What a Journey

Today at exactly 12:35 PM, I will have completed a trip around the sun. It's no big deal. I've done it before. People that know me know that I have done it more than sixty times.

Looking back, some of my trips have been more memorable than others. I remember as a child my mother getting me a store bought cake from Fuller's Bakery. A chocolate cake sheet cake with white frosting and blue icing. I had to share the cake with my brothers and my dad, but the cake was big enough that I really didn't mind.

I remember getting gifts. Who could forget them? It was usually the same gift every year, socks and underwear. There might have been a toy or a gadget of some kind, I really don't remember, but socks and underwear were guaranteed. Looking back, I'm just thankful the underwear weren't hand-me-downs from my brothers.

My seventeenth trip around the sun is probably my most memorable or was it my fiftieth? Oh well, I'll tell you about both..

My seventeenth started like the sixteen that preceded it. Socks and underwear. It was different because of no brothers. My parents took me alone to dinner. My older brothers were long gone and my younger brothers didn't want to go.

After dinner a friend and I decided to have a party of our own. The night was young we had a car with an eight-track tape deck (loud music), nearly abandoned mountain roads for driving fast and maybe even a couple of beverages that we really shouldn't have. OK, we had beverages.

You see, back in those days I was a pretty good high speed mountain driver. What seventeen-year-old wasn't? No really, I was good..

My friend and I drove about fifty miles into the mountains before it was time to turn around and go home. The moon was full, so we decided the drive would be more fun without headlights. You know what would make it more fun? Put the car in neutral and let the car coast down the hills. Did you know if the hill is steep enough you can coast about seventy miles per hour?

I will never forget my friend saying to me, "Go ahead, you'll make it." Turns out he was wrong. Man that curve in the road was sharp. You can take it from me, when your car is flying off a cliff your life goes into slow-motion. You see everything, especially if you have the benefit of a full moon.

I flew my '67 Chevelle with Cragar S/S wheels off the cliff in slow-motion. Turns out the wheels didn't help. I/we landed on the roof. Maybe the wheels did help. They did touch the ground for short periods as we rolled down the hill.

It was when the action stopped that my friend said, "I thought you had it. My leg is broke. While we were rolling I tried to get out"

I didn't check my watch but I am guessing the rest of the story takes place on August 5th. Obviously, I made it through that special day, as did my friend. Sadly, my '67 Chevelle didn't make it. I'm still sad. Haven't seen my friend in years. I haven't told him I'm blaming him. He told me I'd make it.

My fiftieth is memorable because of the party we had. I didn't have parties as a child attended by friends, only brothers. The GI Joe's I could have received from friends were replaced by socks and underwear from my mom. My cheap (construction language) brothers didn't give gifts.

So, for my fiftieth, Elaine did it big. Thanks babe.

Elaine and I attended a milestone class reunion last Friday night. I should tell stories, maybe next week.

God Bless, Love ya, Buy knitting needles.

Our crazy lives!

Monner