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I REMEMBER WHEN

I remember...........

1965, California, I was a young sailor under 21 years old. Had just bought a new Triumph TR4A roadster with Independent Rear Suspension. It had all the options: AM radio, roll-up windows, heater, carpet. My friend and I would put the top down and cruise around town. At stop lights the girls would just hop in.

The memories................sigh
 
I remember the inspiration one particular democrat provided that ended up resulting in the pinnacle achievement of mankind to date, landing a man on the moon. That same democrat faced off against the Russians in the Cuban Missile Crisis risking nucelar war in the process. One act took great immignation, the other took big harry balls. He was the reason I was a democrat when I was young. Those democrats no longer exist. Neither do any republicans of that caliber.

Of all the things I remember from my youth, staring up at the moon from my back yard and realizing that two people were up there walking around ranks as the most significant. I was a young teenager but I remember it well.
I remember them. They were the product of the Great Depression and World War II. They grew up learning nobody owed them anything and if they wanted something, they had to work HARD and sometimes eat their pride for it. They marched in all the holiday parades, hung out at the legion, were union members and patriots to the core.
 
I remember...........

1965, California, I was a young sailor under 21 years old. Had just bought a new Triumph TR4A roadster with Independent Rear Suspension. It had all the options: AM radio, roll-up windows, heater, carpet. My friend and I would put the top down and cruise around town. At stop lights the girls would just hop in.

The memories................sigh
I remember being a young (-ish :) ) single man working and travelling in South East Asia. Oh my.

I remember when everyone here in my age group viewed California as a Mecca of sorts, a place where everyone wanted to be.
 
The 1967 blizzard was worse.

No! Mine was worse!

OK just kidding. I've mentioned my dad a few times in this thread so this is another reference to him. Anything he experienced was the real deal, anything anyone else endured simply did not compare. For example according to him the war in Europe was a walk in the park, it was like an extended vacation for the people who went there. The real war was in the Pacific and the guys who fought there...hardship, sacrifice, tremendous loss, these were the guys who saved the free world.

While I learned a lot from my dad, some of what I learned was how not to be. Empathetic he was not.

Anyway...speaking of blizzards and Chicago...I remember coming home from a month in China. 16 hours on a packed 777, really looking forward to getting home and finally having some good food. Landing in Chicago. There was a blizzard hammering the area and they said maybe we couldn't land there and would be diverted. We did land, we were the last flight in before they shut down the airport. It was really bad. So bad there was no surface transportation and we spent the night in the airport. Didn't get a flight out for more than 24 hours. None of the workers came in for any of the food vendors. At east the airport brought in some cots, pillows and blankets and some coffee, bottled water and some kind of little packaged sweet rolls.
 
A little derail here.
Blizzard of "78" I was in the fire house working a day shift and my wife was 4 1/2 months pregnant and working. I called her when the snow started and told her to go home (one of the few times she listened), I was relieved at about 4:00 P.M. and it took me 5 1/2 hours to drive home, usually a 10 minute ride. Next morning going back to work main roads were mostly open and ride was maybe 15 minutes, the plows stayed out all night.
Fast forward to the blizzard we had 2-3 years ago city was crippled for over a week, because they pulled all the plows off the road for the night then they could not catch up.
Different generations different way of working.
 
I remember when I was 14, getting my first rifle, a Marlin bolt bun for $29.99 at K-Mart, .22 ammo for it at .45c, carrying the rifle on the airplane from Tennessee to California (along with a huge box of fireworks), being able to shoot it off the road just about anywhere without a raised eyebrow. Sadly - those days will never be seen again.
 
I remember when a friend and I would ride our motorcycles out to the rice fields to access the salt water marshes where we trapped nutria and muskrat and on the way back we'd stop at a burger joint with our 22 pistols on our hips and no one said a word, not even law enforcement when they saw us. Small town old days.
 
I remember when a friend and I would ride our motorcycles out to the rice fields to access the salt water marshes where we trapped nutria and muskrat and on the way back we'd stop at a burger joint with our 22 pistols on our hips and no one said a word, not even law enforcement when they saw us. Small town old days.
My friend in high school had an accident with his 1966 Pontiac Bonneville. The police man was looking in his car and my friend's .22 pistol had slid out from under the seat and was laying in plain view on the driver's side floor mat. The cop said "What's that for?" My friend said "Target shooting." And that was it. Nothing more was said about it.
 
I remember working in Richmond, VA for a week. Staying in a hotel, got up one morning and turned on the TV. Local news channel; County-wide emergency! Winter storm! Only emergency vehicles allowed on the roads! All business and Government offices closed! I opened the drapes and looked out the window. You could still see the grass! About an inch of snow.

Wife and I were in Colorado two years ago (?), up in the mountains around Loveland Pass, Copper Mountain, etc. The day we drove back to Denver it was a blizzard. I'm actually surprised we made it. I thought, although we should have stayed another day until the blizzard passed, since we unwisely started out we would at least make it as far as possible before we got stuck. We had warm clothes and snacks and water so spending the night in the rental car (2wd, no tire chains)would be no big deal. The worst conditions I have ever driven in. But we did make it to Denver. Took about 6 or 7 times as long as it should have. Once out of the mountains, the conditions in Denver were not so bad. Only about 14 inches of new snow had fallen. We got to our hotel near the airport and my wife asks “when are they going to plow the parking lot?” The girl at the desk says “There's not enough snow to plow!”

That sign that says Loveland Pass in on a stone base and the top of the sign is more than six feet above the ground level. So there's probably three feet of snow there.

lovelandpasswinter.jpglovelandpasswinter2.jpg
 
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I remember when the schools only closed if it snowed. A forecast does it now. Present company notwithstanding, we have become a nation of risk averse, liability proof wannabe girly men.
Not entirely true. The problem stems from all the school buses now ( no chains ). School systems and bus companies do not want the liability.
Remember we used to walk now no one does.
 

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