Random memories from a life well lived

[GravitySucks]

I started this thread to capture random memories as I rearrange my neural network. It feels like I am in the process of a defrag. But please feel free to use this thread to document any memories you would like to share, or start your own thread.

[Ghost BEP]

This movie was made in 1974. I started bobsledding in December, 1975 after the team was already selected for 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. I know and competed against every single one of the people in this film. We had a great rivalry against the Navy. In 5 years my team never lost a 4man race to them. By October, 1976 I had beaten all of the Navy SEALS in individual push start competition. Between 1976 and 1980 the Air Force number 1 sled had the fastest push times in the US or Canada. The action footage in this film shows what the bobrun was like when I started. In 1979 they kept the same basic track layout but had deplaced all of the stone curves and wooden straightaways with concrete and refrigeration. Before 1980 the track record for the 4 man was 1:04:00. I was select as one of ten 2 man drivers to test the track in December, 1979. My first run down, with just a jog at the start broke the 4 man record at 1:03:97. Scary fast. The bottom half of the track has been redesigned to make it safer. If you go there today you can get a ride on a 4-man sled.

Enjoy.

That’s amazing! Looks fun.

[Ghost BEP]

I started this thread to capture random memories as I rearrange my neural network. It feels like I am in the process of a defrag. But please feel free to use this thread to document any memories you would like to share, or start your own thread.

Keep posting as much as you can. I enjoy reading your life’s adventures.

[LittleChris]

When everyday was an adventure.

https://youtu.be/zUEp_CFPne0

[Walks_At_Night]

My father owned a small construction company in Chicago when I was very young. One of my earliest memories is of me sitting in his lap in a green and white pickup truck and steering the truck as we drove down a side street. There was a cloverleaf emblem on the door. I was probably 3 or 4.

Meh.   I've heard of a dude that was helping Doc Salk knock out that pesky Polio deal when he was that age. 

[GravitySucks]

Meh.   I've heard of a dude that was helping Doc Salk knock out that pesky Polio deal when he was that age.

Yeah. I had to get driven to and from the job sites but I was building concrete forms at 3 and managing a whole crew at 4.

[Kidnostad]

How about your adventures at JSTPS (the ones you can talk about of course.)

[Ghost BEP]

I’m not done reading. Get your ass back here and tell us some more stories!

[GravitySucks]

When I was in the air force at Plattsburgh AFB, a van club, the Adirondack ShowVanIsts met at the mister donut. I ordered a 1977 dodge van and joined them. All the van had was the two stock seats up front. I scrounged screws and rivets from the flight line, and designed a custom interior centered around the sound system and the double bed in the rear. The waitress at mister donut was cute. I married her. We went everywhere in that van. All through New England, down the east coast to Florida for a honeymoon, moved to Omaha where we joined the Omaha trucking co.  Went to rock mountain national park, vail, denver, all over Nebraska and Iowa. A trip back to NY for the 80 Olympics. Drove it to Biloxi, MS for an air force tech school and held parties on panama beach and Ft Walton beach every weekend during that summer. Drove it down to KC for a Oilers football game and finally used it to move to Houston when I separated. I did all the body work, paint and lettering. Designed a custom oak dash and wooden overhead console for the cb radio and some map lights. Very comfortable traveling van with one short fall. No air conditioning. Had to sell it about a year after I got to Houston. You can’t live without ac in Houston. My CB handle was “Slider”. Everyone called me Slider. No one from the van club showed up yo my wedding.  The next week I asked why. When they got the invitation it had my real name and they didn’t know who that was.

[Jayzelady]

When I was in the air force at Plattsburgh AFB, a van club, the Adirondack ShowVanIsts met at the mister donut. I ordered a 1977 dodge van and joined them. All the van had was the two stock seats up front. I scrounged screws and rivets from the flight line, and designed a custom interior centered around the sound system and the double bed in the rear. The waitress at mister donut was cute. I married her. We went everywhere in that van. All through New England, down the east coast to Florida for a honeymoon, moved to Omaha where we joined the Omaha trucking co.  Went to rock mountain national park, vail, denver, all over Nebraska and Iowa. A trip back to NY for the 80 Olympics. Drove it to Biloxi, MS for an air force tech school and held parties on panama beach and Ft Walton beach every weekend during that summer. Drove it down to KC for a Oilers football game and finally used it to move to Houston when I separated. I did all the body work, paint and lettering. Designed a custom oak dash and wooden overhead console for the cb radio and some map lights. Very comfortable traveling van with one short fall. No air conditioning. Had to sell it about a year after I got to Houston. You can’t live without ac in Houston. My CB handle was “Slider”. Everyone called me Slider. No one from the van club showed up yo my wedding.  The next week I asked why. When they got the invitation it had my real name and they didn’t know who that was.

Great story, GS!

[Walks_At_Night]

When I was in the air force at Plattsburgh AFB, a van club, the Adirondack ShowVanIsts met at the mister donut. I ordered a 1977 dodge van and joined them. All the van had was the two stock seats up front. I scrounged screws and rivets from the flight line, and designed a custom interior centered around the sound system and the double bed in the rear. The waitress at mister donut was cute. I married her. We went everywhere in that van. All through New England, down the east coast to Florida for a honeymoon, moved to Omaha where we joined the Omaha trucking co.  Went to rock mountain national park, vail, denver, all over Nebraska and Iowa. A trip back to NY for the 80 Olympics. Drove it to Biloxi, MS for an air force tech school and held parties on panama beach and Ft Walton beach every weekend during that summer. Drove it down to KC for a Oilers football game and finally used it to move to Houston when I separated. I did all the body work, paint and lettering. Designed a custom oak dash and wooden overhead console for the cb radio and some map lights. Very comfortable traveling van with one short fall. No air conditioning. Had to sell it about a year after I got to Houston. You can’t live without ac in Houston. My CB handle was “Slider”. Everyone called me Slider. No one from the van club showed up yo my wedding.  The next week I asked why. When they got the invitation it had my real name and they didn’t know who that was.

@GravitySucks

So if I am reading this right, you drilled the chick that worked down at the Mister Donut?


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[GravitySucks]

@GravitySucks

So if I am reading this right, you drilled the chick that worked down at the Mister Donut?


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Not as often or as long as I would have liked, but yeah.

[21st Century Man]

Not as often or as long as I would have liked, but yeah.

Yeah, it's rough when all the corporates give you is an hour long break.  It took me 25 minutes to get there and 25 to drive back.

[albrecht]

When I was in the air force at Plattsburgh AFB, a van club, the Adirondack ShowVanIsts met at the mister donut. I ordered a 1977 dodge van and joined them. All the van had was the two stock seats up front. I scrounged screws and rivets from the flight line, and designed a custom interior centered around the sound system and the double bed in the rear. The waitress at mister donut was cute. I married her. We went everywhere in that van. All through New England, down the east coast to Florida for a honeymoon, moved to Omaha where we joined the Omaha trucking co.  Went to rock mountain national park, vail, denver, all over Nebraska and Iowa. A trip back to NY for the 80 Olympics. Drove it to Biloxi, MS for an air force tech school and held parties on panama beach and Ft Walton beach every weekend during that summer. Drove it down to KC for a Oilers football game and finally used it to move to Houston when I separated. I did all the body work, paint and lettering. Designed a custom oak dash and wooden overhead console for the cb radio and some map lights. Very comfortable traveling van with one short fall. No air conditioning. Had to sell it about a year after I got to Houston. You can’t live without ac in Houston. My CB handle was “Slider”. Everyone called me Slider. No one from the van club showed up yo my wedding.  The next week I asked why. When they got the invitation it had my real name and they didn’t know who that was.

Nice van!! Ok without  in Mississippi and FLA but finally in Houston you needed A/C? I would've thought A/C was needed in those areas also though I knew a lady who grew up outside Philadelphia (no PA but place of infamous race murders) who grew up with no A/C and never used the A/C here in TX even in the summer. Crazy.

[Walks_At_Night]

Nice van!! Ok without  in Mississippi and FLA but finally in Houston you needed A/C? I would've thought A/C was needed in those areas also though I knew a lady who grew up outside Philadelphia (no PA but place of infamous race murders) who grew up with no A/C and never used the A/C here in TX even in the summer. Crazy.

Pffft..     Screw the van dude.  Let's hear more tales of debauchery down at the Mr. Donut!

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