Big Fat Daddy

Reply to Internal Combustion in Misc Stardock Forums

Wish I could ge there, I would plant a great big hug on ya.

Reply to Internal Combustion in Misc Stardock Forums

Tova: Good to see you, m'lady. How are you doing, I haven't heard any reports lately. Thanks for the kind words. I agree that we are different today, I shudder to think of how today's folks would deal with a REAL war. Thanks for the read, kiddo, and take care of you.

Reply to Internal Combustion in Misc Stardock Forums

Six of one half dozen of another, maybe. But honestly, when I see the numbers and imagine what it must have been like, I don't think I could measure up to what those guys did...

Reply to Get Back to Where You Once Belonged... in Misc Stardock Forums

Thanks for reading! I think it is getting better, at least it isn't viewed as "weakness" any more.

Internal Combustion in Misc JoeUser Forums

I had two Uncle Jimmys growing up. One was my Mom's brother, I am named after him but never knew him. Well, that isn't exactly true; I remember when he died that everyone in the house was so upset. When they told me my Uncle Jimmy had died I got upset too, because I had just seen him drinking coffee in the kitchen. They convinced me it wasn't my coffee drinking uncle who had died, but the other Uncle Jimmy. I remembered that

Get Back to Where You Once Belonged... in Misc JoeUser Forums

Fletcher Parkway comes out of Fletcher Hills down a grade into the northwest section of El Cajon. Back in the day, the big rigs used to run with little or no muffling and they would ride their Jake Brakes (a Jacobs Engine Brake that basically turns the fuel off to a diesel engine's cylinders and turns it into an air compressor to aid in slowing the truck ) all the way to the bottom of the grade. Late in the evening, when the traffic had thinned out, the trucks w

Reply to I Capture the Blankets in Misc Stardock Forums

Tova: Yeah, it's easy to be smart, ain't it

Reply to I Capture the Blankets in Misc Stardock Forums

Jythier: Thank you. For a while the mail order stuff was never in stores but then they were and poof. Sounds strange but a quarter for the toy and three cents for a stamp and we still couldn't afford to to very much of it. The sub and the frogmen are the only things I ever got. My sister got a couple of "girl" things but not too much. Tova: Good to see you again, Yeah, I think it kinda faded out when all the cheap Japanese toys flooded the mark

Reply to I Capture the Blankets in Misc Stardock Forums

Thanks for stopping by...I think kids have unlimited imaginations and the video games seem to thwart that. Kids are amazing, aren't they?

I Capture the Blankets in Misc JoeUser Forums

I begged and whined and bugged my mom for weeks before she finally relented. S

He Broke the Sound Barrier in Misc JoeUser Forums

He started his military career as an aircraft mechanic. He went to flight school and became a pilot. He flew P-51s in Europe. He was shot down over France and spent some time evading the Germans while helping the French Underground. He was able to get back to England and convince Eisenhower to let him fly over France again (policy was that escape-and-evaders could not fly over the areas where they had been captured). He returned to combat ove

Reply to Not Near Long Enough...But a Good Start in Misc Stardock Forums

You guys are such romantics...I wasn't thinking that far ahead.

Reply to Missed it by That Much.... in Misc Stardock Forums

I giggle about that every time I think of it...it could have been a tragic story...but now it's just a silly memory.

Reply to Not Near Long Enough...But a Good Start in Misc Stardock Forums

I can't claim to having done too much right in my life, but getting that girl to marry me was the very best thing I have ever done. Thanks for the kind words...I think? No, she married me because she felt the same way I did, neither of us felt like spending another minute without being together.

Reply to Alex Karras in Misc Stardock Forums

Me, too, Doc. Thanks for the read.

Reply to Barnstorming on the Government's Dime in Misc Stardock Forums

Doc, he has written a number of books, my favorite is "Air Force Spoken Here", although it doesn't include many of his early exploits, it is still a great read and full of good stuff. Again, thanks for the read. PS: I knew who he was because I devoured everything I could find about WWII from the time I was about 10 years old, the Chief made me read "Beans, Bullets, and Black Oil" like it was a text book, he said it was the best story of WWII in the Pacific and how hard it was to

Reply to Alex Karras in Misc Stardock Forums

Yes, he was. Nobody gets out alive, it's just sad to see him go.

Alex Karras in Misc JoeUser Forums

I remember Alex Karras as a fierce defensive lineman on the Detroit Lions. But I remember him better as a naturally funny guy who never took himself too seriously. In an interview on an afternoon talk show in the seventies (probably Mike Douglas but I'm not sure) he talked about needlepointing his friends names on their jockstraps for them and when asked if he missed the NFL he responded by saying that he missed the comraderie and nowdays hung around in the show

Reply to Not Near Long Enough...But a Good Start in Misc Stardock Forums

Thank you, seems like things have gotten real quiet around here lately, nice to know someone is still out there. :)

Barnstorming on the Government's Dime in Misc JoeUser Forums

In the years I worked at Headquarters, U S European Command(HQ USEUCOM), I met a lot of folks who had been or would be famous for one reason or another. Some of the people I worked with should have been famous; there were some real heroes in the mix there. I even had the chance to spend some time with ADM Ruge, a well known figure in German military history. Another figure from US military history that I met was General Ira Eaker. Although I only h

Not Near Long Enough...But a Good Start in Misc JoeUser Forums

We met in April of '67. It was a blind date arranged by the girlfriend of one of my buddies. I have written about all that before. If I remember, I'll link that story at the end. I went back to San Diego when my enlistment was up in July, with no intention of ever seeing Arizona again. I had some strange idea about "getting on with my life". I didn't want to talk about Vietnam anymore; I didn't even feel much like sharing stories about

Missed it by That Much.... in Misc JoeUser Forums

They say a camel is a horse designed by a committee. You should see som

1969..."If you hear the song I sing..." in Misc JoeUser Forums

Every Saturday afternoon the Sixties on Six channel on Sirius XM features one specific year and plays the top forty songs from that year along with news clips, ads, movie ratings and other stuff about the year. Today the feature year was 1969. They played a couple of tunes I just didn't remember at all, but they sounded like '69...kinda bubble-gummy, a shade hippie-ish, and like that. Then they played the one song that always takes me down the time tun

Reply to SNAKEBIT in Misc JoeUser Forums

Doc: [e digicons]:grin:[/e]

Reply to An Aperture Moment in Misc JoeUser Forums

Only the last photo is one of my own, I borrowed the others from Google...I have similar shots but I would have to go dig them out of a hidden trunk somewhere...