Flashback Friday

In case you've been living deep in a cave in the side of a remote mountain, you should know that tomorrow is the Kentucky Derby.  People here in the 'Ville know that day as well as they know their birthdays.  The older I get, the less I care about the Derby.  But we do get Derby Eve, aka the Kentucky Oaks day, off as a company holiday, as do a lot of people here.  In fact, schools are closed on Oaks day, and with the popularity of other events, I think it's just a matter of time before businesses and companies start closing on the Derby Eve Eve.  But I digress.  As I said, schools are closed on Derby Eve.  But Diva Stacy and I have a place in Derby trivia books:  our school was the first school in the county or city to be closed on Derby Eve. 

Yep, our small Christian school that we attended from 8th through 12 grades was closed every Derby Eve.  Why, you ask?  Our school was less than a block from Churchill Downs, and the church would sell parking spaces in their parking lots.  Looking back, it seems like quite an oxymoron but back then, we didn't even think about it - all we cared about was being off from school on the day before the Derby. 

Now that we're older, Diva Stacy and I both dislike the Derby - for various reasons we won't get into here.  Suffice to say we both don't like the whole week leading up to the Derby.  But we've turned it around and now on what everyone else calls Derby Eve or Oaks Day, we get together and go out to lunch to celebrate the birthday of The First Lady Of Country Music, Miss Tammy Wynette, whose birthday is May 5. 

Back in the day, businesses and companies were never closed on Derby Eve; it was any other work day.  Now a lot of people will take off the entire week before the Derby so they can party it up.  As I sit here typing this, I reminisced and thought of the only time I ever took off Derby week; it was 2001 Derby.  I remember it because I was deathly (not exaggerating - you can as the 'Rents) ill from a severe viral infection and was in bed the entire week.  Yeah, that was almost as fun as this Derby will be.