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7.05.2013

The Belmont Tree.

I hope that when my time comes, that I have a brief second, a second I'd use to remember, to think back of some of the images that live in my soul.  This is one of them.


I had stayed after grass track, just sipping beer, cooling down.  The sun hit Liberty, one of the last pics I took that night.   Grass track is burned into the ground.   Into my soul.


its hard for me to be a positive force, when I just find the best solution, or the most gratifying to me solution, would to be to say "Fuck Off".

I really want my life to be about being inclusive.

What's the matter?  Grass Track.  Again, a FEW peeps want us to move. 

Philadelphia is a beautiful city, and the current home of grass track on Belmont Plateau is a beautiful place.   and our grass oval, such a small plot of land, that respects, and loves, and admires, ....it overlooks it all.

There are many activities in this park, cricket, ultimate Frisbee, cross country running,  football, lots of baseball, Mountain biking, Mud Runs, Breast Cancer camp outs,  horseback riding.

The area is urban, its full of crime, broken glass, drugs, booze (ok boozing on the plateau should be in the positive side) Sex, trash, atv's.   I remember a body being dumped on a trail, a trail I was riding around the time it was dumped.   A body burned in a dumpster.
Its urban.


There is no room for grass track.   Just leave.


I really love Belmont.    I have taken 100's of pictures of the tree,   there were two, the other big one, it was lost years ago.
I know a lot about the park, its history, the trolley, the Woodside Amusement Park, the Centennial Fair. The old gravity railroad tracks I ride over to get into the mountain bike trails.

another one of my favorite photos is of the cyclocross clinic,  just held mostly by word of mouth.
It really just comes down to a single man that wants to share what he knows and loves, with anyone, who wants to learn.



I am too young and immature to know when to stand, to make a point, when to concede, negotiations is a weakness of mine.   I figure I'll do what I do know  to do, be positive, be inclusive, try to be respectful.    but boy does it feel so much better to say fuck you.

grass track will happen inside the city limits of phiadelphia  somewhere, and everyone in the world, is invited to participate, free, fun.   "LOVE BELMONT RIDE BELMONT"  that's a dlowe quote.

Cheers, d.






 

LONG LIVE GRASS TRACK!

 






3 comments:

Meisha said...

Great pics.

j9090 said...

Is it cyclists that want you to leave, or others?
Regardless, long live the grass track, long live Belmont.

gunnar Shogren said...

Never been there for grass-track,
But I sure do have fond memories of racing CX and Mtbs there and staying in Philly. #backintheday