Tell us about the stupid and dangerous things you did when you were young and thought you were indestructable. 

We didn't have video games like first person shooter and grand theft auto to get our kicks.  We had to do stuff in the real world.  I grew up in a coal mining town and the entire place was just plain dangerous, especially the mine and mine yard area.

We played a game called "Hollywood Stunt Man".  A coal tipple is the place that they load coal onto train cars.  My uncle worked there.  He would load a coal car with 200 tons of coal and ride that car down the tracks and couple them up to the last car he rode down so when the train came back with empties to reload it would have something to take to the steel mills.

Anyway there was a three sided rectangular structure with a small steel rounded stove in the middle for them to keep warm in the winter.  It had a wood frame and the sides and top were made of corrugated metal that looked a lot like this pic:

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:oNsVgrd29Bv3NM:http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/rr121/thetxshrine/HPIM2368.jpg

The stove looked a lot like this only with a round smoke stack for exhaust:

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:UFawmpGY-Z2JyM:http://www.chubbystove.com/Jr%2520%2520gas.JPG

The stove had a metal chimney to let the smoke out through the roof.  There was a slight hillside that it was built up against making it easy to climb to the roof.  Usually on a Sunday when the mine was not working and no one was around we would build a fire in that stove.  Start with wood, add coal and then finally coke and not the kind you drink or put up your nose.  Coke was a byproduct of coal that was made in what were called coke ovens.  It was a greyish color, light enough to float on water and very porous. 

Here's a pic of coke: (Not a very good one but the best I could find right now)

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:RofKOiGOwThtCM:http://www.mitsui-metals.com/en/petroleum_coke/images/img_02.jpg/

It took a coal fire to get coke hot enough to burn.  It burned about ten times hotter than coal and that is why the mills used it to make steel.  The fire would get so hot that the stove would turn red and you could see it kind of wave a bit like it was going molten.

There was a huge deposit of oil that they used to recycle across the tracks about 40 feet away.  Now to be a Hollywood Stuntman all you had to do was to get a bucket of that oil, climb onto that corrugated roof and pour the entire bucket down the smoke stack.  The corrugated steel would protect a person from burning to a crisp for about three seconds after the oil was dumped down the stove pipe.  The resulting fireball rose about 150 feet into the air.  We would do a dump and jump right through the flames on the outside of the structure and land safely on the ground behind the shelter.  The corrugated metal roof forced the fireball under the roof and away from the person doing the dumping, but then it would fold back onto itself and then rise skyward.  If you were still there when that happened about 3 seconds after dump you'd soon either have a pitch fork and a red union suit or be playing a harp with wings on your back.

We did this hundreds of times and against all odds no one ever was injured or killed.  All the trees around the shed were all burned from the height of the smoke stack to their very tops.  There was however one casuality that I can remember - one kid's fur parka had all the fur incinerated almost instantly but he went unscathed.  :o

I have a lot of this kind of stupid spit we did as kids and I will share some from time to time if this thread becomes even remotely popular. 

What made me think of this is that I was watching the local news yesterday and teenage kids are taking a bottle of vodka, putting it up to one eye and pouring the juice right into their eyeball.  The news said they do it because it gives them an instant high.  Warnings about doing this include blindness and worse.  They did not elaborate on what worse is.  They'd be safer playing Hollywoood Stuntman. 

We had to finally stop doing this when we burned over 50% of the wood frame on the structure from all the dumping and fireballs.  Probably better that we quit because it was just a matter of time that the frame would have become so weak that it would have probably broke in mid dump from our weight on it and one of us would become a crispy critter.

They built another shelter about a year later but by then we found more interesting and more dangerous things to do.  More to come if this doesn't flop. 

I'd love to hear anyone elses story.  :)

^Holy Sh!t, Batman. Unbelievable.  :o :o :o :o :o


As for us, (which seems very tame compared to the above story), my dad had a convertible (still does but only a newer model). We used to sit on the top of the back seat when the top was down and ride down the street like that.



Cat

^Holy Sh!t, Batman. Unbelievable.  :o :o :o :o :o


As for us, (which seems very tame compared to the above story), my dad had a convertible (still does but only a newer model). We used to sit on the top of the back seat when the top was down and ride down the street like that.



Cat


I was thinking the same thing, Cat.

We used to play at the construction site on the weekends.

I was thinking the same thing, Cat.

We used to play at the construction site on the weekends.



Your bottom logo:

Maybe we should chug on over to namby pamby land where we can find some self confidence for you, you jackwagon!

This one is funny but the wood chucks are way funnier.  "Tissue"?

Another favorite "danger kid game" was "Gun Fight at the OK Corral".  We didn't know what a landfill was. Waste management was the town's dump truck/snow plow used for trash pickup and driven to the edge of town and dumping it and leaving it open.  The dump was full of rats that came out at night to feed.  Growing up in Appalachia meant that by the age of ten you had your own gun, usually the starter gun was a 22 caliber rifle.  Maybe five or six of us would go to the dump at dusk because that is when the rats became active. 

To compensate for the darkness we would fine tune a flashlight to the barrel of the 22 using tape.  By fine tuning I mean that when the rifle was pointed with the flashlight, in the center of the illumination was where the bullet would find its mark.  If done correctly this method was accurate for up to about 100 feet depending on the power of the flashlight. 

We were the Earp Brothers and Doc Holiday and the rats were Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, Billy Claiborne, Ike Clanton, and Billy Clanton.  Then we would surround the dump area and commence shooting varmints.  We trusted the accuracy of the flashlight guided bullet so that we never gave a thought that we were all potentially in each other's line of fire.  We were so deadly accurate with these rifles that we actually shot from the hip and nailed a varmint about 95% of the time.  We'd keep it up until we ran out of ammo. 

We played OK Corral so many times without incident until one night someone took a shot and the bullet struck a rock and did a richochet, complete with the richochet noise you hear in the movies especially westerns where gunfights were in desert and mountainous areas - you know the scene.  Well, the bullet that did the richochet found its way to the flashlight on my 22 and knocked the light out and put my ability to continue to shoot in the dark out of commission for the night.  It never occured to me or the others that I could have been hurt or seriously killed.  I remember just being ticked off because my light was broken. After all, the Earps and Holiday survived the OK Corral which meant that we would always be victorious. 

When you are a kid you think that death was just for old people and that you were invincible and indestructable. Invincibilty was greatly overrated by our keen little minds.  What we took for invincibilty was just pure good luck as I understand now.  Did I learn after my flashlight was shot off?  Oh hell no.  In a few days we were back at it again.  There were other close calls with the gun play but that never phased us at all either.  Another kid had the heel of his boot pierced by wayward fragment of a round and a few other near misses into the ground around other shooters. 

I'm for sure now that our guardian angels were quite tired of all the overtime we were making for them. We probably would have used shotguns if the ammo wasn't so expensive.  Most of us had 410, 12 and 20 guage shotguns for hunting small game.  This was something we did a lot in season since the mines seemed to be on strike way too often.  Damn labor unions.  Everyone hunted and fished where I grew up and it was in earnest in that it was not for sport.  We hunted and fished to help feed our families especially when money was tight because of the many strikes that the united mine workers staged on a regular basis.  We shot and ate a lot of rabbit, pheasant and water fowl and no one went to school on the first day of deer season.  One good sized deer would feed a family with a fair amount of meals.

I still fish a lot but I haven't hunted in years.  These days it would just be for sport and I never learned to hunt for that reason.  We shot an animal to eat not to mount and have bragging rights.  If only Dick Cheney hung with us he probably would have never shot that other hunter.  LOL.

Years later I did a lot of temporary duty at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona and Ft. Huachucha in Sierra Vista, Arizona.  Both places were within an hour to 90 minutes of Tombstone Arizona and I visited that town many times.  Tucson was a bit further than Sierra Vista to Tombstone.  I've been to the OK Corral in Tombstone and everytime I was in Tombstone visiting during my off duty time there I always remembered playing "Gunfight at the OK Corral" as a kid.  It was always somehow a weird feeling when I was in Tombstone because of that danger kid game we played when we were young and "invincible". 

The video game "First Person Shooter" that the kids play now was sort of played out more realistically when the danger kids played "Gunfight at the OK"...

Be aware that we didn't always do this high risk activity.  We played a lot of sports like stick ball, baseball, softball, basketball and football and a lot of other sports.  I swear we got hurt more playing sports than the insane stuff we did.  We'd sprain ankles, dislocate shoulders and sometimes even break bones especially playing tackle football. 

More danger kid stuff to come on this thread.

We didn't play too many danger games, nothing like what you did.

My elementary school years were in Quebec, starting in the very late 60s and until the early 70s. A lot of political unrest there, and lots of hatred between the French & English. As an English kid attening a French school, with an English School right beside ours (separated by a fence), staring in grade 2, we'd all go to schol with pocket knives and were ready to defend ourselves. 

This was no game, though.

We drew our knives many times..and stood there. No one ever made the first move. No one (amongst my friends) ever got hurt. There were other fights, small minor knife wounds, but no one I knew. It was no game, but dangerous. 

Um. Living in the midwest in a small town of 2,000. The craziest we got, was playing in the rafters of a barn, climbing barn roofs (mt everest) never mind the electrical wires entering there)... But nothing too crazy! 


I am watching storm chasers right now thinking those dudes are nuts!

We didn't play too many danger games, nothing like what you did.

My elementary school years were in Quebec, starting in the very late 60s and until the early 70s. A lot of political unrest there, and lots of hatred between the French & English. As an English kid attening a French school, with an English School right beside ours (separated by a fence), staring in grade 2, we'd all go to schol with pocket knives and were ready to defend ourselves. 

This was no game, though.

We drew our knives many times..and stood there. No one ever made the first move. No one (amongst my friends) ever got hurt. There were other fights, small minor knife wounds, but no one I knew. It was no game, but dangerous. 






Frank, I remember that you posted once about living in Quebec.  I knew the French and English didn't get along, but I didn't know it went to all that with the knives and all.  Hey, you're a Paisano, no?  Didn't your family come from Milan?  You should a tella them that a you were a Paisano - a lover not a fighter.  Besides the fight was between the English and French and not the Italianos right?  Probably not though. I bet you were glad to move to BC.  Thanks for sharing and reading my thread.  Karma atcha, Paisan.

Um. Living in the midwest in a small town of 2,000. The craziest we got, was playing in the rafters of a barn, climbing barn roofs (mt everest) never mind the electrical wires entering there)... But nothing too crazy! 


I am watching storm chasers right now thinking those dudes are nuts!



2kidsami - I lived in the midwest for right at four years.  The midwest covers a lot of ground.  Were you anywhere near Omaha?  I was stationed at Offutt Air Force Base just south of Omaha.  My wife's family is kind of scattered around in Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota and South Sioux City Nebraska.

Yeah those storm chaser guys are not playing with a full deck.  I have been in four tornadoes in my life and all were in different states,  June 1st 1960 a tornado passed between our house and our neighbors house in Pennsylvania.  I was just a kid - it blew our maple tree onto our front porch.  Tornado number 2 was at Offutt AFB - it hit the roof of the barracks I was living in and my room was on the top floor.  Number three was along I 35 in Wichita Kansas. I was driving from nortwest Iowa to South Texas and I was watching a storm ahead for about 100 miles.  The tornado passed just feet in front of my car.  The cars in front of me just disappeared.  Not sure what became of them.  It was still early and I intended to make it to somewhere close to Oklahoma City before I stopped for the night.  We stayed in Wichita on that trip.  Last one was in South Texas in Oct 1988.  We had Hurricane Gilbert blow in off the Gulf and again I watched a twister pass along side of my car and cross the road in front of me.  That hurricane spawned several hundred twisters and did a lot of damage to San Antonio.  Weather guys said it was going to hit Corpus Christi.  People from Corpus came to San Antonio to avoid a direct hit by Gilbert.  San Antonio took a direct hit instead.  It weakened some from crossing about 130 miles of land before it got to San Antonio.

So I've had my fill of tornadoes and hurricanes.  We've had a half dozen or more here in the last 20 years. I rode a few out when I lived in the DC area and a few more when I lived in Tokyo.  They are called Typhoons in Japan and most of the Pacific.  Japan also had its share of earthquakes.  I guess all that is left is probably a vulcano and I've been to Hawaii but didn't see anything erupt while I was there.     

You really have to watch those Everest barns with the bare electric wires. Hey not to mention the occasional pitch fork covered by hay.  I landed on one once.  Good thing it was not the business end that I fell onto.  Thanks for reading my thread and posting back.  I sent some karma your way.

Yeah those storm chaser guys are not playing with a full deck.  I have been in four tornadoes in my life and all were in different states,  June 1st 1960 a tornado passed between our house and our neighbors house in Pennsylvania.  I was just a kid - it blew our maple tree onto our front porch.  Tornado number 2 was at Offutt AFB - it hit the roof of the barracks I was living in and my room was on the top floor.  Number three was along I 35 in Wichita Kansas. I was driving from nortwest Iowa to South Texas and I was watching a storm ahead for about 100 miles.  The tornado passed just feet in front of my car.  The cars in front of me just disappeared.  Not sure what became of them.  It was still early and I intended to make it to somewhere close to Oklahoma City before I stopped for the night.  We stayed in Wichita on that trip.  Last one was in South Texas in Oct 1988.  We had Hurricane Gilbert blow in off the Gulf and again I watched a twister pass along side of my car and cross the road in front of me.  That hurricane spawned several hundred twisters and did a lot of damage to San Antonio.  Weather guys said it was going to hit Corpus Christi.  People from Corpus came to San Antonio to avoid a direct hit by Gilbert.  San Antonio took a direct hit instead.  It weakened some from crossing about 130 miles of land before it got to San Antonio.
   





I was in S.A. that day when there were mega tornadoes from Gilbert. I had just gotten back from a trip to Tulsa to visit family the day before and was pretty jetlag. I was TRYING to sleep when my husband at time kept waking me up saying there was a tornado. I was thinking that it was across town like most tornadoes were. Then he said there was another one and another one. When I heard something like 5 tornadoes, I figured I better get up. Come to find out they were about 10 miles from the house. This was our first experience with tornadoes in our new house so we didn't really have too much of a plan. We just gathered some things (radio, water, etc, etc) and sat in our hallway-which was the most inner part of our house (there wasn't a basement-like most houses in S.A.). The phone rang and I thought it might have been my sister calling to see if we are surviving the tornadoes. It was some poll asking us who we were going to vote for in the upcoming election.  :o :o :o :o  I said really nastily, "This is NOT a good time." We lucked out. We were not in line that the tornadoes were hitting (along one band from Gilbert). But, 10 miles was still too close for my comfort.



Cat

I was in S.A. that day when there were mega tornadoes from Gilbert. I had just gotten back from a trip to Tulsa to visit family the day before and was pretty jetlag. I was TRYING to sleep when my husband at time kept waking me up saying there was a tornado. I was thinking that it was across town like most tornadoes were. Then he said there was another one and another one. When I heard something like 5 tornadoes, I figured I better get up. Come to find out they were about 10 miles from the house. This was our first experience with tornadoes in our new house so we didn't really have too much of a plan. We just gathered some things (radio, water, etc, etc) and sat in our hallway-which was the most inner part of our house (there wasn't a basement-like most houses in S.A.). The phone rang and I thought it might have been my sister calling to see if we are surviving the tornadoes. It was some poll asking us who we were going to vote for in the upcoming election.  :o :o :o :o  I said really nastily, "This is NOT a good time." We lucked out. We were not in line that the tornadoes were hitting (along one band from Gilbert). But, 10 miles was still too close for my comfort.



Cat



Cat I remember that day well.  It was a Saturday and I was working at Kelly on Security Hill.  I had to go in that day to produce some product for one of our customers.  I live close to Sea World so I took 151 to loop 410 and got off at the Medina Base Road.  When I exited 410 a tornado was blowing all kinds of junk around and droping junk everywhere.  The thing crossed my path before I moved along Medina Base Road until I got to Security Hill.  I expected the gate guard to just wave me on.  Instead he stopped me and told me to take cover immediately because a tornado was spotted on main base Kelly. 

I told him it was gone by now and if he's looking for the rest of his base he can find a lot of it in the vicinity of loop 410 and US 90.  That tornado tore through the depot area on main base Kelly and destroyed two huge warehouses.  All that debris I witnessed falling and swirling was what was left of those huge warehouses.  The gate guard just gave me a "deer in the headlights" stare and again urged me to seek cover. 

Just as soon as I got into the building all power went out. I knew at that point it would be out all day so it was much worse on my way back home and I had to detour all over the place to avoid downed trees, flooded roads, etc.  A normally ten minute drive took me about an hour and 15 minutes to get back home.  I worked for a GS-13 and I called him when I got home and he wanted me to go back and wait for the power to be restored.  I asked him if he was crazy or what.  I related that I almost didn't make it back home.  I remember the lightening being a bright green as the storm raged on.  By Sunday all was clear and I went in and did my thing.  There was nothing that GS-13 could do to intimidate me into going back out in that stuff. 
I told him that my family knew what I went through and if I went back out and got nailed the bad would be on him.  He wisely backed off. 

We were lucky at the homestead, no major damage was sustained and I just weathered the thing out at home.  I didn't know that you were still in the area when that happened.  Nice to have someone to share that with who saw it firsthand as I did.  Thanks for sharing.

Cat I remember that day well.  It was a Saturday and I was working at Kelly on Security Hill.  I had to go in that day to produce some product for one of our customers.  I live close to Sea World so I took 151 to loop 410 and got off at the Medina Base Road.  When I exited 410 a tornado was blowing all kinds of junk around and droping junk everywhere.  The thing crossed my path before I moved along Medina Base Road until I got to Security Hill.  I expected the gate guard to just wave me on.  Instead he stopped me and told me to take cover immediately because a tornado was spotted on main base Kelly. 

I told him it was gone by now and if he's looking for the rest of his base he can find a lot of it in the vicinity of loop 410 and US 90.  That tornado tore through the depot area on main base Kelly and destroyed two huge warehouses.  All that debris I witnessed falling and swirling was what was left of those huge warehouses.  The gate guard just gave me a "deer in the headlights" stare and again urged me to seek cover. 

Just as soon as I got into the building all power went out. I knew at that point it would be out all day so it was much worse on my way back home and I had to detour all over the place to avoid downed trees, flooded roads, etc.  A normally ten minute drive took me about an hour and 15 minutes to get back home.  I worked for a GS-13 and I called him when I got home and he wanted me to go back and wait for the power to be restored.  I asked him if he was crazy or what.  I related that I almost didn't make it back home.  I remember the lightening being a bright green as the storm raged on.  By Sunday all was clear and I went in and did my thing.  There was nothing that GS-13 could do to intimidate me into going back out in that stuff. 
I told him that my family knew what I went through and if I went back out and got nailed the bad would be on him.  He wisely backed off. 

We were lucky at the homestead, no major damage was sustained and I just weathered the thing out at home.  I didn't know that you were still in the area when that happened.  Nice to have someone to share that with who saw it firsthand as I did.  Thanks for sharing.





I remember Kelly getting nailed. My then-husband used to work in one of those warehouses that was hit bad. The thing was, he had just gotten out of the A.F. THAT WEEK and if he hadn't he would have had to go into work that day.


Cat

I remember Kelly getting nailed. My then-husband used to work in one of those warehouses that was hit bad. The thing was, he had just gotten out of the A.F. THAT WEEK and if he hadn't he would have had to go into work that day.


Cat


He was one lucky Airman - those buildings were completely demolished.  My wife was a civilian contracting officer at the depot.  She was off that day but she worked in special weapons at the time and that was way too close to those warehouses.  Her building was spared.

He was one lucky Airman - those buildings were completely demolished.  My wife was a civilian contracting officer at the depot.  She was off that day but she worked in special weapons at the time and that was way too close to those warehouses.  Her building was spared.






I don't remember his building being completely demolished. I do remember there were some damage to the roof. I remember the news showing it from the air and you can see right the track of the tornado on the roof. BTW, he worked in one of the supply warehouses.



Cat

I was in S.A. that day when there were mega tornadoes from Gilbert. I had just gotten back from a trip to Tulsa to visit family the day before and was pretty jetlag. I was TRYING to sleep when my husband at time kept waking me up saying there was a tornado. I was thinking that it was across town like most tornadoes were. Then he said there was another one and another one. When I heard something like 5 tornadoes, I figured I better get up. Come to find out they were about 10 miles from the house. This was our first experience with tornadoes in our new house so we didn't really have too much of a plan. We just gathered some things (radio, water, etc, etc) and sat in our hallway-which was the most inner part of our house (there wasn't a basement-like most houses in S.A.). The phone rang and I thought it might have been my sister calling to see if we are surviving the tornadoes. It was some poll asking us who we were going to vote for in the upcoming election.  :o :o :o :o  I said really nastily, "This is NOT a good time." We lucked out. We were not in line that the tornadoes were hitting (along one band from Gilbert). But, 10 miles was still too close for my comfort.



Cat



BTW, Forgot to mention that my house was close to Sea World, too-just off of 1604 & New Guilbaeu Road.


Cat

More danger kid shared experiences from my youth.

Danger kid matador.  

Throwing objects like bottles and rocks at bulls usually gets their attention.  There were a lot of small farms in the area.  It seems that every small town has a hillbilly redneck family or two.  One such family lived in a rural settlement called Cokeburg Junction.  Their dwelling was on one side of the railroad tracks and they kept their livestock in an area on the other side of the tracks.  It was basically just pasture land.  Their bull was certifiably crazy.  It was a true funny farm.  

The bull was kept inside a space of about a half acre surronded by six foot barb wire fence.  This family had a trash pile across the tracks where they tossed cans and bottles and the like into a heap. The area across the tracks was the property of Bethlehem Steel which owned the coal mine. Bethlehem Steel had a lot of open land in the area and locals just used it as if they owned it.   My friend Gary and I were looking for some adventure one day and decided to mess with this bull like a matador using a cape to "play" with him and make him go after the cape.  We didn't have a cape so we decided to ad-lib.  

We got inside the fence cautiously.  That insane beast must have been on downers that day because he ignored us when we entered the fenced in area.  Gary entered from one side and I entered from the other.  We have seen this bull behave violently before.  We tried to get that bull agitated by first yelling at it and waving our arms and jumping up and down.  I think I saw him yawn.  So since that didn't seem to work we decided to escallate our provoking.

We went to their trash pile and loaded up an old wash tub with bottles and cans to throw at the bull to get his attention.  It was not any challenge to throw them at him from outside the fence, so we ventured inside again with our cache of projectiles.  Gary took up the same position that he had the first time we went inside the fence.  

I then began hurling bottles and cans at him.  Nothing.  I was about 30 feet away and looking straight at him.  Then I found the prize.  An empty Heinz Ketchup bottle.  I took careful aim and hurled the bottle at the beast.  It made such a thud when it hit that I remember being surprised that it did not break.  It bounced off almost all the way back to where I was standing.  It hit him square between the eyes and that was all it took.  He charged and I cleared that six foot fence in what seemed like a single bound.  Gary was too far from the fence when the bull turned and took deadly aim at him.  He was closer to a tree than the fence.  I never saw anyone climb a tree as fast as Gary did that day.

The bull who was now fully miffed began running at the tree and head butting it trying to dislodge my friend from his place of tedious safety. The tree was young and not very strong.  The bull very nearly dislodged him several times.  Gary was screaming and in a pure state of panic.  It was just a matter of time until the bull got his way with Gary since that tree was not going to keep him out of harms way for much longer.

I had to get that beast away from Gary so I ventured again inside the fence preparing to throw a soda bottle at him. Before doing so I told Gary when I say "go!" you jump out of that tree and head for that fence line as fast as humanly possible.  Before I could throw that bottle at that bull he turned and charged at me.  I nearly forgot to say "Go!" as I sprinted back to the fence line.  I was yelling go, go, go all the way to the fence.  Gary must have hit the ground running and safely made it outside the fence.  I was too busy running for my life to see what he was doing at the time.  I made it out of there by the skin of my teeth.
 
We thought we were safe until that crazy bull began trying to dislodge a corner fence post by butting it violently.  There was a creek about fifty feet away.  That was exit stage left.  The bull broke the fence as we hit the water.  He headed right for us and the creek didn't stop him.  On the other bank of the creek was a swamp. Because of the beast's weight the swamp bogged him down and we made good our escape. If you have ever seen the movie "Stand by me" there was a scene where the boys were covered by leeches  when they decided to take a shortcut through a swamp.  When we exited the swamp we discovered that we were  covered from head to toe with stagnant water and swamp mud. No big deal until we saw the leeches all over us.  What an adrenaline rush that was, except for the leeches.  We were adrenaline junkies in the full sense as the mood changing chemical rushed through our veins.

We got cleaned up and about a week later we were contemplating another round of matador.  We needed another adrenaline fix.  The fence was fixed and we saw the bull inside of it a few days earlier.  When we went back the bull was nowhere to be found.  We found out later that the bull got loose and when the slow moving coal train came his way he decided to charge it head on.  Score train one bull zero. Scratch one male bovine.  

Oh well there were plenty of other farmsteads with bulls to antagonise.  I can relate to those adrenaline junkies in Barcelona, Spain that run the bulls every year.  Would I run the bulls in Barcelona today.  Not even a remote chance that I'd even think of doing it.          

I'm here to tell you that taking the bull by the horns is usually a bad idea.

BTW, Forgot to mention that my house was close to Sea World, too-just off of 1604 & New Guilbaeu Road.


Cat



Cat - I'm closer to 410 right near Potranco and route 151.  When I moved here it was still in the county.

Cat - I'm closer to 410 right near Potranco and route 151.  When I moved here it was still in the county.






Same here. I think I was one of the few people who drove 151-NO TRAFFIC-it was great. And then word got out. And yes, I was there for the opening of Sea World. Could see the fireworks from my house.



Cat

Same here. I think I was one of the few people who drove 151-NO TRAFFIC-it was great. And then word got out. And yes, I was there for the opening of Sea World. Could see the fireworks from my house.



Cat


I can see the giant flag pole at Sea World from my front yard.  You and I watched the same fireworks together only we were both at our own homes at the time.

Were you still here when the entire stretch of 151 went to limited access?  No more traffic lights.  That alone cut my commute time to Ft. Sam in half.  I'm about 18.5 miles from where I work and my commute time is about 22 minutes.  That has a lot to do with my work hours.  I'm running that route around 5:30A.M.  An hour later and 151 gets slow.  They already need to widen it. The Great Northwest has had a population boom.  Anyone living beyond Culebra and Tezel that travel the same route that I do takes longer for them to get inside 410 than the rest of the commute.  Me, I'm on 151 about one mile from the house and across 410 in about 90 seconds after that. Because of my early work day, I miss the P.M. rush as well.   

Your bottom logo:

Maybe we should chug on over to namby pamby land where we can find some self confidence for you, you jackwagon!

This one is funny but the wood chucks are way funnier.  "Tissue"?


I prefer the Jackwagon one but the wood chucks are funny, too.

I prefer the Jackwagon one but the wood chucks are funny, too.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Rleeermeygfdl.PNG/250px-Rleeermeygfdl.PNG

In case you didn't already know and for those who don't yet know, the person in that Geiko commercial playing a former drill SGT turned therapist was actually a real drill SGT in the Marine Corp.  His name is R. (Ronald) Lee Ermey.  You see him a lot on the History and Military channels doing shows like "Mail Call" and "Lock and Load".  He reminds me of my training instrutor in boot camp.
Here's an accurate wiki link on Ermey:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Lee_Ermey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APwfZYO1di4

I knew he looked familiar, I just couldn't place him.  Thanks for that info, DoRitos. :)

I knew he looked familiar, I just couldn't place him.  Thanks for that info, DoRitos. :)




Happy to oblige. ;)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Rleeermeygfdl.PNG/250px-Rleeermeygfdl.PNG

In case you didn't already know and for those who don't yet know, the person in that Geiko commercial playing a former drill SGT turned therapist was actually a real drill SGT in the Marine Corp.  His name is R. (Ronald) Lee Ermey.  You see him a lot on the History and Military channels doing shows like "Mail Call" and "Lock and Load".  He reminds me of my training instrutor in boot camp.
Here's an accurate wiki link on Ermey:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Lee_Ermey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APwfZYO1di4





He's great,I love this guy's attitude.

He's great,I love this guy's attitude.




'I don't know - I think maybe  Gunnery Sergeant Ermey  riding in a "jackwagon" wearing yellow makes me sad.  :(  :\'(

I can see the giant flag pole at Sea World from my front yard.  You and I watched the same fireworks together only we were both at our own homes at the time.

Were you still here when the entire stretch of 151 went to limited access?  No more traffic lights.  That alone cut my commute time to Ft. Sam in half.  I'm about 18.5 miles from where I work and my commute time is about 22 minutes.  That has a lot to do with my work hours.  I'm running that route around 5:30A.M.  An hour later and 151 gets slow.  They already need to widen it. The Great Northwest has had a population boom.  Anyone living beyond Culebra and Tezel that travel the same route that I do takes longer for them to get inside 410 than the rest of the commute.  Me, I'm on 151 about one mile from the house and across 410 in about 90 seconds after that. Because of my early work day, I miss the P.M. rush as well.   






I don't think I was. When I first moved out that way (used to live in an apt behind Ingram Mall-before buying the house in Jan 1988), Sea World wasn't opened yet and no one knew about 151. I loved it that there was no traffic. Then AFTER Sea World opened, word got out about 151 and traffic increased. I left S.A. in Jan or Feb 1989. BTW, I was working at Wilford Hall.


Cat

I don't think I was. When I first moved out that way (used to live in an apt behind Ingram Mall-before buying the house in Jan 1988), Sea World wasn't opened yet and no one knew about 151. I loved it that there was no traffic. Then AFTER Sea World opened, word got out about 151 and traffic increased. I left S.A. in Jan or Feb 1989. BTW, I was working at Wilford Hall.


Cat



Cat - yeah you were long gone when they finally finished 151.  I got here in Oct of '85.  Sea World was still going up at that time.  I didn't start commuting on 151 until I got out in 1992 and started working at Ft. Sam.  I'm fairly sure that you told me once before that you worked at WHMC. 

Wilford is closing trauma and most of its funtions are going to Ft. Sam under BRAC.  It will most likely be used primarily for basic training troops at Lackland.  Ft. Sam has nearly tripled in population as the BRAC gains make their way there.  As of October the 502ND ABW has stood up on Ft. Sam.  Lackland, Ft. Sam, Brooks City Base, Randolph, Camp Stanley and Camp Bullis are all now parts of a mega base under one commander.  It's just a mess as Ft. Sam is the focal point for all the activies since it is the center point amongst all the other military facilities in town.  So the USAF is overseeing everything here. Ya wouldn't know the place if you came to visit.

Cat - yeah you were long gone when they finally finished 151.  I got here in Oct of '85.  Sea World was still going up at that time.  I didn't start commuting on 151 until I got out in 1992 and started working at Ft. Sam.  I'm fairly sure that you told me once before that you worked at WHMC. 

Wilford is closing trauma and most of its funtions are going to Ft. Sam under BRAC.  It will most likely be used primarily for basic training troops at Lackland.  Ft. Sam has nearly tripled in population as the BRAC gains make their way there.  As of October the 502ND ABW has stood up on Ft. Sam.  Lackland, Ft. Sam, Brooks City Base, Randolph, Camp Stanley and Camp Bullis are all now parts of a mega base under one commander.  It's just a mess as Ft. Sam is the focal point for all the activies since it is the center point amongst all the other military facilities in town.  So the USAF is overseeing everything here. Ya wouldn't know the place if you came to visit.






I did hear that "Uncle Willy" is now civilian. I'm sure I wouldn't recognize the place. I have check out my old house on Google Earth and it doesn't look the same (all the trees are now HUGE). As for visiting, no offense but I wouldn't want to. I hated the place when I lived there and I really have no desire to ever go back again.



Cat