  Richard was head mechanic - he could make anything fast - the two tone Chevy you see won many trophies drag racing.  The ones in the photo below are just a tiny fraction of the trophies he accumulated over the years drag racing.

Once we moved into stock racing,  my grandfather's construction company became the sponsor of the car.  The #35 was one of the first entries into the world of stock car racing.  I believe the driver of that first car was a friend of my uncles - Bud Olsen. 

The third photo down is a photo of my grandfather, Ray Phillips, with two of my uncles and my dad with the #35. 

Fourth photo down was one my personal favorite stock cars, it was the bright yellow (yeah I know its a black and white photo!) #12.  Many awesome photo's with checkered flags and that car.  This one has my favorite driver, my uncle Ron Radley posing with a checkered flag after one of his many wins.

The fifth photo down is of my cousin Brian Phillips as a very young child posing in the bright red #24.  I don't have as many memories of the #24.  But I do remember the hours my uncles spent making these race cars fly, and how proud we were of them when they took that checkered flag!

Many happy hours were spent at those race tracks and I'm so glad that we as a family spent that time making those memories.  The entire family there in the stands (the ones that weren't in the pits with the cars), the bags of peanuts we shared, the shells everywhere, ice cold pepsi's we shared...  most of all the sense of family that it instilled in us and finally the memories we have. 

My uncle Ron Radley passed away several years ago - but every time I see a stock car on a trailer headed for the race track I think of him - the checkered flags, the sound of those engines. My kids think I'm crazy when I go to the Woodward Dream Cruise and I actually enjoy the sound of those big engines.  Now they know where that comes from.   Thanks Ron, Richard, Gary, Dad and the rest of the crew for the memories!  After all,  families is what Family History is all about!

Treasure Chest Thursday - Memories

As many know I spent some time last spring in Europe.  Belgium to be more exact.  While there we did do some "exploring".  One Friday the question was asked of me - "would you rather go to Paris or go find some ancestral churches?"   Gee that's tough...  I chose the churches of course!

In about 1725 in the village of Freckenfeld, Germany a child named Johann Michael Ott was born to parents Johann F. Ott and his wife Etta.  In my Treasure Chest Thursday entry for this week I offer these...

Yes indeed we visited the village where my ancestor(s) lived, walked and worshipped.   The road sign above shows the entryway into the village of Freckenfeld.  The one church in the village, according to signs at the church was built in the late 1600's.  And finally the bottom image of the cemetery, so very well tended.  And yes, there were quite a few names we recognized in the cemetery, most of them on the side of my 7th great grandmother, Maria Susanna Helck.   Maria & Johann Michael both came to the states and died in Frederick County, Maryland.   Paris or stand on the ground where my ancestors walked,....  yep, you guessed it - I chose to stand where they stood, walk where they walked.

Never in a million zillion years did I ever think that I would even step foot in Europe let alone visit the villages of my ancestors.  I am so thankful that the opportunity was offered and I was able to accept. 

Memory Monday - My Dad, Clarence C. Ansley

16 MAY 1939 - 12 DEC 1967

Not a day goes by that I don't think of you & wish that you were here!

Beans & Cornbread...

I don't usually blog about food, BUT when food takes me back down memory lane I must admit I need to go there. 

Somehow it seems family & food always end up getting tied together.  I think if you talk to most people their memories usually have food figured in, whether its holidays or other celebrations, food seems to always play a part.  Certain foods just seem to always evoke memories. 

Tonight on the way home Mark stopped at this little bistro.  We've driven by many times, always saying, "we need to make a stop there sometime", but somehow we never got around to it, at least not until today.

Today we stopped at "Beans & Cornbread - A Soulful Bistro".  All I can say is OMG!  Now I am thinking of all the great meals we've missed.  This fabulous place is located at 29508 Northwestern Highway, in Southfield.  This place brought back memories of my "grannie's" Georgia cooking.  Memories came flooding back as I tasted the hoppin john, cornbread and ribs.  Mark & each ordered the early bird special - I had salmon croquettes with a side salad & macaroni & cheese.  I was thrilled to see the tomatoes done the way I remember so many members of my family doing them!  Mark had ribtips bathed in an awesome BBQ sauce that tasted like it was right off the grill at a roadside stand in south Georgia!  He had the hoppin john and sweet potatoes.  My croquettes were awesome as well  If you order the early bird special you get dessert as well.  They were out of Sweet potato pie (what does that tell you?) so we had peach cobbler.  I think that was the best peach cobbler I've had in many years!

Part of the fun of enjoying dinner together was the ability to try what the other had. Boy was I glad.  Nothing in this place was bad...  I think one of the best things was the sweet potato muffins.  OMG!  They are so awesome.  The chef won't share the recipe, so I guess I'll have to just keep going back! 

Despite giving up caffeine I had to try the sweet tea.  Its not often you find a place here in the metro Detroit area that asks, "Would you like your tea sweet or unsweet?"  Of course I had to have the sweet, somehow things like hoppin john, sweet potatoes, bbq ribs just need a sweet tea to top it off.

At some point I had to ask our server, Darien, if she had my granny in the backroom somewhere.  She laughed and said no. 

Visiting Beans & Cornbread brought back memories of granny - memories of a more gentle time, time with cousins, aunts & uncles, all gathered around granny's table, surrounded by all her "pretties" & photo's of all her family, times of laughter and fun, crawdads down at the crick, eating tomatoes with a salt shaker out by the ditch... 

I can't say that going to Beans & Cornbread will do all those things for you, but I must say it will fill you up and make you glad you stopped in for a visit! 

What about you?  Have you found a place like Beans & Cornbread that brings back childhood memories for you? 

Happy Researching!
Karen
** Ironically after arriving home we talked with a tax client dropping off a return.  She said she had to hurry, she had called in a take order to BEANS & CORNBREAD!   Amazing!