[Daves911L]

By strange coincidence, did sort of the same with my wife Saturday night. She'd never been to the drags before, and it had been ages for me. She was pretty skeptical about the idea, being more the wine-sipping yoga sort (my telling her it would be OK to wear shorts, heels, and a halter top probably didn't help to encourage her). But I talked her into going anyway.

It wasn't a big ticket NHRA event, just the local dragstrip on a summer Saturday night. $15 a head to get in. And it was total and complete fun. Altereds making crazy scary sideways passes at 160 mph. Alcohol funny cars flirting with the 200 mark. A huge pack of run-what-ya-brung characters serving up everything from comedy (when was the last time you saw a Gremlin?) to intense rivalry. Tons of kids smiling, laughing, and (gasp!) working hard. Noise, smoke, fumes. Haven't had that much good clean fun at a car event in years!