Shelley: Baby sister sells ice cream at Talladega, a true story

Not everyone in this state is a NASCAR fan, regardless of the stereotypes held elsewhere in the country.

But everyone in this state is aware of the phenomenon that is Talladega on race day.

I’ve only been to one race at Talladega, an April 2006 race that was postponed because of rain. I was unfortunately unable to attend the rescheduled race on Monday.

This past weekend, another member of my family attended the spectacle that is ‘Dega. My little sister Kassi.

Kassi, my 21-year old baby sis, is not what you’d call the typical NASCAR type.

In fact, she’s not a racing fan at all.

My sister is the real life amalgamation of such characters as Elle Woods from Legally Blonde, Cher Horowitz from Clueless and Gracie Hart from Miss Congeniality.

She’s blond and book-smart, opinionated and prissy. That’s my sister.

So when I heard she was going to be in Talladega for the race this past weekend, I thought the readers of this column would be more than happy to hear about it.

Kassi was recruited by a friend’s father to work as an ice cream vendor at the races. Being a college student, she welcomed the opportunity to earn some extra cash, even in such an exotic locale.

She and her friends arrived at the track Friday evening and proceeded to set up tents for the weekend. If you’ll recall back to the weekend, it rained. A lot.

Kassi spent her first night at Talladega hunkered down in a tent in some of the most inclement weather we’ve had in Alabama all spring.

That alone is enough to make me giggle.

One of the tents leaked and needless to say, Kassi and her group of buddies didn’t get a lot of sleep.

On top of that, they find out Saturday’s Nationwide Series race was cancelled because of the weather. So they end up sitting around all day Saturday taking in the sites and sounds of Talladega on race weekend.

Saturday passed into nighttime and my baby sis was forced to sleep in her car because the previous night’s rain had soaked her tent.

Again, I have to laugh.

With her head hanging out of her car and the sweltering humidity of Alabama in April working against her, she rested up for the interesting day to follow.

In the brief phone conversation I had with Kassi Tuesday, she told me she has never seen a larger gathering of inebriated “rednecks.” Those are her words, race fans, not mine.

Her and the rest of her ice cream posse got to work early Sunday morning, each manning a stationary cart.

Kassi’s Sunday morning was an interesting one. In her own words: By 9:30 that morning I had three drunk men’s phone numbers and one marriage proposal.

Here’s the funny part about that: Kassi’s married. She took her wedding ring off so she wouldn’t lose it in the muck of the rain and the bustle of the ice cream hustle.

So just imagining drunk guys hitting on my prissy, married little sister then getting mad at her turning them down because they didn’t see a ring on her finger is more than enough to get me laughing again.

The highlight of her time at the ice cream cart at Talladega was an old man passing out on a bench next to her post. He sat there for a while with eyes closed until a couple of police officers came up.

After they poked and prodded him for a few moments, he finally woke up just enough for the cops to ask if he was diabetic. Obviously the ice cream cart is the first place you go if you’re diabetic, so no, he was not.

Just intoxicated.

The officers asked him to move along, a request he did not comply with.

Seeing the scene from her ice cream cart, Kassi did what any good aspiring college journalist would do; she took a picture with her camera phone.

That’s my sister.

Kassi said Talladega was a fun, albeit strange experience for a little girly girl, former Miss Newville.

Make no mistake, my sister is no stranger to the more “redneck” demographic of our state. She does come from the same place I do, after all.

However I’m sure the sheer volume was something to behold for her.

She took home a couple of hundred dollars from slinging ice cream. Not to mention a few good stories to tell.

Oh, and a handful of phone numbers and a marriage proposal.

Something tells me her husband would be glad to accompany her to her next race at ‘Dega.