There and Back Again Adventures
The moment we got onto 35 E. Broad Street, we were looking for an intriguing place where we could find some marked cultural behaviors. We were searching for variety, for a place where one could examine and match these anthropological terms we have been studying throughout the quarter. Upon our first initial surprise, we found an interesting green house with two signs that said “Greater Savannah Travel” and “There and Back Again” which we were instantly attracted to, as they seemed like perfects names for what we were aiming for, cultural knowledge and a broad view of the world that most travelers have.
Our expectations were of a place where we could find travelers and people interested in different cultures and ways of life. So we could talk about their Savannah habits comparing it to all the contrasting lifestyles they might have seen around the world as a specific “Travel Agency.” What we later found as we met these people, was a total different concept of what we had in mind at first thought. As we went through our first interview, we knew we were not in the place we had formerly expected, but at the same time, we also constructed new approaches to our fundamental objective by forming new courses of action. “There and Back Again” is a place that mostly works by taking tourists to and from the NASCAR races. Besides NASCAR races, they do regular travel, which is (“Greater Savannah Travel”) cruises, and individual travel including airline tickets. But their main attraction (“There and Back Again”) is offering their clientele hospitality, hotels, motor coach, race tickets and buses to and from the NASCAR circuits.
During our first meeting, we introduced ourselves to the four people that run the office; there are eight other representatives that work outside “Greater Savannah Travel/There and Back Again”’s office. Imogene, the first woman we interviewed is a full time worker who got hired onto the job as she knew the main director who was her neighbor, because he needed some emergency help on the spot. She told us about the organization of the agency and the whole process for the NASCAR enthusiasts. What impressed us the most was hearing that people came from all around the world, including countries such as Japan, Scotland, Canada, Australia, England and the Netherlands.
We would like to figure out what it is precisely that attracts these tourists to use this comfortable and effective traveling service. For foreigners, there is so much to explore in the American customs. NASCAR races have the particularity of excitement and big amounts of people cheering, rejoicing and it represents an important part of the American sports culture. At first we were quite astonished to find out how many people across the world were interested in these races.
Amidst our final interview with the President, Dixon, we found out a lot about NASCAR’s history, as he explained to us that at the beginning of it, it all started as a small thing in the Southern states. Back in that time, people were more interested in high-class races like Formula One, for example, but in the end, it still was cars going fast, and the crowds started growing larger and larger at a really quick pace.
NASCAR essentially started out as a Southern tradition with moonshiners building their cars to outrun the revenuers and the police, so they could get their moonshine wherever they were taking it at a faster pace. The men that were building the cars started racing them on little dirt tracks, and so it started out as an illegal activity (during the early 80’s). The popularity of the activity expanded and people from many states started joining the movement, leading to a vast variety of drivers that even started spreading internationally later on, as the drivers got more diverse, people from South America started racing in the circuit and a major interest in some of the indie cars and drivers that would try to race in the sport arose, even though they were not very successful, this drew a lot of people from other different countries like Canada and Australia.
Dixon, the head director told us about how his NASCAR passion started since year four of his life when his parents took him to the races; as he has always been a loyal fan, he found a way to mix both of his passions (traveling and NASCAR) and founded this small but still fascinating and intriguing business in 1988, with the help of a little but strong office crew they have managed to get lots of people from the community and outside Savannah into the NASCAR world. One last thing we want to add is that we realized that upon projects like “There and Back Again” job opportunities might vary on the people that conform them and the purpose under different conditions, it’s something that happens all around the world, for example, Imogene previously worked as a nurse and as she knew Dixon, she ended up working as a key organizer for this NASCAR traveling service. Which puts her in a “better” position than someone who might be a bigger NASCAR fan looking for a job. It doesn’t necessarily mean its unfair, its just the way it happens sometimes, chance will influence many job situations depending on the goal, time and community.
As our personal experience, we realized that there are so many little things around the city that can influence culturally into the community, each one of them is equally important as there is a vast variety of areas of interest to explore, for example, we never thought of NASCAR as something related to Savannahians, and here we have a group of people that believe in this and bring other people into this cultural activity. NASCAR is a sport full of publicity, as each car is sponsored by big companies known around the world, which resembles the globalization and somehow gathers fans internationally. One curious thing we learned is that NASCAR fans usually reunite at these races not only to enjoy the adrenaline that invades the events but they also go to gather with other people and talk about business deals, as contrasting in sports like futbol where people just go with a different purpose altogether.
First Interview — Imogene
Second Interview — Dixon
