This time of year of course, is always exciting for youngsters and oldsters alike!  With Christmas on the horizon, the Hot Wheels pegs are overflowing with NEW stuff for a change!  We all are making plans for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, as was I when, the email..........

I received this through one of my many discussion groups I'm on and it was from my good buddy and fellow Gateway Hot Wheelers Club member, Tim Byrnes.  The content of his post was unbelievable and brought me to shuddering tears, his oldest daughter Ruth had been killed in a one car accident near their home.  You hear news like this and you don't have a clue what to do, except be available for your friends and share in their grief.

Ruth was the oldest daughter of Tim and Barb Brynes and she was killed on her way to a cello lesson.  I found out at her visitation, she had won an Illinois state competition in debate for her school the weekend before.  Extremely intelligent, with a very promising future and all of us in the Club loved her and the Byrnes family very much.

I've known Tim and all of "his girls" for the last ten years and they've been at every Club meeting we've had!!  We all started the "Race Committee" of which his family were and are, all members of.  Ruth was one of the hardest working members of our committee, handling the Blackwall check-ins (the busiest class) taking entry money and putting together the myriad of racing matchup brackets, which took someone of her intelligence and patience to do!!!  She did this at just about every meeting for the past several years......  Imagine a high school girl taking time out of her busy life to race toy cars with a bunch of silly old guys!!!  She did it though and we loved her for it and will never forget her......

Ruth was also a Hot Wheels staple at our Club's National Rally/Convention.  She did her normal racing duties, as well as helping her dad with a new overhead projection system and working the PA system to keep the program running right!  You could also see her and the rest of the family at the Sizzlers races counting laps and having a blast!!!

You hear a lot of negative things about teenagers and high school kids these days, but the people who tell these stories and the folks who pay attention to them, didn't have the pleasure of knowing young Ruth the way a lot of us here in St. Louis did.  She touched a lot of lives through her many school activities and left an indelible mark on our Club forever.......

So this Thanksgiving, be very thankful of the family and friends who surround you at the dinner table and watch the football games this holiday season.  Break out the track and enjoy a good Hot Wheels race after the turkey with the kids, instead of plopping down on the couch for a snooze.

The Brynes family will have an empty chair at their table this year, but it will be filled in their hearts and minds, as it will be mine and the many who knew this very special young girl.

Ruth, Debbie and I love you and will miss you very much my dear friend................