Red-StaterWisdoms explores the differences between the Red and Blue states on social, personal and political issues.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.
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Please excuse the double photo postings. My blogger server in down. Will correct when it's back on line again.
Will also correct contradicting report about whether or not the police were in communication with the father. The father said he wasn't aware of any standoff outside because he and his son were inside sleeping.
Update on contadictory first report: Billy Abbey had barricaded himself in the bedroom and knew the police had surrounded the building. Still can't confirm if the police were in actual communication with him.
Update: Two sources tell me that the altercation between Abbey and the tenant in the lower apartment started over Abbey alledgedly beating his girlfriend when the tenant tried to stop it.
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Sources tell me the hostage situation was over at 11:40 a.m. The father along with his son came out peacefully and the father was taken into police custody.
The father said he didn't know there was a standoff because he and his son were upstairs sleeping.
The swat team broke a window to get in.
Sources tell me charges are pending against Billy Abbey, the alledged person involved in the standoff.
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Experiences of "The World Famous"
by: Tony Vickio
Painting at the Famous Race Tracks
Lap 6: My new job, Watkins Glen International
I am anxious to get home. When I got to Chattanooga, Tennessee I saw something that made me pull the car over. It was the beauty of the Great Smokey Mountains! Unbelievable! I pull over in a Viewing area, get out of the car, stretch, groan, twist left and right to crack my back, twist my neck left and right and heard the sound of my vertebrae snapping back into alignment.
What a sight. The sun was shining bright, but in the valleys on the mountains, whispers of fog were slowly drifting east and way up on top of the mountains were a couple of buildings. "Wow", I thought. "I have to see what they are." I look in the car for my binoculars. I always take binoculars when I travel, "scenery" you know! Race tracks have lots of "scenery"! Like I have always said, "racing isn't all exhaust fumes"! Where did I put the damn things! This is taking time. I could be five miles up the road. Did you notice I said "up" the road instead of "down" the road? I always figured that whenever you were going north you are going uphill, you use more gas and it always seems to take longer to get home than it does going "down"!
I can't find the binoculars and back my rear end out of the passenger side of the car, turn and look at the mountains one more time. I shake my head back and forth, up and down, like Chevy Chase did in that vacation movie while looking at the Grand Canyon, get back in the car, fire the "mother" up and head north, tires smokin' ! I glance at the tach, 5,500rpm, slam it into second. Tires let out a little chirp.......AAaaaaahhhhhhh! They had a saying in the Skip Barber Competition Driving School....." a happy tire is a squealing tire"! Out of the corner of my eye, I see a gauge that does not look normal. Between shifts, I glance back at the dash. It's the gas gauge.........it's on empty! S@#*, I was in such a hurry I didn't check it when I left. I pull into the first gas station I see. I talk to the attendant while I'm filling it up. Driving the Pace car attracts talk whenever you stop someplace. I tell the guy, "Maybe I'll see you next year"! I really didn't think I would. I get in the car, buckle up and I'm all set for some serious driving and its "pedal to the metal" headed north!
I can't wait to see my wife, son and daughter! My wife said my dog had been moping around for a week! There is something else waiting for me. A new job! You see, just before I went to Alabama, I started work at Watkins Glen International Raceway (The Glen) as their Graphics Manager. I kept my sign shop open so I could do signs "on the side". Keeping my shop open was a good move as you will see later. As the miles went by, I thought not only of what I had just done, but what was ahead for me when I returned home.
Tuesday morning I was back in my office at Watkins Glen International. I spent most of the day talking with everyone about the adventure. It was time to look ahead and start work here. My new boss was Matt Matusicky. We called him "Mattman". I still call him that to this day. He was the General Manager. Mattman worked his way up from his first job at the Glen, painting guard rails, to General Manager. He was about 6 foot tall, 160lbs, had a Go"T". What a personality! He can talk about "nothing" with a temporary worker who is carrying around a weed eater, turn right around and talk business with Bill France ( was President of NASCAR). We had more fun! We became best of friends! He comes into the "tales" a little later while doing a grass painting at The Glen. What happens is so funny, I still laugh when I think about it! After the "funny" part, it almost turned deadly! You will have to wait for that "tale". You won't believe it!
At the time I worked there, the track was owned by Corning Enterprises, a division of Corning Glass. The CEO was Claude Sullivan. He also oversaw the operation of the Glen. Claude is a wonderful person. His son, Monte, flies the corporate jet for Corning, Inc. He also flies a competition Glider (a later story). Mattman and I were picked to work on a "secret" five year development plan. I was fairly good with computer graphics programs, but drawing maps and detailed layouts would require a sophisticated program. I wanted to learn AutoCad, the best Computer Aided Design program available at the time. Claude would stop by the track from time to time and see how things were going. He saw my efforts and asked me if I was interested in going to Night School at Corning College for AutoCad. I said "sure"! He told me to call his secretary and she would set it up. The first night, I get there early and pick a seat. I sit about in the middle of the room and wait. I look around, the blackboard, the chair I'm sitting in, the flat surface your right arm lays on and runs up to your work area. Even the smell. It all brings back memories. After writing seven of these "laps" I wish I would have taken typing! Finally some other people came in. Then the Teacher. I was older than everyone! Including the teacher. There were only eight people in the class and they were all up front, prompting the teacher to say, 'why don't you come up and join us"? I looked around, yeah, he was talking to me. I moved.
The class was really hard for me, since I have been out of school for so long. The guys in the class would help me with any problems I had. I think they felt sorry for me because I was so old! As the weeks went by I got better and I'll be damned.....I passed the course! Claude liked people who wanted to better themselves and he used his "power" to help you. The AutoCad program is a "licensed" program. It costs about $3,000.00. Through Corning Glass, Claude supplied us with the latest AutoCad program. Later, after I left The Glen, knowing AutoCad got me out of a real mess in Talladega!
Now, back at The Glen, I'm painting bigger signs. All I have done until now was 4'x8' signs except for the grass! I am doing 12' x 36' aluminum billboards. Why 12' x 36' you ask? I don't really know. This is the standard size billboard used at the track since the '70's, when Formula 1 was at the track. Someone built these billboards using a 4'x8' sheet of aluminum and a 4'x4' sheet. They made a wood frame out of 2"x2" wood and screwed the aluminum panels to the wood. This made one 4' x 12' panel (it takes 9 panels to make one billboard). Believe it or not, some of these panels are still in use! How do you paint these you ask? At The Glen there is a "Service Garage", a 70' x 300' building. It is the garage for all the different series of cars, including NASCAR, that race at the Glen. It is one, big open space.....huge! At the south end, on the end wall, I had the maintenance guys build a "rack" that would hold a 12' x 36' billboard. I would put the panels on this rack, one by one, until the whole 12' x 36' billboard was on the rack. When finished, they would come down, one by one and "Rudy" would take them and put them up in their locations. Rudy has worked at the track forever. He started doing fence work, believe me, there is lots of fence. He is the "sign installer". Rudy has put up countless signs and he is the best at installing these things. They always line up!
To paint 12' x 36' billboard, I use an overhead projector. One day I was in Ithaca, NY, looking at a sign job at this furniture shop. The owner also did these wood carvings of animals. They were awesome! We got talking and he said he used a projector for his layouts. I thought, "I need one of these"! He said he got three of them at a school auction and would part with one for $125.00. I didn't have the money right then, but he was a very nice person and told me to take it and pay him when I could. This really helped me do these boards more than anything. I just now turned my head to my left, while typing this, and looked at that projector. It's sitting over by the wall waiting for the next adventure. Looking back now, I was real lucky to find such a tool. You see, this projector was a transparency projector, not an opaque projector where you put a piece of paper under the light and it projects the image. On this one, the image you want to project is on a piece of clear film. The light is under the film, projecting up and into the lens which turns the image ninety degrees and "shoots" the image out the sign. The projected image is very detailed! It has a 1,000 watt bulb! Newer projectors have 500 watt bulbs. I can project a 12' x 36' billboard in one shot. I found one serious drawback!
I would usually work at night when I did billboards at the track. There were good reasons. One, no one was here to bother me with stupid questions or comments, like, "I knew a guy that would shake like hell until the brush touched sign, then he would stop shaking and paint a straight line". Sometimes I would have to work around race cars that were in the garage for the weekend. All I could see was spilling a quart of paint on one! Two, working at night, projecting the layout on the board was easier to see. I would have the lights on in the section of garage I was working in while setting up, then I would turn them off to project the image. One night, about 9:00, I'm at the track in this huge building, all alone, projecting the layout onto the billboard. I'm on a 10 foot step ladder about half way up. All the lights are off. Remember, the logo you are projecting is printed on a piece of clear plastic, the light shows through and the image shows perfectly on the billboard. That night it was warm, so I had a couple of the garage type doors open. I'm on the ladder, tracing the projected image to the panels and singing along with a song playing on my radio.
AH, my old radio. I still have it! It's held together with masking tape that is so brittle from age the edges that stick up, turn to dust when you touch them. No use looking at the dial, every color of paint I have ever used is on it. The handle is gone. Knobs? Had two knobs, the other two were gone, leaving the bare shafts, with little knurls sticking out. The antenna............the best available. A brass colored coat hanger, bent in all directions. It is bent and twisted around the "thing" that attached the original antenna to the radio. The "thing" was also broken, so it would not stay in one position and hold the antenna upright. So, where ever you sat the radio down, you had to find something to lay the coat hanger against. It worked great!
Here I am, working on the sign humming along with a song on the radio, and the next instant, I let out a scream, no it was more like an "AHHHaaaaaagghhhh!!" A mass of goose bumps formed on my ass, traveled up my back and out my arms in about a nano-second, I"m off of the ladder. Hunching over in pure terror, I whip around and look at the billboard. It's gone! I whip around the other way, looking down the building into darkness. I stand up straight and turn towards the board. Nothing on the board......where is it! I say right out loud, "what the %*** was that"? I look around towards the projector, in the light there is a moth flying around. I start to laugh. All alone I laugh! "Holy sh*t," I say out loud. The light from the projector drew these bugs in. A damn bug landed on the projector screen! It was a small bug, but when it was projected on the billboard, it was three feet across! The rest of the night I was scared! I kept looking around at the 300 foot long building, where my lights just faded to "jet black", and kept thinking, "what's down there in the dark?" Things were watching me! Even after all these years, I still jump when a bug lands on the projector!
I thought these 12'x36' billboards were big, but the signs are getting bigger! Bigger means they are putting them in different places. I have a bad flaw! I am petrified of heights! Not scared of heights......Petrified! I mean, I am so scared of heights that I can't even look up at high things! I'm not kidding! In later "tales" a Water Tank becomes an adventure. Today Mattman comes out and says, "The GT Center sign needs to changed to Camel GT". That's good, except the sign is on the roof of the GT Center. The GT Center is two buildings, attached together. It measures about 120' x 120'. Right down the middle, on the roof, is the sign! The roof has a real low pitch, almost flat. The sign is on an angle iron frame about 4 feet above the roof. It is 5'-6" high x 120 feet long. There are cables attached to the top of the sign at twenty intervals to the roof as the wind never stops blowing up there! Climbing up and down the ladder was the hard part. Once on the roof, it was so big, you didn't know you were in the air. I'm up there one day painting along, in my own little world, and all of a sudden I hear metal on metal sliding sound. The wind blew my ladder over! I can't get down. Once again, this shows the importance of having a radio 2-way radio on you at all times. Radio To The Rescue. As you will see, a two-way radio is a part of me when at race tracks. Ask Larry Orr (later "Tales" at Chicagoland Speedway)
On a sign like the Camel sign, I used a "pounce pattern". I will tell you about pounce patterns, because you will hear of these later on. The "pounce pattern" was invented by Michaelangelo. It is a paper pattern with the layout drawn on by hand or by computer. Once you have the layout drawn on the paper you punch small holes over your layout lines. I use an electric machine that burns the holes. It has a transformer in this machine, a long cord with a highly insulated handle the size of Sharpie Felt Pen. A small metal rod sticks out of the end. You have to use it on a metal table. You ground the machine on the table and run the metal tip across the lines on your paper. This causes an arc to form and it burns a line of small holes in the paper as you move it along. One thing you learn, DO NOT TOUCH the tip! When I first got it, I was showing a friend how it worked. I was leaning on the table with my elbow. I told him, "You never want to touch that tip"! (it has 2,400 volts!) as I pointed to it with my index finger. My finger was about an inch away and without warning..... snap! In a mill-second, a blueish white arc came off the damn tip and proceeded to jump in mid air and impale itself on the tip of my index finger! As I watched in horror, smoke came off my finger tip! Just then, my nervous system kicked in and I jumped, twisted and turned in mid air at the same time I screamed," %***in' S*#*! I'm standing there in disbelief, finger smoking as my friend turned and walked out the door, laughing so hard, he didn't even say goodby! My finger hurt like hell! This is why some people use a pencil like object with a wheel attached (the wheel looks like a star) and roll it along the lines to make the holes. You then place the paper pattern on the "thing" you want to paint. (These patterns are great if you are doing multiple signs. You only have to do the layout once and you can use it over and over). Then take a "pounce bag" (a piece of porous cloth filled with charcoal dust) and pound this bag against the paper pattern. The dust goes through the holes and when the paper is removed, you have a nice outline, in charcoal dust, of your layout. In future "tales", you will meet the "Pounce Man".....I wish I had a picture for you but I don't. I will paint one in your head!
Painting the "big stuff" is fun! It tends to set you apart from other sign men. It is not that they couldn't do it, I don't think some have the courage to try. I basically, will try most anything. Until someone says, "If you try this and fail, I will shoot you in the head", I will try anything!
When you work on a corporate logo, it has to be perfect. You can not alter it in any way. You work to the specs they send you. When I first did a Budweiser billboard at Watkins Glen, before it could be installed, Budweiser sent a woman up from St. Louis to approve it. She checked colors and the lettering and she was on a plane headed back to St. Louis. Once I was approved, she never came back again. She said that there were so many different shops all over the country doing signs for them it is hard to make sure they all conform to their specs.
This actually happened to me before I went to work for The Glen, but shows just how important it is to get the sign right! A sign company from North Carolina came to The Glen and installed some Camel Cigarette signs. They were contracted through Camel to do all of the tracks the series raced at. It was Saturday and I was in my sign shop, which at the time was in Ithaca, NY, about 25 miles from the track. The phone rings. On the other end there is pure panic! "You gotta help us out, we are in a real mess! Can you cut some vinyl letters on your machine, in a hurry"? "How much of a hurry, I can bring them home with me tonight". They need a Surgeon General's Warning on two of the Camel signs. No big deal, I thought..........No.......a Big Deal!! "We are sending a helicopter for you, we need them now"! Seems the IROC race (International Race of Champions) was to start soon. It was on LIVE TV! These two signs were about twenty feet in the air. Because of Live TV , cigarette and alcohol restrictions, and because the signs could be seen on Live TV when a certain camera swung to follow the cars, Federal Officials were there and were not going to let the race start until the signs were fixed! I cut the letters. It didn't take much time. They called me and said there was no landing zone near me so they are sending a State Police Car instead of the helicopter. We made it to Watkins in record time. If you saw the race, they ran four extra pace laps while a guy put the lettering on the sign. You can see a man in the Bucket Truck applying the letters as the cars go by. (Not me, remember, I'm scared of heights). As soon as the last letter was on, they started the race!
I was nearly burned out working full time at the Glen and for myself. It was a hard decision. One night I was laying in a bed at a Motel in Alexandria Bay, my wife and I were on a short vacation, and I made my decision. I was going back to my own business. I went back and told Mattman, he looked like he was going to cry. I gave my two weeks notice and ended up staying six weeks. They needed me for the next race and I couldn't leave them hanging. We parted the best of friends! They even had a party for me, gifts and all! It would be hard to find a better bunch of people to work with. If I had stayed employed there, most of these "tales" would not exist. I continue to sign work for the Glen out of my shop.
I left my job at the Glen on a Friday. I had raced late model dirt cars for about 10 years, so on that Friday night I went to Rolling Wheels Raceway in Auburn, NY for a race. I didn't win that night, but I did well, 5th. I wasn't thinking much about that race, it was Saturday night. I was thinking of two weeks earlier, a man I know, asked me to drive his NASCAR Modified. I had never driven an asphalt car, but I jumped at the chance. At that time a modified had a tubular chassis (Troyer built), a quick change rear end, 21" wide tires and a Chevy 427 engine (650 hp). These were fast! The first time out I blew a tire in the heat, so I had to start about 22nd. I finished 9th. What does this have to do with sign painting you ask? I'm about to tell you. Friday was my last day at my job. Saturday we were racing at Shan-gra-la Speedway, a half mile asphalt oval, located in Owego, NY. On the way to the track, in the car hauler, out of the blue, had a premonition! I wasn't coming back! It was unreal! I never passed up a good race, so I strapped in and the green flag was flying. About half way through the race, a car gets sideways on the back straight, right in front of me. At this part of the track the speed is about 120 mph. I didn't want to hit his door so I turned left. I knew a car was inside of me but I figured it was better hit him (it was Brett Bodine) than T-Bone the other car. My right front tire just clipped the spinning car's front bumper. It tore my right front tire, spindle, rotor and caliper off and stuffed it right into my passenger side window. I didn't know it was in there until I stopped. Now-120mph, no steering, no brakes, turn three wall coming! I had two full seconds to think about that premonition! I suddenly felt calm, like I was accepting the "end". Then "BANG"...........and it was all quiet. Real quit. On a race car, that is not a good sign! I had cleared the wall and I was a good twenty feet in the air, headed out of the track to the woods. The silence was broken by a huge "bang". The car landed nose first and did some spectacular en-dos. It stops...upside down. I look around, upside down. No one is there yet, I am so far from the track. I decide to get out. I can't get the window net down, I'm disoriented, so I look over to go out the passenger window, the front tire is in there with me, so I crawl out the back window and lay on the ground and wait for help. I just quit my job, first night on my own and I break my collar bone, three ribs and my right elbow (right handed). Jimmy Spencer had a good view of the wreck, in a photo, as I'm "leaving" the track he is the car behind me. What a way to start your first day on your own.
I had to work, so I struggled with one hand to do signs. One day I'm taking out my garbage pail at my shop and I trip on the curb. Not to hurt my right elbow again, I catch myself with my left hand. I heard this "snap".......I fractured my left elbow! This was a bad time! My elbows still bother me once in a while. They would have healed okay if I hadn't cut the casts off early to race in a 100 lapper back at Shan-gra-la . I never went back to the doctor.
I'm finally healed and I have moved my shop from Ithaca, NY to my house on Rt.329 in Watkins Glen. The grass" paintings became more popular, which means more people started doing them. Other companies are bidding on grass jobs. It was a "jungle" out there! At this time in the "tales," a company from Michigan, Britten Banners, won the bid to do the grass in Talladega. "Oh well", I thought. I had fun over the years. I can't complain. I'm in my shop on a snowy January day working on a small sign when the phone rings.............it's Britten Banners! I
Lap 7: Back to Talladega, but not alone!
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What a morning to wake up to!
Teen , Jeff Weise, kills 10, wounded seven others, a few of them certain to die in Red Lake, Minnesota. A federal court judge rules against Terri Schiavo, the last chance the parents had to keep her alive and in another bitter irony, I'll have to watch scum like John Evander Couey get all the "due process" in the world that was denied Terri Schiavo.
A teen, out of control like so many in past school shootings, will again leave us no answers as to "why" until we start wising up and focus on the real reasons "teens go bad". But as usual, one man's reason is another man's excuse. The Left will blame "guns" and the Right will blame the breakdown of discipline and a very, very coarse society bankrupted of all commonsense and decency. Not to mention the Left's ever present "political correctness" and moral equivalency that distorts what's right and what’s wrong. The ACLU will rush to defend the Nazi group that Weise was so enamored with its scumbag anti-life/American/malevolent ideology. Click here and read the groups response to the Weis shootings. http://www.nazi.org/nazi/policy/weise/
After you read it, and it doesn’t turn your stomach, then something’s seriously wrong with you.
You would think the grownups would be able to recognize dangerous crack pot ideology that threatens to rot our kid’s minds. But Nooooooo. CSPAN, a media organization that was formatted just for the purpose of keeping “spin and bias” out of newsworthy events, has succumbed to the Left’s strategy of “moral equivalence/political correctness” to provide a “counter-balance” approach for the viewer. Apparently, CSPAN believes Nazi sympathizer and “Holocaust Denier” David Irving has a legitimate point of view. Click here for the full story.
http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/05/03/Lipstadt_Honest.html
And after you read that and you still believe the Left-via CSPAN- is ardently working for our society and kid’s best interest, I would prefer you move to another country.
(Side note: It didn’t take MSNBC long to hop on the anti-gun issue/excuse for the Red Lake shootings. They’re debating right now on “The Right To Bear Arms?”)
The rule of law, in stark contrast with “the right thing to do” in the Schiavo case is corrupting the “right to die issue”. The same Liberals who argued for Terri Schiavo’s death will, in the future, plead for John Evander Couey’s life to be spared from the death chamber.
I’m having a very bad day!
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Note from Sallyann: Dee will be posting Town Clerk items as they come in. If you have any questions relating to Town Clerk business (or you just want to say Hi to Dee) leave a comment and Dee will get back to you.
The Lindley Town Clerk's office sells dump tickets for the Erwin Transfer Station. We have $10 and $15 tickets.
If you need a copy of an important document (marriage license, birth certificate or death certificate) I have them on file at the office. I can certify the documents for a $10 fee.
Corning Community College students who are residents of Lindley can come in to the office and have your Certificates of Residence forms signed free of charge and I will forward them onto the Steuben County Treasurer's office in Bath.
Reminder for dog licenses:
Free Rabies Clinic:
TAXES-TAXES-TAXES
Remember-the deadline is Thursday, March 31, 2005. This is the last day you can pay your taxes here in Lindley. After this date you must go to Bath to pay your taxes.
Monthly meetings for April 2005:
Town Clerk Hours:
Town Clerk phone: 607-523-8816
FAX: 607-523-8232
Have a great day....Dee!
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Experiences of "The World Famous"
by: Tony Vickio
Painting at the Famous Race Tracks
Lap 5: We paint the "Grass"
I walk out onto the grass with the same courage and stride of a Roman Gladiator ready to battle. I stepped into the area, took looooooong, sloooooooow steps. My body moving in slow motion, muscles taut, arms slowly swinging, head turning slowly left to right posturing for a fight. I was ready, mentally prepared to perform for the Roman masses, prepared for a bloody victory. I took a deep powerful breath and I looked across the track and up into the stands and then ....whooosh....... my breath left me as if someone had smacked me in my gut with a ramming log. My Coliseum was empty. No one was there, not even a bird. My enemy wasn"t a lion, it was the GRASS! My courage was gone. I was about to be eaten! I could actually hear and feel the grass growing up around me! Another panic attack! How many could I live through? A couple more before the day would end.
I heard a noise! I look to my left, Mike and Raymond, my helpers, were kneeling on the grass, opening up a 5 gallon pail of white, "enamel" paint. They were fighting with the tabs on the plastic lid. It reminded me of two cats playing with a ball of yarn, batting at the pail, rolling on their backs and scratching it with their feet to get it open. It was quite a sight. I open my mouth to say something......I stop and think, no use, I just shake my head, turn and start to walk away. Then I hear one of them say, "Ooh.......sh*t!!" I didn't want to turn around. You guessed it, the contents of the pail, all 5 gallons of white paint, is now on the ground. I'm looking at it, my eyes are bugged out. I can't speak! The loss of five gallons of paint isn't the problem, the big, white spot on the grass is! Disaster and we haven't started yet! Now we are trying scoop up the paint with shovels. What a %**king mess. Finally, I tell them, let it dry and we will clean it later....somehow. I can't let the spilled paint distract me now. Let's get painting!
Mike suddenly stands straight up and says, "I remember we had 2x4s! We used 2x4s for a straight edge to spray the letters" he said with a surprised look on his face, like he's thinking, "Where did that come from?” I thought, "That’s not a bad idea. This will give us a nice, straight edge on the letter. I'll have a solid edge I can spray along. I will spray an outline then it is easy to just come along and fill in the letter. As I'm thinking and looking at the red flags on the ground, I see a problem! I have to figure where the hell a letter is in this maze of red flags is before I can paint! After a couple minutes of staring, squinting and making my eyes blur, the "T" magically appears. I can see the "T"! I scream right out loud, "I CAN SEE THE “T”. I look at the guys and they are staring at me! What do you mean you can see the "T". You have to remember, they think I know what I'm doing! Oh man! When I finally see the "T", I also see something that indicated things might be going my way. When I located the "T" in this maze of flags, I see the big, white spot in the grass, where Raymond spilled the paint, was inside the lower part of the "T". I just dodged a bullet! We will be painting right over the spilled paint!
About seven hard pulls and the sprayer is running. Dark smoke, white smoke, even some sparks came flying out of the exhaust on the, well used, five horse power Briggs & Stratton engine. The rope cord was frayed and didn't look like it had too many pulls left. I could tell it hadn't been started since the last time the grass was done. It was sputtering so bad, it actually shot out a couple of perfectly round, white smoke rings out of the exhaust! They floated peacefully out across the grass in slow motion, about a foot off of the ground, slowly rolling around and around. I watched them disappear into just a whisper of light gray smoke. I thought, "I wish I was going with them"! Back to the task at hand. After about three minutes, the engine smooths out a little. It never did run "smooth". The muffler was shot. Now instead of a nice, peaceful, quiet day, the steady drone of this un-muffled engine reminded me of how a B-24 would have sounded taking off from one of the old runways the track sits on. The hose was covered with dry white paint. As I moved the hose around, pieces of dry paint would crack and fall out. Through the cracks in the paint, you could see the hose used to be blue. The gun handle was no different. It also was covered with dry, white paint. The nozzle had so much paint on the tip it looked like a golf ball with paint coming out the end. "I can't be fussy", I thought, somehow it sprayed paint and that is all it has to do.
It is time! "This is it", I mumbled to myself! I put two guys on the 2x4s, kneeling on the grass at each end of the 2x4 and I step into the "T". The spray gun has a pistol grip with a large trigger that takes your four fingers to pull. There is about a 30" extension on the gun to the nozzle. This helps your back, you don't have to bend over too far. Inside of the "T", I spray a test pattern. I am now experimenting with the pressure, and most of all "spraying paint!" We devised some ingenious hand signals because the engine noise was so loud we couldn’t talk to each other. Pointing my index finger up and twirling it around, gave Raymond the signal to increase the pressure. Pointing my thumb down and moving my hand up and down gave him the signal to decrease the pressure. When I signaled, Raymond would move his head to mimic my hand signals! I couldn't look at him because I would start to laugh! More pressure.....he would twirl his head like I was twirling my finger, while turning the pressure knob. Less pressure, his head would bob up and down, like my thumb, while turning the knob. Oh my God, what a sight!
After about five minutes of frantic hand signals, Raymond must have been dizzy by now, we got the pressure to what I thought was just right. If it was too high, it would blow the grass right out of the ground. Too low, it would just dribble out the nozzle. Now, it was just right! AAAgggghhhhhhh as Homer Simpson would say! With Raymond "running" paint to the sprayer, two guys kneeling on the ground with the 2x4 straightedge and a man holding the hose so it doesn't get in the wet paint, I pull the trigger! I didn't know it at the time, but this was the start of a new era! My sign business was about to take a "New Road"! I pull the trigger and spray a pattern along the 2x4! I spray a little more and the guys with the 2x4 pick it up and move it up the side of the letter another eight feet. I spray more paint along the board, they move again. This is so "cool"! The paint is thick, no thinner is used as you want it to cover the grass. I found my self thinking, "This is fun"! Of course I had forgotten about all the stress it took to get to this point and the consequences if the layout is wrong! We paint on! They have to move this board four times as the letters are 30 feet tall. All of a sudden, it’s "Time Out"! We need to get more 2x4s. They get so covered with the thick white paint, they are marking up the grass near the letters as we move them. This takes time. It’s like watching a Keystone Cops movie! Instead of one guy getting into a pick up truck and driving to the maintenance shop, everyone is trying to get into the cab! Those that can’t fit in the cab are jumping into the back of the truck........while it’s moving! It showed me, "I'm not alone"! Nobody wants to be out here! I walk over to the sprayer to shut it off and then I think, “With that frayed starter rope, will it start again?” I turned the throttle down and let it run.
Forty minutes go by and I finally see a truck on the horizon. The Keystone Cops are back! New boards, we move on. I tried not to get paint on the hands of the two guys holding the boards, but it became useless! It finally got to the point, when I sprayed up the side of the 2x4 I didn't even stop. I painted right over their hands! They didn't have to hold the board while I painted, it wasn't going to blow away, but I guess it made fell important. At first they jumped and looked at each other and shouted “What the hell!” After a while they didn't seem to mind! They actually told me keep going! Rubber Gloves?.....too late! Once I have the letter in an outline, another man on the other gun comes along behind and fills the letter in. He just gets into a rhythm of "swinging" the nozzle back and forth while slowly walking backwards. It's a brainless job......I wish I was doing it! The guys were fighting to take turns! They were shoving each other and hollering. “Oh my God! I told them, "I don't care who paints, just take turns! You spray outside of my line, I will kill you!" They made me nervous, so when I sprayed along the 2x4, I would paint inside the line about two feet. This gave them a big cushion. I ended up going over each letter anyway, as they were not painting in an even manner, leaving light and dark spots in the letter. To anyone watching, it had to be sight, two guys kneeling on the ground, holding a 2x4, another guy, me, spraying along the board, right across their hands, three guys fighting over the other gun and two guys holding the hoses up off of the wet paint while we painted. Oh, I forgot, Raymond, a Camel cigarette hanging from his lips, smoke rolling up from the cigarette into his face. This forced him to tilt his head slightly and squint his eyes. The pack of Camels rolled up in his T-Shirt sleeve, accented his muscles as he carried two 5 gallon buckets of paint to the sprayer at a time. Everyone had white paint on them. We finally get to the "G". I thought, "After this "G", one more letter to go"! I look at my flags and all of a sudden I get another panic attack! I realize the "G" is round! Round!............2x4s are straight. All production stops! It's like everyone walking in a line, the first guy stops and everyone is bumping into each other! They all stand around looking at each other wondering what's up? I look at the flags defining the "G", they are fairly close. I thought, "I have been spraying right along, I'm getting bolder. A bold thought drifts into my mind, "I'm going to try to freehand this". I would pick a spot between two flags and swing a slight arc between them, while walking backwards. I step inside the "G" and take a few practice strokes. I take a deep breath and here I go! The guys were "oohing and ahhing", like when you watch fireworks. I was like Fred Astair with a spray gun! Walking backwards and swinging the gun! My footwork was awesome! Like the old saying, "it was "Poetry in Motion"! To this day I will argue with anyone........I invented the "Moon Walk", not Michael Jackson! Moonwalkin' with a spray gun! I finished the "G" and found that freehand painting was so much easier and faster. I can get a decent line. Getting the "knack" of "Swinging" the wand (nozzle) and walking backwards, you can get a good, straight line. That figures! One letter to go and I get the hang of it! I take a string and stretch it between the flags on the letter "A" to define the straight line instead of the board. I spray right along the string. One thing that was hard to get used to was when painting grass you do not have to be perfect. You have to remember you are looking at this painting from across the track or from a camera in a blimp. You will never see a wobble in a line. On the newer grass paintings, there are more colors and they are more complicated, with outlines and blends. Later "laps" will tell of these.
Six hours of the paint sprayer engine in you ears sort of put you in a zone. Then, all of a sudden, like shutting a light switch off, Raymond shuts the sprayer offf.............Silence! I try to stand up straight, my back! Slowly, I am up! The spray gun is now loose in my hand, I look around at Raymond. Head tilted, smoke rolling in his face and he has this sh*t eatin' grin on his face. I smile back. It”s done! The grass is done! I raise my head slightly and sniff. Another sniff! I put my arm to my face a smell it. Holy S#@t, I realize I smell like a Briggs & Stratton engine! The smoke from that old engine had covered us! Just then, Billy comes on the radio and says, "Hey, Sign man, up here!" I'm looking around and he calls again, "up here, in the grandstand". I look way across the track and see him on top of the grandstand. I can see Billy waving. "Come up here and look. It looks great"! he says on the radio. I run over to the Pace Car and start to open the door, I look down and I stop! My shoes! Oh my God! They are covered with wet, white, enamel paint! Mixed in the paint is all of this "grass'! The "mixture" is about a half inch thick and slowly sliding down the sides of the shoes. It looked like my shoes were covered with a fresh salad, covered with too much Ranch Dressing! We decide to take Mike's truck! We headed out of the infield to the grandstand. This place is so big it takes a while to go from the infield, around to the back of the grandstand. We pull up to the grandstand and I jump out before he stops. I can't wait. I run to the grandstand, leaving white tracks behind, and up the steps to the top where Billy is standing. He is smiling. He always smiles, even if things are bad! I turn around and.........there it is! I stood speechless. I got goose bumps on my arms and up my back. My mouth was open, but not a word came out. I think if I was up there alone, I would have cried. I was looking at something I could not believe I did. I did it! I did it! I didn't know at the time what "doors" this one job would open in the future. Oh man, did I feel good! It was like I was seeing something in front of me and thinking, "how the hell did this crazy bunch of "nuts", including my self" do that! SMACK!! I jump and am back to reality. Billy slaps me on the back and said, "Beers are in the truck my man!" As we walked to the truck, I had to turn my head around and take another look, just to make sure it was still there and this was not a dream! I thought, "God, it’s done"! I felt like my feet were not touching the ground. I look over in the grass, the guys are picking things up......I felt good!
In my room that night I laid there thinking of the past week. I smiled and thought, "I can't believe I did that!" I felt "light", the weight was suddenly gone! I knew from that point on, there was nothing I couldn't paint. What a feeling! In later tales I find out how much I didn't know.....yet! I slept good!
The race on Saturday went smooth. Nobody slid through the logo. Sunday, the race was great! Earnhardt won! If someone slid through the grass and damaged it, it didn't matter. The race was over and I was ready to go home. I couldn't wait!
There was a staff party after the race. Everyone gathers for food, beer and talk. I thought I would go just for a while. Mike Helton was there. He was the president of Talladega Super Speedway at the time. He got up, called me up in front of everyone, put his arm around me and thanked me for coming down and getting them out of a bind! He also praised me for the fine job on the logo! If he only knew! Mike is now Vice President of Competition in NASCAR. We see each other a couple times a year at different tracks, and say hello, he's a friend. At the party, he asks, "When are you going home?" "I'm headed out right now." He said, "I think you better stay another night". I said, "Ooh no, I leaving now"! I'm ready to go home"! I wanna go home now! Come to find out, that weekend was when Rodney King got his beating. Mike didn't want me driving that "marked" pace car at night. Riots were going on all over the place. He was right, I stayed.
At daybreak, while everyone was still asleep, that Thunderbird Super Coupe was smokin' the tires, heading up route 59 to Gadsen, Alabama, and on up to Chattanooga where I saw something. I was in a hurry to get home, but I had to stop the car!
Lap6: A new job at Watkins Glen International
Tony's website vickiosigns.com
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The study also found New York's tax effort is especially high in these areas:
*Personal income taxes, where New York is No. 1 among the states, 71 percent above average.
*Corporate income taxes, 83 percent above average.
*Property taxes, 48 percent above average.
Most of the differences in taxes and spending among states appear to be based on political and policy decisions, rather than differences in wealth and ability to generate revenue, economists Robert Tannenwald and Nicholas Turner concluded.
"States with low levels of public expenditures tend to spend less because they want to, not because they are constrained by a lack of revenue," they wrote. "States have unique preferences for public services."
The Federal Reserve report, based on data from fiscal 1999, is available at http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/ppdp/2004/ppdp0409.pdf.
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Resolved and Executed at Lindley, New York, this 8th day of March 2005.
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Experiences of "The World Famous"
by: Tony Vickio
Painting at the Famous Race Tracks
Lap 4: Layout the grass painting
It is early Wednesday morning. Not a cloud in the sky, no wind, what a beautiful day! Stopped at the Deli on the way in, got a coffee and a slice of Homemade Apple Pie. It was about three inches thick! One strange thing, no matter when I went in the Deli, the same people were always working. Didn't they ever sleep? I paid the "honey" lady and went outside. A couple of young guys were looking at the Pace Car. They wanted to know the usual....."How fast ya had it"? "Not very fast", I told them. Little did I know that was about to change! I talked to them for a few more minutes, got in the car and drove to the track.
I turned off the two lane road, now a four lane, onto the "30 lane, down through the dark, wet tunnel (seemed there was always a little water at the bottom of the tunnel. It splashed against the sides as you drove through. Normal, but being is this small tunnel, the echo made it sound like a jet engine), up the other side and into the sunlight. Yeah.....I can't help it.............I had to blow the horn while I was in there! I proceeded down an access road, turned right, drove through the gate to the garage area and past the "deadly" fence. Right there, not ten feet from the car, by the garage area is the fence Davey Allison hit while landing his helicopter and was killed. I thought "how good he might have been", and drove on.
I was on a mission. In the garage area, I went thru another gate, (they are gates all over the place), that lead to Pit Lane. I drove down Pit Lane to the center and stopped. I look to my right and the Tri-Oval grass, where the logo will be painted! I then look straight ahead, hands 10 and 2 on the steering wheel, and think, "What the hell, nobody's here"! With eyes glazed over, teeth clenched, a little drool down the chin, I slam the '92 Turbo Charged Thunderbird Super Coupe Pace Car into gear and floor it! Under full acceleration, I fly down Pit Lane! Around the access lane at the bottom of the banking and on to the racing surface on the back straight! Foot to the floor! 90, 95, 100, 110 and into Turn 3! Not lifting off the gas I go into Turn 3. The banking is unbelievable! The track is so long and the banking is so steep, you do not feel the speed. I put the car right up next to the wall! What a feeling on the 34 degree banking. Even at a 100 I can feel the car wanting to turn down the banking. Out of Turn 4, "pedal to the metal", and down the front straight! The engine is winding up a little more to it’s redline! 132 mph! Fast as the Turbo Super Coupe would go! I did one more lap without lifting. Going into the turns, the banking would actually slow you down a little. 132 mph was as fast as the Thunderbird would go.(I had about ten years of racing experience to this point driving Late Models and Modifieds, I felt at home ). One more lap (I couldn't stop) and I pull into Pit Lane, before I blew the engine or a tire, and ever so slowly come to a stop. The Statute of Limitations had run out by now, so I could tell this story! I take a deep breath, hands still at 10 and 2 on the wheel, let it out slowly and I think, "Who the hell needs drugs when have this. Holy Crap! What a ride!”
Eyes wide open, a grin from ear to ear, I look over to my right at the "GRASS". My hands drop off of the wheel, the grin turns to a grimace, my wide open eyes close to just two small slits. The "GRASS" had become the enemy! I don't know how long I was staring at it, but I realized I need coffee. I grab my coffee mug out of the holder, reach for my apple pie,........its gone! "Oh No! My 3 inch thick pie!"! I look around, there it is, squashed between the passenger door and the seat. It's now a half inch thick and all covered in sand from the carpet! "Oh well, the laps were worth it", I thought. I get out of the car, mug in hand, walk over to the grass and just stand there. As I take a sip of my coffee, I can hear the sweetest sound behind me! In the still Alabama air, I can hear the car cooling down, snapping and cracking from the high speed run. I love that sound! "You just rode the horse hard, and put it away wet!"
I am alone on the "battlefield" surrounded by the enemy GRASS, the sun rising over the retaining wall at Turn 3. The shadows were moving away quickly. With all the doubt I had yesterday, this morning I have some confidence. Somehow, I am going to do this. I take a sip of coffee and in an instant, the confidence thing disappears and panic washes over my whole body! I hear a vehicle coming. I turn to look. My helpers are here. Mike, from Daytona, and two maintenance men pull up in a couple of pick up trucks. They all jump out and Raymond runs to the middle of the 6 acre tri-oval GRASS, looking around like he's thinking, "how did I get here?" I'm thinking, shaking my head, "Oh my God! What the hell do we now"? Not wanting to show how I really felt (running, waving my arms, screaming obscenities and puking as I ran), I said, "Let’s gitter done!” thinking at the same time, "Oh crap, somebody help me"!!!
I took the drawing to the motel the night before to study it. As I laid on the bed with the layout in hand, I thought, "At least the weather is good." You see, on my second night in Alabama the weather wasn’t good. My room was on the second floor. Right at the top of the stairs where everyone had to pass, going up or down. I was awakened by a siren at about 2:39 a.m. A weird sounding siren, I thought. Then I heard a loudspeaker, TAKE COVER IMMEDIATELY. TORNADO WARNING! I jump up, look out the window, lightning is non stop. The rain is going by sideways! On the wall are instructions for tornados. Basically you go into the bathroom and wait! I guess if everyone is in their bathrooms, it is easier to find the bodies. I was scared! I go into the bathroom and sit on the edge of the bathtub for about twenty minutes. Finally another announcement, ALL CLEAR! Back to bed! I went to sleep...sort of.
Last night the weather was perfect as I laid in bed studying the layout. At first it was just a mass of numbers. "Someone did this before", I keep reminding myself. I had to figure it out. If Mike hadn't remembered the two tapes, top and bottom, I may not have figured it out!
This morning on the GRASS, surrounded by my army, we were about to attack! Acting like I knew what I was doing, we found a center line of the grass tri-oval. Knowing the length of the logo (165 feet) we put a peg in the ground at one end of the logo and another one at the other end, connected with a string. This would define the top of the word "Talladega”. This line would run parallel with Pit Lane. Next, we laid a 200 foot tape across where the top of the letters would be, right by the string. 30 feet down from the top tape (the height of the letters) we did the same thing. I needed more help. I get on my radio (you have to have radios here because this place is so big. It would take twenty minutes to drive to the shop, get help and drive back) and ask for two more men. By the time they arrive, I get more nervous as we are getting closer to laying out this 4,950 square foot logo. It will be about 165 feet long x 30 feet high. At the time, this was the largest sign I had ever seen!
Now we have two tapes on the ground, one above the letters, one below. I place one man on the top tape and one on the bottom. Mike remembers another part! Flags! In the storage shed was a pail full of heavy gauge wires, about 8" long that had little red flags on them. They had paint on them, so they must have been used for marking the points of the logo. That's what we figured anyway. I think, "We are ready"! We start a "0" on the two horizontal tapes, which is the left side of the layout. From the drawing, I read the first point, 14 inches. The two men (top and bottom) move together, to the right to 14 inches on their tapes. These two men are holding a 30 foot tape between them (vertical, the height of the letter). I read out another measurement, and the man on the 30 foot vertical tape, moves up or down the tape, to his mark, and puts a flag in the ground on that spot. (For example, the letter "T" would take 8 points to layout). We proceed, letter by letter, down the logo. Once we got the hang of it, it goes pretty good! Finally, the layout was on the ground. Was it right? I went by the layout on the drawing, standing on the ground, you can't see the logo, it too big. You have to trust the layout, but I didn't know if it was right.
Done, I sat on the grass, completely drained, not by any labor, but by the mental stress! I can't really believe what we just did! Just as my ass hit the grass, someone yelled at the top of their lungs "Don't sit on the %****ng grass you %****ng idiot!" I jumped up wondering, "What the hell is the problem"? One of the guys holding a tape, walked over and in a deep, calm, southern drawl says..........."Fire Ants." I jump up, slapping my ass with my hands, trying to wipe off any fire ants that may have gotten on me. I "said, "Thanks". In the south, fire ants are akin to what bee’s are in the north. They sting like all get out if they bite you. Part of preparing the track before a race is to spray all the fire ant hills in the grass.
This layout took most of the day. We had early problems, such as two of the guys couldn't read a tape! It took some time to find two more men who could! As I looked at the layout, I thought again, "Right or wrong, there it is". When you get back and look at this layout, all you see is green grass and a %***in' mass of red flags! Remember, you are standing on the ground and can't see this layout from the sky. No shape, no idea of what it says, just grass and this mass of red flags. I shook my head and walked to my car thinking "Oh my God! Tomorrow, WE PAINT!"
Billy wanted to drink beer. I was done for the night. To the motel I went. I couldn't get to sleep. I kept thinking, "What if the layout wrong. One mistake will screw up the logo from that point on." The only way to see it is to paint. Then I thought, "What happens if you make a mistake. You can't erase it! What do you do?" I curled up in the fetal position on the bed and went to sleep!
I get there early. I am so nervous! I'm down here in Alabama, alone, and getting ready to paint a sign that will determine if I'm IN or OUT of the track painting business. I have never done or thought of anything like this before. I'm thinking, "If you paint a 30 foot letter on the grass and it’s wrong, you just don't wipe it off"! You have to be RIGHT the first time! Oh God!
The next morning, I pull into the Deli, coffee, Apple Pie and drive to the track. Standing on the grass, sipping coffee, my thoughts of disaster are broken by the sound of an old pickup truck carrying two airless paint sprayers and a trailer with about fifty, five gallon pails of paint. The helpers unload the "stuff" and all I can think is "Oh my God"! I look at the paint and say, not thinking before I speak, "That paint is enamel. You can't put 250 gallons of enamel on the ground. It’s contamination, pollution. The DEC will be all over our ass. The guy, with a cowboy hat, sunglasses and toothpick, looked at me without any expression on his face and said, "Ur in Alabama boy, there ain't no rules down here!" I took another sip of coffee and thought..............."Its time to paint!"
In the next installment, Lap 5 - We Paint the logo!
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