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So When Do I Tell My Mom?
Or "Oh God she's going to have a heart attack over this!"

By Rae Heselbach

Since it’s the May newsletter, I thought I’d pay homage to my mom.  And explain a little about my history as a speed junky (not THAT kind of speed).  I’ve always loved to go fast, on skis, on a bike, on a horse, in a car . . . not so much, at least, not at first.

In a recent conversation with my mom she told me how shocked she was when I started all this “car stuff”.  It took months of badgering and harassment by my parents before I eventually got my license at age 16.  At one point during driving training I remember my mom, frustrated, getting out of the car, and I rolled up the windows and locked her out.  I was done.  I’m pretty sure my Dad took over driver training after that.  Truthfully, I was totally content being shuttled around by other people and if they couldn’t do it, I rode my bike (12, 16 miles one way, no problem!).  It worked for me.  Thinking back on it now, maybe my lack of enthusiasm stemmed from the gutless Subaru wagon we had.  It was so bad we used to turn off the AC going up hill and called that the “turbo” button.

Later, my mom begrudgingly accepted my lifestyle as a horse owner, and then as a crazy Thoroughbred owner.  She gladly bought me helmets and safety gear, after a few years.  With all the obligatory, “I have a friend who . . .” stories that went along with it.  After several years of not (to her knowledge) being injured, she came to accept my life as a horse owner.  She even feeds the horses treats and helps clean stalls when she visits.
 
When I started autoXing, she was pretty cool with it.   How much trouble could I get into in an empty parking lot full of cones?!?  Well, by then the gods of auto sports had thoroughly ensnared me with all of their wiles and joys and I was totally hooked.  I’d had several track days under my belt, upgraded to a higher performance car, and was generally an adrenaline junky. When I would talk to my mom about my weekend plans, I’d refer to a weekend of door-to-door crapcan racing as “playing with cars”, just to spare her the worry and grief involved over my general health and well being.

Then the time came to finally tell her the truth.  I had started a thread on the LeMons forum entitled “How do I tell my mom?” I was so at a loss as to how to broach the subject.  However, it took one errant post on facebook, and I got that call.  You know, the one where she uses that Mom voice and asks, “SO what HAVE you been up to?”  I finally came clean.  She seemed ok with it.  Then while my parents were visiting for Thanksgiving, Jai and I started talking about the fun and carnage of crapcan racing and showing pictures to my Dad (who has been avidly supporting all this craziness, unbeknownst to Mom).  My mom had to leave the room, I nearly made her cry.

Over time, she’s become more accustomed to it all.  She likes to hear about the safety gear we buy, and she says she wants to see a race (I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet).   But I have to say, to my mom and all of you moms us out there who support us, thanks and we love you!!!  We know we don’t make life easy for you, but we sure appreciate your love and support.  Happy Mother’s Day!!!! And safety first(ish).

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