The Central CT Family Paper! The Power of Positive!
By the People . . . For the People Serving Wallingford & Meriden Connecticut. Your Town, Your News, Your Stories, Your Family, Your Life & Your Views! Read the entire paper online at www.peoplespressnews.com June 2008 • Volume 8, Issue 104
For Father's Day My dad was sick with cancer & dying in early 1999. My dad was a very religious man & had very strong beliefs. I do have my own beliefs but they are nowhere as strong as his, As a young child of about 5 or 6 I along with my dad , my grandfather, & a couple of uncles got to go to & was introduced to stock car racing at the old Savin Rock speedway in W, Haven. I became addicted to it. My dad always liked it but I loved it. I also loved the fact that at that young age I got to hang with "The big guys". it was always a special time in my memory. That Feb. in 1999 we all knew pop wouldn't be around much longer. I called my dad & asked him if I could come over & watch the Daytona 500 on TV with him. I knew it would be the last time we could do that together. During the course of the race with him falling in & out of sleep there was a big wreck & the race was red flagged for awhile. During the break the TV people went to some interviews of some of the drivers, one was a fellow named Randy Lajoie. he was a champion in a lower series & only drove in the "cup cars" once in awhile as a backup or fill-in driver, he had many offers to move up to the top series but when asked in this interview why he didn't his answer was because "he had been brought up to believe that Sundays (the day most of the "cup" races are run) are to be used for spending time with family & going to church & so forth. The other series that he was a champion in ran mostly on Sat. nights & he
preferred that schedule better. My dad upon hearing that said "you have to respect a man that can hold on to his beliefs like that even if it means he won't move up the ladder of success any higher." Fast forward a bit. My dad died that May, & I was left to clean up all his left over things. He was self employed & one of his projects that he was designing & building was a prototype of a special 3 sided car carrier trailer for hauling crushed cars. (They are all over the place now but at the time where a new idea & pop had some thoughts on how to make them better) it was about 3/4 done & parked in a side yard loaded with a bunch of junk. It had been sitting for at least 2 years, untouched. I didn't know what I was going to do with it. About 2 months after pop had died I got a phone call out of the blue from a guy named Dick Lajoie. Turns out the man owns a junk yard in Norwalk Ct & is Randys father. He was looking for a special trailer like the one he heard we had & wanted to buy it. We had not advertised it anywhere or told anyone that it was for sale. I don't know how he found about it but it sure seems like my dad & that family somehow made some connection. Dick just said he heard it through the grapevine somewhere & didn't even remember who had told him. It sure makes a person stop & think about an awful lot. I became friendly with the man; he bought our trailer & even got me some tickets to a race in New Hampshire. I still go to that race every year. I miss you pop. Happy Fathers Day! Walt Sawallich Jr