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Old 10-04-2010, 09:37 PM
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Steve Steve is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Manti, Utah USA
Posts: 1,244
I remember the autos that Bob bought that we'd tool around L.A. in: His little Honda Civic that he bought not long after I arrived. Got great mileage and would carry us and most anything a knifemaker had to haul around town. Of course heavy machines were shipped in, but we didn't really get a lot of new equipment, a grinder, a buffer, saw, maybe a lathe, not sure. He had a little Clausing Mill that worked fine for all we used it for, and which worked as well for working on the S&W M41 conversions that he'd do now and then. He let me drive that Civic to Utah for Christmas in 1972, probalby and it ran very well, even in the snow up above our farm, looking for jackrabbits. (I stayed on the road!)

The yellow Chevy Blazer which we drove to Houston and to Idaho, that winter and visited Bernie Sparks and family. They fed us well and I took the Blazer over to Montpelier, I believe, and visited a high school friend. On the way back, I slipped it into 4wd and ran off into the barpit and back onto the road in about 2' of snow. Bob happened to see me out the window of the Sparks' house and it miffed him a bit, but no problem. It was snowing so hard when we left that we probably wouldn't have made it back to Logan, UT if we hadn't had a 4wd vehicle.

He also bought that '69, or so - I'm just guessing, Barracuda with the push-button gear shift which he'd wanted for a long time. Pure nostalgia! Then, of course,in 1972-3(?) Honda came out with it's 4 cylinder motorcycle and we got two of the first 350cc/fours in L.A., at least we thought so. They were some of the first at that dealer's place, I know. We rode those around until 1974 when I went back home to Utah. I took my M'cycle. driver's test when I got back to riding in probably 1975 and the DL examiner said, when I handed him my old #######, "You drove around L.A., huh? You probably don't even need to take this test!"

Bob loved to fly and we, or he, got his Private Pilot ####### at Rose Aviation at the Hawthorne Airport. Scott, his instructor said, after his first solo, "He is probably the best student I've ever had." It was great running down to the airport and putting in a little solo time flying out and back to various areas of L.A., up and down the Pacific Coastline and circling the holding pattern over Alondra Park, just a few blocks from the old Loveless Shop in Lawndale. He later picked up the Starduster II bi-plane, which he seemed to really enjoy, until he got landed on while on approach at the Riverside Airport. I don't know anything about that occurrence.

As you can see, Bob was very generous. Who on earth would let a "kid" (I was barely 21 at this time) drive an almost new car from Calif. to Utah, in the winter and then take another, almost new 4x4, out in the snowy winter in Idaho? Really?

I can't remember any more vehicles, at the moment, but if I do, I'll add to this, as I just did to the one above dated 09/17/2010, which is the 21st entry.


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Last edited by Steve; 10-06-2010 at 04:26 PM. Reason: changes, additions, corrections
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