Train

Looks like we are rushing to get on a train.

It is 1975 and I am not exactly sure where we are.
I know we rode a train in Metamora once.
We played with the locks on a canal and rode a train there.
So I am guessing this is Metamora.

Brett

Brett in 1975 with his catch for the day.

My brother Brett won a bear hunting trip!

He won a trip to hunt for black bear in northern Saskatchewan.

I had heard this news through Mom and I sent him a text to find out more about it.

He said their web site is sportsmenna.com

He said they have a TV show on ICTV on the Dish Network.

They asked him if he would allow a camera man to join him on the trip.

Brett said the first thought that went through his mind was "Yeah I bet I could out run that guy."
Good thinking brother.

I think Brett will make for great television. He will probably get his own TV show out of this.
"Gadget goes a hunting" would be a good title for his show.

His hunting buddies call him Gadget because if it is out there and marketed towards hunters my brother has it and carries it with him. "Go, go, gadget doe scent" and he has it right there.

I searched their website and found this.

His wife probably wants him to take the cash option now. Sorry Brett.

I also found his snazzy profile picture which has him posing with Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.

I didn't Photoshop it. It really is his profile picture.

Have a great hunt Brett!

Never Bored

This slide shows Mom, my brother Chad and me in 1977.

Mom has our attention and is looking at her elbow.
I don't know if this was what she was saying right then but when I saw this picture I could hear the words she was saying to us as clear as a bell.
"Boys remember this. Never put anything in your ear except your elbow!"
Which we would immediately try to do.

Mom taught us to never be bored. There was always something to do, explore or create.

She put on puppet shows with her bare hands, Righty and Lefty.

She always has a pet with her. Making her hand walk around like a dog sniffing and barking at things it finds which are usually small ticklish children.

Grab her thumb and wind it up and it flops crazily around until it needs wound up again.

If you push her nose her tongue pops out. Pulling on her earlobes makes it move left to right. Pushing her nose again returns her tongue to its home.

All of that is if she has nothing but herself!
Give her paper, string, glue, leaves, sticks or virtually ANY object and you have everything you ever wanted.

I love to watch her entertain my kids, my nieces and nephews and any other person she has ever met.

Kids today don't need batteries, toys or television they need an imagination.

Thanks for giving me an imagination Mom.
Your right. I have never worn mine out or gotten tired of it yet.
I can honestly say I can't ever remember being bored.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 2

Ned shouted as a strange crew appeared, "It's man made!"

Swinging

I think that is Chad in the middle fighting over the swing.

He has the same color hair as Chad and the boy is wearing Chads crazy pants but his face looks a little different.
See what I mean?

I am pretty confident that that is my hind end at the left of the picture though.

The chain is twisted and I have my chest on the swing seat.

As a general rule I hate and have always hated to be dizzy.

Peer pressure and youth would win out from time to time and I would give it a shot.
If I were gonna get dizzy or have the potential to be dizzy I would prefer to have it happen on the swing.
I was in control of the swing and could stop myself at any

••••••••••

Swings were great fun.
It was the closet thing to flight as a kid.
Swing as high as you could and free fall back down, rise again and fall back in reverse.

Sometimes I was an astronaut experiencing weightlessness as the chain went slack and for a slight moment I hung in the middle of the air, weightless.

Other times I was in the army and the swing was my parachute.
At my elementary school we had a cloth-rubbery type swing that hugged you between the chains.
This was perfect for parachuting.
I would swing as high as I could and while in the full back position and hovering ever so slightly I would jump out of the seat.

That is right. I, and my friends, would jump out of the swing just before inertia pulled you forward again.
So while at the height of your swing you would push out on the chains giving you the slack you needed and jump out.
As you fell back forward and down the swing would go up behind you ever so slightly.
Time this perfect and you would catch the swing in your arm pits and grab hold of the chain just like a soldier hanging from a parachute.

Next came the tricky part.
You had to pull your feet in front of you to "Land" your chute or you would be dragged across the ground.
No good soldier wanted to be drug across the ground. Land it right soldier!
My knees still show the evidence that this soldier missed his landing a few times.

•••••••••••

Swings were great to jump out of in the forward direction too.
We went for distance and not height in this competetion.
We would take turns standing to watch for distance and then mark the farthest jump with a stick.
This event usually ended with some sort of injury for someone.
Ankles, legs and tailbones were prone be suffer.
Occasionally someone would get stuck in the swing and be dragged backward and suffer the fate of a bad soldier landing incorrectly. Ouch!

•••••••••

Last time I tried to swing it made me feel dizzy so I quit. :(

Reflections

My brother Chad by the creek in1974.

The tree behind him was a vital place for us when we were younger.
It wasn't a big tree but it was a unique tree.
One limb of this tree arched over the creek and we could jump up, grab it and swing across the creek when it was to wide for us to just jump over.

Thanks Mom and Dad for giving us a place to jump and crawl around as kids.


I think they were still building the house when this slide was taken.
Chads plane is made out of scrap lumber from the construction site.

Does he have his pants on backwards or were they made that way?

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea:View Master

Prof. Arronax, Conseil and Ned Land approached the monster.

•••••••••••

This is one of my Uncle Ed's reels.

It is from 1954 the same year Disney released the movie.
It has the booklet with it but is missing the last disk.

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Dad's Birthday

In my new tradition of posting "Happy Birthdays!" early so I won't forget them, Happy Birthday Dad!

We celebrate your photography and what you saw every week here at WMDS.

Your work both behind and in front of the camera is inspiring.

It inspires some more than others though.

Take your Grandson, Levi, for example.
He was clicking through the pictures on the websiteyesterday and was quite inspired by you ever changing beard.

He latched on to one style and decided that he had to try it.

I think he looks quite a bit like you. What do you think?

You almost look like twins!

I sent him a text message to see what the people at work thought of his new style and here is his reply.

"You know that look you get when you have something hanging out of your nose but nobody wants to tell you and they try not to look at you. Ha ha all day..."

I told him to enjoy it and he said he is.

Until his fiance see it.

Final Four

The final four was in town so the boys and I went to check it out some of the action.

Big ole building to play basketball in.

We had been here before but to watch motocross.

Butler vs. Michigan State.

The entrance is all decorated for the game and to block out as much of the Sun as they could.





This was a open practice to watch Butler.
Admission was free and the fans came rolling in to watch and cheer Butler on.

They said close to 40,000 people came to watch them practice.

Joel is amazed by how many people are there.
Levi isn't impressed with the view we had though.
We sat on the short end of the court and you could see that much.
I can't believe people would pay money to sit here.

We were impressed by this giant fan!

West Virgina took the court after Butler and a lot of the people began to leave.
Including us.

Sadly the road ended differently than Butler fans had hoped it would but it was a great game.

Long walk back to the car.
Walking was faster than driving though if you were anywhere near Lucas Oil Stadium.

Over all Joel was impressed!

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

1978 and the family is waiting in line to ride Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride!

I remember being nervous and excited at the same time as we waited to board the submarine of Captain Nemo.




Nemos crew gave us directions on how to board the submarine as it came into port.

We climbed through a hatch in the top of the sub and walked down the length of it.
I remember it having two benches that ran the length of the submarine and you sat in front of a porthole to look out into the murky depths of the sea.

After everyone had boarded the Captain told us that we would soon be diving and to prepare ourselves.

So I took a deep breath and held it as bubbles ran past the window of our submarine as we dove to untold depths.



We saw Nemos men as the worked their under sea gardens.



We also saw them wrestle with never before seen beasts.



We even saw strange creatures pass our windows.

Very fun ride.
I don't think it is at Walt Disney World any more though sadly.
My kids never got to ride it. It was always shut down or being updated when we were there.
Hard telling what it is now.

I am not sure what it is today but I do have a suggestion for what it could be or at least what these slides reminded me of.

Lost!

I can't say that I watch very much network programming but I do watch Lost.
I look forward to watching it each week with my wife!

After looking at my Dad's slides of Disney's ride I mashed the two together to see how it would look.

Two slides in particular caught my eye.




You could hear the works say "Namaste!" as you got of the sub onto the island.

Who know maybe Walt Disney was inspired after jumping through time on a strange island?

••••••••••••••

The diver pulling on the cable reminded me of the first time we saw the cable on the show.




That is what my mind imagined. Not a place to live on the bottom of the ocean!

Not sure how the sires will end but we have enjoyed it so far.

Easter

Easter at Grandma Whites was always a good time.
Good food, Grandma Whites eclairs anyone?, and cousins always made it fun.

I love the picture at the top.
It reminds me of cartoon gangs that were on Television at the time.
When you were watching stuff like, Scooby Doo Where are you?, The Funky Phantom and The Hair Bear Bunch it is bound to come out in your clothing style.

See what I mean?

I am not sure what Uncle Ed was watching that influenced his green suit choice but it was probably ANYTHING on prime time television at the time.


It must have been a really nice weather that Easter.

We played football that day. What a great time. I remember bits and pieces of that day in Grandma's yard.
Specifically that I kept stepping in dog doo.
I can always find it. It is a gift I have.

Cousin Sondra is looking like she is ready for the Bicentennial with her outfit.

Hey look her twin Rhonda has on a matching shirt! Crazy how that happens.

More pictures of that day can be found HERE.

Have a nice Easter.

If your out there cousins, from both sides of the family, say hey in the comments.