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Califbill

John H. wrote:
On Wed, 16 Dec 2015 10:14:27 -0500, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:

On 12/16/2015 9:19 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 16 Dec 2015 06:57:23 -0500, John H.
wrote:

On Tue, 15 Dec 2015 20:50:22 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 15 Dec 2015 20:15:33 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 12/15/2015 8:02 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 15 Dec 2015 18:17:36 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 12/15/2015 4:51 PM, True North wrote:
Mr. Luddite
- show quoted text -
"Like I said, this was from a by-gone era when cops walked a beat
twirling a nightstick and wore uniforms like you see in the famous
Norman Rockwell paintings. The bicycle plate looked like this, except
it said "Quincy" instead of Concord:

http://platevault.com/uploads/86/ee/thumbs/6155832592bee86.jpg"

WOW, that's exactly the shape of bicycle license plate we had in
the old city of Halifax. Some kids attached them to the front
wheel spokes and others mounted the plate to the rear
fender...either above or below the rear reflector. Seems to me
the vast majority of bikes had fenders then...before the 10
speeds became so popular.

One of my earliest memories is learning to ride a bicycle. I was five
years old. My father removed the training wheels it had and would run
beside me holding the seat post while I pedaled then let go once I got
going. After a few crashes I got the idea and the big "reward" was a
visit to the police station to get a license plate. I still remember
the station too. It was a huge, turn of the century building that also
had a court house in it. Tons of cops walking around. Very
impressionable experience for a five year old.

I learned how to ride from the other kids. When my parents bought me
my first bike, I just hopped on and rode away. I never even heard of
training wheels until I was older.
Your buddy sat you on the bike and gave you a push. Off you went. Then
you had to learn how to start off yourself. I pushed the bike running
next to it and hopped on for a while before I got the trick down.
The idea of a license plate would have never crossed our minds.
The DC cops certainly had more important things to do, even then.
I remember hearing about the "Police Boys Club" and we walked down to
the 14th precinct station thinking we would join up. They just said
"we don't do that" and suggested we should join the cub scouts.

Sorry you had such a disappointing childhood. :-)

We lived at a time when mom said "go out and play" and we did. I
didn't know I was poor and we were not disappointed about much.

Ditto.

We had cap pistols and played lots of 'cowboys and indians'.

Did you ever have one of those Mattel six shooters with the spring
loaded bullets and the stick on caps?
That was my big gift sometime around 1955 or 6.

I remember stick-on caps. I liked the rolls that were like a tootsie
roll that you broke a section off of. You could wack the whole thing
with a rock or something for a big bang.

Another early memory was my fascination with garbage trucks. They were
city trucks I guess that looked like big, hunchbacked turtles. I guess
they were really "rubbish" trucks because they picked up all trash but
were referred to as garbage trucks because the driver's helper also
emptied the garbage that was stored in a container buried in the front
yard. Had a lid that you stepped on with your foot to open and then lift
out or install the garbage pail.

Anyway, the mechanics of the garbage truck fascinated me for some
reason. I waited for their arrival so I could watch the bucket on the
back lift up, following the curved truck body and finally tipping over
to empty into the opening in the top of the truck. All I wanted for
Christmas was a "garbage truck" and when family or my family's friends
asked what little Richard wanted to be when he grew up he said, "A
garbage man"!

That may be the reason my parents moved from the city to the suburbs in
1955. No garbage trucks or collections.

The Fanner 50 used the rolls, which just happened to have 50 caps thereon.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!

When I was a young' I got a complete Hopalong Cassidy outfit. Wonder what
happened to that.

[email protected]

On Wed, 16 Dec 2015 19:25:11 -0500, John H.
wrote:

On Wed, 16 Dec 2015 09:34:34 -0500, wrote:

On Wed, 16 Dec 2015 07:22:17 -0500, John H.
wrote:

On Tue, 15 Dec 2015 20:36:35 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 15 Dec 2015 19:37:03 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 12/15/2015 5:49 PM, John H. wrote:

At National Airport there is a park about 1000' from the north end of the main
runway. Folks lay there and watch the planes take off and land only a few hundred
feet over their heads. Do you not thing that's plenty close for a laser?

How many times have lasers interfered with an aircraft from that
location? Betcha not many, if at all. Too easy to locate and apprehend
them in a space with high aircraft traffic.

I was thinking the same thing. I doubt you could light a joint in that
park without being swarmed by the US park Police. They kept a pretty
close watch on that whole area, even before 9-11. There used to be 2
radio cars that didn't do anything but drive up and down that parkway
watching the parks as far back as the 60s.
(my reserve unit was over represented by the various police forces)
DC/metro is actually the most policed area in the US with a dizzying
number of different agencies with police forces. Most stay right there
in the federal area.

Actually, there aren't that many cops in the park during the day. The bicycle mounted
cops come through, but don't stay long. But the park is closed at night, IIRC. Always
had to get the boat in before sundown.

I haven't been there in decades but I think it used to be open at
night years ago or at least unenforced because we knew a guy with an
early cam corder, when they sat on your shoulder who had a movie he
made about planes and he had some night time shots from there.
It was on the wrong side of the river for me.
We were Haines Point people. ;-)

I always used to tell people to be ready to run if you were hanging
out in that park. If someone has a "departure stall", that may be
where they end up. The only one I really remember was Palm 90 and they
made a "non-stop flight from National Airport to the 14th street
bridge".
(the joke that got Howard Stern fired from WWDC)

I was working at a job in Bethesda and living in Lorton that day. Snowing like hell.
We got let out of work at 1:00pm. I got home at 9:00pm. What a mess that day was. We
also had a subway derail (or breakdown somehow), and a dump truck go off a bridge.
But the airplane got the big news, naturally. From then on we had a 'bridge watch'
anytime we went over the 14th St Bridge.

I went through there right before the crash, going home from work and
it was on TV when I got home.

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