Forty Rod SASS 3935

I remember that song from back before the beginning of time. I had a frat brother who had one with seats that folded down into a bed. There wasn't a mother anywhere who would let her daughter go out with him. His car had RAMBLER in chrome letters in the grill. He removed some of the letters so it reAd R A M B L E R....his nickname....John Ambler.

Back in High School a wonderful teacher made me promise to write something every day...a page, a rewrite /edit, a chapter, a book, whatever, and to never throw anything way. I promised ,and over the next 50 years I missed a day or two, but not many. I retired in 2005 and decided to go through 27 "banker's boxes" of pages and see what I could salvage and maybe turn into a book. While doing this I started to write in earnest. I finished a short story written to "beak the boredom" of sorting through and reading my earlier stuff, and when editing the new story to remove any errors, in the writing, historical fact, goofs, etdangcetera, I suddenly discovered that it wasn't a short story at all, but a final chapter. At the same time I had written another short story, but it didn't grab me as the first one had, just a few pages. I had shared it with an Oregonian, one Charlie MacNeil, who really liked the story and asked if he could incorporate into a story he was writing. Sure! Why not? I wasn't going to use it. It became the first chapter of his story Complications: The Deputies Book 1, which actually beat my book Legends off the presses and onto the market by about four weeks. He did a marvelous job on his book and even kept my character, a drifte named Harvey Palmer, alive and at the head of the line. I took it down and reread it last week. Now, I humbly submit that his book wasn't as good as mine (But then again practically no other book ever written is.) We have both written other books since then but I encourage you get Charlie's first book, and mine, too. Let us know what you think, and Charlie, if you're out there somewhere, drop me a line.

My Impala has headlights that I have set to come on when the engine starts or when I unlock the doors with the remote. When I shut the engine off the headlights stay on for four to ten minutes, my choice. I can open the trunk with the switch on the key chain or a lever on the left side of the dash, or with a conventional key

While I was working in a sporting goods store in Pekin, IL an old man came in to buy a replacement stock for a Nylon 66. His grandson was helping him clean the garage and backed over the gun breaking the stock at the wrist. We called the distributer who had a factory rep drive down from Chicago. We called the old man and had him bring the rifle back. The rep gave him a new rifle and expedited the paper work (this was in 1972...I doubt he could get that done today). The old man was so happy he went to a pizza place three doors down in the mall and brought back five pizzas because the rep told him "That stock is supposed to be indestructible even if your grandson did back over it in the driveway". I don't find that kind of thing much any more.

A frighteningly large percentage of people behind the wheel don't think about driving. I was taught that when you were driving the most important thing in your life is DRIVING THE VEHICLE!

Hell, we had it won until the "Peaceniks" got to congress and took over the news media. Is everyone aware that the United States has never fought a war, much less won one, since 1945? We bailed out in Korea, turned our tails and ran in Vietnam, and have been fiddly-farting around all over the middle east ever since. We fight everyone else's wars and finance their do-nothing militaries all while we have the power to put an end to it all.

When they actually go into space or show me something worthy of recognition THEN I might take then seriously. Until then I consider them to be a really tasteless bad joke. And every branch of our services exceprtthe Marines badly need some new "songs" for their hymns. And I'm still angry with whoever came up with the Army's cute little Kindergarten star on a black background with a little yellow trim. I spent from 1957 to 1972 under the Army's colors, but NOT ONE PARTICLE OF A SECOND WAS I UNDER THAT EMBARRASSINGLY STUPID DRAWING WITH NO MEANING WHATSOEVER.

A lot of the "front line journalists" sent their stories for places like the Metropole Hotel in Saigon. My wife was living in Layton,Utah while I was there . Her apartment was one of about three dozen in a complex pretty much filled with wives and families of guys in 'Nam, mostly USAF type because Hill AFB was right there. The ladies would get together for company support, and socializing. She told me that they were watching the news when one woman saw her husband killed on TV. She never watched TV news again as long a she lived.

I question the date on that. It looks way more sophisticated than I remember. This one has side rails or nets, appears to be a lot larger, and different ramps. I don't think it had any life boats when I was last on it in 1952 or 1953 and it appears to have a radar mount on the top. Somehow it looks a whole lot larger, too. Of course I was only a wee laddie then and my much more aged mind may be messing with memories, It has happened, you know....A LOT!!!

Feed 'em right and you can have a methane powered rocket. Have you ever been around hogs? They can generate a LOT of methane.

Google tealyra. They got it.

After WWII a lot of public schools got surplus rations for the school cafeterias. Now after all these years I still can't stomach SPAM, stewed tomatoes, potato soup, cooked cabbage, strawberry jam, lima beans, navy beans, and a number of other delicacies. I picked up the "S.P.A,M." from a kid from Arkansas who was my bunk mate the second time I went to 'Nam.

Probably. Somewhere up around Yakima, Washington where the apples are the best on the planet, would be my guess.

....the Patterson Ferries that ran between Prosser, WA and Irrigon, OR? Even better, can anyone produce pictures of them? There were two tiny tugboats, each pushing a steel barge with maybe a ten car capacity. I remember them being white with red trim, no railings of any kind, and being so afraid we'd wash away because the tugs would turn upstream and make a huge curve back to exactly the right spot once the current took over. It felt like we we were out of control. They built a bridge downstream a few years later, but I'll remember that ferry forever.

My family went back and forth from Utah to Washington several times. We always stopped at the Maryhill Museum but I don't remember seeing that monument. I guess at ten / twelve years old I was interested in other things.

My Grandfather, a man who died long before I was born, left a 1923 Studebaker electric car that several of us cousins found and finally got running. It ran on 14 or 16 glass lead and acid cells and was very nearly silent. The tires mad some sound and once in awhile you would hear an electric crackle. It didn't have a steering wheel but used a tiller and ratchet system. It could be moved to either side so both front seats could be the on "the drivers side" There was a rheostat in place of an accelerator and it could be reached fro either side, too. There were no brakes. When you wanted to stop or slow down you'd use the rheostat to reverse the current. It looked like a phone booth on wheels: the roof was high enough to clear a top hat, there were windows all around, and the front and rear were very small curves so it was easy to see both ends. There were roll up windows in the doors and all the other windows (except the front and back windshields where the bottom 10 inches opened from the bottom on hinges) were fitted with hinges. There was a single wiper on the front and back windows, each powered by a separate dry cell battery. The interior was nicely upholstered and had wall papered walls and a padded ceiling. It was grass green with yellow wheel and trim and a lot of black gutta percha for handles and knobs. There had been an electric heater but we never found all the parts for it. The rear end had a luggage rack that was detachable. We drove in a parade one, but I never saw it more than a block or two from Grandma's home any other time. I have no idea what became of it

The Peterson Automotive Museum in LA had something similar. They had a LOT of unusual stuff there. A great place to visit......again and again and again.

My Mom used to make rhubarb just to eat as a side dish. IIRC she used abou a 1:1 ratio boiled until it was a mush. I liked it over ice cream, on oatmeal and other cereals, on toast.

Druther starve than try them. Sh't Posing As Meat My late wife loved Spam. I never could stand it.

stinks like last Friday's fish Faerless Farris Stinker Stations....usually in Idaho smok and mirrors snake oil salesman laudanum Musterol crazy as a sunburned scorpion useless as: tits on a boar hog tits on a chicken a screen door on a submarine P-38 can opener (aka a John Wayne) looks like a seabag full of doorknobs leisure suits

On the run? No! Not ever! I always stop and get a stable position before I shoot.

Nothing in this world is really "new". Someone was here before and left traces. Someday someone will find Adam's leaf.

Not a problem. I haven't had a Pepsi in my house in almost 60 years. Coke, sarsaparilla, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, and sweet tea. Also my morning OJ / AJ cocktail and a cup of coffee now and again and gallons of water because my doctor said I need to hydrate...and I'm not going to dispute her orders.. She's saved my life twice in the last 2 1/2 years.....and she scares the hell out of me.

Cayenne Kay and Sixgun Seamus out from Ohio came by yesterday for a lunch and "brief visit". I'd never met them before but the "brief visit" turned into about six hours. Delightful people, both of them, cowboy shooters, and like most of the breed, just fun to have around. They'll be back next weekend after the shooting is over and before they go home.

on the up and up by and by LS/MFT (an ad slogan for Lucky Strike cigarettes) soft as a kitten's bottom soft as a baby duck's bottom reflexes like an alley cat so busy being a good (insert a religion) that he / she doesn't have time to be a good person vest buttons (referring to a dogs tits) tiddly winks sacred cow cut him wide, deep, and frequentyl happy go lucky a red letter day