Mencken_Fan

Not a fan of babies (beyond their being a necessity) but that's a lovely shirt and it fits you very well. Nice smile too. You're quite far from the coast and not really in hurricane territory. You're outside the snow belt - and summers in Gaston must be ungodly hot. So I'm curious, why a weather nut and what got you started?

Nice intake manifold too he-he. (Yea...my eyes caught that.)

Always a fan of Pontiacs, yours looks fine (the previous owner appears to have taken good care of it.) In high school I drove a '61 Pontiac Ventura (which then was a 2-door "Sport Bonneville with 389 V8" and not the ugly creature that years later stole the name "Ventura.") And speaking of Pontiac, the most beautiful car I ever owned was a '69 metallic dark green Catalina with 4bbl 400 V8. Ya don't see styling like that anymore! (And fuel mileage was just fine as long as you left the second pair of carbeurator barrels alone, ha-ha.) Some people probably don't realize these big engines with 4-barrel carbeurators were not automatically "gas hogs." The accelerator linkage only activated the first 2 carbeurator barrels for normal driving which gave reasonably good fuel mileage. It was only under unusual circumstances (rapid acceleration, passing, very-high-speed cruising) when the carbeurator linkage activated all 4-barrels. You could cruise a highway at 70mph by barely touching the gas pedal....but at 80mph or higher, you were "on the pedal" and burning fuel like crazy. These big cars with big engines were "designed" to cruise at reasonable speeds...and to make you pay for (illegal) high-speed driving through the gas tank!

I've been without a pet for many years now (my last was an easy going Calico cat who died a decade ago) but have oft consider it. Cat? Dog? Type? A spaniel like those we've discussed might cheer my life up greatly....but I really hadn't thought of it before now. I will keep it in mind now. As for the old VW "bugs"; oh my! Yes, I had one of those too....With its light weight and rear engine, it would drive circles around everyone else in the snow; but that air-cooled engine was a horror in winter. When living in Maryland I was invited to a family reunion in Utah. I thought about driving my VW bug for the trip then imagined myself crossing the Rockies and freezing to death, LOL! I went; but left my "beetle" at home.... And like with almost all of the old VW bugs...it eventually died on the side of some long-forgotten road. Tim in ILM

13 seconds to hit 60? OMFG! You gotta be kidding....but I understand. Yea, I had the 460 V8 and it would go from 60 to 120 in a flash, LOL. I always liked big family cars with big engines. I once had a metallic green '69 Pontiac Catalina with a 400 V8 that was as beautiful to look at as it was pleasurable to drive...but my "Oldsmobile 88" with a "Rocket 455" V8 engine...well, I remember driving on the D.C. beltway doing the speed limit one afternoon when a car passed me by like I was standing still. So yea, I put the gas pedal to the floor to see if I could catch up to him, ha-ha....Well, all four barrels kicked in and it sounded like a jetliner taking off as my speedometer rocketed to 100mph as fast as I could say "holy mackerel!" I remember the "super cars" of my younger days but I never owned one. Most were small and cramped...my friend had a Camaro and I hated it! It was like climbing into a 1960s lunar capsule! The spacious interiors with huge V8 engines of the past were a combo of luxury and power...and that was the way to travel. Tim in ILM

Kudos to you for serving in the military. I did a stint as a Cold War Warrior in USAF/NORAD back in the early '70s. It's not a career for everyone of course, but just serving once is a terrific experience; especially if one knows how to take advantage of it. My duty stations from basic training to completion of service were, in order: Texas, Mississippi, Alaska, and Virginia. Taking advantage of "hops" (free rides on Air Force planes) I spent my free time in: Okinawa, Thailand, Japan, California, and several towns/cities in Alaska. In my view....crimany...it's only a few years out of one's young life. Yea, basic training can be a pain in the rear but it doesn't last long. Then ya go to technical school to learn a "trade" (you're like half-way between basic training and the "real life" one has at a duty station.) My tech school was Keesler AFB in Biloxi...and you can bet I spent some wild weekends in New Orleans! And then ya go off to your duty station - which may or may not be the greatest place on earth but heck, it's an experience! Sorry to go off on such a tangent....as for your pup; part spaniel and part unknown....you and I have shared the gilded same boat. I know what you have...and it's priceless. Tim in ILM

That's a beauty there kiddo. Back in my old Maryland days, I once had a similar Lincoln but gray, and a bit older. The car was an absolute monster, both in size and power; but strangely it had significant weather limitations... Driving down I-270 towards D.C. one night with no traffic around, curiosity got the best of me and I put the gas pedal to the floor. In short order the speedometer pegged at its limit - 120mph. But when it snowed...good grief! Making a left or right hand turn on snow-covered residential streets was a combination of comedy and horror. Even at a mere 5 mph, that sonofabitch would refuse to change directions. Talk about inertia in motion! A great car but a nightmare in snow. Tim in ILM

That dog (the most magnificent animal I've ever known) was supposedly a mutt. All I was told was that she was half spaniel and half unknown. I know next to nothing about dog breeds - so you might better know just by looking at the picture (and to be honest, I've never even heard of a "Brittany" spaniel.) I took her everywhere, even for long treks down to the Potomac (our house in Sumner, Maryland (extreme west Bethesda about a mile above the D.C. border) was about a mile from the river. She lived a reasonably long life but developed some type of cancer so we had to put her down earlier than we'd hoped or expected. Thanks for the comment; and while I named by brother, I'll add my own (lifelong nickname); Tim (which oddly is in no way related to my legal first name which I never use.) Tim in ILM

BEFORE AND AFTER: 1958 - Me on the right. (My younger brother John, killed in a car crash in 1973 on the left.) 50 years later: 2008 - Me.