I was born in a little town northeast of Corpus Christi, Texas a little over 53 years ago. I have an older sister and an older brother. I was the biggest kid (11 pounds, 8 ½ oz. / 24 ½ inches tall) that had ever been delivered at that hospital. The doctor grabbed me up and went up and down the wings of the hospital showing everybody “the one that didn’t get away.†At least that’s the story that my folks told.
My Dad’s ancestors came to Texas from the Canary Islands on one of the original thirteen Spanish land grants in San Antonio in 1730.This is sort of the Texas equivalent of the folks on the Mayflower for the rest of the country. No big deal, but I’ve got all the genealogy completed from those guys down to me. The rest of my genes come from English, Irish, French and god only knows what other pirates and horse thieves were mixed in there.
When I was 2, we moved to west Texas, living on a ranch about 30 miles away from the closest town, closest neighbor was like 4 miles away. It was a great place to grow up. We used to go rabbit and snake hunting every week with 22’s. Killed my first deer when I was 6. My dad loved hunting and fishing and he raised my sister, my brother and me on a steady diet of fishing, camping, hunting, and lots of target shooting / custom ammunition reloading. We lived so far out in the boonies that we had 60 foot TV antennae that got one channel (KMID, Midland, TX) on the TV and that only worked about 3 three months outta the year, at night, when air temp was cold. Luxury was those kids living in town on cable with 3 channels. The rich city kids had color TV.
Anybody who has read the book “Friday Night Lights†knows about how important football is to west Texas. Lucky me, I trashed my left knee playing football in sixth grade.
We moved to northern Arizona during the summer between my 7th and 8th grade. I never had a problem with grades, took all the math, science, civics / government classes that the high school offered. I hated English with a passion. Got the only “C†I ever got in Biology 1, thanks to sharing a lab bench with the girl that got sent home at least a couple of times each week for her mini skirt being too high for the dress code. I was a lot more interested in her biology than any formaldehyde stinking frog dissection.
In Arizona, my parents both worked for the Forest Service, Dad was one of the firefighters, and my Mom worked summer fire seasons on a couple of different lookout towers. We owned a house we lived “in town†during the winter and during the summer we lived at one of the lookouts. In order to have something to do while my family worked, I bought myself a Honda 50 Scrambler when I was in eighth grade from chore money and selling Christmas Cards from an add out of Boy’s Life.
Life on wheels begins. Traded / wrecked my way thru four different bikes (Totaled one bike when one of my “friends†decided to play “chicken†with me. This accident did some major damage to my right knee.) For winter time. I had a 1953 Chevy Bel Air. Huge back seat and trunk were the best features for the drive-in.
I graduated HS in 1971. I had scholarship offers from a couple of really good engineering. schools, instead I chased off after my HS girlfriend to get a degree I’ve never used. But there were some great parties. Stupid life mistake number 1.
Worked my way through college, including summer jobs as relief on Forest Service fire towers, working for an electrician, and pumping gas in an actual full-service service station. That’ll really show how old I am.
Got out of college, ran a survey crew on road construction for a while. Learned to drive heavy over the road trucks, operate heavy equipment. Got married for life mistake number 2. Had a son for life improvement number 1.
Owned my own truck, hauling heavy equipment and drilling rigs all over the Western US and several Canadian provinces. Got divorced for life improvement number 2.
Went to work for a chemical company hauling chemicals all over the Rocky Mountains and met my second wife. Married her for the best life improvement ever. We have two sons and a daughter, that I am very proud of. We have lived all over the western US. Currently live in Oklahoma.
We’ve been through three different owners of the chemical company over the last 22 years. I now work in sales covering the western half of the US. My wife owns her own beauty shop with a staff of 8 other cosmetologists and nail technicians.
My oldest son has made me grandpa twice over (one boy, one girl). My other two sons are working their way through college and my daughter is about to scare me to death learning to drive.
I got into AC with my two youngest sons right after AC went retail. Originally we had one account we shared. I posted on the General Board and Leafcull boards back when there were anonymous accounts. I was around when they created ACF, but stayed more on the server and General boards. I finally moved here more or less permanently when WE was cursed with that one mod that shall remain un-named.
Sorry this took so long, but I’ve been dealing with major issues this afternoon because one of our major competitors had a force majeure event that had me tied up.
Hope it was worth the wait.
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"Becuase genrally the left does not make intolerant statemnts about people's religons
It goes against their nature" - BT
9/11 - Make the bastards pay
"I only use personal terms when those individuals first state such things. " - Nikola Tesla
