Tales from my youth; B-52's and not the group

At one time we lived in base housing at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. I think I was probably in the sixth grade. 

One of my fiends at the time was another kid that lived on the other side of the base. We would occasionally spend the night at each other’s house.

His back yard was an open field that led to a creek. The creek led to a spot at the end of the flight line where we could watch planes. We stayed at his house more than we stayed at mine.

One night we decided to camp out in his back yard. We rigged a small pup tent out past the end of their official yard and well into the field. It was close to the creek but still within sight of the house. In the early morning hours we were awakened to the sound of jet engines. By then the temperature had dropped and we were feeling a bit frozen. We decided this was a fine time to get up.

We followed the creek, shrouded in a low mist, and lit only by stars to the end of the runway. We could hear the engines off in the distance and getting louder. Behind us the blue lights of the landing field created a weird glow in the low mist. 

As the plane began its approach it turned on it’s landing lights. Even from a distance it seemed to light the night around us. As it approached it was obvious this was a very large jet. The ominous shape of a B-52 began to emerge against the night sky and behind the bright lights. If you ever get a chance to stand underneath a B-52, don’t hesitate. It’s an awesome feeling. You can feel it’s power by the mere shape and size.

But to stand underneath one as it is coming in for a landing is almost indescribable. The ground shakes from the power of the engines. The night becomes day under the landing lights. We were so close we could see into the landing gear. It seemed like I could reach up and touch the wheels. We could feel the air pressure change as it passed overhead and the vibration in the air was felt through our whole bodies. Once past, the sounds of the jet engines intensified to a deafening volume.

The whole experience just caught in my throat. I can still remember standing there in the cool night air, mouth agape, neck straining to look straight up, and thinking “Holy cow! This is amazing!” 

I tried to capture this moment from my youth by creating an ai image. This is the closest to the feeling.

Good Times!

 

 

 

 

GBE 20: Things this old man has learned about life

The GBE #20 prompt is "LIFE" or "What one small thing could've changed your life forever?"

Things this old man has learned about life

I wish I could say that I have learned something new for every day of my life. Maybe I have, but I really don't remember all of them.
I would like to say that I could list one thing I have learned for every year of my life. Maybe I could, but that would be like 70 things. That would be much too long for a blog.
So, with that in mind, I am merely going to mention the big ones that come to mind first. While some of these are very cliché, there is a reason clichés become clichés.

Life is not fair.
Contrary to TV sitcoms and dramas. Real life does not neatly wrap itself up in half hour or hour increments. Most if the time problems takes days, months, years, and sometimes a whole life time to reach a resolution. Usually it just leaves you hanging there wondering “What the Hell was that all about?”
The good guy does not always win. If life were fair, all the assholes and mean beans would have a very short life span. “Oops, your bad.” ZAP!
Instead, a lot of them wind up running our companies, our government, and our lives. Meanwhile, some really kind hearted people lead lives of deep desperation.
All you can do is treat others like you would like to be treated, and hope the game of life doesn’t kick your ass. Even when it does, your only recourse is to get up and try again.

Life does not owe you a damn thing.

 It is easier to do nothing, than to attempt anything at all.
It just is. You may never get anywhere or do anything, but it is always easier than trying. Don’t expect life to hand you anything. Unless you were born rich, you are going to have to make your own life happen. Decide what you want. Make a plan. Do it. Which brings us to:

Hope for the best, plan for the worst, work with the changes.
The best thought out plans can sometimes take sudden and unexpected turns towards disastrous results. History, and the evening news, are full of these occurrences.
Try to think things through, consider all the bad things that could happen, and make a plan that you think will get you to your desired end result. Follow that plan and hope it works.
When they don’t go the way you thought they would, take a moment and think of the best way to utilize the changes. Then try to enjoy the result, even if you couldn’t do it exactly the way you had originally envisioned it.

You can do anything with just three things:
Time, determination, and money. Unfortunately, most of us are lacking in at least one of those ingredients for success.

When things are really bad, they can only get better.
Just when you think things can’t get any worse, they sometimes do. At some point they HAVE to get better. As the Doors sang “Well, I've been down so Goddamn long, that it looks like up to me”. Even if it’s a tiny bit of happiness, enjoy it, hold on to it, because the reverse is also true;

If things are going great, it won’t last.
Just won the lottery? Business going great? Don’t get cocky. Meet the tax man, or all your new, desperately needy friends, and that new cut throat competitor.
Again, enjoy the good times for all they are worth.

Love will find you when you least expect it or are least prepared for it.
The search can be long and frustrating. Sometimes just showing up for life is all it takes to fall in the right direction. Love will usually find you after you have stopped looking and find something else to fill your time.

People are basically the same.
Color, religion, and politics don’t really matter. For the most part, we all want the same kind of things. The main thing that really affects people is an abusive or hopeless environment, or the drugs they come in contact with.

The squeaky wheel gets the oil.
The person that complains the most, usually gets pacified first. But sometimes that squeaky wheel just gets replaced. Let your thoughts be known if it is important to you, but don’t constantly complain about everything.

Things usually happen for a reason.
It may not seem like it at the time. In fact, you may not be aware of the reason for years. In some cases you may never know. But there is usually a reason. It may have even been your own fault.
Occasionally though, there is no rhyme, reason, or even the slightest bit of sense. Shit just happens.

Use it or loose it.
The mind and body need constant exercise. If you don’t use it, muscles turn to flab, and the brain turns to mush. In most things, lots of practice will make you pretty good at just about anything. I’m sure the same goes for sex. You just can’t get enough practice for some things.

Don’t do things half assed.
If you are going to do something, or anything, give it all you’ve got. Otherwise you will never be completely satisfied with the results, and may even wonder why you bothered in the first place.

Life and Karma have a wicked sense of humor.
Try to live a life that keeps them on your side. There is a ying yang full circle of kismet floating around that is just looking for a reason to mess with you.

It’s easier to tell the truth than to remember lies.
Unless you have an exceptionally good memory. I don’t, so I usually tell the truth…or at least some semblance of the truth.

Things that appear to be simple, rarely are.
And you never realize it until well after you have committed yourself to the task.

Nothing in life is totally black and white.
There are always shades of gray, several sides to any story, and most of the time, hidden agendas.

Life is short. Eat dessert first.
You may choke on the brussel sprouts and never get to taste life‘s real goodies.

Arguing and fighting rarely accomplish anything.
Except that is usually pisses everybody off even more. Agree to disagree...and then do whatever you felt like doing in the first place. Which brings us to:

It’s better to apologize than to ask for permission.
At least you’ll get to do whatever it was you wanted to do.

The older you get, the more staying home seems like the best plan.

I thought when I retired I would travel (and photograph those places). I thought I would get back to painting, drawing, and/or rebuild my HO scale train layout. The sad truth is, health and money can limit a lot of options. After all these years, my home is just the way I want it. My health ain’t what it used to be and inflation has seriously raced ahead of what I am willing to spend. Comfort is hard to leave.

Well. That was a long! Maybe I did learn something every day!

Got any words of wisdom to add?

 

My Entry for the Hot Wheels Challenge TV show

I watched the TV show “Hot Wheels Challenge” where people use their first cars as inspiration to create a hot wheels car. They tell their story of how that first car had an effect on their lives, usually some sad story about cancer or some other loss.

Then, using that car, they have to design and create a real car that they think will make a good hot wheels car.

They are pitted against another person with the same constraints. A team helps them use an actual car to create a life size hot wheels car. Then a couple of judges determine which car would best represent the hot wheels brand. There are two contestants each show that compete for a final show off of eight(?) finalist.

Realizing the “reality” of most reality shows being rather lax on real reality, I have questions.

First of all, where do they find the cars in such good shape? Is one of the reasons the people are chosen because the producers can find that persons particular car?

If the cars are in as good as shape as they look on TV (which I seriously doubt) I would hate to chop some of them up. Others? Meh, chop away!

I also wonder if the persons story is part of the judging process. Does a sick kid in a story rate a more likely chance of winning than a story where the kid and parent bond because of the car?

While the finished car creations usually look pretty good, I have to wonder if they look good close up, or if they even run. The fabricators only have two weeks to complete the build. Even if they knew what materials or parts they would need before they started, two weeks is a very short time for such a project.

I googled what happens to these cars after the show, thinking it would be cool to see them in a museum somewhere. According to host Rutledge Wood, “I think most of them are sitting in a warehouse, kind of wondering what their fate is going to be.” He also states that some of the cars will be recycled for their parts, while a few of the higher end vehicles may go to collectors who can fix them up and possibly make them street legal.”

The people that were featured in the TV build show may never see them again.

Being a bit of a Hot Wheels/Matchbook car collector myself, I obviously started to wonder how I might fare on the show. My first thought was “how many different models of Hot Wheels cars have been made?”

Google says: Over 20,000!

Then I thought about my first car; a 1964 two door Chevrolet Impala. A classic for sure! When I got it, it was just a seven year old car at a time when cars were designed to fall apart at 50,000 miles or five years, whichever came first. The car companies even had a term for it: Planned Obsolescence.

My ‘64 Impala was in pretty good shape in 1971 when I got it, considering the state of Chevy manufacturing practices at the time.

I knew that Hot Wheels had already made several models of a 1964 Impala. I even had one. Another quick google search showed over 20 models of that particular year and model! Hmmm. Making a new model from a ‘64 Impala was starting to sound like it would be quite difficult.

My story of how this vehicle affected my life did not have any sick kids or relatives. It did not really help me bond too much with either parent or sibling. My story was rather bland. It was a daily driver. It took me to work and Drive In Theaters. I cruised the neighbor hood in it. My only distractions while driving was whoever was in the car and trying to find an AM radio station.

The trunk was huge so it doubled as a Pick up truck. I could haul lawnmowers or bikes in it with the trunk closed. One time, the poor vehicle got the trunk loaded with a bunch of rocks that should have killed the suspension. When driving back with these, the front of the car was so high, the front tires seemed to be barely touching the road. Later in life my daily driver would be a pickup.

Suddenly, my vision or what my ‘64 Impala hot wheels car would be. An Impala Pick up truck! I instantly had a name for it; Mother Truckin’ Impala.

Since my drawing skills aren’t up to snuff to draw this, I will try to describe it.

I would want it to still be distinctly a ‘64 Impala. The front would be essentially the same look, except the hood would have two reverse hood scoops added. The rear seat would be removed and the roof line moved up to just behind the front doors. A T top would cover the front seats. The rear trunk area would be opened up for a truck bed. An extra set of axles would be added to the back. Not dually’s, but a twin axle. The rear lights, instead of being three horizontally, would be three vertically on either side of the tailgate. Maybe a swept tailpipe running from behind the front wheel, just below the door, to the front of the rear wheel well. It would have to have baby moon hubcaps and trim rings.

I think this would be a unique and cool addition to the Hot Wheels line.

I have recently found a web site that takes typed descriptions and makes an Ai image from it. It couldn’t figure out the tandem axles, the twin hood scoops, the T top or the baby moon and trim rings, but it did pretty good other than that...

 

Travel with no restraints

 

Ahhh. Travel! Hold on. Let me put my shoes on. Okay. I’m ready. Let’s go. Doesn’t matter where.

This weeks GBE’s topic is “If money, travel, and time were no object, what would your top 5 list of countries you would like to visit and spend time in look like?”  Health wasn't mentioned so we'll assume it is not limited either.

The truth is, I never had a huge desire to visit other countries. I was never a group tour kind of person as I prefer to explore on my own time and itinerary. When I do that, I prefer to be able to understand the signs. Particularly if I’m driving.

That being said, I would love to see the old architecture of Rome, or immerse myself in the Britishness of England. (and my spell check tells me Britishness is a word I just made up) The canals of Venice or the city of Paris would also be at the top of the list. I’m sure I could spend at least a month exploring and photographing any of those destinations.

For the longest time, if any one asked me what other country I would like to visit, I would have said Australia. It seemed like the most American of other countries and offered a wide variety of scenery. By crikey, I could even understand the language. As I learned more about it, I found that most things there bite, scratch, sting, scrape, peck, kick or down right eat you. The excruciatingly long plane trip there seems even less desirable with that information.

Canada was closer but way to cold for me. I’m sure I could get lost in their wide expanse of territories and never find my way out.

Lately I have seen a lot of photos of Mexico. It’s fairly close and warm. They have lovely beaches that you can camp on and mountains and villages you can explore. It looks like it has a lot of possibilities even if there are some dangers. I would need get a fairly good grasp of Spanish before I would want to venture there.

I know I have exceeded my list of “5” but Norway and Nova Scotia would probably be at the top of my “must visit outside the USA” list.

I don’t feel the need to visit other countries because the good ‘ole USA holds enough diversity to keep me more than interested.

I don’t know if it as true as it used to be, but traveling to the far back countries of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, or Louisiana were like dropping into another country, if not another world.

I fell in love with the red landscapes of Utah. I was nervous about camping out in the back of my pickup truck in the middle of nowhere. When I settled into my spot on a cliff overlooking a vast landscape, I felt quite at home. Maybe I was an Indian in another life.

My work used to take me to some of the popular cities: New York, Las Vegas, Orlando, Anaheim, Seattle, Chicago, Dallas and probably a few others that don’t come to mind right now.

I have seen a lot of places, but my bucket list of places still keeps expanding. I still want to spend some time in Arizona and New Mexico. I want to park my RV on the beaches of Texas and enjoy the sounds of ocean and wind right outside my window. I want to spend more time in Montana. I want to visit the ghost towns of the old west-even the ones that are tourist attractions. I have barely researched Idaho, but what I have seen looks interesting. While I have been to Washington DC, I have yet to see the coast of the state of Washington. I want to experience “boondocking” in the western states before those areas are shut down due to overuse, lack of funds (our taxes), or misuse by people that trash them then move on to the next spot.

From the rocky cliffs of Maine, through the green trees of the East and Midwest, and past the red rocks of the West, America holds a variety of different “countries” within it’s coasts. I can understand the language, I can read all the signs, and know the rules of life here.

I have no need to travel to another country. My USA bucket list of places to go far exceeds the time I have left to see them.

“My bags are packed and I’m ready to go”-Peter, Paul and Mary (and John Denver) “Leaving on a Jet Plane”.

 

The Adventure of Books

As a young boy he spent many hours in his Grandmothers Attic. Since he always stayed during the summer breaks from school, and the house was in the heart of Florida, the attic was always hot. It wasn’t a punishment. It was an adventure.

The house set back on a large lot that sat on a corner. The downstairs rooms were filled with furniture from a time when things were abundant with decorative flourishes. There were tables with fancy carved legs that ended with clawed feet. The claws wrapped around small wheels that were shaped like balls. The main focus of the room was a brilliantly embroidered, floral print couch with three humps on the back. To the boy, it looked like a deformed camel that wandered out of a garden. The cushions were stiff, but he was never allowed to sit on it. He wasn’t allowed to sit on most of the fancy chairs in the living room. That was her room and was used for entertaining her friends.

His room was the attic. 

The attic was long and narrow with a steeply pitched ceiling that rose from low walls. At one end was a tall, narrow window that looked out over the front lawn. That window was always blocked by the items stacked in front of it: his Grandmothers art supplies; easels, boxes of oil paints, framed canvases both blank and painted with scenes of Florida. There were also several old, well worn, musty suitcases sitting in the pile. Other boxes, equally old, and well worn, filled any empty spaces.

At the other end of the attic, steep stairs headed down to the fancy rooms. At the top of the stairs was another tall, narrow window. This over looked a metal roof. The roof ended with a view that was blocked by trees, large palmetto bushes, and one massive Elephant ear plant. Sometimes he would open this window and sit, half inside, half outside, and watch the squirrels and birds.

There was another window in the middle of the room but it had been fitted with a massive exhaust fan. The fan filled the window with a three foot wide blade that turned slowly by a rubber fan belt that always wobbled when it was on. The fan was usually on, drawing in the stale air from the ground floor and blowing out into the Florida heat. Sometimes, at night, he would reverse the fan so it drew in the fresh, night air.

Between the two windows lived random chairs, book cases, and a single bed. There was nothing fancy in the attic. The book cases were filled with old books. Stacks of National Geographic magazines were scattered about the room. The yellow covers, bright against the rest of the room, beckoned to learn of adventures buried within their pages. He spent many an hour visiting the far flung places they described.

It was one book in particularly that really caught his imagination. The cover was a nondescript medium gray, and felt like a course fabric. There were no words on the slightly frayed cover, only two small, stylized birds on the lower right corner. The were embossed in gold. The book was twice as wide as it was high. It took both hands to hold it open.

The inside of the book was equally deficient of words. Black and white photos spanned both pages. Brief, tiny type at the bottom of the page had a description of the scenes shown. The photos showed amazing landscapes that could never be found in the flat lands of Florida: Ragged mountain peaks, snowy rolling valleys, craggy bays filled with boats and quaint villages. At the time, it was a world he could not have imagined.

He would curl up with this book, take his toy cars and pretend he was driving though the fantastic scenes in the book. He would drive through quaint villages, stop at a rushing mountain stream for a picnic, climb the steep mountains until he stood in the clouds, hike across the alpine meadows, and explore every nook and cranny of the craggy bays. Every photo held a multitude of adventures.

This book still lives with me. While I haven’t thought of it in many years, for some reason, the GBE topic of "What book that you've read was life changing?" made me think of this book and all the memories it evoked. I don’t know that it was a “life changing” book, but I’m pretty sure this is where my wanderlust was born.

It was published in 1949. The title is “Der Ligger Et Land-Norway from Above”. According to google it translates as “There lies a country”

I’m sure it was something my Grandmother picked up in her many travels.

Have any books affected your life?

What is the music backdrop of your life?

 The music backdrop of my life is like a warm, enveloping blanket of eargasmic pleasure. It wraps around me, comforts me, soothes my soul, lifts my mood, reminds me of memories long past, makes me tap my feet, and is a constant friendly companion.

I play music in my shop when I work. I play music when I am at my computer. I play music when I read and even a lot times while I sleep. It’s playing right now. For some reason, I no longer listen to music when I drive. I used to blast it every time I went somewhere.

With a few exceptions, I love most types of music. There are a few genres that I don’t particularly like (Rap-they seem so pissed off! Speed metal-Ow my ears! and old Country/Bluegrass-a few of these twangy hits and I feel like drinking beers and kicking ass) Even in these categories I still manage to find some great songs.

I have several old blogs about music. I have a new blog started about how I started listening to music. I have over 37,000 music files (161 Gigabites) on my computer and over 400 LPs, CD’s and even quite a few 45’s. We won’t mention the 8 tracks collecting dust in a drawer somewhere.

So many great songs! So many hours of listening pleasure. There is no way I could pick a favorite. I tried once, quite a few years ago. I came up with over 100 favorite songs and 600 runner-ups. Since then I have added hundreds more.

Music is not a backdrop in my life. It is at the forefront and is a major part of life. I can’t imagine how drab life would be with out it.

But there are certain songs that have always been in tune with my life. Like me, they have been around for quite a bit.

Burning Bridges-Mike Crew Congregation

I was an Air Force brat and moved around quite a bit in my formative years. I once went to five schools in two years, and lived in eight different places during that time. In most cases I didn’t have much time to make really good friends, so it got easier to close the door on those friendships when we moved away. I think it also helped me resist the “peer crowd” mentality because I was always just on the fringe of several cliques.

I like the powerful feeling of this song-like you can just plow right on through anything.

“All the burning bridges that have fallen after me
All the lonely feelings and the burning memories
Everyone I left behind each time I closed the door
Burning bridges lost forevermore”

 Kodachrome-Paul Simon

I was a mediocre student in High school. I thought a lot of the stuff we were learning was useless information. Later in life I realized I was mostly correct. I also became very interested in photography. This song became a favorite and has remained there for years. My favorite lines:

 “If you took all the girls I knew when I was single

brought them all together for one night

I know they would never match my sweet little imagination”

Everything looks worse in black and white”

Like a Rock-Bob Segar

Every lyric in this song reminds me of my youth; It was a time when I felt indestructible and all my dreams where still untested. A time when my life was just starting to take off and anything and everything was a possible reality. If you don’t know this song, follow the link. You can thank me later.

 Stay Awhile-The Bells

This song was pretty racy way back in 1972. We considered it “our song” and played it at our wedding. I’m sure the church going crowd blushed way back then. Still married after 50 some years, so I guess I meant it.

“She brushes the curls from my eyes
She drops her robe on the floor
And she reaches for the light on the bureau

 And the darkness is her pillow once more
How she makes me quiver
How she makes me smile
With all this love I have to give her

I guess I'm gonna stay with her awhile”

Cat's in the Cradle-Harry Chapin

Cat’s in the Cradle sums up my relationship with my father. We never had any animosity between us, we just never seemed to be in the same place at the same time.

I can also relate to Halfway to Heaven-Harry Chapin

“Now I have been a straight man and I've played it by the rules
I been a good man, a good husband, a good old fashioned fool.
I have a fine wife and two children just like everybody's got
But after fifteen years of marriage the fires don't burn too hot.

Ahh someone played a trick on me.
They set me up so perfectly
They Gave me their morality
And then changed the rules they set for me.
Someone must be laughing now,
Though it don't seem funny somehow,
How the world's accepting now
What they once would not allow
Back in my younger days.
The world has changed in so many ways.

My mother once said to me so many years ago now
Don't you touch those bad girls, so I never had girls
Until I had my Mary when we married.
My Mary then had my two sons
My life as a lover was already done
It was over before it had really begun.

Ahh someone played a trick on me.
They sent this little girl to me,
She is my new secretary
And she's something to see.
yeah She's a nice girl, but it's a young world
And she lives her life so free, and she sure gets through to me

She brings her pad into my office, she wears a sweater and a skirt
And somewhere deep inside of me something starts to hurt.
She's wearing nothing underneath, and I can see what's there to see
She smiles and says, "You wanted me?" I'd have to agree.

You know how much I want her,
And I know that I could have her.
I know I could, I know she would
Make love to me, so wonderfully.
God damn, I'm one crazy mixed up mixture of a man.

In my head all my life I've been a sinner,
And in my bed with just my wife I'm still a beginner,
But tomorrow night I'm taking that little girl out to dinner!

There's no tick tock on your electric clock
But still your life runs down.”

How does music affect your life?

Written for the GBE #17.

Dear God; Interview question

 

Dear God,

Thank you for this opportunity to interview you. I realize it is not something you normally do.

I’m sure you have millions of prayers to answer, people to smite, and miracles to wrought, so I’ll be brief.

I used to wonder why you let mean, crotchety, old people live for so long, and yet, you thought my cousin Vicki should die at age 10. She was such a sweet kid. It took me a long time to come to grips with that one, let me tell you.

I finally decided that life was a test for us. You keep giving those mean, old bastards lots of chances, thinking they might change their ways. The ones you are sure will never falter, regardless of what kind of shit life throws at them, you figure you can shorten the test cycle.

Oh, sorry about the language. That whole Vicki thing still irks me sometimes. I have to hand it to you though, you did gave her back to me as my guardian angel. Without her, I might not have made it through my teenage years. So, thanks for that.

My question to you is this;

Of all the religions in the world today, which one would you prefer us to worship?

I’m no theologian, but most of them seem fairly similar. Well, except for that cow worshiping thing. I never really got that one. I suppose if I was in some arid region, I would be praying for something to drink too.

I also wonder about all the wars that get started in the name of religion. Isn’t that “Thou shall not kill” thing good enough for all religions? Seems like a pretty good idea to me.

I’m sorry. Was that two questions?

Like I said, I know you’re busy. If you want to think about it for awhile, that will be fine. You can just leave a comment here on my blog. Whenever. But preferably sometime before you decide to shorten my test cycle.

Oh, when you answer, maybe a little miracle to let me know it is you. There are a lot of people down here that think they are God and I certainly don’t want to hear their opinion.

Thanks in advance.