7:55AM
Sitting here with my 2nd cup of "joe" before 8AM....I have my XM Radio on in the back ground, and "Hey Jude" is playing....I never was a big Beatles fan but liked some of their music...actually the flip side of this 45 "Revolution" was more to my liking:
If you are into music, college sports, baseball, old time radio, news talk, and your local stations suck, I recommend XM at $12 a month it is a godsend on my RV trips across the states....I also get plenty of use out of it at home.....the receivers are reasonable, I'm not a fan of "pay anything" but since my wife gave it to me as a birthday gift....guess I can't complain. Alright...it's O.C. Smith..."Hickory Hollers Tramp":
OK...enough of that flash back stuff....Jr High football at Wayne Trace against Edgerton yesterday...the home teams losing 28-8 but the game was close until the final 4 minutes, actually WT led until late in the first half....weather was nice for football, about 75 and drying out...but the damn gnats and other biting bugs were in full force up in Blue Creek
Township....the birth place of my dad and my Grandparents:
Nothing going on tonight, so probably go shopping with Patricia and re-stock the basement fallout shelter(no not fallout from bombs, fallout from the coming global crisis)...always a good idea to keep a few months or longer supply of necessary items/water/food.
Vans, Bike, and other Vehicles through the years
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Wonder if all can remember the vehicles of their lives, especially after reaching the so called "golden years"?...I doubt it, but I've had my share:
58 Ford Fairlane, 60 Ford Falcon, 62 Falcon, 63 Renault, 64 Dodge Polaris, 63 Plymouth Belvedere, 68 Mercury Cyclone, 70 Dodge Charger, 73 AMC Hornet, 74 AMC Hornet(both Hatch Backs) 76 Jeep Cherokee, 87 Trans-AM, 60 or so pick up trucks(Toyota extended cab my favorite), and today my Jeep and the 94 cherry Dodge Intrepid, that I bought from mom when she decided to buy a new ride last year.....add 25 others I can't remember plus my 1977 Buick Land Yacht that sits in my garage(only 61,000 original miles)....yep I've had a bunch.
Sorry to say many are only a memory...nary a photo of some, and of course some, I'd just as soon forget.
But today I will mention a little green van and a couple of bikes:
The 1960 Ford Van was a favorite...picked it up at Coldwater, Ohio, for about $300 bucks back in 1974...used it to haul my dirt bikes and other things around during my half assed hippy days...it worked well for that, had a bed, only 2 seats, and plenty of room for storing large quantities of beer cases when me, Jim Olson, and Mike Schilling headed for Florida in June of 75. The old van was with me for only a few years...but those years were at the height of my post Air Force pre College Hell raising fun...if I remember correctly, we hauled 30 cases of beer from The Red Door(where I was manager) to Florida for our 10 day trip to my old home town of Venice, then Busch Gardens, Disney World, Daytona Beach, and on to Myrtle Beach, SC......we were out of beer by the end of the Venice portion(about 4 days in) and had to re-supply...didn't think anybody could drink that much 3.2(low beer) but we did.
Favorite Bikes......I was a late arrival to the world of Motorcycles, didn't get my license to ride until 1974 at the ripe old age of 25....I continued to ride until after my second major wreck(one that would mess up my back for almost a decade) in 1987. First bike was an off/on road 250cc Kawasaki. My all time favorite was a fast ass 1978 Yamaha 650 that I purchased back in 1981....this thing wasn't real purdy, but it could run...the odometer topped out at 140, and I buried that on more than one occasion.
My final ride was a 550 Suzuki...I was now in my late 30s and with 3 kids decided to slow down....until some old fart pulled right out in front of me...hit the passenger side rear of his car, did a 360 over the trunk, landed ass first, and smacked my helmeted head(back first) on the concrete road....I usually didn't wear a helmet, but, it was a slight rain, and I donned it...lucky for me. I survived, but it messed up my back for years to come...I should have sued the guy, but that is just not me...I got some money for the bike, and paid with pain for years....no complaints though, you can't change time....It was actually good for me, I started a workout regiment that I still use(although not a gung-ho)...it turned me from a soft 38 year old, to a much stronger 40-50 something....as they say....Every cloud has a silver lining....and that was the lining of my cloud(wreck).
prh
[photos...the Van...The 650 Yamaha...The 550 Suk with Sam and Hal aboard in 86....me at Daytona Beach with the "Arrive Stoned" Van in June of 75]
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7 comments:
I was gonna ask about that Florida plate in the van's rear window...
;-)
30 years or so ago that was the "thing" to stick in your car when returing from Florida...a take off of the old "Arrive Alive" logo on the FL plates...funny part is, we got picked up in Georgia on our way to Myrtle Beach...State Patrol...looked at us three 25 something white guys...(beer cans rolling in the back of the floor van) and says..."Boys it's your lucky day...we are looking for a couple of black dudes with two white girls, they just robbed a bank, and they were driving an old green van....have a nice day"
Hilarious. I love the plate. Such a snap shot of those times. I can imagine you getting stopped more than few times with that on there.
Oh, and next time try cutting and pasting the code to the post. When you look at YouTube, it's the stuff in the box marked "Embed". Cut and paste that code just like you did the URL, and the video shows up in the post, like on mine today. I mean, whatever you want to do dude. I'm just sayin'...
And the tunes are killer. Love the first one particularly. Rockinest tune they ever did, maybe next to Helter Skelter. Grew up on the Beatles, to the extent that I got burned out and haven't listened to them much in 30 years.
I haven't heard that second one in ages. Sounds like country music to me now. Love it.
Yep, lots of friends have XM radios, but I have yet to make the jump. Just burn new CDs from the hard drive.
I thought I had ya' on the one pic, until I enlarged it---damned if it ain't a Yamaha, would've sworn it was a Honda! I had a few bikes, too, but one day I began to FORCE myself to ride, and that's the time to quit! If you're scared of 'em, you ain't got no bees-wax being on one!
Now,you're gonna have to explain that "access-port" on the van. Too small for a window---maybe more like a gun-slot for deer season.....?
Bruno...don't know what the port was for, except maybe to get more air moving....it was a cargo van that had been converted to a camper-type van of sorts....the port window was right above the bed...which was against the side, until you let it down..with the bed up, we had enough room for two dirt bikes, and about 30 cases of beer.
Yep, those photos brought back a lot of memories...and about the van and license plate...it reminded me of what a girl used to tell me about going to Florida with 3 boys. She said she didn't see anything but the top of that van the whole trip down!
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