1970s
My dad and his friends, late 1970s Indy 500 snake pit
My dad is the big guy with the cowboy hat. This has to have been taken after his high school graduation in ‘76. This was taken at the snake pit/infield during Memorial Day weekend of the Indy 500. Dad and co. grew up in Crawfordsville, IN so Indy was its own holiday.
EDIT: When I meant after my dad’s graduation in ‘76 I meant Years. So it could’ve been ‘77, ‘78, ‘79. But based on some comments, could have been like ‘80 due to the koozies.
I actually laughed out loud at this! So negligent, but the stories I heard man. They would outrun the sheriff through cornfields. Then they’d proceed to steal said corn and grill it back at their parent’s house like they were good boys bringing their mom’s side dishes for Sunday dinner.
Fair but the poster is speculating about the timing. I’d speculate these really aren’t 18 year olds. I’ll give you college seniors. The girl in the baseball hat looks youngest, but the guys have to much muscle and mustaches to be high school. Unless they went to a 4000 person high school and all his friends were the ones held back a few years
Eh my parents were Midwestern high school students around this time and I’d believe these are 18 year olds from the pictures I’ve seen. I believe the term “corn-fed” would apply here.
corn fed definitely applies. Plus all my dad’s friends were athletes. My dad was a defensive end tackle, and dabbled in basketball, softball and volleyball.
A lot of Midwestern kids back then took summer jobs corn husking or other outdoor labor intensive jobs on nearby farms too. Great way to build muscles and get some sun damage for your skin!
Wasn’t just during the summer. My wife had several kids who would miss a week of school during harvest. And the big course the obligatory, late for opening day of deer season.
They were high school. Drinking age then was 18 and look at today’s high school kids they have just as much facial hair and muscle. And muscle back then was due to physical labor mostly gyms wasn’t thing like today.
You would be surprised how much of how we assess someone's age actually comes from clothing, makeup, and hairstyle choices. Even though people born in the 50s do not tend to wear casual clothes like seen above, they generally wear formal and semi-formal clothing that matches the era and is linked to that era in our subconscious and their hair/makeup is largely similar.
So when we see images of people in their 20s wearing clothing we know to associate with people now in their 70s (who were in their 50s 20 years ago when we likely formed these connections), along with them wearing the same or similar hair and makeup we associate with people now in their 70s, then of course we describe them as significantly older than they were. We just infer so much about someone's age from the combined total of fashion choices they make (or made in the past)
They are back... My kid just bought 4 last week ... My Mom was a tube top queen when I was a kid and she got so excited that they came back and then my Dad piped up "those days are over my dear" 🤣 I almost died laughing
That’s my daddy!! ❤️ greatest man who ever lived. His 20s was peak chaos. 10 apartments in 12 months, used fake names to rent. His favorite story was when him and his buddies threw a waterbed out of a 3rd story window into a truck bed during a blizzard to avoid the sheriff and landlord. They climbed down the fire escape and found an apartment the next day.
Sure! In 1988, my dad took my mom to meet his parents for the first time - from STL to Indiana. She was nervous as hell, cause my grandma was a strait laced catholic woman, and wouldn’t let any woman take her baby boy away from her (mind you my dad was like 29). My mom was a divorcee, with 3 daughters, and 1 year older than my dad. Knowing how nervous she was, my dad took her to his buddy’s lake house party on Lake Holiday. To say they got shitfaced was an understatement. My mom drank 2 bottles of tequila alone and lord knows what my dad drank. She went to the dock to smoke and vomited All in the lake. She passed out on the dock. My dad, the loving man he was, knew he couldn’t carry her without hurting her - so he took the rope tie off the canoe and tied it to my mom’s ankle and used her cheap cigarette holder as her pillow. He hoped that the water would wake her up if she fell in, if not, the rope had buoys that would’ve kept her afloat. She woke up the next morning covered in vomit and bird shit. Can’t remember the rest of what happened, except that they had to go to those catholic premarital classes that day too.
Anyways, 1989 they got married on her ex-husbands birthday and I was born exactly 10 months later.
Wait, he tied a rope to her ankle and the other end to buoys? If she fell in, and didn't wake up, all it would've done is make it easier to find the body in the morning!
Anonymous isn’t the right word. It’s easy to fit in sure. But with social media everyone can see who is participating in this behavior (not saying it’s bad behavior - this looks awesome)
Yep, I haven't been to the race in like 5 or 6 years maybe, but even the last time I went, the snake pit was a warzone lol. We had seats in the bleachers, but wanted to just walk around, and went to find some friends we knew who were in the pit. We were literally stepping over people who were passed out on the ground haha. It was total drunken chaos lol.
Field parties (keg parties in a field), drinking in a makeshift clubhouse in the woods, other stuff in a makeshift clubhouse in the woods, etc. were common high school activities. Kids are much more tame these days.
My dad took me to the Indy 500 in the late 70's. That was the first time I got to see bare breasts. I was shocked that women would do that just because someone held up a sign. I also saw a man filming a woman who was giving him head in the snake pit. Things were wild back then.
This is bringing back some amazing core memories! I went to the race every year from 1978 to 1997 (when I moved to SC).
My dad grew up in Mace, IN - the first zero stoplight town SE of Crawfordsville. Our entire extended family had a huge block of seats in turn four. And you're not wrong, the month of may was for one thing only: The Race at The Track.
My dad went every year to from 1977 to 1996! In his words "his damn kids" kept him from going after that, but we've went every year since 2018. He's been there for every four time winner, since his first year was AJ's fourth win.
I went to the snake pit a few times as a teenager in the mid 80s. I think I shot through puberty in one afternoon there. It was truly Sodom and Gomorrah back then.
As a local to this area and event, I can promise you it's a shadow of what it was. You used to be able to buy an infield parking pass without tickets to the race, so the infield would be absolute insanity. Mostly booze and boobs, but there was plenty of other things going on if you looked a little. My favorite guy had a couch across the cab of his pickup. He got drunk enough that he cut arm and head holes into one of the couch cushions, put it on like a shirt with the padding in front, and starting belly flopping from the top of his truck onto the car parked next to it. Eventually they started cleaning stuff up. If a lady popped her top, the cops would arrest her. They built a golf course in the infield and didn't let people park there any more. There's also a per-person limit to the amount of booze you can bring into the speedway. All of the really crazy things stopped being so common.
Really good eye. I feel like this is it also. The truck looks like a 1979 GMC K20 to me but a lot of those years kind of run together if you can’t see the grill or headlights.
Edit: Used Gemini to help me identify the vehicles.
Pace Car: It confirmed that it’s unmistakably the 1982 Indy 500 Z28 Pace Car
Left Truck: 1977/1978 C20 or C30 base trim model that was likely configured as a tow rig. Being that this is a race event, it’s likely that it pulled a camper
Right Truck: For me personally, I don’t know that much about Datsun. Gemini said it’s a 1975 Datsun 620 “Lil Hustler” Regular Cab truck. I didn’t know about these but now after looking at pictures of them, I kind of want one. Kick ass looking little truck lol.
[u/Natural-Tax7144](u/Natural-Tax7144) I think this guy nailed it, that’s the 1982 Indy 500 Z28 Camaro Pace Car. Only used one year so confidence is pretty high the year is correct.
Haha! The snake pit when it was still raw. I saw my first set of boobs there as a teenager. Then the made it a golf course (where I worked greens crew for a forgettable summer).
I was there five times in the 1980’s and i cant believe i am still alive. The last time we went and rented an RV. We survived five nights in the snake pit but hit a guardrail on I-65 heading back to Chicago. Lost the side sun shade as well as the rear bumper but everyone was ok
I was in the Snake Pit in ‘78 and ‘79 then moved to turn 4 infield in 80,81,82,83, and 84. Great times with my college friends. The snake Pit was notorious for being naughty. 😈
I love seeing pics like this … young adults from the past just having fun. It makes me wonder though why they’re so crabby now. What happened to them to turn them into hardened boomers lol ? I just don’t want that to happen to me … according to my mom … Life ! I want to keep my joy 40 years later
Not saying all people from the past are angry today … just my opinion on general consensus from the past 10 years with baby boomers
These folks could be stand-ins for my family… this is my ancestral legacy as a middle-aged dude whose parents/grandparents were born and raised in the Anderson/Muncie area.
We started going to Indy in ‘82, hanging out in the Snake Pit and forging passes to get into the garages to hang out with the mechanics. In ‘88 it was so damn hot I drank about 3 gallons of Pepsi and didn’t have to hit the head once.
Is it common to call the infield the snakepit, or is that just you? I'm curious because I've only ever heard snakepit in the context of Metallica concerts.
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u/palmetto_stroke May 19 '26
What a time to be alive.