For Old Guys Only

[Chaz]

One year for christmas my nutty uncle gave us boys a proper adult hunting knife with a 6 or 7 inch blade honed to razor sharp. We were 7, 9. and 11 years old. One knife for us to "share". Imagine three feisty boys yelling "it's my turn, no, it's mine" and all grabbing at the knife. Nobody got stabbed but we quickly learned how sharp it was.

 

[2door]

old tonka trucks go for serious money http://www.ebay.com/itm/1957-Tonka-...898553?hash=item2a5d79eef9:g:ixwAAOSwFnFWDtyN
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1955-TONKA-...621521?hash=item51c727be11:g:b7wAAOSwg3FUcPAK

Holy sheet! If I had all the Tonka trucks I had as a kid I could sell them and retire...oh wait, I am retired.

Seriously, I had a bunch. I would get them for Christmas and birthdays and sometimes just for being a good boy. I had dump trucks, pickups, a firetruck that would squirt water, a front-end loader, a road grader and a couple of farm tractors. I also had a semi-tanker and a car hauler, with four cars.
After some time and they started to show signs of wear and tear, my Dad painted them all bright yellow and hand lettered them with my name and the words, 'Construction Company'.

I have no idea where they went, or when. Wish I had them today.

Tom

 

[Ludwig II]

Plastic kits, for me and my brothers it was mostly aircraft, that taught us fabrication techniques with solvent adhesives and primed us for modern methods of construction.

A strange thing; I was in a motorcycle club, and one winter's evening there was a modelling night, people were encouraged to bring in whatever they'd got lying around.

I took in this Revell kit Zeke floatplane on a metal stand. The model had the tip floats removed, all detail was filled and sanded and the whole plane was painted a carefully blended silver/aluminium. It looked like a solid casting, and drew respectful comments. On finding out it was "only plastic", the interest fell rapidly. Now that's strange to me. It took imagination, skill and execution to get the result and it didn't look any worse after the revelation than it did before. Ain't people odd?

 

[2door]

Not asking for sympathy here guys, just understanding. I just got word that a childhood friend has passed. Or as George Carlin would have said, "He, moved on."

Jerry and I were closer than brothers during our early years and into our early teens. We lived hot rods and spent hours building plastic model cars, AMT was our favorites. We were the same age and got our driver's license at the same time. Many many hours we spent together. So long ago. So many memories.

Jerry went for the Navy, me to the Air Force, and both were in Vietnam together and met over there twice.
I saw him last in the summer of 08. I drove my hot rod on a cross country trip and Jerry and I relived a few hours cruising the old city in a hot rod like we had done when we were in our teens. I'm so thankful for those few hours we were together again.

If you have old friends who you haven't seen or talked to in a while, take the time to get in touch with them. You never know when they might not be there. You won't be sorry you did.

Rest in my brother. Loved you Jer.

Tom

 

[Allen_Wrench]

I was reading that the sponsor wasn't really happy with the film when they first saw it and said out loud that it was too slow and would soon be forgotten. One animator stood up and said they were wrong and it would be here a hundred years from now.

It's half way there now.

Steve.

That animator may be proved right. My daughters have all seen it and they ask for it every year now. Sometimes several times in December. They know other kids in school who've watched it. And it does appear on some of the Dish channels sometimes. It's become a classic that will likely be shown alongside "It's a Wonderful Life", "Miracle on 34th Street", and several others for (hopefully) many more years to come. This time of year, some channel or other is always playing the classics and they aren't too hard to find.

 

[KCvale]

About old friends...

My best friend though 8th grade Tony was back in town for a day earlier this year, and it was amazing how our memories of the same event in the early 70's have changed.

My best friend ever since high school Cole was here, as was my 21 year old helper Joe.

Tony has a pretty UN-adventurse like since grade school, including a stent in the seminary, and he was saying almost all his life long adventure memories he talks about were of us and our exploits.

We were all laughing so hard as Tony and Cole talked about or exploits spanning decades I thought Joe's head would explode.

Seems the consensus was I was the crazy fun guy you always wanted be around and talked about.
Funny, I just thought that was normal, that explains a few things ;-}

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

Sorry to hear of your friends moving on Tom.

All good things must end.

The memories live on.

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

Yea a couple years back I went to the Pacific Coast Dream Machine with a friend and had fun times looking at Land Speed Racer, Motorcycles, Cars etc. Things change and some are not with us, but except in spirit!

Sometimes I think back a feel you could do more in retrospect, so makes you think, really.

MT

 

[KCvale]

I need a 'secondary storage' of my memories ;-}

 

[Ludwig II]

I had a day out today, helping Doug Pinkerton move his family's museum collection of bicycles into storage. My back's a bit sore and I'm off to bed soon, but tomorrow I'll post some pics of the sorts of bikes/trikes they have. I promise that some of them will be loved.

 

[Ludwig II]

I had a go on one of these for a very short distance. It was entertaining and rather strange.

There's one of these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48TdMKCOrmo

A Mr JP Sartre, one time military meteorologist on a Petit Bi folder.

There was even an American made Boneshaker with a built in sprung saddle.

And if you need to rent an ancient bicycle:

http://pinkertonclassiccycles.co.uk/

 

[Ludwig II]

And one of these Spartas. Heavy as sin, but possibly a basis for for fitting an engine.

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

With the tube being large enough, just take a mold and cast and engine block to be part of it. I have known that the tubes are thinned at the middle and thicker where they connect with other tubes where welded, but this looks like the weight of those old fold up Raleigh bikes.

 

[Ludwig II]

That one is heavy. I think it weighs more than the Motobecane frame that was my donor did, and that was intended for an engine and had tele forks.

There was one bike I wanted to try but the tyres were dead, it was a German device with foot levers pulling cables to operate a pair of ratchets in the back hub. Each lever had 3 foot rests on it, so you could hve different drive ratios.

Found it.

 

[fasteddy]

We were sitting around the living room last night and the subject of New Years Resolutions came up. I hate this subject with a passion but thought of a few things I could try and do.

Then I remembered, "No one really admires a quitter."

That was close.

Steve.

 

[fasteddy]

Ludwig,

What a great chance to see all those bikes. To be able to try one would have been fantastic.

Steve.

 

[Ludwig II]

The lever bike is a J-Rad. It was made in Germany for Paul Jaray, the streamliner car pioneer.

 

[xseler]

We were sitting around the living room last night and the subject of New Years Resolutions came up. I hate this subject with a passion but thought of a few things I could try and do.

Then I remembered, "No one really admires a quitter."

That was close.

Steve.

I made the resolution several years ago to "not make any more resolutions"........ So far, so good.

 

[2door]

I submit that most New Year resolutions are made under the influence of alcohol and therefore should be ignored and/or forgotten. I'm with xseler, I don't make them.


Another thought: The term, "dropping the ball" is usually applied to a failure of some description.

How come we celebrate the new year by, 'dropping a ball' ?


Tom

 

[fasteddy]

Ludwig,

The J-Rad was a one off bike? Any idea how the bike worked even though you didn't get a chance to try it?

Steve.