OT: Waxing poetic and general rambling

[pgermond]

Turnpike - where ya been man? It's been awhile. Sounds like you have a couple of keepers (me 2) [^]

Phil

427 Roadster, #4279436
Southern Automotive FE
3:31 and Toploader

Roseville (N.Cal)

[Brent]

Born in Evansville, IN. in 1967, sports and cars were everything. Played Football, Baseball, Basketball, and Wrestled through high school. My first project car was a '71 Mach 1 at the age of 14. My dad bought it for me as a 500.00 wreck to "teach" me. 14 months later it was a 472 ci. monster that probably contributed to my parents divorce my senior year. After high school I "played" in college and raced on the weekends. My father was diagnosed with Lukemia and died of a brain bleed a week later, I was 21 years old. BAD DEAL!!! I continued to race and the learning curve is VERY fast when you are by yourself. I built and had built 4 race cars after that date and finally quit when my second daughter was born in 2001. When we sold the car,truck,trailer,and spares we built a new home and settled into a subdivision (for the girls). I have never missed owning a race car, however, I still miss the adrenaline competition and speed offer. On the day the race car was picked up I told my wife I would build a Cobra as soon as the funds were in order. She said " A what?" I said "you'll see". Later that year my daughter started having seizures and after multiple trips to the hospital, MRI, EEG, Cat Scans, etc. she was diagnosed with Epilepsy. After two years of monthly trips to Barnes Childrens Hospital and too many medications to remember she has pulled out of it and has been medication free for almost a year now. Praise GOD!
I have a wonderful wife and a GREAT life. I manage a full line RV dealership and have done so for 10 years. I am very active with my daughters and plan to stay that way until they leave. I get them up every day, feed them breakfast, take them to scchool and daycare, and my wife and I take turns reading to them at night. Why do I make a point of this??? I don't think it is a "kids now days" society issue, I think it is a "parents now days" issue. The familys I see in our RV dealership looking at pop-ups and small trailers are ALOT different than the familys I used to see at the racetrack. At the racetrack dad was all about dad. During the week dad was in the garage all hours of the night making sure the car was ready for dad to have fun with. I saw this and I got out.

Thanks guys!!



Brent
4279401
Candy Apple Red/White
402 FE/Toploader/3.54

[will butterworth]

good read Brent, you are so right on each count. Glad daughter is well and doing great, so good to see others experiences, not all that diff., yea, life has been good--deep in the night when awake I thank the good lord for my children, wife, friends good people ,what a life. Will--Alabama

[bittentoo]

Great stuff Brent[^] There's no wonder why I like you all from the moment we met

Can't wait for the next Homecomming!

Kelly

[ralphscott]

I was born in 1945 My mom was a war bride, My dad met her in No. Africa. I was born 2 wks after she came to the states. Grew-up in a small farming town so small that the first population sign was 500 and that was when I was 14 or so. We had chickens about 300-500 my dad also worked for the phone company. I had a paper route for 5 years so we did what was needed to make ends meet. I owe my success to these early years of hard work and frugality. We enlarged the house and I began at the age of 12 to do carpentry, elctricial, plumbing and masonary skills. That have allowed me to build a couple houses and remodel a bunch in my life. We even put a basement under the house and dug it out by hand. Got married young had a couple a boys, ended up being a single parent for a bunch of years, I guess with all my business in life I never figured out the people equation so had to learn about that first hand. Re married 15 years ago to Gayle and if there ever was a soul mate she is it. Was saved on May 22, 1988. Such a moving experience that when I looked in the mirror I did not recognize myself I really looked different. Gayle says I look better. So those who know me can only imagine how bad I looked!! Contracted cancer in August of the same year after one surgery it was determined that it was very agressive. While praying to the Lord for someone to watch over my boys, since I was not married and awaiting further testing in the hospital the Lord came to me and healed me. I really knew he did it. They did the tests sent me back up to the room where I told Gayle that I had been healed. The doctor came up a couple of hours later I told him as well, he just shook his head and said that is all that it could have been as they could find no cancer. We then went ahead and took out some lymph nodes in an other surgery, no cancer was found. As I was preparing to check out I asked about chemo 'cause everyone who has cancer seems to get it. My doctor turned to me and said you have no cancer so there is no need for further treatment. I guess that is the biggest thing in my life and the thing that has changed me in the most profound ways. Sure wish it would have happened 40 years earlier.

Ralph

[pgermond]

Great stories Brent and Rlaph. Brent - you're just a pup! Ralph - you must be living right!

Phil

427 Roadster, #4279436
Southern Automotive FE
3:31 and Toploader

Roseville (N.Cal)

[TurnpikeBoy]

Man - some of the experiences here are pretty numbing. Ralph, you can be sure that we are ALL real glad to have you. Brent, can't think of anything on earth that could be worse than what you've had to endure - and we will keep you all in our prayers.

That old saw that "you think you've got it bad?" keeps being made fresh in my mind these days. Dunno why, but it does. Hearing your troubles, and seeing a couple involving friends/acquaintances right here at home, just makes me realize just how really, really fortunate I have it.

Phil - working for a living cuts into playtime bad , and that's why there hasn't been much from here. And I'm wit'cha, brother - there's no doubt you've got keepers...ya just gotta love 'em, cause at the end of the day they really are wonderful .

Yeehah

[will butterworth]

ssooo right phil, ralph , have seen God perform miracles in my time, the catch is for us to be smart enough to realize that it was a miracle, Joan,s mother-God brought her out of death-we had planned her funeral, me,zach, cy, prayed asked God to heal granny , they were small Zach15, Cyrus 10 , and she was healed over a period of time, was in hosp. 2 mo. and nurs. home 2 mo. buddy dr. west still to this day calls her his miracle patient.Funny thing, i,ve liked this family from get go, don,t know why, just family folks ,our unique family, great guys, even if brent is in conn. and phil is in calif., think my history is in another section called the unfortunates.Auburn-oralabama Alan, ? Where is Maurice at? Will-Alabama

[rdorman]

I basically told God who was in charge one night. The next day he reminded me who really is in charge. Don't need another reminder!
Rick

[ralphscott]

Rick, God has a way of doing that. I get reminders often!

Will, we are seeing a miracle with my mother-in-law who has Altzheimers. After 2 and a half years she is back to her old self joking cutting up and remembering short term. She has gone from near death, no ability to talk or eat and just staring at the ceiling to her current lively state over the period of about 6 months. She is not on any Altzheimers meds either. I think it happens more than we realize, people just don't want to believe it or talk about it. Don't mean to preach, but I just can't help observing.

Ralph

[eliminator]

Will,

Brent is in Indiana, Southern Indiana at that.

Rick
#4279405

[eliminator]

What was the name of that show??

This is my Life.

Good reading though, I enjoy hearing about the various people on the Forum.

Rick
#4279405

[Russ Dickey]

Born August 14th, 1971. To say that I was born into a Ford family is an understatement. At 4 days old, my parents brought me home from the hospital is dad's '68 GT-500 (which my mom later made my dad trade in on a more "practical" Torino...who knew?). All of my uncle's & cousins had (and still have) Mustangs, Fairlanes, Cyclones, and all sorts of classic Ford's, so you could say that my blood runs Ford Corporate Blue.

My one sister and I were raised right here in the midwest, in the Kansas City area. My father and I were very close, and he taught me an appreciation of high-performance automobiles, but especially the Cobra. When I was in 7th grade, he bought a '66 Mustang project car for us to restore together, which was to be my first car. He died suddenly and unexpectedly less than a year later (he was only 36), and it was a crushing blow to me. My mother (whom I respect and admire more than anyone in the world) perservered on and brought us up the rest of the way by herself, and she has never remarried.

With the help of family and friends, I restored the little '66 Mustang coupe through high school, and still own it to this day (although it's undergoing it's 2nd restoration). I went to college locally and majored in Criminal Justice, to pursue a career in local and federal law enforcement. Well, life has all sorts of wierd paths, and now I've ended up being the director of marketing for a company that specializes in diecast collectible cars and racing apparel (I basically get paid to be a 12-year-old kid instead of dodging bullets, not a bad trade-off if you ask me).

I married my wife Sheila in 2000, and we are just now getting around to trying to have our first children (although we do own two little dachsunds that we consider our kids). In 2003, I became the first in the Dickey family to realize the dream of owning a Cobra when I purchased my Unique 289 FIA. There's not a day that goes by that I don't wish my dad could be here to enjoy the car with me, but I have a strange feeling that whenever I take the car out for a solo drive, he's probably sitting right there beside me, grinning ear to ear.

Thanks for letting me share, and for sharing with me.

Russ

Unique 289FIA - Viking Blue

[Brent]

Russ, Thanks for posting. You make me feel old. (-:



Brent
4279401
Candy Apple Red/White
402 FE/Toploader/3.54

[will butterworth]

Ralph, have been around altzheimers patients 14 yrs. in med. work, they don,t do that , yep, there is your sign.From indiana makes him a nice guy, rick, sorry brent,landed in a corn field one time came to buy hospital beds and suites from hill-rom, in batesville indiana, long time ago. Nice folks, rick, going to try to smite one of those coyotes this weekend, gotem on ol roy right now.Will-alabama

[will butterworth]

Russ did you all ever find out what happened to your dad, good read, thanks .Will-alabama

[will butterworth]

Russ, forgot, but have a good friend in kansas ci., john Timmons, reg. mkting rep for john deere, sends me great jd hats.Will-alabama

[KrAzEcJ]

Russ was smarter than me! Cobra first then the kids LOLOL

Unique 4279459

[Russ Dickey]

Ha! Funny you mention that CJ! That was the closing line in my best man's speech at my wedding:

"Remember Russell....Cobra then kids!" I took that to heart, because I knew that on my "average joe" salary, I wouldn't be able to afford one until the kids were grown and gone, and I just couldn't wait that long.

Will: yeah, I forgot to mention that. My pop died in an accident. As we've seen from everybody's posts, life deals us all some challenging hands at one point or another.

Unique 289FIA - Viking Blue

[pgermond]

Great post Russ. Geez - 1971? My daughter was born in '72! You guys are making me feel like a grandpa ([:O]..... which I am [^])

I can't remember if I said this already or not, but this is for Keith - thanks for starting this topic.... a great way to get to know everyone. Still waiting for Clay and Steve's closet to open up.

Phil

427 Roadster, #4279436
Southern Automotive FE
3:31 and Toploader

Roseville (N.Cal)