From: "James A. Crider"
Dad got transferred to the Detroit sales office, and we lived in Livonia, about 25 minutes from where I live now. My little brother, David, was born in Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn, just down the street from my office. Mom got sick (brain stem tumor), and Dad transferred to another division of Dow so we could move back to Tulsa where all the family lives. And so, at the tender age of 5, I started hanging out at the shop and doing some little things here and there. My uncles learned that I could quickly pick up on what needed to be done -- if someone needed a wrench on a bolt under a dashboard, I could do it. And so I started earning the scars on my hands... :)
My grandmother got me a subscription to MOTOR TREND somewhere around 1976 (3rd grade timeframe), and at that time the did have SOME racing reports. Later added HOT ROD, CAR CRAFT, ROAD & TRACK, and CAR AND DRIVER subscriptions. Got addicted to Peter Egan columns, Rob Walker and Innes Ireland F1 reports, and some of the last of Yr Fthfl Srvnt, Henry N. Manney III before his stroke. I still have all the magazines -- you should have seen the look on the mover's faces when I explained that I was indeed moving 16 boxes of magazines to Michigan after I graduated from college and landed the job with Ford. Still haven't thrown any magazines out, although I'm down to R&T, C/D, and AUTOMOBILE these days. Oh, and SPORTSCAR from SCCA. I'm still a voracious reader, and the magazine subscriptions were certainly a part of that.
Meanwhile, I acquired a $400 '65 Mustang coupe (289, A code 4-barrel, 4-speed) from a bank when I was 15, and my grandfather (who founded McCartney Auto Service in 1947), my uncles, my cousins, and my pal Brian Thomason all worked with me in restoring it. I still have the car, it needs a bit of work right now, but it'll never leave my posession until one of my (hypothetical at this point) children or grandchildren inherits it. Worked on other people's cars to pay my parts bill, worked at the local (and only briefly viable) Malibu Grand Prix to put gas in it and pay the insurance.
I went to the University of Tulsa, worked a few other odd jobs (including "Police Officer" at one point. I got really tired of people pointing guns at me after I got shot once -- vest stopped it, but broke 3 ribs -- so I got out of that business), graduated in 1990 with a BSMechEng, and started to work for Ford's Engine Division in Dearborn.
Through friends at work, I got started autocrossing locally in 1993, and through another friend (Mike Pickett, formerly of Chicago and Milwaukee Regions and currently Assistant RE of Detroit Region through a quirk of fate that still amazes me: I twisted his arm hugely to run for the board in the first place) got me started flagging. Now I run Solo2 National Tours and ProSolo2s (just got back from Jacksonville where I ran both kind of events on successive weekends), and get to do things like flag at the Detroit Grand Prix with Dick and Barb Colburn. That's also how I met my ladyfriend, Karen Genslak -- another F&C person. We won't talk about the recently developed scheduling conflict that has a very close ProSolo2 on the same weekend as Detroit GP this year, but that's another story entirely...
Online, I got involved on GEnie in early '93, became an assistant sysop there later that year, and now am the co-manager of the Delphi Automotive Forum ($$PLUG$$ http://www.delphi.com/auto -- and the message board and chat area is FREE! $$PLUG$$) with Greg Amy, who asked me to come with him from GEnie as it began its death spiral. And that's all the relevant information, I suppose.
Jim Crider autojim@delphi.com