Great thread you started Dave!
Me? I'm less than 2 mos. away from 6...6...6...just can't say it; I'm 59 years old going on 12. Born & raised right here in the southwest corner of Tennessee. Currently living in Collierville, a few miles east of Memphis. 3 unique & wonderful daughters (hers, mine & ours) 35, 23 & 17 and 1 delightful grandson, young Mr. Cade, at 15 mos. Can't wait 'til he's old enough to do some neat stuff with grandpaw.
Looks like many of us have ambled down similar paths in arriving here in half-A land, despite the disparity in age groups. Definitely some common interests:
1) Model aircraft - Started in '58 with a Scientific hollow-log U/C kit and an OK Cub .049B. In & out of the hobby since then with side-trips into FF, U/C sport/stunt, R/C beginning in 1980 including .40-.60 powered sport/pattern, .28-.40 pylon racing, Giant Scale aerobatics, fun-fly competition, scale, float-flying, indoor mini-sticks and exclusively Cox powered R/C & U/C since 1995. I have designed & scratch-built all the Cox powered stuff and many of the larger ones as well. I REALLY enjoy that adrenaline surge when the throttle is pushed to the stop and a new design breaks free of the ground for the 1st time. The designing thing got me into:
2) Computers - I guess most everybody on the planet has some level of personal relationship with computers. My 1st (and the only brand new) one was a Commodore Amiga 2000 purchased for video production. Best ol' buddy Brian & I did our club's annual banquet video with it. Got into CAD in '97 to make more accurate plans and then used those skills to get into home-spun CNC router cutting of balsa & plywood parts for the planes. The CAD drafting, word processing & then digital photography allowed me to have 8 articles published in Flying Models Magazine. Definitely a love-hate thing.
3) Cars - 1st car was a '56 Chevy convertible. I paid $10.00 for it. Somebody'd done a valve job and got the distributor in way out of whack so it backfired and caught fire. The owner slammed the hood and watched it burn 'til the metallic green hood turned mostly brown. The carb melted down into the manifold and the wiper motor was a puddle on top of the bellhousing. It originally had a 265 "Power Pack" with power steering, brakes and a 2 speed cast iron Powerglide. YUCK!!!! All that stuff came out and a .125" over '58 283 (301 in those days, now they call 'em 302's) with Hurst "Mystery Shifter" equipped 3 speed tranny went in. Loved that car...had my 1st, uhhh, relationship in that car. Wish I had it back now! (The car, definitely not the relationship.) Had a NICE '67 Camaro convertible with a 327 4 speed, Canary yellow with black interior. From that I got into:
4) British cars - Had several through the years including a '62 AH Sprite Mk II with many different drivetrains (yup, relationships in that one as well but it weren't easy) a '70 MGB, '73 Austin Marina (1st wife got that one in the divorce - hee, hee) hot-rodded '59 Morris Minor with the modified drivetrain from Spridget #1, Minilite mags, fat tires, etc. There was an Opel Manta in there somewhere as well. All the car stuff got me into my career in:
5) Auto service - Started in '67 for an independent import auto repair shop & worked on everything from Borgwards to Jags. Went from there to the local BMC dealer and worked on Austin Healeys, MG's, Triumphs, Alfas, Jags, Saabs, Maseratis. My forte was fixing the unfixable, including the customers so they moved me off the shop floor into taking care of customers and employees and that's what I've done to this day for the local Jag/Land Rover dealer. I guess you'd call that service management. Some days I'm not sure what you'd call it.
During the career thing I took a side trip into:
6) Motorcycles - All were dirt bikes. It's bad enough dodging trees & ravines, no way I'm riding on the street, dueling with the idiots around here. I had a smattering of Honda (modified '73 Elsinore) Suzuki and Kawasaki machines. Did a little amateur motocross, enduro and a lot of trail-riding. I loved it and was in the best shape of my life. Spent a lot of time modifying (improving?) them. On weekend camping/trail-riding trips to various off-road sites, I took along my:
7) Guitars - Strictly an amateur, self taught picker but really enjoyed it. I say enjoy-ED it 'cuz a wrong move with the ol' hedge-clippers left a couple of my frettin' fingertips numb and tender. I still play a little but it's not the same. I started playing back in the early 60's and was fascinated by "finger-style" pickin' ala Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, etc. That got me away from the flat pick and into the thumb pick. Anybody else into that style? Never had any really good instruments until I inherited my Dad's '67 Martin D-28. What a sound! It's currently stringless, awaiting the funds to fix the bridge cracking/lifting syndrome. Quite a valuable axe and I hope I can get it properly repaired someday.
8) Metalworking - I've always made/repaired metal stuff, being in the auto trade, and have procured tools, both hand & power as funds allowed. A good friend sold me his 8x16 lathe in '04 and that led to an obsession with anything that has to do with precisely machining metal. I'm an amateur at it but thanks to some great internet forums, am learning and acquiring "stuff" as time and funds will allow. Right now, I'm accumulating the plans and tooling needed to make a few model engines. I'm wanting to build a Stirling, an "atmospheric" (flame-licker) and hopefully a butane powered, spark ignition engine.
9) Shooting - Yup, a little bit here & there. Mostly plinking/target shooting. Only guns left are the ubiquitous Rugers: a 10-22 and "bull-barrel" .22 semi-auto pistol. There's a WWII Japanese bolt-action rifle at mom's that my dad brought home from the war. I feel a need coming on (with the above-mentioned metal obsession) to go get it and restore it.
10) NASCAR? Best ol' buddy Brian and I had a wager going on every season 'til he passed away back in April. We'd pick drivers every weekend and keep score all year. Loser had to buy dinner for the winner & the wives. It completely changed the sport for me. I watched the practice, qualifying, looked at previous race stats, etc., etc. and made my picks analytically rather than who my favorites were. Great fun!
11) Fishing - Yep, that too! Loved to fish for Bass, Crappie, Catfish, flyfish for Bluegills, a little saltwater fishing for Bluefish & Redfish. Got into antique outboard boat/motor restoration for a while there.
12) Flying the full-scale stuff - Put in several hours in a 150 'til I realized the cold-sweat/nausea thing wasn't temporary and was a hereditary inner ear problem. Dangit, I dreamed about building a homebuilt and experiencing the adrenalin rush of making the test-flight in a plane I built myself. Alas, it ain't happening.
ps: I tend to be wordy too.
