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Each year we hold a Halloween Party at Texoma Harley-Davidson and this past Saturday was the day.. Customers were invited to dress up and share in the fun. Pizza and snacks were offered to make it a pleasant trip to the dealership....but unfortunately someone forgot to tell the weatherman about the festivities...It rained most of the morning and was off and on throughout the afternoon..
Over the years Momma and I have gotten in a rut over the costumes we have worn... She has been a witch so many times she almost has a membership card in the witches union, and I have been some kind of pirate dating back to the days of Jean Lafitte. This year Momma was dressed as a lady of the evening,...or possibly a gypsy... She kept saying, "I'll leave it up to you," when people would ask.
.... and when you have a lady of the evening, you usually will have someone she calls boss... or pimp. As you can see, this turned out to be me. The wig was hot as hell, but it sure got a lot of attention (maybe it was the suit). We found this suit in a gag gift bag and everything was included..the suit, the hat, and the rhine-stone dollar accessory. I picked up the wig at a different party store.
AnneMarie was suppose to be a Navajo Indian, but I thought she looked like Cher...and I wasn't the only one. The two are standing by some boots that were on sale.. Over one hundred and twenty dollar boots, marked down to $59.95. Needless to say, they were a big mover and lots of customers took advantage of the bargain.
This is a group photo of all the girls in the motor-clothes department with Momma and I.. It was a fun day and everyone enjoyed the costumes...but it would have been even better if the rain had waited until nighttime.
The 2014 models are arriving daily and they look great...but Texoma Harley-Davidson has a vast selection of prior-owned bikes to chose from also.. Come see us !!
When most people are asked about the hometown of Dwight David Eisenhower, they will reply he was from Kansas.. True to a degree, but not entirely. Ike was born in Denison, Texas and his family moved to Kansas in a job transfer for his dad. Even Ike himself did not know exactly where he was born until he entered the Army and needed a copy of his birth certificate.
Ike was born October 14, 1890 and died March 28, 1969... He went to West Point (U S Military Academy) and played on the football team for the cadets..
That's Ike second from the left.. Omar Bradley was on the same team..
Ike served as a lieutenant in World War I...and decided to stay in the Army when the war concluded. When the second World War came, Ike was on the staff of General Douglas MacArthur in the Pacific Theater of the war. MacArthur wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Army, calling Ike the best officer he had ever seen. He was immediately transferred to Europe and helped plan the invasion of North Africa (Operation Torch).
When it came time to invade Northern France to open a second front, Ike was put in charge and promoted to Supreme Commander of the Allies. He jumped over 53 more senior officers to take the position. Petty jealousy between the allies was Ike's biggest fear, and he worked tirelessly to make sure everyone got the best assignments possible.
When the war ended, Germany was cut up into four sectors with each of the Allied Countries receiving a sector of responsibility.. Above is Bernard Montgomery, representing the British, Ike standing in for the U.S.,..Marshall Georgy Zhukov of the Soviet Union, and Charles deGall of France.
In 1952 the Republicans talked Ike into running for President and he won in a landslide over Democrat Adlai Stevenson. Ike served two terms as President, from 1953 until 1961.
Denison, Texas is proud of its most famous son...and last year a monument was erected at exit 67 on U.S. Highway 75 for all to see.
The monument is surround by red bricks...and on each brick is the name of a military veteran.. Some of the names go back as far as the War of 1812 and the Civil War. Some are as recent as Iraq and Afghanistan, but they are all there with the former President...
My wife and I recently went to see the movie 'Gravity' starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney... I don't think I will give away anything by telling you...they are the ONLY two people in the entire movie.. You do see some of the other crew members from a distance,..and hear Ed Harris' voice as the cap-con voice from Houston.. but only the two main characters are front and center on the screen....
The plot of the movie is something like this:.. A repair crew is sent up to fix a problem on the Hubble telescope and while they are in the midst of repair work they get word from Houston about a different satellite that has been struck by a meteorite and possibly will be entering their orbit.. They continue with the repair work until the voice from Houston tells them to terminate the work immediately and return to their rover vehicle... Too late!.. The debris from the other satellite and more meteors begin striking all around them. Can you say extreme devastation? Clooney plays the part of Matt Kowalski.. a cowboy type individual with a very casual demeanor. He is as calm as a surgeon with all this pandemonium going on around him.. actually cracking jokes.
He is the experienced astronaut while Bullock plays the part of Dr Ryan Stone, an engineer brought along to fix the problem on the Hubble. Clooney gives off some good advice and keeps telling her to remain calm.
There is one part of the movie where I was reminded of 'Castaway' with Tom Hanks. Remember the part where he is washed up on the island after the plane crash..and for forty-five minutes Hanks had the scene all to himself as he talked to himself and tried to figure out how to get off the island and back to civilization... Well, that is what happens in 'Gravity'... Bullock has the screen all to herself for thirty to forty minutes as she collects herself and transfers to an abandoned Chinese satellite that has been in orbit for months.. BUT with Bullock the scenery is a lot more pleasing to the eye than with Tom Hanks..
The scenery passing behind them as they work on the problem is out of this world (pun) and is really impressive. I was even able to pick out continents passing in the background.. and even Texas too. I saw an interview on TV with a former astronaut and he too was impressed with the movie, saying it was as realistic as the real thing.
I will not spoil the end of the movie for you,...but suffice to say, I enjoyed it immensely and highly recommend it. Evidently, others seem to agree with me as the movie was the top money winner after its first weekend out.... Ironically, the movie it beat out for the top spot was the latest effort of Tom Hanks, 'Captain Phillips.'
I was working out in the garage when I heard an unusual sound outside...and it was getting louder by the second. I looked up just in time to see a B-17 bomber banking right over my house. Naturally, I didn't have my camera with me, but I quickly grabbed it and fired up the Shadow for a ride out to Grayson Airport.
There she sat...in all of her glory. America's largest bomber during the early years of World War II. The Boeing Corporation turned out B-17s by the thousands from the late 1930s until the B-29 came into production in 1943. Each B-17 carried a crew of ten men,.. a pilot and co-pilot,..a navigator and radio operator.. also a flight engineer/crew chief..and the rest were all machine-gun operators. America lost hundreds of these planes and men in their campaign to bomb Nazi Germany into submission.
This particular B-17 is home-based out of Mesa, Arizona and operated by the Commemorative Air Force. They fly the planes to various functions and air shows around the country to allow today's enthusiasts the chance to see the airplanes that won the war and gain some knowledge about America's Greatest Generation.
That pin-up art of Betty Grable was the most popular among GI's in World War II and I even spotted her on some locker doors during my Army training days in 1964. A beautiful woman never goes out of style.
To fully realize just how large a B-17 is you have to walk around it and admire it from all angles. America not only supplied her own military with this plane, but also sent them to British, Australian, and Canadian forces as well. Bristling with twelve 50-caliber Browning machine guns, the B-17 still could carry over twenty-thousand pounds of bombs. She deserved her nickname of 'Flying Fortress.'
Also paying a visit to Grayson Airport was this B-25 Mitchell Bomber... This is the type plane that Colonel James Doolittle used in his raid on Tokyo in April of 1942. In that raid, sixteen B-25s took off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet and bombed Tokyo, Nagoya, and several other cities to let Japan know America was ready to fight back after the Pearl Harbor attack.
This particular B-25 is named 'Maid in the Shade' and is also adorned with nose art. Good Looking!!...and the plane ain't bad either. The Mitchell bomber was used in just about all campaigns of World War II and it proved to be a very versatile plane. Not only a bomber, the B-25 was also used in ground support and also reconnaissance missions.
The most obvious distinction of the B-25 is it's twin rudder configuration. It made for an easier operation and the Germans were constantly trying to duplicate this plane without much success. Note how the tail-gunner sits in the canopy and has an aiming device but the twin 50-caliber machine guns are fired remotely at whatever the aiming device has in its sights.
The B-25 was always my favorite bomber of World War II and it proved to be a work-horse for the Allies. I am reminded of the test pilot character played by Mel Gibson in the movie 'Forever Young.' While training another pilot, he said, "If you can fly a B-25, you can do anything."
Denison puts on it's October Fest each fall season and this past Saturday was the day... There were booths galore set up alongside and down the middle of main street, each hawking their various products and services to the crowd.. and food was plentiful. I saw
hotdogs and burgers...cotton candy...funnel cakes...tacos...and corny-dogs. Drills teams, karate demos, and military groups were all in attendance.
This year there was also a group of 'belly-dancers' performing in front of the old Barrett building. They had a pretty good crowd watching them perform when I went by...and that was just a crowd of photographers.. Amazing body control on these girls.
Another of the unusual activities in this years festival was this one..A man was putting small children 'inside' of giant balloons and filling them up with air.. the balloon was then sealed before rolling it into a pool of water..
The kids could then try their best to walk or crawl inside the balloon while floating on the water.. Unusual, to say the least,..but the kids seemed to be having fun...and that was the purpose of the festival.
And of course there was the annual car show...
This was one of the cleanest cars in the show... A 1941 Chevrolet with an injected Corvette engine. EXTREMELY clean under the hood and throughout the interior. It was attached to a travel trailer and it too was in pristine condition.
A 1940 Chevrolet Coupe that has been chopped and channeled extensively... Compare it to the '41 in burgandy-maroon...Hard to believe that these cars looked the same when they came off the assembly line.
1948 Buick Roadmaster... Great paint job on this one. When I was a small boy, our next door neighbor had a Roadmaster and I was always captivated by those port holes in the front fender. It became a Buick landmark.
1939 Ford Coupe... A local car that never fails to catch my eye. I love the color of this car and it is in super condition... Note the original 85 horsepower flat-head V8 engine...6-volt battery...and the generator between the two radiator hoses. These were great engines and Ford made them from 1932 thru 1953 in their line of Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln cars.
Now days it is common to see a GMC pick-up...but in the early days they were known as trucks made by the General Motors Corporation (GMC). Here is the vehicle my wife thought was the best of the show.. It is a 1936 General Motors Truck..and a beauty.
Current Chevrolet injected V8 engine powers this pick-up down the highway with ease. Love the fact he had the original manufacturers plate mounted on the firewall.. and the interior looked awesome as well.
Nothing exotic or elaborate...Just a plain and simple dashboard with a clean look to it. Note how you can crank out the windshield for ventilation purposes. Really a super truck and loved the opportunity to see it.
For the second weekend in a row the weather played a part in 'dampening' the activities.. Friday was clear with temperatures in the mid 80s and Saturday it was overcast and drizzly with a temperature in the mid 50's. Made it seem colder than it really was. Thanks to all the exhibitors that braved the elements and put on a good show for the crowd.
I have reported previously that I am NOT a Texas Rangers fan. I was stationed just outside Washington, DC in 1967-68 and would go to Washington Senators games just to see the other teams. Washington was so bad it looked like a minor league team against the opposition. When I was discharged from the Army I came home to Texas and four years later the Senators followed me and became the Texas Rangers.
Throughout the 1970's, 1980's and part of the 1990's they played just as they had in Washington. To put it bluntly, they sucked!! Despite offers from friends and business associates, I refused to make the trip to Arlington to watch them play. Owners of the team came and went after dumping millions of dollars on players over-the-hill and possessing unfounded talent. The last ten years has seen a remarkable turn-around for the Rangers, and I do give them credit where it is due. Back to back World Series appearances without winning it all has spoiled fans in the DFW Metroplex, and last years debacle with Josh Hamilton dropping a routine flyball in the most important game of the season was a clincher. After the 2012 season Texas Ranger players started deserting the sinking ship in droves, and that created a talent problem for Rangers Manager Ron Washington and General Manager Jon Daniels.... BUT I think they did a pretty fair job in creating a team to make it to the brink of the playoffs in 2013. Veteran Lance Berkman was signed to replace the big bat of Hamilton and he got eleven million dollars for almost nothing. A bad knee allowed him to play half a season...We all should have a high paying job like that! The Rangers came up with a more than adequate catcher in A.J. Pierzynski and when Nelson Cruz was lost for 60 days due to drug suspension, Daniels quickly made a trade for Alex Rios, who in my opinion is a better right fielder than Cruz.
The 2013 baseball season is over for the Texas Rangers, thanks to a 5-2 complete game win for David Price and the Tampa Bay Rays last night in Arlington. It will be the Rays facing the Cleveland Indians in the Wildcard Playoff instead of the Rangers.
And already there are some cries for the firing of Ranger manager Ron Washington. Before we send him to the unemployment line let's look at what he had when the 2013 season began. Behind the plate a new everyday catcher in the person of veteran A.J. Pierzynski..
As it turns out...A.J. not only called a good game..but was super on defense and with a bat...and he had to deal with a pitching staff extremely young by Major League Baseball standards... Yu Darvish was in his 2nd season in America..and rookie Martin Perez was good enough to be rookie of the year in the American League.
Pierzynski is an aging veteran, but he could play another season or two for the Rangers... At third base, veteran Adrian Beltre again led the team in home runs and batting average.
Beltre had 40 homers for the Rangers in 2013, but his body is beginning to show signs of age. He played the last two games with a hamstring pull that would have benched some other players... Jon Daniels may want to revamp the team before 2014.. I humbly offer a few suggestions to Mister General Manager for his consideration.
Relief pitcher Joe Nathan will be 40 years old when the 2014 season begins... He has been great for the Rangers, but I say we trade him while his name still has some merit to it. Nathan again recorded over 40 saves in 2013 but he also gave away some key games...Not good for a player only called upon to pitch one inning.
Nathan is not the only player from the bullpen I would send packing..
Nelson Cruz has provided the Rangers with some big hits over the years,...BUT he has shown a lack of talent in playing right field. The performance-enhancement-drug suspension for sixty days should have ended his Ranger playing days, but he was the designated hitter against the Rays in last nights playoff game and proved to be ineffective. Cruz is now a free agent and can sign with whichever team he chooses.
Another candidate for trade purposes is second baseman Ian Kinsler. It will be a thorny deal as Kinsler is a fan favorite in Arlington, but his hitting has fallen off and he continues to make mental mistakes on the basepaths (above caught in a rundown). His name is still high enough to gain some attention from other teams before 2014.
With the trade of Kinsler, Jurickson Profar could become the everyday second baseman and also take over the leadoff spot in the batting order. Profar is only 20 years old and has his whole career ahead of him. Last year in minor league baseball he was named the most outstanding player in the country. Now is the time to move him into a permanent position and let him grow.
Elvis Andrus is the shortstop for the Rangers and he too is a very young player.. The combination of Andrus and Profar would give the Rangers a middle infield that would be together for a long time. Mitch Moreland at first base is also a free agent and could be headed for another team next year.
In the outfield I am really impressed with what Washington and Daniels put on the field in 2013. When Josh Hamilton dropped that flyball against Oakland last year he went from the penthouse to the outhouse in the eyes of Arlington fans. Leonys Martin took over the centerfield spot and played brilliantly for the most part. Craig Gentry and David Murphy (?) roamed left field, and Alex Rios proved to be a better right fielder than Nelson Cruz.
So the 2013 season did not turn out the way Ranger fans expected... Join the crowd! My Baltimore Orioles also did not pan out the way I wanted, but what do you expect when you have to battle the high-dollar Yankees and Red Sox.
While others may holler for their scalps...I am hopeful General Manager Jon Daniels and Field Manager Ron Washington will put together another contending team for 2014.
