Institutionalized: 1940

Meeting James Hinchcliffe at the Vancouver Indy

It is now summer time which means the Vancouver Indy is coming very soon. Greg is getting excited to see his friends again, but most of all he is looking forward to meeting James Hinchcliffe again after over twenty years.

Once again I booked a wheelchair for race weekend because ever since I hurt myself during our trip to California, I do not want to hurt myself from walking and standing for long periods of time. I completely learned my lesson in California.

Anyway, back to how Greg feeling about meeting James. Greg is nervous of what James would say about Greg because Greg is not the same person James remembers as a child in a few ways, but Greg's selfless personality has not changed according to his friends and those who he raced against.

The race weekend is in a few weeks, so Greg has a bit of time to prepare himself. I told Greg that everything would be fine and to not sweat over it because he should not sweat over the small stuff and make expectations of how he thinks the meeting will go.

I reminded Greg that he should call his dad to ask him to drive us to the track on race weekend. Greg thought that was a good idea because race weekend was two weeks away and Ric would need a reminder. We only ask Ric to drive us to the track once a year, so every summer close to the Vancouver Indy weekend. Greg calls his dad to ask about a ride to the track. Ric always says yes because he always likes going to the track during race weekends because it reminds him of when Greg used to race. Greg called his dad to confirm a ride for Vancouver Indy weekend. As always, Ric said yes. In a few days, I have to call March of Dimes to confirm the wheelchair rental for that weekend.

Greg was trying to think of things from his racing days that James remembers. The things Greg could remember from his racing days were his red gloves, he always had time for his fans and he always made everyone be in a good mood even if the day was not the greatest of days. The one thing he still jokes around with his friends about was when he used to pull pranks on his friends. He also told me that he was the leader of a group of drivers called the Brat Pack. I asked him if he remembers who was part of this group. He told me that Dario, Tony, and Max were part of the group. When we were on the ship to Canada, Greg continued to tell me that because the injury was still new that he did not remember that he knew Tony before the war, but he did.

At the end of the week, it is race weekend for another year. It starts on Friday which is four days away. I must phone March of Dimes to confirm the wheelchair rental, so I will have the wheelchair for Friday. I just called March of Dimes about the wheelchair. They told me that someone will be dropping it off on Thursday morning. I am thankful for their services because I never want to feel like I felt in California. I hated the feeling of losing my independence because I actually could not walk.

The week is flying by. It is already Thursday. The wheelchair has arrived and will be picked up on Monday morning. The representative also did the talk about damage to the wheelchair. I told the man that I know about what could happen if the wheelchair became damaged because I use the service once a year. All the man said was that it was procedure and he had to mention the damage consequences. Once the speech was over, he told me that he or another person from March of Dimes would pick the wheelchair up on Monday. I thanked him and he left.

Tomorrow morning is the start of the race weekend. I reminded Greg to call his dad to remind him that he is driving us to the track. Greg told me that was a good idea and went to the telephone to call his dad. He had a very short conversation with his dad. He also confirmed the time that Ric was picking us upin the morning as well. Once Greg hung up the phone, he told me that Ric would pick us up at nine o'clock. I think we should prepare what we need for the next day. We went to bed early, so we were rested for the busy day in the morning.