Wondering about wild grapes

Monday, July 2, 2012

Wondering about a really nice couple.

Yesterday I told you about a couple who are vendors at the flea market and told you that I would write more about their interesting lives.  As I told you before, the fellow rebuilds and restores old VW Beetles and Busses and also he restores old travel trailers.  They then use them to go to various flea markets around this corner of Texas, like Ole Security, Winnie, Livingston, etc.  They will be in Winnie next weekend.  These two seem like a wonderful couple and are very interesting people.  Here is a picture of them along with my wife:



I talked awhile with him on Sunday and learned a lot.  At flea markets you get to know all about people, where they have been, what they have done, etc. and most of the time you do not even know their names.  I now know a lot about this fellow but he never told me his name and I never asked him.  Now to think about it, he wouldn’t know my name either.  Names are not important, right?  They are just convenient tags so you can get some one’s attention or send them mail or for the government to send you IRS forms.  Of all the other things that this guy has done in his life, I find him being the pilot of blimps to be one of the most fascinating.  He flew blimps in California and then he flew the Good Year blimp when it was hangered here in Houston.  He told me that the two different blimps had different controls.  He told me how the light display for advertising worked the old way and then the new easy way after it was computerized.  He told me that they had to replace the bulbs in the computerized display quite often and had to use ladder trucks to reach and replace the bad bulbs.  I remember that blimp coming over my house at night with that sign a blazing.  It made quite an impressive site.  They moved it up to Ohio quite a few years ago.  It is now back at Goodyear’s home site.  It has been missed.  Every time I drive south on I-45 north and get down past the Woodlands and into Spring, I always look to the west to get a glimpse of the blimp or the blimp station.  It is not there now, been built over with commercial stuff.  What a pity, I miss seeing it.  Now you all have a happy, safe holiday week, you hear?

9 comments:

  1. WELLLLL,,,did that guitar case show up or not? lololol DD, did you forget?

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  2. Trouble, see my last comment on my yesterday's blog.

    Sixbears, I would think it would have been cool, but it probably had its down side, also.

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  3. awwww ss. Maybe the next one will fit.

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  4. My dad was in the last crew at the old blimp base in Hitchcock, Tx. He did the last task as they shut it down. He closed the doors in the proper order so they stayed on their tracks. Last time I was there only the door frames remained. I did get to see one just like it in Tillamook Oregon a couple of years ago.

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  5. I remember seeing a blimp in the sky now and then when I was a kid. Eerie how quiet they are and just move silently along.

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  6. Trouble, no big deal, the old case will work if and when I need one.

    Barney, I wonder if they ever knew each other. That would be quite a coincidance.

    Gypsy, they are not silent, maybe there was too much other noise and it covered up the blimps noise.

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  7. The Blimp down at Spring used to remind me of the barrage balloons hovering over London during the war, when I was a child. http://www.worldwar-two.net/weapons/barrage_balloons/

    But I was still sorry to see it leave. That 30 acres was a huge amount of area that was sold for millions, so I am sure that's why the Blimp left there.
    Happy Tails and Trails, Penny, TX

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  8. Penny, I can see why it may bring back bad memories and I am sure you are right for the reason it left the area. If you want to know why something happened, follow the money trail.

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