Yes, I am a retired ABA mom...We had 3 kids that raced and a lot of stories...that life in itself was it's own addiction and you know what I mean...
My son, Steven started at 9yrs old and when he retired he was 13X and I think 18th in Nag points...my husband & him used to go to a lot of Nationals...
My daughter, Miranda raced for about 2 years until she was taken out and suffered a compound fracture of her arm...Dad & I couldn't handle it when she tried to go back out and race so I got her into Cheerleading...
My little one, Turbo Tyler, started racing at 4years old, was expert at 5years old & clipped in...lol...he retired at 8yrs old and now is a great baseball player...
Oakcreek, Roseville, Ca is our home track and my favorite National, hands down is Reno....
God, a lot of memories and good times at the track...We still go out every once & awhile and let Tyler race...we reclassed him last year back to "I" and he can still jump on the bike and compete....
Thanks for asking Carol...it was nice remembering these things...
Have a great day,
Stacey
Oh Wow Stac......It's so nice to know all of this! Yes, it was SUCH an addiction for all of us. We spent just about every day with our "track family" for 3-4 years. Traveled with them, laughed with them, and cried with them. It was some of the best years ever. We met some of the nicest people I have ever been involved with, and my daugher cheered for 12 years (wink).
My son started racing at 5. We got him clipped it in at 6, and he won the State Championship at age 6 and 7, and got 2nd place when he was 8 only because he got knocked down by another rider coming out of the gate in the main at the State Final. That sucked, but that was how things were. One kid gets squirelly, and takes another one down with him, and the state title went down, too.
Now mind you, we do not have 300 kids in each group in our state like CA does, so while it was very commendable, it wasn't like he was competing against the large number of kids ya'll have out there in "the home of BMX". We still have over 100 trophies backed away from his "career", though.
He turned Expert when he won the State Championship race at age 7. He was awesome! He loved it so much and was doing things that scared the s*** out of me. LOL At 7 he could clear doubles that some 12 year olds wouldn't attempt. Thank GOD, he never broke anything.
In 2004, our county came to us and told us they were taking our track away from us to build a new basketball gym on. Although we, the BMX parents, ran it and kept it up, the land it was on was owned by the county Rec. dept. They gave us 2 acres across the street and told us we could build a new one, at our own expense. Nice guys, huh? Sounds good, except the new land was a HUGE hill. It broke our hearts to lose our track, and pretty much, our way of life. The closest track to us other than our's is 40 miles! We were so devastated. We attending scores of commissioner meetings, did petittions, etc., everything we could think of , to no avail. We could not compete with mainstream sports.....baseball, football and basketball, and the powers that be just blew us off. They bulldozed our track, and all of our hard work went down the tubes.
Well, the ABA track builder, Billy, came out and built us an amazing downhill track. He is the same guy who's building the track in China for the Olympics. It's the only downhill BMX track in the Southeast, and very impressive.
BUT......downhill BMX is a totally different sport. The younger kids can't even pedal on it, because they get up so much speed, they lose control. So......my son was already getting a little burned out on it, and after the loss of his track, he retired. LOL
We have been to a few races last year (2005), but looks like his racing career is over. My husband probably misses more than anybody. He had become such a hands-on supporter.
Our basement is full of bikes and parts we can't sell, seems no one is even buying the high end stuff anymore.
I hate to see the sport die, but that's about what it has come to in GA. We have NBL here, too, and we raced some with them off and on.
We never did a lot of nationals, just Dixieland in ATL, and the ones in TN, and FL. We went to all of the East Coast Redlines, though.I have heard about Reno, but never went there. Never went to Tulsa either, but sure wish we had before he turned Expert. That's when the racing was really fun. Once he went X, the competition got so tough at Nationals,we backed off. He got ran over once, I mean literally had two guys roll over his back, and I about had a heart attack.
God, just thinking about all of this is, like you said, bringing back tons of good memories. We always knew someday we would be here looking back and longing for those fun times, but we didn't expect it would come so soon.
We do basesball and basketball now, too. But it will never be the same. Last night, Cade played basketball in the new gym they built over our track, and he never fails to mention how sad it makes him to even go in it.
Thanks for answering me on this. What a small world! I knew if you were even semi-involved in BMX, you would understand my passion and excitement about meeting another BMX parent. :-)
Stacey, So it's "principles before personalities", huh? Yeah, right.
Guess that is another one of your "progress,not perfection" areas.
What are you talking about?
let's email, if you don't mind............laurenk834@aol.com
Carol...
Unfortunately the only e-mail address I have access to and use is property of my work, and I respect you wanting to take whatever it is you want to say to e-mail, but I also have stipulations with my e-mail address and I respect my employer.
I don't know what I said to p*ss you off but I am powerless over how people react to what I share...You know it was a very sad day when Teresa quit posting on this board as I know I've said it a million times that she helped change my whole life, but today I understand why she left.
You can share anything you like on here...that is the best I can offer. At first, when I read this post, I thought, what the hell did I do now but you know what, I only try to do my very best every day, some days are better than others, but each night when I go to sleep, I am okay with myself...
What other people think of me is none of my business <thank you, Elim> and I used to just ignore the jabs and comments but maybe it is time to just take it a step further.....
Take care,
Stacey
Unfortunately the only e-mail address I have access to and use is property of my work, and I respect you wanting to take whatever it is you want to say to e-mail, but I also have stipulations with my e-mail address and I respect my employer.
I don't know what I said to p*ss you off but I am powerless over how people react to what I share...You know it was a very sad day when Teresa quit posting on this board as I know I've said it a million times that she helped change my whole life, but today I understand why she left.
You can share anything you like on here...that is the best I can offer. At first, when I read this post, I thought, what the hell did I do now but you know what, I only try to do my very best every day, some days are better than others, but each night when I go to sleep, I am okay with myself...
What other people think of me is none of my business <thank you, Elim> and I used to just ignore the jabs and comments but maybe it is time to just take it a step further.....
Take care,
Stacey
Stacey, I left to shower and get dressed, and have since gotten a disturbing phone call and must leave right away. I just didn't want you to think I was being rude and ignoring your reply. Perhaps, we can discuss this later if you would like.
I can assure you, I am not "pissed off", just puzzled.
Have a great day! It's Friday!
