HUNTINGTON SWIM TRIP

As we go through life we are blessed with meeting thousands of people.

If we are truly blessed we will call many of these people our friends.

Life deposits these friends all over the world and we rarely see these folks again. In a very few isolated instants we are fortunate enough to be reunited with these fine people. This is true of Andrew and me. I was lucky enough to have this happen to me a second time in my life. That story is as follows.

When Ed and I were younger Mom and Dad would take us to Huntington Beach to go swimming in Lake Erie. Edgewater beach was closer but was always more crowded, so we would venture up to Bay Village (Gas was cheap then) to go swimming. On this particular day Ed and I invited a couple of our friends along I invited Wade and Ed invited Frank. We had the usual great time including a lesson in unlocking a car with a windshield wiper. (Dad accidentally locked his keys in the trunk and Wade crawled through the back seat to the trunk to get to the keys.)

Many years later I became employed at E.T.I where Wade was instrumental in my getting hired. He started to tell me the names and positions of my new colleagues and he mentioned Frank's name. I reminded him of our swim trip.

He assured me that it could not be him because there was no resemblance.

After meeting with Frank, he also remembered the swim trip. Wade and Frank had worked together for a number of years and never realized that they had met before. In both of their defenses they both had changed a great deal since their first meeting, in fact I didn't recognize Frank at first either. Frank had lost a lot of weight and Wade had been working out and looked less like Gandhi and more like Atlas.

Upon making the connections we went on to reflect on the trip and the good time we had. I'm glad I was able to be there to see the expressions on each of their faces as they realized the irony.

UNCLE JOE BICKEL

Some of my earliest memories include Uncle Joe and Aunt Elsie,
Uncle Joe and Aunt Elsie, Dads Aunt and Uncle, lived in Birmingham Ohio (The
original location of Dick Goddard, local weatherman’s, “Wooly Bear”
Festival.). Dad, in his youth, worked for Uncle Joe. Uncle Joe seemed to be
a “Jack of all trades” but his primary vocation was Sheet Metal. Uncle Joe
was in business with one of his in-laws to form Howe & Bickel .Howe & Bickel
did a lot of work on orchard sprayers due to the many orchards in the area,
this is where Dad forged his craft as a mechanic. Uncle Joe did a lot of
furnace work and had many metal work machines in his shop next door to his
house. He had various sheet metal brakes and benders not to mention many
cool tools. On the second floor of the shop there was a sleigh which Uncle
Joe said he used in the winter while the buggy parked against the one wall
of the shop was used in the more pleasant weather. The Horse that pulled
these conveyances was housed in a small barn next to the garage. Ed and I
saw the horse only once; Dad lifted us up so that we could see over the
lower half of the door to the barn.

Aunt Elsie when we visited would make us a special treat of a kind of
caramel corn only instead of caramel it was kind of candy coating made from
(If I remember correctly.) Jell-O, it was a very special treat. While in the
kitchen over in the breakfast nook was a collection of bells. There were cow
bells and sleigh bells of all types, shapes and sizes. Uncle Joe was
actually the subject of an article in the local paper. Uncle Joe, being the
sheet metal man that he was, made us a copper bell which I still have today.
Uncle Joe and Aunt Elsie didn’t have any children so their house was like a
museum. I remember Mom telling us every time we went there to be polite and
act like little gentle men. Upon arrival we were as disciplined as the
guards at Buckingham Palace, even while sitting and listen to the adults
boring conversations .Keep in mind there were no kids videos or “Game Boys”
at that time, so we sat quietly. The “Torture” was all worth it because we
could see all of the cool things and be treated by Aunt Elsie’s special
candy corn.

MR. R.

I first met Mr. Eugene Ruszkowski at Charles A Mooney Jr. High. as a 7^th Grader. He was a giant of a man (from a little 7^th graders perspective) we were told that he once played football for the Cleveland Rams before they became the Los Angeles Rams.

His homeroom adjoined ours and was also an Art room.

Our homeroom teacher specialized in the still life and abstract. Mr. “R” in the live ACTION and REAL LIFE works. Mr. “R” had a number of football action drawings and use to tell us that to him watching football was like watching a ballet.

One day during 8^th grade I was in the Auditorium Study Hall and I ran out of things to do. Hoping that “Mr. R” wouldn’t notice he calls out, “Bickel, Come down here.” That was the scariest time of my Jr. High life, since Mr. “R” was known as a strict disciplinarian; I thought I was in for it. Instead I was pleasantly surprised when he asked me to work for him during that period. From that time until I went to James Ford Rhodes High School I worked for Mr. “R” cleaning prepping and sweeping for Mr. “R”.

After graduating to Rhodes My brother Ed followed in my footsteps at Mooney. Ed got Mr. “R” for homeroom. On the first day of class Mr. “R” asked Ed if he was Norm’s brother when he said that he was Mr. “R” said, ”You’re working for me. ”When Ed came home that night he told me what happened. I laughed and he said sarcastically “Thanks”. Through it all we were both glad we had the opportunity to know and become friends with Mr. “R”.

NEVER SAY NEVER

When we all left High School we may not have said it but I’m sure we all thought it, “No more pencils, no more books, and no more teachers’ dirty looks.”

I also thought I would probably never see any of my teachers again, not that had a bad relationship with any of them, but I figured that was just how it was.

Surprise! I saw four of them in the years since that day in June 1972.

The first was My Physical Education teacher from Junior High, Mr. Sovey, in a fast food establishment when my Father-in-Law passed away. I did not get a chance to speak with him but it was good to see him. The second was my Junior High Math teacher Mr. Gealek. My son and I were walking to our car after an Indians night game when we saw him. I was able to have a nice chat with him on the way to our cars. Thirdly, I happened to run into Mr. Hobart, one of my Junior High School Shop teachers one morning with my wife while we were having breakfast at a local Bagel joint. It was interesting to find out from him that the three Shop teachers still hung out together. If you were expecting a kicker, here it is. I have been working at Rockwell Automation for a little over three years now and I happened to meet a younger gentleman whose last name is Plumlee, he had a familiar face though I had never met him before. I found out he was from the Westside and was a Charles A. Mooney Jr. High graduate and a James Ford Rhodes High School Graduate as I was. Plumlee not being an extremely common name, I remarked to him that the last Plumlee I met was another Junior High Shop teacher and was he related. He replied that he was Dan Plumlee Jr. my shop teacher’s son. Not only was he my teacher’s son but his Grandparents (his dads folks) lived across the street from my Great Aunt yet we never met as kids.

The Junior High teacher that I saved until last is the one that I have the most regard for that would be Mr. Ruszkowski, “Mr. R”, who I will expound on at another time. I actually had a chance to speak to him shortly after High School Graduation while I was attending Electronic Technology Institute. during one of my later terms. He was umpiring a twinight softball game that Ed was playing. It seemed to me that Mr. R looked as though he had been quite ill, in great contrast to the last time I saw him in school. I later found out that he had passed away from Cancer.

How surprised I was each of the times when I saw these teachers whom I thought were strictly in my past had shown up at later times in my life.

FIRST LOVE, CARS!

We all remember our firsts, our first two wheelers our first girl friends and our first homes. I’m sure that if you ask any male about his first love he will say it was his first car, because it represented his “coming of age” and his independence.

Growing up as a 50’s kid and having a Dad in the auto repair business, I was privileged to get acquainted with a great many cars. This where my

gear-head background starts.

Due to “the accident” I went towards the “BIG” cars and since Dad was a GM guy, Ed and I automatically became GM guys too. My first car was as many guys’ first cars were a pre-owned (USED) car. It was a 1970 Chevy Monte Carlo. It had a 350 cu. in. V-8 4bbl. carb engine with a shift on the column, which was somewhat unique to that model. It also was one of the first factory issued vinyl tops and rear window defogger (a fan mounted beneath the package deck with a grate over it. It had a metallic green paint job with a black vinyl top which I found out later that was dark green.

Ed took over the family car when his time came. It also was green and had a 325cu.in. V-8 2bbl carb. When he eventually traded it in and came home with a BRAND NEW 1977 Firebird, the new car bug bit. Ed’s Firebird was a beautiful dark brown with a Doe skin interior and again with a “Big” V-8.

Since I liked Moms first car a 1954 Olds Ninety Eight, I bought a 1977 Olds

Delta 88 coupe. It was again green with a 350 4bbl and to quote “Tim the Tool-man Taylor it had “MORE POWER”. I had the ’77 until I got married at which time I bought a 1985 Delta same big “350” that I kept until Mom passed away and I inherited Moms 1984 Delta. My next car was a complete turn around since I was now looking at an economy car. I found myself in a Toyota Tercel a fine piece of engineering and great for the times. I owned a Corolla for awhile, a PT Cruiser a truly fun ride and a Sebring for a time.

My latest “Love” is a Toyota Yaris coupe this is a probably the smallest car I ever owned but it’s a TERRIFIC ride and gets 40 mpg.

Each time I traded I gained technology and had uniquely different styling As kids we were told that one day we would have flying cars like “The Jetsons”. The technology that would be needed has yet to be developed and at today’s gas prices would be untouchable. Maybe I won’t see flying cars but maybe my grandchildren or more likely my great grandchildren’s kids will. Here’s hoping that “Teleporting”, “Beaming Up” may actually have an iota of reality. At this point that seems to have more of a chance than the flying cars that WE were promised. “Live Long and Prosper”.

HOMOGENIZED CARS

Today it seems as though every auto makers all have the same designers on their payrolls.

Though I’m sure that the NEW cars all have their little nuances but basically to me anyway they all look alike!

In the 1800's the cars for the most part looked like the carriages they were derived from. Enter the REALLY big Touring cars for the family outings on the still unimproved roads and the more SPORTING Roadsters for the “younger” set. They were still boxy in nature but yet distinctive in design and fairly recognizable to the manufacturer. The 40’s again brought forth the more aero-dynamics and rolling curves which were developed from the aircraft research at the time. In my opinion these are one of the finest works of art ever produced. I state this because of not only the flowing lines but also because each and every one of these cars was uniquely different and distinguishable as to who its manufacturer was. In the 50’s thru the 70’s the design engineers were driven (Excuse the pun.) to streamlining more like the “Jet Age” it represented. The car manufacturers now were in competition for highest horse power and fastest car available and actually used wind-tunnels to test their designs. The “Big Three” auto manufacturers were after something else, $$$$$$$$$, and to do this they built different style cars to attract the “Family man” and the younger “Hot Rod” guys. This demanded UNIQUE and DIFFERENT styling to attract the different markets and you could tell the difference between a Ford, GM and Chrysler. Even the GMs were distinctive between the corporate divisions.

It seems as though it was the 80’s when the cars were downsized considerably and started to become more one size fits all generic. The 90’s to present day the designs just became more and more cookie cutter shared buy all of the car makers.

When I see the cars today I highly suspect that if your Chevy needed a particular part you could go to a Ford dealership to get it.

I guess if you crave the unique and different you have to look at the extremely expensive luxury cars or the imported high performance sports cars.

In light of today’s gas prices maybe we should look back and RE-consider the TRUE horse power of REAL horses.

Perhaps the Amish have the right idea.

FASCINATION WITH WARBIRDS

PC, TOYS & WEAPONS OF NO DESTRUCTION

Today we live in a very curious, politically correct (PC) and safety conscious world. While I do agree that we need to be sensitive to the feelings of others and keep our kids safe, I firmly believe that we are PCing and child proofing everyone to death.

In my opinion two of the funniest movies ever made would NOT be able to be made today. Firstly Blazing Saddles and anyone who remembers that flick will remember why.

I won’t go into the details but I will say that what was said and done could be viewed as offensive but if you have an OPEN mind and can LAUGH at YOURSELF, this movie is HYSTERICAL! Animal House was another EXTREMELY funny movie that would again cause a ruckus on the PC front due to the fact that it was and is “Cutting Edge”.

Not only to the PC people but would probably tick off PETA. Remember how the horse was killed?

Moving on to the safety of our kids. When we were kids we had metal cars and trucks to play with, not die-cast “Hot Wheels” type cars, I’m talking about the STEEL “TONKA” type trucks and the friction “motor” cars made out of “REAL TIN”! They were great fun, sure we got little nicks and cuts from them occasionally but we didn’t DIE or get any DISEASES from them we got “Band-Aids” put on us and we went back to our “Tin Toys”. My favorite toy was a non-mainstream TIN toy that Ed and I got for Christmas one year. It was a battery operated toy which was basically a “Dart gun” type toy. There two basic parts to the toy, the first part was a small blower which supported a small styro-foam ball on a column of air, and revolved around causing the ball to move in a circle (if viewed from above) while the ball danced up and down on the column. The second part was essentially a “Dart Gun”. You would aim the two darts which had small rubber rocket shaped tips through a mirrored site, sort of like a periscope laying on its side and used the darts to knock the ball off its column of air.

We also had anther neat TIN toy which was a “Shooting Gallery” similar to the ones found at the carnivals of the time. We would wind up the spring drive, flip the release lever and watch the little ducks go past as we shot at them with our suction cup tipped darts.

Speaking of guns, we as young men of the ‘50s loved realism and appreciated the detail to that end. We one day received the coolest toy guns we ever had. It was a replica of a Colt 45 six shooter. It was made out of cast metal painted black and operated like the “Real McCoy”’ the chamber revolved each time the trigger was pulled and the “bullets” were lead slugs trapped in the chamber with brass caps on the flat end of the “bullet”

The brass cap secured a “Greeny Stick’m“ cap (a small amount of EXPLOSIVE GUN POWDER placed between two pieces of paper) which we stuck on the back and loaded into the pistol as you would load a real gun. As we pulled the trigger the chamber would rotate, fire the cap and smoke from the exploding cap would exit through the barrel. Today this toy could NOT exist as it did then and would get you arrested at the airport if you packed it in your suit case. It was beautifully replicated to look like a Colt 45, but it was a TOY!

We also had another cool toy. It was a “Cap Rifle” that actually shot an orange plastic bullet. Though made of plastic it was a great deal of fun. We were too young for a BB gun, (Probably because we would, “Put our eyes out.”) so we had this rifle that really shot bullets. This rifle also had a lead slug on to which we put a “Stick’m” cap and to the other end we fitted the orange plastic bullet. A note on the package suggested that for MORE realism try putting a small amount of “Baby Powder” in the bullet before affixing it to the slug. This was WAY COOL because now when we fired the “weapon” not only did we hear the bang and see the smoke, we could actually HIT a target. We couldn’t shoot tin cans or break glass bottles like in the Saturday morning serial westerns we saw on TV so we knocked over paper cups (plastic cups weren’t developed yet). I still remember Dad giving us stern instructions on the use of our new “fire arms”, “Treat these guns as though they ARE REAL and NEVER point them at anything you don’t intend to shoot”. I suspect that Mom may have had her doubts about our rifles but I’m sure we suppressed her fears as we SAFELY fired our rifles and knocked down our “Dixie Cups”.

After going down my memory lane with me I’m sure you will find a great number of things that COULD not and WOULD not happen in today’s world, and we probably suspect why.

After all, who among us 50 plus year old males didn’t take a complete roll of 100 toy explosive caps and hit the ENTIRE roll with a rock or hammer and have our ears ringing for 5 minutes.

FISHING

OUR HOUSE

Our house was a simple concrete block bungalow which as I have mentioned was hand built by Dad and Mom and a few others. It was built with love and that love carried into our new house when we moved to Cleveland. Our house was the “COOL” house. Everybody wanted to hang out there. Part of the reason was due to Ed’s out going nature and secondly due to Mom and Dad being easy to talk to.

This was especially true as we got older and started having our own cars, because Dad would gladly help us all diagnose our mechanical problems and talk cars with us.

Mom always had an ear for any of us when ever we “just wanted to talk”. I remember one time when I came home from work and found one of our friends sitting in the kitchen talking with Mom waiting for Ed. Mom later told us that he had been there for a couple of hours. When he first arrived she told him that Ed would not be home from CSU for some time, he said that it was OK and that he just felt like talking to someone. She asked if his parents knew that he was going to be here. He said yes and that they never worried when he was at our house. My best friend actually once did the same thing, waiting for me.

New Years Eve after our high school years was always an event to remember. Every year we would gather “The Guys” (our friends) over to the house for a marathon Monopoly game. Everyone would bring pop, food and snacks. We would start the game at around 5 o’clock in the evening and continue into the morning when we would go out for breakfast, stopping only to watch “The Ball” come down on Time Square. After this bash “The Guys” would head for home and Ed and I would hit the sack, until Mom would call us for New Years day dinner.

Many of times we would go out with “The Guys” coming in late in the evening and the whole gang of them would crash on the living room floor until morning. None of the parents minded because their kids were at our house, the “Cool House”.

MOM & DAD

The two people to whom I owe everything (literally) are Mom and Dad.
Mom was basically typical 50’s mom. She was a combination of Harriet
Nelson, June Cleaver, and Donna Reed. Mom was a very strong woman, who was
a “city girl” who after marrying Dad became a “rural resident”. It was Mom
that got me interested in building plastic models. She got me started one
day when she wanted to keep me busy so that she could do some housework
while Ed now two years old was napping.

That first model was a twin engine Beechcraft (airplane). Can you say ”Tip
of the ice berg?” It came out pretty good for a five year old. It was also
Mom who got me started baking, for the same reason as before plus I kept
bugging her for something to do.

When I say that I baked I don’t mean mixes where all you do is add an egg,
water and the package of mix, I mean from scratch. This eventually led to my
experimenting with cooking main dishes with the help of Julia Child, Graham
Kerr, and Emeril.

When Dad passed, the now three of us were each others rock. Mom became an
even closer friend and my relationship advisor. Mom was the greatest mom a
guy could ask for. She passed 13 years almost to the day of when Dad passed.
There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss them both.
Dad was my hero. Dad was an auto mechanic who got into electronics, fixing
radios, TVs, and installing and repairing garage door openers as a “moon
lighting” job to keep a roof over our heads and food in our bellies .Somehow
between jobs Dad found time to spend with us. Whether it was playing ball,
playing a board game or building and flying control line airplanes with us,
Dad was as Mom called him, “Her biggest kid”. Dad was always able to fix
everything.. When we were older Dad took us under his wing and taught us how
to fix and maintain our cars, not to mention any household repairs.
He was the most talented man I ever met.

As we got older, Dad became more and more of our best friend. My fondest
memory of Dad is when we got together with our music. Dad playing his fiddle
with a big smile of pride on his face as we joined in. I don’t know who was
proudest, he of us or we of him.

Everything I know today, I’ve learned from him. I have always tried to use
Dad as a guide as we raise our son.

Mom and Dad, if you’re watching down on us and I’m sure you are,
I love you and miss you very much.

You were the best parents a guy could ever hope or ask for.

MY BROTHER ED

As I have said I am the first born. My brother Ed was the second and last.

When Mom and Dad told me that I was going to have a little brother or sister I was thrilled. Some how I just knew I was going to have a little brother so that I would have someone to play with.

Mom and Dad were trying to decide on a name for the little guy while watching TV.

Eddie Albert happened to be on at the time so I chimed in and said how about Eddie Albert. Since my grandfather’s name was Albert, it came to be.

Since he was born Ed and I became very close, in fact if we were any closer we would be Siamese twins.

Through the years we have had many adventures together. We have gone on a lot of fun vacations and have visited quite a few states, not to mention about half a dozen trips to Toronto and one to Quebec, Canada.

The one trip that I remember most is the trip to North Carolina.

We had the opportunity to visit Kill Devil Hills. This is were the State Parks maintain the Wright Brothers Memorial Area and museum. Kitty Hawk was the closest mailing address at the time of their flight, thus Kitty Hawk took the claim to Fame.

I can’t begin to describe the feeling that I had walking THE VERY FLIGHT LINE the Wrights flew. I was awe struck to say the least. The other thing that was pretty cool too was that the ranger in charge of the tour started off by saying “It all started with two brothers from OHIO.” and here we were, me and MY brother from OHIO also infatuated with flight, standing right there.

In my reading about the Wrights later in my life I came across an interesting little tidbit of information. Orville Wright played the Mandolin. Did I mention that I played the Mandolin? Creepy, huh?

My best friend and confidant, my brother Ed and I through the years have been through a lot, good times and bad, but always together. We even married our wives the same year, 3 months apart. We were first, then Ed and his wife. I am the oldest after all so it just seems to make sense some how. Our kids even matched up in order. My nephew is the oldest My son is one year younger, my niece is one year younger than my son or two years younger than her brother. There are three years difference between me and Ed.

Dad as I found out in my later years was a child prodigy violin player not a violinist a fiddle player. Dad made the distinction very clear to us as we were growing up. A violinist plays Classical music; a fiddle player plays the popular tunes, for the most part, country folk music. Long story short, Ed came home with a guitar one day Dad taught him how to play. Looking for an instrument for me, since my fingers couldn’t reach across the guitar fingerboard, became a challenge. One day while in a discount store we spotted an inexpensive mandolin (3 or 4 mandolins ago) which Dad taught me to play, became MY instrument.

This led to family jam sessions which I still miss to this day. Dad would be on the fiddle Ed on guitar and me on the mandolin. We played exclusively for Mom to the point where on nice summer days would find things outside to do, including going for LONG walks.

Not that we sounded so bad it’s just that Mom wasn’t that musically inclined. She was our toughest critic.

One of the most memorable musical adventures Ed and I had was with a co-worker.

The co worker played guitar and banjo, his brother played drums, his sister and her girlfriend sang as a Gospel group and had a piano player and a bass guitarist. We got together regularly on Friday nights at Ed’s friends house. The Friday night that I remember the most is the night Ed’s friend had about 20 people CRAMMED in the basement. We started playing and singing at about 6 or 7 o’clock that night and went until sometime after midnight. There were guitars banjos, basses, drum, piano and me the lone mandolin. At one point the neighbors came over. I thought that this would kill the evening of fun, thinking that we were making too much noise too late at night. Much to my surprise and delight they JOINED IN! Ahh, our young and single days. To quote Hank Williams Jr. “All my rowdy friends have settled down.” As we get older we don’t party as hardy as we used to or stay up as long as we use to, we just don’t have the “spunk” we had to party like we did. Now it takes me all night long to do what I used to do all night long. Memories are great they are what keep us young when we start looking like our parents and grandparents not to mention sounding like them.

THE AVIATION CONNECTION

I guess the best way to start out on my explanation of my aviation fixation is to start out with Dad. My dad learned to fly on the “GI” Bill. He had his pilot’s license when he met Mom. When Dad asked Mom to marry him she said that he had to decide between her and airplanes. In case you are wondering what his decision was, I’m here, and I was the first born.

When we were younger we would sometimes stop at small airports and walk around to look at the planes.

Moms concern about flying was NOT unwarranted she lost a cousin in WWII who was part of a bomber crew that did not return. Moms uncle (my great uncle) Harold “Jack” Lynch taught Charles A. Lindberg how to Instrument Fly. “Jack” Lynch later was taking a gentleman for a “joy ride” when the man had a heart attack slumped over the controls preventing “Jack” from controlling the plane. The plane flew into the side of a mountain, killing them both. Mom had her reasons.

Dad as I said learned to fly on the ‘GI Bill”. He learned to fly from a friend whom he had gone to High School with, Dean Ortner. The Ortner family owned an airport in Wakeman, Ohio. Some of you may remember this airport from when those unfortunate sky-divers were dropped over Lake Erie.

I remember as kids we would go to the “Ortner Family Air Show” that WAS total family

fare. It would always be held on Fathers Day. This is where I had my first and only flight in a small plane, at the age of 8 or 9 this was THE coolest thing I had ever done in my life. The plane was a Piper Apache, a 5 place twin engine vehicle of fantasy. It was painted the color of the sky on a lightly clouded day. Its fuselage was painted a beautiful light blue. Its wings were painted angel white.

The only flying I’ve done since is on the commercial liners. Dean did aerobatics in a P-51 Mustang, F-4U Corsair, AT-6 and a Piper J3 Cub. The cub act was the most impressive. Dean would climb to a prescribed altitude and cut the engine and perform aerobatics on the way down until landing. This was extraordinary because the only way you can start a

Cub is by pulling the prop over by hand, like the old bi-planes. Did I mention that the pilot on my first flight was the famous local” Aerobat” Dean O. himself?

This dear reader is the start of my addiction.

Fast forward to the early 60’s. I was in grade school when Scott Carpenter became the first American in space and John Glenn the first to orbit the Earth. Let us not forget all of those brave men like Chuck Yeager who were the test pilots of all of the X-Planes, (X1 thru X15) which lead to not only the Mercury flights but to the latest “Shuttle” flights. (I still remember all of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo flights.)

These men became my heroes. Though their names today go unmentioned I still have a great deal of admiration and respect for all of these men and the Test Pilots of our modern day experimental “birds”. These are the TRUE “X-MEN”

Hopefully this explains my obsession with aero-space.

If you have any memories of the Ortner air shows or other any other aviation stories I’d love to hear them. Just contact me at nlbick454@yahoo.com.

INTRODUCTION

First and foremost I would like to thank my friend since junior high, Andrew, for allowing me this opportunity to express myself. For those of you with moderate expectations of this column I’m sure I will not disappoint you, and thank you for your support.

About me. I am a product of the ‘50s, as my 5 bypasses will attest. I am married to a wonderful woman for 22 soon to be 23 years, if she will still tolerate me. We have a terrific 17yr. old son who has enriched our lives to no end. We also have 4 dogs (sorry, cat people). The dogs are as follows, 2 toy Poodles, 1 Miniature Poodle and a Poodle Yorkie mix.

As a side light, the Yorkie was an adoption of mercy. His caregivers were elderly and both passed away. The people who inherited him already had a LARGE dog which if had sat on him would have squished him. The people were going to put him down. Thankfully they contacted our groomer who introduced us to the now 5yr. old pup.

He and I have bonded the degree that he follows me EVERYWHERE.

I like all kind of music as long as it is good, though I am partial to country/folk.

No surprise here I play Mandolin, not well I just play.

I am an Electronic Technician by trade and an  “Aerospace NUT” by reputation with an emphasis on the Aero. More to come on this later. (BIG SURPRISE HUH?)

Politically I guess I’m a Democrat. But mostly I’m a free thinker and ecologist.

The first President I remember is Eisenhower but I consider John Fitzgerald Kennedy as the real first President. Though I wasn’t old enough to vote for him I felt as though HE was MY President since he was young enough to lead my generation for many many years into the future. You can Imagine my sadness at his assignation.

I still remember his quotes.. “Ask not what your country can do for you…”

“We chose to go to the Moon in this decade … because it is hard.”

A WWII hero as the skipper of PT 109, and to take a stand with Dr. King.

What a GREAT MAN.

If I have peeked you curiosity dear reader, I will give you this teaser to wet your

literary appetite. I am a living relative of an actual aviation pioneer and connections with local aviation legend.

Do you see a THEME here?

Thanks again Andy,

Norm

(Editors Note To Norm: Thank-You For Coming Aboard!)