Lost Time

I worked four nights a week for the race tack at Penn National in the mid 90‘s. My job was working in the camera tower on the 1/4 turn of the track during live racing.

This night I recall quite well, I am not sure what exactly happened to me while I was up in the tower but to this day it will remain a number of possible explanations where one’s mind can just ponder. In between each race I have 22 minutes to watch tv up in my control tower until the horses would come out on the track. At that point I proceed to get a white balance on my camera and so fourth. Then through my headset I wear one of my members calls two minutes to post.

That night I heard Dave’s call and that was the last thing I remembered. I do not know what happened, needless to say my body did not physically go anywhere, I do not recall ever filming any of that particular race, it was like I fell asleep. Although people do not fall asleep standing or remaining perfectly in the same position, without jerking or moving. Dave told me, they were calling for me all through the race, and I never heard any of them. I only remember looking at the grand stand and the lights were all dim on the tack, race number 7 was over with. My eyes were all out of focus and it was as if I was in the same position as when I last heard Dave’s call for post time. Everyone assumed well I just fell asleep. If it were only a sleep, why did I feel so drained, my body felt as if I walked over five miles. The other strange thing was, driving home my eyes were overly sensitive to on coming headlights at night. This lasted for about two weeks, then everything was back to normal. I am not sure if I went in to a very deep trance or just a voyage out of my body and not even realizing what had happened. I just have no memory of the 22 minutes which I can not account for.