My Facetruck thread.

[special-K]

Your dad and my dad had a lot in common from what you've said. He dropped out of school, had my grandmother sign him up at 17, and became a Ranger medic. He collected up an some medals as well. He went to college on the G.I. Bill where he met my mom. Became a HS teacher and worked to develop the WOC (work oriented curriculum) and OJT (on job training) programs for kids at risk of dropping out. He became good friends with the woodshop teacher (Dicky Woodard, a big influence on me) at one school. They'd work in the woodshop after hours teaching a few students how to make guitars. My sister has one he made. One student went on to opening a guitar shop. They started a folk music club and they met at our farm. On weekends our place was the hangout.

There wasn't anything he wouldn't try to do. Him and Dicky messed with cars and motorcycles on the farm, too. Dad never took a car to a shop. I watched him rebuild engines, manual transmissions, rears... etc. We never had a new car. He also built a big dormer addition on our house one summer. I always felt lucky to have the dad I did. He passed Jan 15, 04. Damn diabetes got him

[davischevy]

An old Italian Mafia Don is dying and he called his grandson to his bed.

"Grandson I wanna you lisin to me. I wanna for you to take my chrome plated
38 revolver so you will always remember me."

"But grandpa I really don't like guns, how about you leaving me your Rolex
watch instead."

"You lisina to me, soma day you goin a be runna da bussiness you goina have
a beautiful wife, lotsa money, a big home and maybe a couple of bambinos.
Soma day you goina coma home and maybe finda you wife in bed with another
man. What do you gonna do? Point to you watch and say TIME'S UP?"

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by davischevy

An old Italian Mafia Don is dying and he called his grandson to his bed.

"Grandson I wanna you lisin to me. I wanna for you to take my chrome plated
38 revolver so you will always remember me."

"But grandpa I really don't like guns, how about you leaving me your Rolex
watch instead."

"You lisina to me, soma day you goin a be runna da bussiness you goina have
a beautiful wife, lotsa money, a big home and maybe a couple of bambinos.
Soma day you goina coma home and maybe finda you wife in bed with another
man. What do you gonna do? Point to you watch and say TIME'S UP?"

[slomotion]

Originally Posted by special-K

........

Then tomorrow I'm meeting Roy, a 79 year old feller from the Shenandoah Valley (Fort Valley within, actually). He's buying a power steering box, pump, and hoses to put on his '61 Apache. I can't wait to meet him. He says he's been fooling with these trucks for 60 years.

Roy didn't make any mention of "Dry Run", "Seven Fountains", or "Four Corners" did he? Those places are dear to my heart. They're in "Powell's Fort Valley" which is the valley between Woodstock and Front Royal.

[Killer Bee]

for my fellow Jack fans..

found this little gem in our neighborhood liquor store..

No 5 Master Distiller Series - Frank Bobo

very tasty! that is all..

[special-K]

Originally Posted by slomotion

Roy didn't make any mention of "Dry Run", "Seven Fountains", or "Four Corners" did he? Those places are dear to my heart. They're in "Powell's Fort Valley" which is the valley between Woodstock and Front Royal.

No, we met kinda quick at a convenience store in Berryville, about 1/2 way point for both. He had his wife and they needed to get back home to prepare for a trip to her sister's the next morning to celebrate her 99th birthday! But he did say he would keep my number and I'm keeping his. That's where he's from, born & raised.

I know those places. Something almost magical about that valley. Like a world within itself, especially in the early days. I know the Union Army never knew it existed . My great grandmother, dad's side, was a Saum. Saumsville is along the tracks west of US11 just north of Woodstock. The house she was born in is still there. I spent my honeymoon night at a bed & breakfast in Woodstock. My sister lives in Rileyville up on the mountain at the boundary for the national park/Skyline Dr. You can see both ridges of Massanutten that cradle Fort Valley. That area is like a second (third?) home to me. The other is Friendsville, MD where my mom is, was born.

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by Killer Bee

for my fellow Jack fans..

found this little gem in our neighborhood liquor store..

No 5 Master Distiller Series - Frank Bobo

very tasty! that is all..

Hmm...I'm on the hunt now.

[davischevy]

Originally Posted by Killer Bee

for my fellow Jack fans..

found this little gem in our neighborhood liquor store..

No 5 Master Distiller Series - Frank Bobo

very tasty! that is all..

I you haven't already toured the Jack Daniels distillery, and get a chance, do it.
I thoroughly enjoyed that tour.

[Killer Bee]

been there once and also a squire

lost almost every picture from that trip, only ones saved were resized for text during trip

this is the playground in Lynchburg



and this was a memorable game

Browns' record road comeback stuns Titans





exploring the farm back home..





discovering daddy's lego from the 70's



had to ship that home for the kids, 35lbs of lego

[Steeveedee]

Originally Posted by Killer Bee

been there once and also a squire

lost almost every picture from that trip, only ones saved were resized for text during trip

this is the playground in Lynchburg



and this was a memorable game

Browns' record road comeback stuns Titans





exploring the farm back home..





discovering daddy's lego from the 70's



had to ship that home for the kids, 35lbs of lego

Some little kid has died and gone to LEGO heaven!

[special-K]

Hah... Legos! My older son (Jason) is 40 and my younger (Sam) is 26 now. Jason wound up with quite a collection that Sam inherited. In the gap between, Lego had come out with a lot more stuff that we got for Sam. The end result is a trash can full and that thing is heav-EE. I have a picnic house, screened-in shelter for an 8' picnic table and Sam would sit in there all day constructing things and making layouts on the table. I started calling it Sam's Lego House.

How about Hot Wheels? Same thing. Not just the cars, but all the track. Same ended up with Jason's and then his. I kinda like those little things just a bit myself (), so I bought him more than a few. My back yard is on a slope and we would build runs that went a good 50-60'. I have a couple tub containers full of track pieces, jumps, loops, and of course superchargers (battery powered 'boosters'). On the cars I thought were cool I'd always buy two so that when they grew up they'd have a mint unopened version of the ones they played with to sell or collect. I know I would have loved if my parents had done that with my toys. I do have all my Matchboxes from my childhood. I only had (have) one Hot Wheels because I was kinda done with toys by then. It's the first year Mustang from '68. Now it's my grandson Gus's turn. We've been doing the Hot Wheels track but he's a bit young yet for the Legos... at least not without strict adult supervision. He's go plenty other stuff he'll grow out of soon to do for now.

[Steeveedee]

My youngest brother has a collection of Hot Wheels vehicles. I forget if it's ~5000 vehicles or ~$5000 worth. There are certainly a lot of 'em, in any event.

[Killer Bee]

wan't much on hotwheels when I was a kid, most weren't my taste.. but I did have a few matchbox 'stockers' that mom eventually gave to other kids that needed toys..

I did however have a fair footage of AFX track and miles of HO, little bit of N and one, now antique, 3 rail Lionel O gauge complete set still in original [tattered] box..

over a dozen HO engines and about 75 cars ran on several different layouts growing up.. dad had one left over from his younger adulthood that he eventually let me build onto.. finally built a dedicated table just for my trains.. trains and track all boxed up in the house back home, table is still around, keeping fertilizer or something like that off the concrete

my dad loved buying lego for me.. not the make believe village and space stuff so much, but the expert builder kits.. he always found value in assembling kits into something that functioned like real equipment..to some degree, may be partly responsible for my career as a mechanic..

the boy's collection is no slouch, but most of the modern kits are full of purpose built, single use pieces that take a lot of the creative fun out of it.. and however cool he thinks the latest kit is, he's always bugging me to get mine out.. which he's allowed to play with of course but gets put away later

Mrs Bee and I spent hours sorting all the pieces out in hopes of putting some of the kits back together for my boy to build later.. I found this mega-site for locating missing or damaged pieces.. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/main.page











not vintage track but a cool four-lane setup I bought for the boy on Christmas couple of years ago.. although there's a lane for all of us, the china stuff just doesn't run near as well as the originals did



bought this china lionel set for the tree about 5-6 years ago.. nothing like the originals but suits the purpose I guess..

they just don't make toys like they used to, probably same thing my parents were saying when I was a kid

[special-K]

Yeah, I didn't go for the take it out of the box and make it like the picture stuff. Like you say, takes the whole point of them away... creativity, building design skills, etc.

HO was my thing, too! My favorite piece of track was the train crossing with the road. I had quite a layout, scenery, buildings, static cars & trucks and all. This was in the mid-late '60s. I wish I had all those cars now.

I remember I got a hold of some phosphorescent paint. I painted the headlights on the cars and ran them around in the dark. Then there was souping them up, spongy slicks you had to carve out the fender wells for. Did you ever cut the chassis out so you could put a second magnet on the back side of the armature? Yeah, would burn out the armature before too long, but they sure ran like a bat out of hell for a while! How about making then to do wheelies? Let's see, you'd glue the springs to the chassis, cut the shoes up front so they didn't click onto the tabs, hold them spaced with electrical tape with the pin in between. I had a drag strip with a pillow at the end, do wheelies all the way down the track on the ones that had the extra magnet.

[Steeveedee]

I had an HO track that the cars ran on 22 Volt AC. Wish I had that now!

Our boys have tons of Legos. Pretty much all put away now, what with jobs. My youngest is 29 YO.

[Killer Bee]

we would have had a lot of fun as kids together

can't remember all the mods but something with a train transformer or something like that made my slot cars shoot off the track into an explosive crash

I do remember adding LED lights to a lot of my layouts.. the old style fat plastic kind with stiff wire leads.. my uncle taught me how to solder when I was like 10yo or so, wasn't an electronic toy in sight that was safe and my folks took me to radio shack and hobby stores for parts and supplies when we were in the city..

my most proud modification was on a pair of Tyco engines.. took four to make two twin engine powerhouses.. pull enough cars they would tip over in a turn, even 22 radius!

the engine was in the front and the rear truck was just a cast dummy to conduct power from the opposite rail.. I took the engine out of a donor, swapped the brush assignment so it would run backwards but the same way as the other engine flipped around.. they came with three axle trucks, the center axle was a dummy.. I had all three axles with traction tires on the insulated side and steel flanges on the conductor side, front and back.. two wires connected the engines to supply both conductors to each engine.. custom lead weights from fishing tackle made 'em heavy and hard pullers

might have given one away but pretty sure at least one of them is still in the box.. they were yellow and orange Chattanooga I think.. man, that's been over 30 years ago!

brings back fond memories of childhood, only wish my kids could enjoy a fraction of what I did.. video games and the like are not allowed in our house and Mrs. Bee's rule is no tv or electronics allowed 10am to 6pm on weekends.. we play sports and support their hobbies and crafts and such, so we're trying but outside influences from the other kids makes it tough!

[davischevy]

I never had an HO set and never had a nice slot car set (feel sorry for me here). Legos weren't invented yet. I had more heavy equipment Tonka type toys There was a bank of really nice top soil in a ditch bank down behind the house, and I had roads, and a quarry built there. I guess that's why I still play with toys in the dirt. There just bigger.

I loved to go to the Goodwill store. I could get toys there that were missing parts, usually wheels, and I would take two incomplete toys and make one. (don't feel sorry for me here) We still do that with dump trucks. I have two dump trucks that retain only the original frame rails. Both have been built from the ground up twice.

Killer I commend you and Mrs Bee for the video policy. My grandkids range from 5 to 13 and they too participate in outside activities. They are encouraged to participate in school sports too. It takes a lot of time chasing after them but it teaches them about life.

[davischevy]

Two guys were trying to get in a quick eighteen holes, but there
are two terrible lady golfers in front of them hitting the
ball everywhere but where it's supposed to go.

The first guy says, "Why don't you go over and ask if we
play through?"

The second guy gets about halfway there and comes back. The
first guy says, "What's wrong?"

He says, "One of them is my wife, and the other one is my
mistress."

The first guy says, "That could be a problem. I'll go
over." He gets about halfway there and comes back.

The second guy says, "What's wrong?"

The first guy says, "Small world."

[Killer Bee]

^ ^

thank you and when I retire, you're welcome to come up and play with my trains anytime!

[Steeveedee]

Yeah, looks like we'd have been some double trouble put together as kids. One of my friends had a chemistry set, so we set about making sulfuric acid. We were young enough that going in and buying a box of battery acid wasn't going to happen, even if we had had that kind of money. My friend was boiling the water off a batch of acid we made to make it stronger, swirling it over the alcohol burner, and spilled it on his hand. Hot sulfuric acid! His mom was a nurse and pretty P.O'd about it!

As a result of my inquisitiveness as a youth, I watched mine like a hawk. They still pulled stunts like taping model rocket motors to Hot Wheels cars and sending them down the hallway into my bedroom. Total distance of about 40 feet, and rocket smoke everywhere! Middle of summer, and I had to open all the windows to get the smoke out, because the smoke is toxic. This is obviously just an ice cube on the tip of a gigantic iceberg...good times!

[davischevy]

The grandkids have Lincoln logs and Legos so I'm good for now.

But you do need to hurry up that retirement. Working is not what it's cracked up to be.

[special-K]

Small world!

Someone say Tonkas? My boys grew up catching crawdads, frogs, turtles, and raising tadpoles. I had swings from the trees, built tree forts, a 10 x 12 sandbox out of 2 x 12 with close to 2' of sand. My older son and his friend made battle axes, clubs, other weapons, and armor out of wood wrapped with foam and duct tape and commenced to beating the crap out of each other for weeks. But they survived anyway

My youngest before the sandbox. That was sand for laying brick on the place



My grandson:



Me showing my sister how her firetruck works

[special-K]

I just saw these and want to share

My son Sam:


My grandson Gus:


And Special-K... on the right

[Killer Bee]

those are great, thanks for sharing!

but why is the last picture yellow?

jk, mine look that way too

[special-K]

Antique photos always look that way . How about that brand spankin' new lowboy/dozer rig? I don't consider myself old, but I like to roll along with any such comments... often it's me who takes it there. I got into collecting the old Tonkas and now have been selling some. And they ain't no $3.95 no more! To some non-collectors it may seem a bit overboard. But, it was play money I can now get back, and it has helped out. One of my favorite things I've come up with when talking about age is "Heck, I have antiques I bought new"