On The Fly

  Have you ever owned a “lemon?” An automobile that’s just a bottomless pit of money to keep it on the road. The car I’m talking about is best remembered for it’s propensity to combust in rear end collusions. Yes, you guessed it - the Ford Pinto. We named ours The Mean Green Booger Machine .  Back in the late 1970s my best friend, Nathan, and I decided we would embark on a road trip from Cuba, Illinois to California, to photograph the country. He had a clever idea, “I’m going to take the back seats out of the car and fabricate plywood beds.When the front seats are folded forward we will be able to sleep in the car very comfortably with a backpackers pad and our sleeping bags.” Brilliant! We would save hundreds, well maybe a few bucks, on motel rooms to California and back.  So the renovation began. Seats removed, plywood measured, cut, and 2x2 wood blocks screwed into place to keep the boards from sliding around. Nathan's father owned a Skelly Gas Sta...

We were 12 years old at the time in sixth grade, pranksters.  My good friends Perry Marlette, Nathan Robertson, and I were the adolescent boys who “terrorized" the town of Cuba, Illinois with pranks that drove our local cop batty. After our adventures we would retreat back to Perry’s house and his mother would refuel us with Hostess Twinkies and 7up. I guess you had to grow up in the 1960s to realize that snacks weren’t always healthy fresh fruits, and whole grain products. Of course, we devoured crackers and cheese, nuts, and a variety of munchies but what sticks in my mind was the sugar rush from Twinkies and 7up. Maybe it’s because it was not something my mother would buy for our family. It was a luxury! I can hear you asking, “What in the world reminded you of this?”  Our high school class of 1974 has a Facebook page with 46 members. It’s a closed group that friends only seem to post when someone from our graduating class dies. In our small town we came to k...