Outside My Windows IV - Friends Around America

[Rocnerd]

My first car was a 1979 Ford Mustang.  It had a 4 cylinder in it, so a far cry from the muscle car it started as but it drove nice and always started.

[Calvin Cooledge]

Steve - Bob is packing to come down to your place Wednesday for the Blade Show.  Gave him the information on one of Reese Bose's knives that will be on his table for the drawing to try for me. (Wharncliffe trapper with cap, CPM 440-V blades, brown bone scales.)
I'm sure you will enjoy yourself at the show.  Hope your booth does well.

Dave

Hi Dave and all,
The Blade Show was amazing, as usual;^) I put my card in the hat for that Bose (as did Bob) but to no avail. Perhaps next time.

I'll report on the show, including the gun/knife set from Busse Knives and Les Baer.  Ummmm. Tasty!

Let me digest what just happened and I'll post in a couple of days.

Hayword N. Edgewise

[DTM_39]

Richard   Old cars  this could be a long thread.  My first was a black 1962 Plymouth sport fury convertible.  It had a worked out hemi with a 4000 rpm stall speed converter and an electric shift transmission  411 posi rear   what a car   wish I put it in the garage and forgot about it.  I will have to find some pictures.  Look forward to seeing yours.  Dan

[DTM_39]

Richard  Nice cars I'll bet you had some fun wheelin around in them.  Love those convertibles.    Dan

[Richard S]

Alright, Gentlemen, here are scans of photographs of my first two automobiles.  

First, my 1954 Triumph TR2, the photograph taken in 1956 in front of my fraternity house when I was a sophomore in college.  (I was apparently annoyed at one of my esteemed brothers for having taken the liberty of planting his behind on the left rear fender.)  To my lasting regret, I sold this little rocket when the Army shipped me out to Germany in 1963.

Second, my 1964 Sunbeam Alpine GT Series III, the photograph taken in 1965 outside my BOQ in Southern Germany.  I had ordered a Triumph TR4 to be delivered in Stuttgart, but it was damaged in transit and the dealer had this little "Fraulein magnet" sitting in the showroom ready to roll.  It was not as quick as a Triumph, but it got me around Europe until the end of my tour of duty when I sold it to a newly arrived lieutenant.  

[Richard S]

Dan:

Thank you for your comment.  They were great little cars, especially the TR2.  The dealer from which I bought it had raced it for a season, so I was able to purchase it at a price which I could afford on my meager income and tight budget  as a night student in college.  I didn't understand why it was so fast until I had to have a new set of rings installed.  Only then did I learn that the dealer had bored out the cylinders and installed oversized pistons.

And by the way, I should explain why your post appears above mine.  The scanned photographs in my first post were too large and I couldn't seem to reduce them by modifying the message.  I therefore deleted the entire post and started over.  You must have seen the first post with the larger images.

[theirishguard]

Richard, sooo thats what a young guy looks like!
Did you learn latin at the frat house? If looks could kill!!
Tom

[Calvin Cooledge]

Guess we are too spoiled.  The Mountain Man of long ago probably ate ivy in his salad.

There is a weed that grows here in the South called Poke Salat. Tony Joe White wrote and sang a BIG hit about it back in the 60's. It was the food of white trash, now it's the food of gourmets. Giant LOL!

Don't think there is a song to be had in Crown Vetch, though. Dave knows all about that stuff...

Still trying to recover from the Blade Show.
Will post soon...

Hayword N. Edgewise

[Richard S]

Tom:

Latin would not have beeen one of the "long suits" in my fraternity.    The so-called "Elders" when I pledged in 1955 were an admirable group of Korean War veterans going to college on the "GI Bill."  There was no hazing of pledges, and the only requirements for membership were basically as follows:

1.  Be a male admitted as a student of the university.

2.  Be an avowed and demonstrable admirer of the "fairer sex."

3.  Be able to drink a reasonable amount of alcoholic beverages without becoming "sloppy."

4.  Be able to pay the fraternity dues.

A greater bunch of men (and characters) I have rarely met.

And by the way, the two "brothers" in the photograph of the TR2 were not Korean War veterans but merely a couple of lowly sophomores such as I was myself.

***

I should amend this post by noting that the fraternity brother who took that photograph of the TR2 was a Marine Corps veteran who served as a "Forward Spotter" in the Korean War -- you know . . . the men who crawled up to the enemy lines and then called in naval gunfire just ahead of their positions.  

[R9SCarry]

Richard - oh my - two ''Brit cars'' - amazing!  I had at least two college buddies with TR's back in early 60's and then later a guy I mechanicked for who did hydroplane racing - he had a TR4A.  (he progressed to an Aston Martin Vantage! (yum)).

I am sorely lacking in pics of my old Brit ''steeds'' - tho daresay some prints somewhere of one or two - but no way to know if I can find those.

No one would know it I guess but my first in 1964 was a Morris 8.  I actually shared that with my Mom.  My first own was a split rear window Beetle in about 1967, followed by a newer Beetle.  Then a Triumph Vitesse - nice tho small 1600 six cylnder rush-about!

I got rid of that and got a 1965 Mustang (289) in 1969 - which I LOVED!!!  Toured much of Europe in that.  Sadly a collapse of left front suspension put me off the road badly one day in late 1970.  Pics below of as it was and when wrecked <sob>.

I then went thru several other vehicles, none of which was overly exciting to describe here - but most well OK for me.

[Richard S]

Chris:

That was one beautiful Mustang!  It hurts me, even as one who did not own it, to see it the victim of harm's way.

And Gentlemen:

"Start your engines!"  All of you have had first, second, or whatever other automobiles which deserve mention in this magnificent series of "Windows" threads.  Dig around your closets, scan the photographs, and post the images and the stories.  

Lord knows, there are a hundred or more stories worth telling with regard to that little TR2 I used to own before my conduct was constrained by joining the United States Army -- such as a certain trip in the summer of 1958 from DC through the southern states into Mexico and up through California and back by the middle route to DC.  (I still have a sunburn scar on my left forearm from that trip, which was taken during the month of August -- just when one should tour the sunbelt in a low-slung convertible.     )

(Youth is truly wasted on the young.)

[MountainMan]

Steve - thanks for the try at the Blade Show

Guys - I love those car pictures and stories - keep it up.

Richard - one good looking young man - like Wally Clever sitting on the car in the first photo.

[MountainMan]

            72 Virgins In Paradise

Seconds after al-Zarqawi was taken out in the airstrike, he was met at the
Gates of Paradise by George Washington, who slapped him across the face
and yelled, "How dare you try to destroy the nation I helped found!"

Patrick Henry approached, punched him in the nose and shouted, "You
wanted to end our liberties but you failed."

James Madison followed, kicked him in the groin and said, "This is why
I allowed our government to provide for the common defense!"

Thomas Jefferson was next. He beat al-Zarqawi with a cane and snarled,
"It was evil men like you who inspired me to write the Declaration of
Independence."

The beatings and thrashings continued as George Mason, James Monroe,
Robert E. Lee, Jeb Stuart and 64 other early Americans unleashed their anger
on the terrorist leader.

As al-Zarqawi lay moaning in pain, the Angel Gabriel appeared. The terrorist

leader wept in frustration and whined, "This is not what you promised
us Muslim martyrs."

Gabriel replied, "I told Mohammad there would be 72 Virginians

waiting for you guys in Paradise. What did you think I said?

[Richard S]

Guys - I love those car pictures and stories - keep it up.

Richard - one good looking young man - like Wally Cleaver sitting on the car in the first photo.

Dave:

The brother sitting on the fender of the car was indeed a "Wally Cleaver" type who went on to become a successful executive.  At the time, as I recall, we were both in "hot pursuit" of the same little coed -- and he won.    He was a day student, while I attended classes in the evenings.  Being a night student had its disadvantages, one of them being the limitations it placed on your social life.  (You'd be surprised at how few young ladies were interested in coming over to my bachelor pad after evening classes to watch me study.   :-/)  However, as the Garth Brooks song goes, "Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers."  

[tracker]

Richard,
Why are you the only one who is wearing a tie?