OK, I lied. One more post. Different time. Long ago. I posted this on the Fans for Summer Jam 2011 Concert in Watkins Glen NY page, but if youre not on the page you wouldnt have seen it. If you are on the page -as MANY local friends are (seeing as how EVERY SINGLE KID in the county was there) then youve seen this about an infamous weekend in the sleepy town of Watkins Glen. Getting there-- Thursday, before the concert, I drove with a friend to Princeton NJ to pick up my girlfriend ... in my MG Midget. So yeah, there were 3 in a Midget with some basic camping gear headed up to Watkins on Friday. The Interstate was side by side and end to end cars all headed to Watkins at a comfortable 55 mph. When we passed cars we shouted where you headed? the answer was always Summer Jam. It was surreal. Thousands of cars jammed with beer drinking, pot smoking kids headed to this one destination. Nobody was in a hurry, no road rage, no cops, no accidents, no arrests that I ever heard of. A few miles outside of Elmira traffic started slowing up as miles of cars were exiting Rte17 to take Rte14 to Watkins Glen. I didnt know it at the time but people were already abandoning cars in Horseheads to make the 10-12 mile walk to Watkins because the traffic was so bad on Rte14. Being an Elmiran I jumped off Rte17 at a little area called Lowman and took a back road to Elmira and my home. Traffic in town was no different that day than another. Like I said, I had no idea of the chaos on the main roads. Arriving home early Friday, we hit up the Super Duper for some groceries and more beer, grabbed my pup-tent and an extra sleeping bag and then drove up to the Racetrack. Literally, up to the track- on the back roads- right into our campsite on a little known back entrance, usually only used by race drivers and crew. The back roads were almost abandoned. I saw two other cars come in behind me. One of the other drivers, another local, told me about the mess down in the valley. We laughed. And this gets funnier- we needed more beer and on Saturday morning I drove down to a mini-store, stocked up and drove back to the campsite. However, within minutes of my return, a tide of cars came flooding in the back gate. It seems that the police finally started routing traffic on all available routes - OR word just got out. Who knows. But I knew I wasnt going anywhere. I checked in with my Dad, Dr WF Nagle, who was the chief medical coordinator and racetrack physician. When I found Dad, he was just calling Senator Smith to ask that the area be declared a disaster or at least get more medical supplies up to him, use the National Guard if necessary. The Senator couldnt conceive of the scope of this (who could?) and basically told Dad Good luck with that! I still remember the look on Dads face - LOL. Well there he was, the Track-Doc, now the Rock-Doc, bandana on his head and a little Indian mini-bike for transportation. Luckily, aside from some dehydration and sun-burns there was no need for emergency planning. The worst thing was recovering the burnt body of the skydiver from the woods... and there was no fixing that poor guy. Thats a long story I hope it was entertaining to some. It was one of my Dads fondest memories and one of my fondest memories of my Dad, and my friends - all 600,000 + of them.... Peace
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 16:26:05 +0000
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