November / December 2011

DO CLOTHES MAKE THE INLINER?

           Some time back, Gary Light mentioned the variety of t-shirts he saw at the Bonneville Sausage Feed. Maybe that made me more aware lately of what people wear.   I’m sure many of you spend extra time picking out your t-shirt to wear to a function. I plan all week before Bonneville picking which INLINER shirts to take, planning to buy one more Inliner shirt, and an event shirt out on the Salt. The Sausage Feed (to advertise) and a Speed Week t-shirt (to show off at home – there aren’t that many in Colorado). Well, this year I bought a couple of others.
As we go to auto events, we see everything from the common, to the rare unique, to the historic, whether threadbare or new re-pop.
            Among the people we saw at the Bonneville truck stop were two guys wearing t-shirts with “London Dive Club” emblazoned on the fronts. No, this wasn’t some sleazy pub in England, but SCUBA divers who try to get photos of their shirts in unlikely places. What better place than at the bottom of Lake Bonneville!
            I had a couple of interesting experiences this year- I was wearing a Bean Bandits shirt while walking in the pits and someone driving by asked to see it. When he found out it was a 2011 edition, he commented that he received the one he was wearing from Joaquin Arnett himself.  I mentioned that I had met Joaquin at an Inliners Sausage Feed and my interrogator introduced himself as an Inliner from Florida. Small World!
            There was a French team that was racing a Renault panel truck and was also staying at the KOA. As I’m somewhat of a truck nut (especially panels) I got to talking with them and bought a t – shirt. The day I wore it, I had a number of people come up and comment on their truck and team. I had to tell them “ Sorry, I’m not part of the team – I just stole the shirt.”
            I came away from these experiences realizing that what you wear, (Inliner shirt maybe?) will identify you to many people. For better or worse.

            I hope you all have a good Holiday Season and a good start to the New Year.

 

Will Willis