@RockyMountainBriar My junior and senior year of high school, we had a Plymouth Fury III which was considered a "mid-size" family car. (It was also the vehicle used by the Texas Highway Patrol until about 1975.) I can attest that there was plenty of leg room in the both the front and back seat with only the steering wheel getting in the way up front.
My first car was a 1953 Willys Jeep CJ-3B. What a rust bucket, shitty brakes and it had a full half turn or more of play in the steering, but man I had a blast “Rat Patrolling” that thing around with my buddy and his military 1950 Willys Jeep M38. Fording backwaters of the Yellowstone River deep enough to float the plywood I had to use as literal floor boards. The floors were so rusted out I could have “Flintstoned” it if I had to😉. Went mucked around in mud up to the frame, I also took mine up the original Championship Motorcycle Hill climb trail once (definitely nit the hill they use now).
The new Motorcycle Hillclimb Championship hill is crazy. It looks like it goes straight up for the last 25 feet or more😳. The people that attempt it are doing it with a huge handicap and must have special seats too😬. (Crazy Big Cajones…..even the Women)😳
104th Great American Pro Championship Hill Climb
The Great American Professional Hill Climb is one of the Nation’s Largest Hill Climbs and remains the oldest and longest-running motorcycle event. Join us to watch pro riders power up the hill. Riders and spectators come from around the Nation and the World. The Great American Hill is unmatched in pro rider terrain and design and is no easy feet for even the best of the best—it is known as the Hill Climbing Capital of the World.®
This event has the largest Champion purse and provides top riders the rights to one of the most prestigious hill climbing championships. The 2-day event begins on Friday with afternoon and evening races that lead into the night with stunning vertical Side-by-Side “Showdown” racing under the lights. Then Saturday it begins again with bigger bikes, more under-the-lights Showdown action and the Championship racing for the Crown under the lights.
We are constantly having "Diversity" shoved down our throats by left wing, liberal snowflakes. I believe that diversity of races in some cases is only correct and no one should be discriminated against because of their racial background. I've always felt that the military took far too long to officially stop discriminations. I say officially because black's fought in the Civil War, Spanish American War, WWI and WWII before being fully integrated into the military.
Then there is the U.S. Coast Guard which has always been on the forefront on "hiring" the right people despite the color of their skin. I found the following to be another good example of a service doing what is right without making a big announcement about it.
The Long Blue Line: The Wampanoags at Gay Head Light
By Written by William H. Thiesen, Coast Guard Atlantic Area Historian
Feb. 23, 2022 —
Native Americans have participated in the Coast Guard and its predecessor services since the early 19th century, representing the second earliest minority group to serve in the Coast Guard.
The first Native Americans known to serve in the Coast Guard were the Wampanoag in Massachusetts. In the early 1800s, Ebenezer Skiff, the lighthouse keeper at the Gay Head Light, on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, hired members of the Wampanoag Tribe to support lighthouse maintenance and operations. In an 1815 letter to his superiors Skiff reported, “When I hire an Indian to work, I usually give him a dollar per day when the days are long and 75 cents a day when the days are short and give him three meals.” It was common for Gay Head keepers to hire Wampanoag tribal members as assistants because they proved more reliable than local white residents.
Locally famous lighthouse keeper Charles Vanderhoop, of the Aquinnah Wampanoag, who oversaw lights on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. (Coast Guard Collection)Locally famous lighthouse keeper Charles Vanderhoop, of the Aquinnah Wampanoag, who oversaw lights on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. (Coast Guard Collection)
One of the most memorable events associated with Native American service is the 1884 S.S. City of Columbus rescue. The passenger steamer plied East Coast waters from Boston to New York and ran aground off Gay Head on a bitterly cold January night. One hundred passengers and crew drowned within 20 minutes of the grounding. Led by Gay Head Lighthouse’s white keeper Horatio Pease, Wampanoag tribal members volunteered to brave the wind and weather and launched a surfboat into the waves. In their first attempt, the surfboat capsized in the heavy seas, but the crew returned to shore safely. The surfmen tried again and reached the survivors still huddled on the steamer’s deck. On the return trip, the overcrowded surfboat capsized again, however, all the crew and survivors got to shore safely.
Overnight, the Wampanoag lifesavers became heroes, imperiling their own lives to rescue nearly 30 City of Columbus passengers and crew. The members of this volunteer force received medals and cash awards from the Massachusetts Humane Society.
In reporting this story, the press believed the Wampanoags were “deserving of all praise and the fund for their benefit and encouragement should assume large proportions. Without any expectations of reward they periled their lives for others.”
Several of them later served at the Gay Head Lighthouse and the Gay Head Life-Saving Service station when established in 1895.
Wampanoag Coast Guardsmen have also served with distinction in time of war. Carlton West, a Wampanoag citizen of Nantucket, served as an enlisted man in World War I and World War II. In 1919, Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal member Charles Vanderhoop was assigned as keeper of the Sankaty Head Lighthouse under U.S. Navy control. When he took charge of that lighthouse, Vanderhoop became the first known principle lighthouse keeper of Native American ancestry and the first Native American supervisor of a federal installation.
A photo of Wampanoag Carlton West during World War I. Native Americans served with distinction in Coast Guard predecessor services since the early 1800s. (Nantucket Historical Association Collection)A photo of Wampanoag Carlton West during World War I. Native Americans served with distinction in Coast Guard predecessor services since the early 1800s. (Nantucket Historical Association Collection)
In 1920, the Coast Guard appointed Vanderhoop to the keeper at the Gay Head Lighthouse. His duties required around-the-clock supervision of the lighthouse, including cleaning, maintaining and refueling the lighthouse’s first-order Fresnel lens. Standing 12 feet tall and weighing several tons, Gay Head’s first-order lens was immense and incorporated over 1,000 leaded glass prisms. Vanderhoop’s daily routine included climbing the narrow spiraling staircase to the lantern room to light the lamps at nightfall and during any low-visibility days. Each morning, he ascended the stairs again to extinguish the lamps, disassemble the lanterns and clean them. Lastly, he was responsible for polishing all the light’s brass appurtenances and resetting the lantern wicks in preparation for the next illumination.
Keeper Vanderhoop was the 10th principal keeper at Gay Head and he became renowned for providing tours of the lighthouse for visitors. During his time as keeper, Vanderhoop provided tours for approximately 300,000 men, women and children, including celebrities such as President Calvin Coolidge. By the early 1930s, Vanderhoop had manned the light through hurricanes and tropical storms and provided local shipping with decades of faithful lighthouse service. However, years of climbing the tower had taken their toll on him physically and he finally retired on disability in 1933 after 20 years in the U.S. Lighthouse Service.
Native American tribal members, such as Charles Vanderhoop, have served in the Coast Guard and its predecessor services for over 200 years. Like all other servicemembers, they walk the long blue line and their efforts have benefitted all who serve in the U.S. military, federal government, and the nation as a whole.
Comments
That could have been my mom and dad😳. Funny thing though….my dad’s twin brother drove the Pontiac😳, ah, well, dad probably borrowed it🤔
My junior and senior year of high school, we had a Plymouth Fury III which was considered a "mid-size" family car. (It was also the vehicle used by the Texas Highway Patrol until about 1975.) I can attest that there was plenty of leg room in the both the front and back seat with only the steering wheel getting in the way up front.
I grew up riding in a 1967 Buick Special 4-Door, or in the box of a ‘62-‘64’? Ford Falcon, or ‘68’ El Camino😬
One of the guys I hung out with in high school drove an El Camino. He kept a mattress in the back on weekends.
The new Motorcycle Hillclimb Championship hill is crazy. It looks like it goes straight up for the last 25 feet or more😳. The people that attempt it are doing it with a huge handicap and must have special seats too😬. (Crazy Big Cajones…..even the Women)😳
104th Great American Pro Championship Hill Climb
The Great American Professional Hill Climb is one of the Nation’s Largest Hill Climbs and remains the oldest and longest-running motorcycle event. Join us to watch pro riders power up the hill. Riders and spectators come from around the Nation and the World. The Great American Hill is unmatched in pro rider terrain and design and is no easy feet for even the best of the best—it is known as the Hill Climbing Capital of the World.®
This event has the largest Champion purse and provides top riders the rights to one of the most prestigious hill climbing championships. The 2-day event begins on Friday with afternoon and evening races that lead into the night with stunning vertical Side-by-Side “Showdown” racing under the lights. Then Saturday it begins again with bigger bikes, more under-the-lights Showdown action and the Championship racing for the Crown under the lights.
Then there is the U.S. Coast Guard which has always been on the forefront on "hiring" the right people despite the color of their skin. I found the following to be another good example of a service doing what is right without making a big announcement about it.
The Long Blue Line: The Wampanoags at Gay Head Light
By Written by William H. Thiesen, Coast Guard Atlantic Area Historian
Amazing what you find hanging from trees.
... yeah, they're at it again
Hopefully they don’t see the reflection of the can in your eyeglasses😬
….unless they don’t really care.
That’s a tip from your uncle @Zouave1864😬
Hilarious 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂