The Real World Part One
/Today we live in a world of uncertainly brought upon by a virus that no one seems to understand and there is no cure for. This virus has forced many of you to stay at home for extended periods of time in an attempt to stay safe. What it has also done is put a huge dent in the business that is drag racing. About five days ago fellow photographer David Hilner and I returned for a two weeklong road trip. A road trip to see firsthand what was going on in the country and to talk with many of the faces in drag racing that have been affected by this.
A homeless man that is local to Beale Street allowed me to take his photo and talk to me for a few minutes.
This all started as a crazy idea that I had while David was driving to my house in Chattanooga. David, who works as the head of finance for a large dealership in western New York, was “laid off” due to the mass closing of businesses within the state. A dealership that is about 6-7 hours from the epicenter of New York City. He decided that he was going to take that time and come down south to hang out with me. Little did he know that we would end up on a two weeklong journey across the southern part of the United States.
Starting the journey in Chattanooga, TN. We decided that we would travel to cities like Memphis, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Forth Worth, Houston, Baton Rouge, Fort Walton Beach, Tampa, Saint Augustine, Savannah, Fayetteville, and a lot of places in between. All in an effort to talk to racers, shop owners, track owners, etc. We wanted to find out how this was really affecting the people within our industry, and what the country looked like during a “forced” shutdown.
Another empty bar patio on Beale Street that would normally be filled.
The first stop on the journey was Beale Street in Memphis, TN. This is a location known for great food, drinks, music, and unbelievable energy. Now I had been to Beale St. before with E3xtreme Co-Founder Ellen Eschenbacher, and the energy there was unreal. The blues music, the crowded street and the even more crowded bars. When I was there before it was contagious energy. This time it was anything but that though. David and I were joined by fellow photographer Jim Dyas on this leg of the trip. As we rolled into Memphis, right around dinner time, I was expecting at least some traffic. To my surprise there was no traffic to be found, in fact we were able to park right by the entrance to Beale St. as there was no one around.
We proceeded to get our gear together and head onto Beale St. Within a minute of stepping on to Beale St. we were greeted by a local homeless man on his bike. He was talking to us about everything that was going on in the area. He did mention that the city was putting a curfew in place and that we should be aware of that. I thanked him and then proceeded to ask him what the local government is doing for the homeless population in Memphis and specifically the Beale St. area during this crisis. His answer unfortunately did not surprise me at all when he uttered the answer “Nothing”. He stated that the local government there was doing absolutely nothing to assist the homeless during this entire situation.
Public Safety Officers roaming the area.
As we continued to walk down Beale St. you could hear the blues music playing, but the streets were empty with the exception of a few homeless men and women, along with some public safety officers and the occasional squad car that would roll past. For those of you that were wondering, the bars were open for curbside carryout and deliveries, but I didn’t personally see a single one of those happen on our walk down and back up Beale St. All I witnessed was emptiness. The emptiness of a city whose heart had been torn out. Memphis has a rich history and its history has a lot to do with Beale St. yet the area looked like a movie. All the people were gone, yet the music played on.
Sunset on the Mississippi
After wandering Beale St. for a couple hours, we headed over the crest in the road and down to the river to photograph the sunset. That’s when we actual saw some people out walking and exercising. The sunset was absolutely breathtaking as usual. Heading back up the hill I was curious to see if Beale would be all lit up like any other night. I was not disappointed when we reached the top and stared down an empty Beale St. with all its lights on, yet no people around. I can’t put into words the way that the three of us felt seeing this. It truly felt like we were in an end of days movie. The lights are on, the music is playing, there is a car here and there, but there is no one out. An eerie feeling to say the least. I have never seen something like that in my life and hope to never see that again.
An empty Beale Street at night.
I know that this article doesn’t contain drag racing, but I wanted to give you a brief overview on what we were doing and how this series will proceed. Each day I will be dropping another article that discusses our trip. Part two of this series will be discussing my sit-down conversations with both Co-Owners of Tulsa Raceway Park, Todd Martin and Keith Haney. We will continue this series all the way through our trip that included conversations with Todd Martin, Keith Haney, Ellen Eschenbacher, Chris Day, Cara Doggett, Barrett Green, Michael Henson, James Finney, Rebecca Stuart, Capri Wesley, Ryan Milliken, Victor Alvarez, Mark Menscer, Mike Adams, and more.