Okay, it?s official ? the biggest event of SpeedWeek is inevitable now. We?ve gone ahead and ordered the t-shirts and the pasties for Salt Talks ?06. We?re committed (maybe we should be committed, but that?s another story).
Salt Talks is the ?official? land speed gathering, picnic, and bull session. Jon Amo, the proprietor of landracing.com, started Salt Talks six SpeedWeeks ago as an event for all the racers that keep in touch through his website and the land-speed email list ? to get together in person at least once a year. Salt Talks is held Sunday of SpeedWeek at the ?bend in the road?, starting late in the afternoon as racing winds down for the day. We sure hope you?ll all be there to join in the party.
We?ll have food, of course. I?ve got about 150 hamburgers and darn near that many hot dogs already, and yesterday I placed the order for 80 pasties. You don?t know what?s a pasty? Show up at Salt Talks and you?ll find out. (Hint: It?s something you eat, not something that strippers wear). We?ll also have chips and pop on ice, of course ? you?re on your own to bring anything else you want.
I?m planning on bringing a brand-new 55-gallon oil drum-cum-charcoal grill to cook all this stuff (I?ll try to get most of the drain oil out of the drum before we light the fire, just for Glen Barrett?s sake). Sparky has volunteered his XM radio for tunes, Tom and Kathy Shannon do lots of the chores, Ellen Wilkinson may return to cook, too. Nancy will be flitting about selling t-shirts, and we hope to heck someone will bring lighting so we don?t have to quit at dusk. It?s quite a party ? last year we had about 200 people there. It?s all by donation ? there?ll be a can for you to toss in a buck or two if you can, and if you don?t have it with you ? that?s okay, catch us later. We?re there to have a fine time and?
?oh, yeah, there?ll be a lie detector on-site, so there?ll be no room for telling stories about how fast you used to be, or how fast you?re going to go, or how fast you would have gone if the motor didn?t break, or how fast you thought you went but Glen must have read the clocks wrong. Nope, no BS-ing allowed (HAH!)
Something new this year will be a 50/50 drawing. Here?s what I?ve got in mind: We?ll sell tickets ? and draw a bunch of numbers, not just one. Winning tickets will get souvenirs that I?ve cadged from some of the race teams (T-shirts, maybe a coffee mug or a poster, stuff like that), and the money winner will get half the pot. The other half will be a donation to Jonathon Amo & landracing.com ? to help him keep on giving us the opportunity to stay in touch. Plan on buying a bunch of tickets, maybe on winning something. We?ll all win ? we?ll all have a fine time (assuming the wind doesn?t blow us all the way to Salt Lake City like it did a couple of years ago).
See you on the Salt!
(Signed): Mr. & Mrs. Seldom Seen Slim, a/k/a Nancy & Jon Wennerberg
