Yes, I had one! 2-on-1 Dec 13

 

This week's topic was suggested by me after reading a post with a similar title. It allows a bit of fun as we cruise through the holiday season. And what, pray tell, did I have? Well that depends on the time period in question so lets step into the Way Back Machine with Mr. Peabody and Sherman and have a look.

As a boy in the fifties it was natural for me to be a cowboy fan, and I was. I had just about every toy gun offered including a Rifleman rifle and a hog leg as carried by Steve McQueen in Wanted, Dead or Alive. I was the rootin tootinest kid in the neighborhood, surely destined for NRA membership.

Advancing the timeline a bit, high school days were a fun time and yes I had a car to get around in. My folks bought the very first Mustang convertible supposedly to hit the SF Bay Area. It was silver smoke gray (auto company 
code for light gray) with a red interior and a white rag top. I used to take it on

rallys on Friday nights. They were great fun -something like scavenger hut in your car. Pie plates with things of numeric value written on them placed hither and yon - and you get a set of instructions which if followed correctly would take you to the next pie plate which had a clue to the next pie plate, eventually leading you to a finish line. In our case we then adjourned to a Straw Hat Pizza place to total our scores, eat pizza and maybe win a trophy. We actually did place in several.
 Yes -I had a sports car. That is always good for a laugh as I am a rather large fellow.My first car was a 1956 red MGA. My friends also had sports cars - we were the anti-hot rodders - none of that Detroit slag for  us. There was an  

MGB, a Sunbeam Alpine, a Triumph Spitfire GT6  and another MGA. A few years back my friend Mark was car shopping and a friend of mt stap-dad had an MGB he had restored - so he brought it over so Mark could test drive it/ Mark was convinced I'd never get in and his jaw thudded on the ground he sure got a kick out of the test drive. Those MGA days were what I consider the good old days.

Yes, I had a student loan. Now I have to admit - I did not really need a student loan as my college education was dirt cheap. Tuition and books each quarter at then Cal-State University rarely surpassed $200 or so. But I needed a new stereo so I got a student loan on a Friday and on Saturday left the local Pacific Stereo with a dynamite stereo system. Ironically, years later when managing a RadioShack store in Oakland one of my customers was a gentleman named Ed Long - the guy that designed the speakers I bought and the designer of Time Aligned speakers and PZM microphones which were designed using microphone elements Ed purchased from me.m And yes I did pay my student loan back on time.

When it comes to friends, I have  some spectacular ones. One played in the NFL for 7 years but the one with the largest impact on life as we know it is my pal Stuarts from Rego Park, Queens  NY. He went to Forest Hills High - the same as Paul Simon and Art Garfunkle. When he had secured his Masters Degree in engineering from NYU he went to work at Bell Labs. At one tine he was in charge of the AT&T PC business but his favorite job was in the development of cellular communications. Stu led the team that deigned the switching systems  that make cell phones work. One afternoon I got a call from Stu - not unique in and of itself. I asked him  where he was - Chicago n a taxi testing our new communication stuff - how do I sound? Needless to say I was flabbergasted. He also had some interesting tales to tell about the PC business and how Olivetti did business but those are for a different day.

That concludes my run through the "I had one of those" things Of course there were others - a hula hoop which I never did get the hang of, a male cat named Susie - a Main Coon that was bigger than a bobcat. Susie looked just like this

and ruled the neighborhood. He was a very cool cat. He could also be kinda scary LOL. 

Enjoy those unique moments and people in your life. They keep things interesting and that helps keep you going when you can look back and enjoy those mom get lucky

That is it for this weeks 2-on-1 blog. Be sure to see what Ramana has to say over at Ramana]s Musings

PS - I never did join the NRA.