Totally off topic: Just an old man thinkin' "What if" there never was an AAFO.COM
I'm nervous as hell about getting both knees drained and steroid shots tomorrow so, my mind is pretty active.. I've had this done before but, it completely freaks me out thinking about it!
OK, I'm just releasing nervous energy and doing here what I would not do on Facebook..
First off, I'm not doing this as some sort of "look at what I did" thing.. it just dawned on me..Just an ordinary guy...
About 1996, my wife at the time, needed internet access for work. I hated the idea but we got access. It was not directly connected to the "Internet" it was within a "private" network called "CompuServe" Long story short, we had a computer, I like airplanes, wanted to learn to fly, got into flight simulation, got asked by CompuServe to be a moderator on a forum, very quickly learned to touch type..
So I see this huge hole in the publicity for the Howard Hughes Spruce Goose. I grew up in Nevada, Hughes was a mythical hero, the "hermetically sealed" myth about the Spruce Goose's preservation was always something I just assumed as fact and it made me feel good that such a treasure was so well preserved.
Along comes what happened (got the story somewhere, not gonna dig now) and they break up the Goose and ship it up here in the super wet Pacific Northwest and then, insult to injury, they store it under PLASTIC TARPS...
It was an OUTRAGE and motivated me to scheme a way havng been recently introduced to the OPEN INTERNET..
Crap, I really just bluffed my into the Museum Director's office (by phone) he liked my enthusiasm and I did the features that are still out there I think.
Oddly enough, Gary Thompson and I became friends!
In a subsequent conversation after I'd birthed aafo.com, I told him about an airplane I'd heard about.. this Griffon engined thing being built up in Washington.
I can still hear that man's singsong voice "Oh yea, that's Gary Levitz" I know I've told this story before here... but long story short,
That initial contact with Gary Thompson, led to the contact with Gary Levitz and Bill Rogers, it was very early in the life of the Internet and I created aafo.com
This is a very long winded dissertation but I just wonder.
I was just a day laborer working through "Manpower".. dropped out of school in Reno and headed northwest.
Would up bull$hitting my way into a fork lift operator job, which led to a working manager position with a national corporation and on and on..
What I'm saying is, there was really very little in my background that would have caused me to open this website..
I did it, I had great response, huge doors opened, was able to help in several productions and as publicist for more than one race team..
Pylon1.com was really an offshoot of this site, I love Mark Kallio like a brother (pray for Kim Kallio who is undergoing same cancer treatment only more intense that I went through)
So, if there wasn't an aafo, would there have been a pylon1
I can't really remember but we sort of had the "website wars" where myself, Mark Kalllio and Scott Germain tried to outdoo each other for inside information "scoop"..
Those were the days..
What I'm wracking my brain with is... I had the determination to do something I had no idea how to do then, (can't do it currently either) I just did it. Unless I've had a beer or three, I'm very shy and it was never really easy for me to do what I was ALLOWED to do.
But again, just an old man looking back at a bunch of really amazing experiences, completely in awe that I got to do what I got to do.
Wonder where I'd be if when the wife wanted that computer, I'd have let her have it but lobbied for $$ to make my 914 a track day car?
I LOVE driving fast and I'm good at it..
What if I'd have gone there?
Cool thing about this thread I marked it OFF TOPIC!!
Don't read if you don't like it!
Truly hope no one who reads this takes it wrong and has a negative response!
I'm all about being an old man these days..
It's a funny feeling when you can look back 20 years ago (something I get to do any time I watch that danged Reno 2000 video) and then think forward 20 years and the reality is.. I will probably not be here any longer.
OK, I'm just releasing nervous energy and doing here what I would not do on Facebook..
First off, I'm not doing this as some sort of "look at what I did" thing.. it just dawned on me..Just an ordinary guy...
About 1996, my wife at the time, needed internet access for work. I hated the idea but we got access. It was not directly connected to the "Internet" it was within a "private" network called "CompuServe" Long story short, we had a computer, I like airplanes, wanted to learn to fly, got into flight simulation, got asked by CompuServe to be a moderator on a forum, very quickly learned to touch type..
So I see this huge hole in the publicity for the Howard Hughes Spruce Goose. I grew up in Nevada, Hughes was a mythical hero, the "hermetically sealed" myth about the Spruce Goose's preservation was always something I just assumed as fact and it made me feel good that such a treasure was so well preserved.
Along comes what happened (got the story somewhere, not gonna dig now) and they break up the Goose and ship it up here in the super wet Pacific Northwest and then, insult to injury, they store it under PLASTIC TARPS...
It was an OUTRAGE and motivated me to scheme a way havng been recently introduced to the OPEN INTERNET..
Crap, I really just bluffed my into the Museum Director's office (by phone) he liked my enthusiasm and I did the features that are still out there I think.
Oddly enough, Gary Thompson and I became friends!
In a subsequent conversation after I'd birthed aafo.com, I told him about an airplane I'd heard about.. this Griffon engined thing being built up in Washington.
I can still hear that man's singsong voice "Oh yea, that's Gary Levitz" I know I've told this story before here... but long story short,
That initial contact with Gary Thompson, led to the contact with Gary Levitz and Bill Rogers, it was very early in the life of the Internet and I created aafo.com
This is a very long winded dissertation but I just wonder.
I was just a day laborer working through "Manpower".. dropped out of school in Reno and headed northwest.
Would up bull$hitting my way into a fork lift operator job, which led to a working manager position with a national corporation and on and on..
What I'm saying is, there was really very little in my background that would have caused me to open this website..
I did it, I had great response, huge doors opened, was able to help in several productions and as publicist for more than one race team..
Pylon1.com was really an offshoot of this site, I love Mark Kallio like a brother (pray for Kim Kallio who is undergoing same cancer treatment only more intense that I went through)
So, if there wasn't an aafo, would there have been a pylon1
I can't really remember but we sort of had the "website wars" where myself, Mark Kalllio and Scott Germain tried to outdoo each other for inside information "scoop"..
Those were the days..
What I'm wracking my brain with is... I had the determination to do something I had no idea how to do then, (can't do it currently either) I just did it. Unless I've had a beer or three, I'm very shy and it was never really easy for me to do what I was ALLOWED to do.
But again, just an old man looking back at a bunch of really amazing experiences, completely in awe that I got to do what I got to do.
Wonder where I'd be if when the wife wanted that computer, I'd have let her have it but lobbied for $$ to make my 914 a track day car?
I LOVE driving fast and I'm good at it..
What if I'd have gone there?
Cool thing about this thread I marked it OFF TOPIC!!
Don't read if you don't like it!
Truly hope no one who reads this takes it wrong and has a negative response!
I'm all about being an old man these days..
It's a funny feeling when you can look back 20 years ago (something I get to do any time I watch that danged Reno 2000 video) and then think forward 20 years and the reality is.. I will probably not be here any longer.
Comment