Poor Man’s Park

It was about midnight, street lights flickering on and off here and there, and a full moon above. The night was quiet, but not for much longer. I pulled into an old abandon lot, known to the locals as “Poor Mans Park”. It was about the size of a football field, maybe a little smaller. There was a warehouse towards the back, with about fifteen garage spaces, enough for fifteen people to be able to work on their car at the same time. There were lifts in there, which no one knew how they got there. Even though there were no tools, a lot of work was done in this building, known as the Garage; people brought their own tools, and did anything from engine swaps to dent repairs. When teams weren’t fighting with each other, they helped each other with their cars. I could never figure out why they did that. Just racer love I guess.

It was a local hangout for a lot of car guys and girls and some local car clubs. There were quite a few people there tonight, seeing as the roads were pretty empty, racing was going to start any minute. I drove down the lanes of cars, evenly separated and parked nicely, a guy here and there showing his newly installed engine or stereo to a buddy. I parked my car next to the warehouse, locked it and walked towards the road. The streetlight was still flickering every now and again, creating a flashing orange effect on the road and surrounding area. I looked down one side of the road, there wasn’t a whole in that direction, the road just kept going and going. In the other direction was where the racing was going to begin.

I walked back into the car park, kind of bored. I took a look around at what I could see. Body kits dewing because of the cold and moisture in the air. A couple making their windows fog caused me to head the opposite direction. I went back to my car and sat on the hood. I looked around at what I called home. This was it, many people, sharing the same love for something, the same passion. The same eagerness to get better, the same drive to get known. Yeah. This was my car park. This was definitely home.