I just returned from attending the Kentucky Derby for the first time in my life. I have been a fan of horse racing since my uncle Earl took me to Hollywood Park in Los Angeles in the early 60's on a family vacation. My love of horse racing was fueled by the fact that for 70 years, the only major undefeated racehorse was named Colin. In the last 20 years, several other horses have retired undefeated.
I attended the Kentucky Derby with my son, Caleb, who flew in from Europe for the occasion. The tickets to the Derby were a gift from him. We had a wonderful time together talking about all sorts of topics. He has thoughtful opinions, some of which we share.
We attended the Kentucky Oaks (for fillies) on Friday and the Derby on Saturday so we spent two full days at the track. On Friday, unbeknownst to us, they were having a breast cancer awareness day so the crowd was overwhelmingly PINK. Imagine over 100,000 people wearing some kind of pink. Pink ties, pink shirts, pink shoes, pink dresses, pink hats, pink shawls, you name it. Even the horse riders that accompany the jockeys on their horses were wearing pink jackets. And fancy hats were everywhere for both days. We did not wear pink, but we did get somewhat sunburnt.
One of my observations in having conversations with a number of people there was that 80% or more of those in attendance both days had not come because of some interest in horse racing, but were there to participate in a fancy social gathering. The level of knowledge about horse racing was quite minimal, but they were all having a good time. Alcohol was flowing freely. Since neither Caleb nor I drink alcohol, we did not try a mint julip, the signature drink of the Kentucky Derby. There was also something called a "lily" which was featured on Oaks Day, presumably some more feminine version of alcohol? Since alcohol and good judgment do not go hand in hand, I assume the track found many creative ways to encourage drinking so that one might bet more than one would otherwise do if one was in full control of one's senses. The track doesn't care who you bet on, just that you bet and because they take a fixed percentage of the overall betting pool, the more you bet the more they like it. Of course, since even a bottle of water was $4 a pop, they were going to make money one way or another.
Speaking of money, I bet almost every race and even though I only won 8 of my 20 bets, I came out ahead by $46. I even won money on the Derby, even though my horse came in 2nd.
Our tickets gave us a free pass to something called the Infield Club but we didn't know that until Saturday. That was a big tent in the infield that offered free food and respite from the sun. So we went over there a couple of times and watched a few races on the big screen TV there, but it is more fun to see the races live. Our seats at the track were only about 5 feet from the actual track so as the horses came charging down the stretch, we could see them very well. It was quite exciting.
We stayed in Lexington (about 80 miles away) all 3 nights with our friends, Rich & Connie Jirak. They were gracious hosts and we had a delightful time with them. On Thursday evening, two of their kids (Joel and Rachel) came over for dinner with their families and we had a great time talking and playing around. On Friday night, Steve and Patricia Humble, drove up from a small town about 45 minutes away to catch up on what's going on in our lives. Steve & Patricia used to live in Minneapolis also and were part of our community (as were the Jiraks).
On Sunday morning, I went to mass at the nearby Catholic church, which is in a fairly new facility. Designed by some Scandinavian architect, both Rich Jirak and I agreed that it looks a lot more like an airplane hanger than a church! It also had that same feel from the inside. The "Stations of the Cross" were all so modern artsy that I would not have been able to guess which station they were unless I had previous knowledge of them. No permanent cross in the front of the church and with 80+ windows letting the sunshine in, no traditional stained glass windows either. I know that the real church is the people and they were nice, and I am not a liturgical traditionalist, but there seemed to be little about this structure that would have re-enforced the spirit of worship of the living God.
When I realized that I would be drving from Minneapolis to Kentucky, I saw that my route would go through Indianapolis, where my community, the People of Praise, has a branch. I sent out an email to see if anyone needed anything delivered or needed a ride, one way or back. I ended up taking some furniture and boxes down with me to Indy and on the trip back picked up a different set of boxes for delivery to Minnesota. However, along with the boxes on the return trip, I was able to give David Gruber, a 20 year old, a ride back to his family in MN. He was a most intelligent and articulate young man and at least for my part, I thoroughly enjoyed having him with me. I'm not sure what he thought of having to listen to a much older man drone on and on about stuff since he was somewhat of a captive audience. He was polite about it all, however. I even made him listen to one of my recorded talks (on being charismatic without being weird) to see what he thought. He gave me some good feedback about it.
I spent the night in Chicago with Tom and Nancy Doran on the way down. I had left my cancer medication there so I stopped back on my return trip and ran into their daughter, Carol, and her two lively boys. I turned down the kind offer of a Lego Werewolf from one of them.
I was glad to get back home to Tina and everyone and am now getting ready to drive with Tina to Indiana for a conference. We leave on Thursday afternoon. So we will travel down much of the same highway that I just traveled, but that's ok. I bought an audiobook about the Civil War so we will listen to that on the way there and back.
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