27 May 09 07:50, Roger Nelson wrote to Roy Witt:


 RW>> If they still exist, my brother would have them. We're not on
 RW>> speaking terms.

 RN> It was that way between my brother and I almost to the end of his
 RN> days.

Mine had a stroke about a year ago. I saw him sucking on a cigarette as I
passed him on the porch of the funeral home for the viewing of my mother
last September. In passing I asked, 'are you still sucking on those
things?' He replied to me; 'what's it to ya?' and I said, 'not much, but
don't expect me to attend YOUR funeral.'

 RW>> With the competition here in SA among Chevy dealers, I doubt that
 RW>> anyone in SA would be making any less than ya'll there in NO. If
 RW>> they paid a man lower than somewhere else, he's going to go there
 RW>> looking for work.

 RN> I doubt it was that bad 30 years ago.  The Benson organization came
 RN> in here and the gossip is that some jaws dropped when they saw the
 RN> salaries some of us were pulling down.  Hey!  We EARNED that making
 RN> our dealership the best in the city, but evidently that wasn't
 RN> factored in by the new owner. Anyway, the speech we received about
 RN> "starting over" stung all of us.  To go from a two week vacation to
 RN> one week is bad enough, but if your vacation was a month away, you
 RN> didn't get it -- you had to wait until next year.

I would have quit then and called the state in on it. There has to be law
against such practices.

 RW>> As long as you folks line his pockets with gold without end,
 RW>> probably not.

 RN> I used to get season tickets to watch a losing team in the early
 RN> Seventies. When Benson bought the team, that was the end of me going
 RN> to the Superdome. Personally, I enjoyed the games much more when they
 RN> were outdoors at Tulane Stadium (my favorite U), sometimes known as
 RN> the Sugar Bowl.  See:

Seen the college games there on TV.

 RN> http://www.stadiumsofnfl.com/past/TulaneStadium.htm

 RW>> We do things like that. He's leaving home and needs a computer for
 RW>> after hours to browze the internet. I have and older one that I
 RW>> don't need, so it's his.

 RN> I used to have deals like that, but since I've been away from here
 RN> for 10 years, it's difficult to get them again, particularly because
 RN> I've outlived most of those guys and have a distrust for the younger
 RN> ones.

Harry is in his mid-40s...

 RW>> I think there are other people named Benson besides him.

 RN> Of course.

 RW>> RN> I noticed the Chevy dealer here is adding a section to the front
 RW>> of
 RW>> RN> his building.  GM is probably financing it with taxpayer money.

 RW>> Could be.

 RN> I mentioned that to someone yesterday and he agreed.

Better get it done soon, GM is being forced into chapter 11, if not this
week, definately on Monday.

 RW>> When I was 16, I worked in a dairy. I've been a soda jerk and have
 RW>> sold 5 gallons of ice cream for $5 plus tax, total $5.25 in those
 RW>> days. $5 won't even get you a half gallon these days. Every other
 RW>> Sunday, I worked the morning shift by myself. By afternoon, I
 RW>> already had my fair share of ice cream.

 RN> I didn't work in a dairy, but I did work a soda fountain at one time
 RN> and did all sorts of things.  One of the simplest things I made was
 RN> simple syrup and I can't remember how to do that anymore.  (-: At the
 RN> time I was buying those 5-quart buckets of ice cream, the price was
 RN> $4.87+tax.

Simple syrup is just sugar water. 1 part water to 1 part sugar can be used
to make summer beverages, even iced tea, although that would be too sweet
for me.

 RW>> Late model trucks have the spare mounted on the end of a cable that
 RW>> you use the screw jack handle to lower.

 RN> I hope I don't get one of those, although I would like to own a truck
 RN> again.

All of them are basically alike. GM, Ford and Dodge all have a bottle jack
in the cab somewhere along with the jack handle. The access to the spare
is through a special hole in the rear bumper (GM trucks require the
igniton key to access), which has a tube used as a guide leading to the
winch that lowers the spare. The lug wrench has a special cut-out in it so
you can latch onto the cable and pull the spare out from under the
vehicle. Once it's within reach, you can pull it out from under and stand
it up next to the rear bumper, where you can access the do-dad that holds
the wheel to the cable and detach it. If you're smart, you leave that end
piece and cable laying within reach, so you can put it on the flat tire
wheel and pull it back up with the winch. Even a petite woman can do it
with a bit of effort.

 RW>> Putting the flat tire in the place of the spare wasn't allowed by
 RW>> the company I worked for; it had to be placed in the bed.

 RN> That makes sense.  In the bed, you knew something was wrong with it
 RN> and under the bed you'd forget about it.

Kinda tough to forget that you had a flat and changed it out yourself. :o)

 RW>> Lifting a heavy wheel and tire into the bed is more work than
 RW>> putting it where the spare came from.

 RN> Hmn, I don't know if I can agree with that, but I haven't tried it.

Trust me, I've been there.

 RW>> If it had air in it, it could be bounced into the bed, but then,
 RW>> being flat is why it's not on the ground anymore.

 RN> (-:

 RW>> The way I did it was to place the tire in front of my right leg and
 RW>> using my leg and my hands, threw it onto the tailgate. I learned
 RW>> that technique while visiting my cousin on the farm. He used that
 RW>> method to put full 10 or 12gal milk cans into the cooler.

 RN> That's the way I did it, too, sans the milk cans.

He never let me try that more than once. I didn't get the can in the
cooler and so he had to do it.

 RW>> Would they freeze in Lousiana?

 RN> It has been known to get below freezing in winter here.  I recall
 RN> when I moved to Mandeville in 1995 and lived in an apartment complex
 RN> by the yacht harbor. I was glad the complex I lived in had fireplaces
 RN> in all of its apartments.  It was my first winter there when I hopped
 RN> into my truck and drove about gathering kindling -- that parish
 RN> abounds with kindling.  My ears darn near froze off!  I can look it
 RN> up, but I'd hazard a guess that the temp was in the teens and with a
 RN> strong wind coming off the lake, it was not an ideal situation.  I
 RN> had a USMC combat jacket on with the lining, so my torso was kept
 RN> warm, but the exposed parts suffered.

I took my winter clothes to California when I moved there. They got tossed
out as I moved from place to place, not thinking I'd ever need them again.
I saved one winter coat because I knew I'd be visiting Illinois again,
most during the late fall and winter months. Eventually I gained enough
weight that they no longer fit. Two trips ago I had to buy a winter jacket
when I got there, as my CA jacket wasn't at all warm. This past winter, I
bought a nice leather jacket at the Burlington Coat Factory in SA...nice
and cozy here in Texas and will be useful if it's cold when I visit
Illinois again in October.

 RW>> Why didn't the captain move the ship before the shells hit it?

 RN> I don't know if that's a decision he can make without the fleet
 RN> commander's approval.  That said, it takes time to call GQ, get up
 RN> steam, hoist the anchor and get underway.  That doesn't sound like
 RN> much time, but it is, believe me.  In conclusion, he didn't talk
 RN> about it, so I'm only guessing at the decisions to be made.  When you
 RN> don't know both sides of the story, all you can do is guess.  The
 RN> time it would take for that type of ship to get underway is factual,
 RN> though.

So the ship wasn't battle ready and was a sitting duck...

 RW>> It took a while for me to get used to it too. My Camaro has a switch
 RW>> to turn off the 'traction' control, which is a part of the ABS
 RW>> controlled by the PCM. If you brake with full pressure while it's
 RW>> on, the rear end begins to bounce on surfaces that have no traction
 RW>> in the first place and the pedal bounces around. This happens mostly
 RW>> on loose gravel in the center turn lanes. Turning off the traction
 RW>> control gives you more control over the car. The feature I don't
 RW>> like about it is that when traction control is on, the PCM also
 RW>> closes the throttle, so your foot is pushed back by the motor that
 RW>> closes it.

 RN> My Mark VIII has none of that, but it does have a switch mounted on
 RN> the side of the joystick which disables overdrive.

I've driven a Mazda with that feature. The gal who owned it didn't know it
had that feature and it was never in OD, until I showed her the switch.

 RN> It's very sensitive, too, because the slightest touch of it
 RN> disengages the overdrive and if you happen to be on the highway, it
 RN> decreases the gas mileage accordingly (naturally).

Which you can see it do by observing the tach. The Mazda was like that. I
thought 3000 rpm at 65mph was a bit high. That's when I began to inquire
about it.

 RW>> It was a 1962 Thunderbird...the record is still in the books and
 RW>> there's a model of that car. Or at least there used to be a model of
 RW>> it.

 RN> I remember the first time I met Knot.  It was at a dragstrip and he
 RN> was talking to a guy who looked familiar.  I walked up to them and
 RN> recognized him as a guy I worked with by the name of Earl Karl.  Earl
 RN> told me Knot used nothing but Amoco white gas in his T-Bird.  That
 RN> was back in the Fifties. I don't know what that gas is called today.

White gas. White gas is gasoline with no additives. Back in the 50s, they
needed lead and other additives for higher compression automotive engines,
but the additives weren't needed in outboard or lawn mower engines.

 RW>> [many big name drivers had pulled out because the condition of the
 RW>> track was in very bad shape]

 RN> One of the dragster guys I was barely acquainted with, "Q-ball"
 RN> Wales, was killed at a dragstrip in Hammond when his chute failed to
 RN> open and he went off the end of the strip into a heavily populated
 RN> stand of pine trees.

I'll bet that hurt. Back in the 50s I used to race on the same track that
later became known as the home track of Arnie 'The Farmer' Beswick, who
drove Pontiacs and Pontiac powered funny cars into the 60s. That's also
where I watched as 55 Chevys (I was only 15yo) with their new V8 would
consistantly beat the Y-block V8 Fords and those lousy Mopar products of
the time.

 RW>> I also noted on the internet a mention that Knot was/is a sherrif in
 RW>> some parish of LA...

 RN> I'll look into that.  I lost a whopping $2 bowling against a friend
 RN> of mine yesterday.  (-:

A whole $2?!

 RW>> If you put in the coordinates of those islands, you won't need to do
 RW>> any dead reckoning.

 RN> That's putting a lot of faith in batteries.

A GPS has a plug that fits a cigarette lighter socket. If your boat is
running, you GPS will work.

 RW>> As a 'hip' teen, I never wore anything that wasn't cool, even in
 RW>> winter.

 RN> We were very poor, so I wore whatever my mother could afford to buy
 RN> us.

My mother balked at 'Levis', but I appealed to my dad and he told her it
would be OK to buy two pair. Later, I had a paper route, so I could buy
what I wanted. Then I got the job in the dairy and that helped a great
deal. By the time I was 18, I had a job in a local clothing store with an
account to buy on credit.

 RW>> No gloves, no boots, no hats and no ear muffs. Many times I thought
 RW>> my ears would freeze and fall off while walking in those low temps.
 RW>> And for the longest time, after I had moved to CA and made a short
 RW>> visit back there, I could shovel snow in a T-shirt without getting
 RW>> cold. I would even work up a sweat.

 RN> You have pictures of you shovelling snow in a t-shirt and sweating?
 RN> (-:

In my mind. :o)

 RW>> I thought about doing that when 30 years had gone by after our drag
 RW>> racing club disbanded...finding any of them then was more than a
 RW>> chore.

 RN> I suppose we could have run an ad in the newspaper, but we didn't.
 RN> There are two girls I'd especially like to see.  I should have
 RN> narried one if them.

That's what I was going to do.

 RW>> Remove the bulb...On my Camaro there's a shifter lock-out while
 RW>> you're in

 RN> [...]
 RN> I think it would be easier to cut the wire.  It's moot now, because
 RN> I've decided to buy that 2000 Merc GM <-- didn't think I'd be using
 RN> that acronym again, and sell the Mark VIII as is, although it's going
 RN> to depress me to part with it.

You'll get over it when you tool on down the road in that GM...

 RW>> Not because he isn't capable, I'll bet. :o)

 RN> He's very capable.  I'm different than him in that when I tell
 RN> someone I'm going to do something, I do it.  With him, I'd have to
 RN> wait for months.

I hate it when people do that.

 RN> I have a really nice 4.4CF refigerator/freezer in my room for
 RN> convenience. Back in March something went wrong with it and he told
 RN> me not to worry and that he would get a friend to fix it. After a
 RN> month went by with no set date from him when he was going to bring it
 RN> in for the repair, I dragged it out of my room and put it by the
 RN> front door where it still stands.  It isn't important to him, so
 RN> I think as far as he's concerned it is invisible.  So, he's like some
 RN> other guys I know.  They'll give you the shirt off their backs, but
 RN> the question is When?  But there is a lot more to this story.

I've known people like that too. I usually don't ask them a second time.

                R\%/itt

Joy lives in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in
the victory itself.

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