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graynation cont.: See the USA, in our DNA

Normally I plan to run graynation blogs only on Sunday, but Mason left a comment on yesterday's blog that deserves immediate attention for what it proves about the strength of DNA.

"This," Mason said, "is the car I hope to drive."

An excellent choice, my young friend. We will get to the grim details about gasoline prices, insurance, and maintenance another time. In this blog, I just want to show you the car that I actually did drive.

It was this very same color, but it had the stock wheels. Blue interior, bucket seats, four on the floor, and that big mother 396 engine. I bought it in Norman, Okla., on the day, or the day after, I was graduated from Artillery OCS at Ft. Sill in June, 1967, with orders to West Germany (I was a lucky boy; I'll tell you about it sometime) in my pocket. The car cost around $3,000. I drove it all the way to Abilene with the windows down, partly because it was cool (in the sense of hip) and partly because it wasn't air conditioned. Somewhere I have a Kodak (that's a type of photograph) of me in that car, 180 pounds, shaved head, in my khakis, left elbow on the door sill, right hand draped at the wrist over the wheel just-so.

I had that car for three years. It is the car I had when I met your grandmother. We traded it in, in Abilene, in 1970, for a Fiat 124 Spyder. Now THERE was a car.

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I love this and the image of you that I now have cruising in the blue Chevelle.

And hey, wasn't that Spyder almost mine!!

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  • I am a journalist, educator, writing consultant and author, living in La Mesa, CA. I am a native of Texas, which shows in most of my work. I believe that anything is possible. When I was 35, I realized that the ideal life would be to have the imagination of a six-year-old, and the wisdom of a 65-year-old. I can still get to the imagination (as you can, simply by cutting away all the data you’ve learned from first grade on) and I now possess the wisdom of a 65-year-old. Being 65 can be unsettling – too late to plant trees and enjoy the shade – but the wisdom that comes with it is terrific compensation. I learned in 50th grade that, no matter how bad things get, there is always compensation. Now I am in the 60th grade, and I am learning things that I didn’t know in 59th. This September, I’ll start 61st grade, and learn things I don’t know now. To find what grade you’re in, start with the year you started 12th grade, and count up. My newest book is “Warbirds – How They Played the Game.” My new company is The Write Outsource, quality media writing on deadline, at www.writeoutsource.com. I am working on a book about the media, and I am about to revise my cookbook about home cooking on a tight budget, such as so many of us face at this time.
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