25th Anniversary Year 

Written by Dr. Ernie T. Nagamatsu D.D.S.
 

Return with us now, to the thrilling days of yesteryear…

Yes, there was a special time way back when…

it was …“Gentlemen start your engines” and hearing “Back home again in Indiana” over the 

Memorial Day long weekend with your dad…

and the Monogram car models we made were magical and would come alive in our hands…

it was when Spaghetti –Os and Chef Boyardee Spaghetti with meatballs was Italian heaven…

and before knowing about the Italian “Prancing Horse”

and of course Wonder Bread could be wadded up for a quick arsenal… and we could only “flip

the bird” at our buddies …and God forbid if our mothers saw us do that.

Grand meals would have green beans and Cream of Mushroom soup with canned French fried 

rings onions on the top…

and the appetizer of the day was sour cream and Lipton’s Dry Onion Soup Mix dip …and of

 course the multi layered multi colored Jell O dessert to die for.

It was a time when I thought “Blue Nun” was a nun from Alaska and “Cold Duck” was left over

Chinese food… and Lancers was the Car Club my dad liked.

The Road and Track magazines in my room had dad’s Playboy magazine sandwiched between in

the middle of the stack.

Then one day I grew out of “pedestrian” food and I became a cool wine aficionado drinking 

Italian Chianti wine with the wonderful straw around the bottle…and saving it for candle holders 

(always had a lot of empty bottles around with used candles …as it was very cool being the 

ultimate party giver).

Then came borrowing your dad’s Car Coat with big toggles from MG Mitten and his Italian 

driving gloves, but with the family car with the automatic still being my “driver”…the buttery 

leather black gloves were not used much… but hey, I was cool with the chicks and was I was 

like the cool dude in the classic movie “A man and a Woman” (but I would say “Un Homme et 

une femme” to the chicks). 

Then came the feeling that one day I could own the real Monogram model car I built, which 

was the “E Jag”, and that Jag model which I have today, had numbers I painted on the sides with 

taped headlights ...and then came the many hours spent looking through every Hemmings 

magazine looking and looking… and later it was carrying around your “SLR” like Cahier, 

Klementaski, Young …and “Jenks.”

.Then along came the mail order Italian driving shoes, but again with the automatic ( I still 

practiced my “heel- toe”) they were not used much…and cool bumpy sole bottoms, but Oh My 

God it made you much shorter than you wanted to be… being cool.

It was exciting in having your uncle buy the Ascot from UK on a business trip… and not 

knowing how to use it… but the paisley pattern was so “dashing”…so like Graham Hill.

One day came having your neighbor taking you to a “Vintage” car race… and it was like Proust

 and madeleines once again as the sounds recalled the sounds you would make as a child 

playing with your toy cars while eating Chef Boyardee’s meatballs.

Then soon after it was reading Victory Lane Magazine to see if you could fit in somewhere…

and it could maybe be an E production car, but the FF class was being where real racers hung 

out…or so it seemed.

The songs like “Hey Little Cobra” your dad loved and cartoons of Speed Racer harked of 

“yesteryear”…and it filled your head once again.

Soon it was a real race car with the trailer thrown in and 3 gallons of racing gas and a beat up car 

cover… and now to buy a hitch… and sadly  finding out  that a “race ready race car” was a sales 

ploy… and my mother still saying with a shrill… “are you crazy!”

Drivers School meetings was like meeting the Principal on the first day of school… and the rule 

books with stern warnings (heaven forbid a flag pointed directly at you while on the track)…

“apexes”, flags, pit lane, and turn in points now filled your head…

Pulling on the new black helmet and feeling like Racer X… as the big X was on the car as 

well… how can I be “novice” as I am too cool.

The announcement over the PA… “All new drivers to the grid” somehow made me pee in my 

nomex underwear (at least I won’t catch on fire)… then finally on to the real race track staying 

with traffic in a different way…

you were so cool …and on your game…with a fearless ”bring it on” game face…

and without warning at one corner … came the dreaded “Meatball” flag…

and my head was filled with Chef Boyardee’s meatballs once again from yesteryear…

Back to:   Updates -- 2010

Link to:   Dr. Nagamatsu's "Old Yeller II" site