Run For The Roses....Have a Great Derby Day...

Dan Fogelberg.....( live 2003...)

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Video How to Make a Mint Julep
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This Years's Derby 2 Minute and 29 seconds- the last 50 seconds is amazing...::::

For any that don't know it....I have a real fond place in my heart for Horses...all Horses...if you click the title you can read why... " The Story of Luther" that I posted in 2007 on this blog....on another level ....I grew up in Baltimore....( and my Kentucky heritage Or something...)But I used to love to watch these races and the horses and I have been to a few too....( drunk in the infield wearing jeans and mud shoes and drinking cooler drinks and eating egg salad sandwiches....not with the swishy crowds in the stands wearing ostentatious hats and looking absurd......In the summers we would also gather for the Derby and make Mint Juleps and that would require many pounds of ice and bags of mint julep, and making gaudy TP hats and yelling at the TV.... So I have two Day at the Races Triple Crown.Stories...Here is one... I call it "Tube Top Women and Honey Pot Brawls"....
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1979 Preakness....
( God help me if my sister ever sees this she will kill me...but here it goes)
So in late Seventies I was living in Baltimore. going to school.....I had a big old 1966 Cherry Red Oldsmobile Cutless with creamy white interior with a bitching sound system...and I loved going anywhere in that car....it was the only time I ever offered to pick folks up at the airport or take my 79 year old blind great aunt lingerie shopping ( hey,she had a "boyfriend")....So I was used to doing favors in that whale of a car....

So my sister invited her "Boyfriend" ( I use that term loosely as she always had atleast three) up to Baltimore....and take her young fella " Dash" from North Carolina to watch the Preakness...... So I said fine...so off we go to the Big Event.....and we sit in the Infield...which is nothing but brawls, women in tube tops ( it was the Seventies..) .....more brawls at the Honey Pot Line....and people falling out of Lawn chairs....and more women sitting in broken lawn chairs eating KFC out of big drippy buckets and yelling " Dwayne, bring me another beer Hon, and find me my smokes ".....and then the end of the day the Tube Top Chicken Women as we called them brawling at the Honey Pot......( pay attention to these lush scenic details as it is important later..)

So.....Now almost to the End of the Day....Dash, sweetheart Southern boy that he is...says in his way, " Oh dang, I forgot my wallet and I want to bet one for you sis, can we go get it out of the car ? ".......So I say, " well, sure..." ( To this day he sounds like Bill Clinton in my mind...) Anyways...So we go out to the car.....and we get his wallet....but we can not find the ticket to get back in to the Racetrack....AND the race is about to start in 20 minutes....THE race...and there is not enough time to get to anywhere to watch it....like a bar or anything...So then we see the Place we will watch the Race.... A HUGE 24 Winnebago is parked at the end of the lot...and there are fine folk there with more lawn chairs and much food and liquor....So Sure enough I wander over with Dash and he honey talks our way into their group ( It was an interesting group , like 20 Larry the Cable Guys...but real real nice)....and yes, we all piled into the Winny to Watch the Race....and we had a Great Time watching the Race in the Pimlico Parking Lot...

So we get home that night....sunburned like fresh bacon and my sister says " Did you have a good time ? "..."Oh yeah " says Dash ...." It was quite an experience"....My sis says " well, we are KNOWN for This Race...I bet the Horses were beautiful" and he says "Oh, yeah...I bet they were " ....She looked puzzled...but she then said ...." Well, I can't wait to see the photos".....and Dash looked over at me with Mock Horror..." well, I won't be here for that " and then he laughed....and gave my sis a hug...

NOW...Why would Dash give me THAT look ???...here's why.....

So NOW....The thing is.... That morning my sister had given me her camera and said "Please take lots of pictures"....( because Dash is a Photography Major or photojournalism or something)......Sooooo, we did. ALL day....ALL of it...the women in the Tube Tops....the Honey Pot Brawls....and the Women in tube tops eating KFC with the buckets nuzzled on their laps....and then we even took photos of the Party in the Winny in the Parking lot....BUT there was not a Single photo of One Single Horse...much less a race....

So 7 days later....my sister comes banging on my apartment door with a packet of photos in her hand " WHAT THE HELL ????THIS is what you and Dash did at the Races...Biggest Day in Baltimore... and you took photos of THIS ???? OMG....you are never ever to be a Tour Guide for MY boyfriends again....got it ???"

I mumbled something like " but Dash does take great photos".....

So Christmas 1978 Dash received a VERY interesting Christmas Card from us, and yes it was one of His Photos blown up.... we signed it "Your Baltimore Women ".....