I read earlier all the battery maintainers you employ. I wasn't sure why you were talking about trickle chargers.

 

I have about 6 of these for boats, trains and automobiles

I like this brand

 

I have several of the Battery Tender (manufacturer) models. This one is specifically designed as a charger & maintainer w/ an automatic float charger for motorcycles, ATVs, etc. It isn't "designed" for 12V large CCA batteries.

 

Jim - Where do you store your trains?

 

In a BIG Box that say LIONEL

 

Interesting. I (our family) had a couple complete sets of the American Flyer trains. Each year we'd setup the trains during Thanksgiving - that was always such a treat to look forward to. I loved setting up the trains. I remember the big transformers for each of the train sets and the locomotive oil (which I believe was nothing more than Mom's Singer sewing machine oil) we'd put in the locomotives and they'd billow out smoke.

 

 

Norm, I went to Emory with a gal whose dad was a big dog at Southern Railway. He had his own private car to entertain customer in, Once I got invited to go, Pretty cool alas she married another rich guy but we still stay in touch when she feels like slumming.

Emory was loaded with rich gals Sally Ribovich [ of the yacht makers] and of course the famous Barbara Jane Mackle [ who was really skinny] I guess getting buried in a box for a few day makes ya loose weight

I grand father always said, " If you marry a rich girl you're going to be working 24 hours a day". I took his advice

 

What amazes me the most about those old trains set was how you get get them going so fast they would de rail and hit our basement concrete floor 3 feet down from the table We'd just pick them up and set them back on the track and try to derail them again

Kinda like the Tonka Toy truck my dad drove over in the driveway and it hurt his car more than the Tonka Toy


They just don't make them like they used tp

 

Jim - I vaguely recall the story of Barbara Mackle (1968, I was a H.S. junior). I remember hearing later news about the wack job Gary Krist in later years only because he made the news a couple times and went on to become a physician in some state.

 

I recall some of my friends had Lionel train sets. The America Flyer railroad cars and locomotives were huge pieces but so were the tracks. I recall during my formative years owning various sets of toys. We'd basically build our own mountains and terrain out of an erector set, and those wood building blocks which I can't remember the name of right now - they were red wooden blocks - you could erect buildings & such w/ them. What were those called? Anyways, we took over every inch of the basement and all available tables from Thanksgiving to New Years.

Yeah, Tonka toys. I had a few of those. They were solid pieces of steel.

 

At some point we got race cars and race tracks and that became a huge past time - trading race cars w/ friends, etc. I recall constructing race tracks (if you had enough track) we made tracks that would go over the train tracks and have both running at the same time. There was a time when myself & my brother created some jumps by removing race car tracks and having a contest to see who could create the best jumps and land correctly.

 

This is what’s been connected to the Cutlass and there’s a second one that’s been connected to the Jeep. Both in use for around 10 years now.

 

And speaking of trains.







The upper picture is plastic locomotive and cars. The lower one is all metal pieces.

 

 

My brother and I had a few train sets, but we enjoyed the slot car tracks much more. We had the larger cars first, I believe they were 1:24 scale, and eventually the HO scale cars. There were several boys about my age in the neighborhood and we would race those HO scale cars for hours on end. One thing we really enjoyed also were the *** gas powered planes, the pre-RC ones that you could only fly in a circle on a tether. The tether system also controlled the wing flaps for lift off and landing. Had one modeled after a P-40 Warhawk and one of a Messerschmidt 109. They were finicky to start and not easy to fly, but fun once you got the hang of it.

 

Chris, I'm betting your brother with the trains was older. Slot cars came along later. The guy that lived across the hall from me [still a good friend] at Oxford had a slot car set in his room. We set up a 24 hour Lemans race and somehow blew a fuse in the dorm. Some people were NOT happy in the dark

This same friend now has a Super Snake and drives it at Road Atlanta [along with his Miata] His Dad owned a bakery in South Beach and he never buys any bread. He came up to the lake and taught me how to make bagels BUT he's famous for his sour dough raisin bread that makes awesome French toast He's a GREAT baker

He came make Challah bread blind folded

 

I watched 'The Dirty Dozen' (1967) last night, which I haven't seen in many years. It's still entertaining - recalling the careers of the actors.

 

Norm, GREAT flick I love watching Jimmy Brown running and throwing grenades down the air shafts

 

Jim - it was during this time period I began following Donald Sutherland. I can't recall if The Dirty Dozen (1967) was the first film I had seen w/ Donald Sutherland or if it was Castle of The Living Dead (1965). Castle of The Living Dead was directed by Warren Kiefer. It is no coincidence Donald named his son Kiefer (for several reasons). I doubt many have seen Castle of The Living Dead. For me it was the dawn of the Day of the Living Dead, Night of the Living Dead, etc., etc. I recall I was in my teenage years when I first saw Castle of The Living Dead.

 

Norm, I'm afraid we don't share the same taste in "some movies" I don't particularly care for horror movies or alien movies. Yet, I enjoyed the X files and some old stupid movie where Nelson Eddy singing cause the Martians heads to explode

I love Donald Sutherland in Kelly's Heros

 

Jim - My only brother was 3-years younger than me. Time frame I was speaking of was around '65 to '75, both train sets and slot car sets were readily available then. My brother and I were close enough in age that we shared many of our more expensive toys like train sets and the race car tracks.

Cool you are still good friends with your buddy from college that had the slot car set. Curious when you say "he never buys any bread"? Was/is that because he gets the bread free from the bakery still, or because he was around it so much as a child that he really doesn't care for it? My Mom worked for Kelloggs, she got free cereal and that's about all we ever had at the breakfast table. I got so sick of eating cereal I steered clear of it for many years after leaving home, but I'll eat it now.

 

I love most of the older films about WWII. My favorites are "The Great Escape" and "The Battle of the Bulge", both had great casts.

 

Chris, Its because he always bakes his own

My favorite is "A Bridge too Far"

 

Jim - Thanks. Yep, "A Bridge too Far" is certainly another great one.

 

Last time I was in De Netherlands I drove the road all the way to Arnhem Bridge [ it wasn't the original bridge It looks just like the movie and was not the brightest idea to send all of your tanks up a single road

I actually met an RAF pilot from Scotland Mac McKenzie [trained in Albany Ga and married a gal from Camilla]who flew a Hurricane during operation Market Garden. Naturally he had no idea WTF was going on. His orders changed from "Bomb the bridge to don't bomb the bridge several time" When he was flying home he said, they had to make a GIANT detour because of the [ unknown to him at the time] Armada of planes and gliders bring the soldiers across the English channel;

 

Jim - That is a very interesting story, thanks for telling it! I was only close to one person who actually participated in WWII. My Grandpa's (on Dad's side) older brother (Bill) was a Sergeant in the 101st Airborne, and was one of the paratroopers who went in behind enemy lines on D-day. His unit was dropped into a heavily occupied area and encountered heavy machine gun fire on the way down, it was estimated only 50% reached the ground alive. He was hit 5 times and totally incapacitated by the time he got down. He survived by playing dead for almost 24-hours before help got to him. He got total disability and never worked a real job again. He was far from totally disabled though, he built and raced stock cars at local tracks throughout southern Michigan, and northern Indiana. My Dad would often take us to Galesburg Speedway (I'm sure the Michigan guys will know this track) when he was racing there.

Although not in the military, both my Grandpa's worked as skilled machinists at Oak Ridge during WWII. Although they didn't know it at the time, they both realized later they were working on prototypes of, and the actual, atomic bombs.

 

Cleaning the shop today. Dumped out my bolt bins and re-organized. Anyway. Found a stack of papers in a file cabinet. Been saving these photos. A friend of mine. Around 95-97. Made a left hand turn from a stop sign. Single car accident I think she told me it was a celica.

 

Negative waves, man.

 

Hi everyone.

Got Mom to the doctor today and surprise of all surprises, today's doctor said the other doctor didn't know what he was doing and prescribed medicine that didn't do anything. So now we have a totally new plan. It also might hinder the surgery scheduled for next week, she's waiting to hear from them.

Jamesbo I had to look up Barbara Jane Mackle. Never heard of her. Glad she was found, sounds like an incredible person, being so positive and not going crazy. Is she still around?

I've had several sets of HO trains over the years. Had a Lionel set for a while, don't remember what happened to it. My friend had an American Flyer that was on about it's third generation. Don't know if he still has it. I wish I had a place to set up a train set, I've got quite a few pieces that would be fun to mess with. We had a couple slot car tracks but they didn't seem to get used as much as the trains.

Matt that looks like a Toyota Cressida. It's in the Chevy Vega Being Shipped position.

Was raining all night and this morning, but now the sun is out. Too muddy to mess with the car over at the shop, so I guess I'll putter around Mom's. Happy Monday everyone.

 

Matt - That's absolutely crazy!. I've been staring at the pics, and can't for the life of me picture how the car got like that from your description (single car accident)??? Did she drive off off a wall to get the car on its nose like that???

 

Mike, I think she was from Palm Beach and went home after she left Emory. Haven't seen her since 1970. i really didn't know her I just knew who she was and saw her occassionally in the "B' School stairwells

Chris, I think I've got a few years on you. All [or most] of my dad's generation served during WW ll, On Saturdays, when they did yard work, you could tell what branch they served in Blue dungarees = Navy, Khakis= Army, OD =marines

 

What she remembers is the back wheel was wrapped up in a guy wire. Also the car was still running when the tow truck showed up. Tow truck driver shut it off and then pulled it over o to its roof crushing it

I’ve been to the intersection for the purpose of understanding what happened …. It did not help.

 

I have some HO trains in a box in my basement.

 

Mike - I recall the very first time I saw Vegas packed in R.R. Vert-A-Pac shipping containers & thought how bizarre. Then, I began seeing many of them every week. They were all built in Ohio and large numbers of train cars brought them to Janesville Auto Transport Co. (JATCO) in Janesville, WI. Interestingly JATCO was bought (by National City Lines) the same year (1970) they first released the Cosworth. It took them quite some time to change the JATCO tractor diesel rigs because they remained Janesville Auto Transport Co. well into the early 1970s.

 

I pretty much like all Donald Sutherland movies.

 

My favorite science fiction horror movies:

It! The Terror from Beyond Space
The Blob (1st time I saw Steve McQueen in a movie)
Creature from the Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature & The Creature Walks Among Us
THEM
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
The Beast from Space
Day the World Ended

and, any of the many Bela Lugosi &/or Boris Karloff movies.

 

Norm, I do too He was also great in 'a time to kill" He did a great job of an alcoholic ex lawyer

 

A lot of good WWII movies out there, one I like from the modern era is "Fury" with Brad Pitt. The series "Band of Brothers" is very good as well. I can plop down and watch any number of WWII movies from the 60's & 70's. Went to the theater by myself when Tora, Tora, Tora came out. 1971-72? I was in the 8th or ninth grade. Had a small train set when i was around 6-7 years old, not sure what happened to it. We always had slot cars starting in the mid 60's, 1/32 scale mostly. There used to be a slot car track place near me around 1966-70ish. They had different tracks set up that you could run on for a fee. A huge 1/24 scale, eight lane track, plus a couple of shorter ones, and a track for 1/32, which I used to use, with my blue Chaparral, and a H/O track. They sold cars, brushes, soft compound tires, etc. My buddies cousins worked at the Janeville, Wisc. Chevy plant, one of them drove a red '69 GTO RAIII four speed, that he told me about, they used to go there to visit back in the day. I think that it imprinted on him as he will bring it up from time to time. "Mars Attacks" with Jack Nicholson. I thnk that Slim Whitman sang the song in the movie. The movie bombed at the box office as "Independence Day" came out at about the same time.

 

Awesome movie