1. from my birth to my 19th Birthday, I lived in one place -544 Byrd, Wichita, KS.
2. From Kindergarten to the ninth grade I attended Minneha elementary and Junior High.
3. As a kid, my only thought was to graduate from High School. I figured that I would be a Beech Crafter and build/work on planes. 544 Byrd was only a block north of gate number 1 at Beech. My backyard ended where the parking lot started.
4. Of the 7 close friends from High School, only three of us are still alive. In spite of being right in the middle of the Vietnam War, none of us were killed in the War even though most of us served there. RIP John, Whitney, Wayne and Dennis L.
5. I started at Wichita State in the fall of 1965. I didn't graduate from KU until 1975. I think that's how long I attended Minneha.
6. ROTC was mandatory at Wichita State and it would have given me a deferment from the Draft but I didn't ask for one.
7. I entered the Army as a Draftee and just under a year later after Officer Candidate School was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant. 30 Years later, I was retired as a Colonel after serving in the Active Army, the Army reserves and finally the National Guard.
8. I have disassembled and reassembled a 57 Chevy down to the bare body on the frame. I am pretty sure I know where every bolt, nut and screw is on a 2 door hardtop Belair from 1957.
I have taken a 53 Chevy Pick-up clear down to the frame and back.
9. In spite of my love of flying and aircraft, I turned down flight school while in OCS. The application said Rotary Wing Aircraft and there is just no way I wanted to fly one of those helicopters. Yes, I wound up in Vietnam as a Forward Observer out in the mud the blood and the fear with the grunts.
10. In this age of disposable marriages, I have been married 42 + years. The only reason Barb wasn't my first girl friend is that we didn't meet until I was stationed in California in 1967.
11. I had no clue how well off we would be in retirement. Having been poor for the first 20 years of our lives, we just saved and tried to stay out of Debt.
12. For about 3 years, Barb and I owned a Mobile home that was 38 feet long from tongue to taillights. You had to go outside to change your mind. The bed filled the bedroom from the edge of the room to edge of the room. We couldn't have been much happier or busier.
13. For most of my adult life, I have owned a Chevy in some form or another. Heck, I even owned GM stock. Not so much anymore.
14. Rather than hire someone to do a job for me, I would rather buy the tools and do it myself. There isn't much I can't or haven't done.
15. For the first half of my life, I would rather learn a new way of doing things than doing it over and over and now I don't want to learn much in the way of new things.
MUD
That's quite a list, MUD. But, if that's as "weird" as it gets, I reckon you're living on the sane side of the fence.
ReplyDelete