by waaytoomuchintothis » Fri Sep 28, 2012 12:06 pm
As far as I know, Chris Economaki was the last one. The guys who informed my love of cars, the guys who were the voices I listened to when things in our family were at the absolute worst. I could always look forward to the weekend, and to being somewhere that I could hear him talking about things I loved, and many times, his voice, especially his passion for something I loved, would give me a way to escape bad things that were going on around me the rest of the week. Every time some bozo the networks hired would say something stupid, I told my boys what Mr. Economaki would have said, and why he represented quality and dedication. Excellence in any endeavor has wide ranging influence, and Mr. Economaki was a genuine blessing to me. I feel like a member of my family died. I never dreamed he was so old. I always thought I might write him someday and tell him how important he was to my life. Its just luck, really, and people like Mr. Economaki, that I didn't become something very different from what I did become. He was just a man, like any of us, but he exemplified an excellence that reached further and more profoundly than he could imagine.