1954
Memorial Day, May 30, fell on Sunday. The race was held on Monday, May 31. After Sunday dinner, Dad and I packed and left in our 1949 Plymouth. We went to 3rd and North Grand, went right to 5th and North Grand, turned left, went to 5th and Sangamon, turned right and we were on our way. We took U.S. 36 all the way. We stopped at Hume for a drink of water, rest, etc. We stayed about 10 minutes. We got to Indianapolis at 5:00 (We left home about 1:00). We stayed at the corner of Crawfordsville and Fisher. The people whose lot we stayed in were named Kramer. It was about 6 blocks from the speedway on Route 136. It cost us $1.00. After eating our supper, which we had brought along, we took a walk down by the speedway. Here we saw a brand new Corvette automobile on display, saw Pop Myers’s home (vice-president of the speedway, who had died just two months earlier), the 16th street midget races, the carnival, and all the other sights that make up the night before the 500. We got back to our car about 12:00. We only got about one and a half hours of sleep because of the trains going by across the street all night long. People came and went all night long. The military bomb awakened us at 5:00 a.m. At 5:30, we went down to the track and watched the cars go into the infield. After a few minutes we went back and ate breakfast. We left for the track at 7:00. We got there about 7:30. We went in gate No. 1. After we got in, I bought a program and then we walked around the infield and saw the crowd, garages, etc. We got to our seats about 9:30. After the race, on our way back to the car, we stopped at a concession stand and had a coke. We left for home about 4:00. We stopped at Chrisman and ate supper. This was the only stop, except in Decatur, where Dad had to get off the route twice because he was so involved in a mystery story on the radio. We got in Springfield about 8:30 and home about 8:45.
Pace Car – Dodge
Queen – Marie Wilson
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