Monday, February 23, 2009

Interview from Lisa

I follow Lisa's blog at Laughing Orca Ranch and a while back she was interviewed and posted a challenge. So I agreed to be interviewed by her; here are the questions she emailed me.


I dared you, and you dared me, and I dare you right back! hahah!



1)Talk about your proudest moment.

Well that is just too hard to choose. The day I was married? The birth of my first born? The birth of ALL 3 of my children? My accomplishments at teaching my Boy Scout Troop gun safety and marksmanship that impressed an Army Major? My work skills?

If I had to choose only one it would have to be the birth of my first child. You can read more about that here.




2)Talk about your most embarrassing moment.

Loosing my swimming trunks (well actually an old pair of my dad’s and they were too big for me) at the beach in Caseville when I was about ten and having to come out of the water naked to get my towel to wrap around myself.



3)If you could travel anywhere, where would it be?

This too is difficult, I would like to visit all of the places my Dad did in his service in the Navy. But I want to visit Ireland and Hungary the most. The lands of my ancestors.



4)Have you ever swam naked? Yes Where? The Cass River, the old Municipal Swimming Pool in town (Five of us guys from the trailer park pooled our money and rented the pool for a private 2 hour midnight swim. We weren’t there for more than a half hour when the much older teenage girl lifeguard came out and told us to leave as she had a date that night. We refused and she kept bugging us so someone took off their swimwear and threw at her. She ran screaming back into the office. Then we all started throwing our swimming trunks at her whenever she came back out of the office. We finally finished our swim and left a very mad lifeguard to go on her date.), the gravel pit behind the trailer park I grew up in, and the beach at Caseville.



5)How many pairs of shoes do you own? 5



6)What is the most daring thing you've ever done?

Daring or Stupid, you decide!
Way back when I was a teenager, fresh out of school and working in the next town, still living at home. On my way home from work one morning, I was jamming to the tunes on the radio, not paying any attention as to how fast I was going and as I came over a little hill I saw a County Sheriff coming at me. I looked down and saw the needle on the speedometer pushing 80. As we passed each other I knew from his look that I was in BIG trouble! Now I have no idea what possessed me to do it, other than thinking about how much trouble I would be in with my dad, but I floored it and headed for the nearest dirt side road. As I made the turn I saw flashing lights about a half a mile behind me. I headed for the nearest State Land thinking I would loose him on the hunting trails. After making a few more turns I hit this old bumpy dirt road and buried the speedometer. Nothing held the road like my '65 Dodge Dart. As I was making the turn I could see the flashing lights just a couple hundred yards behind me. While flying down the road kicking up all kinds of dust, I suddenly realized just what the heck I was doing. I was in deep do-do. Not only was breaking the law, but I was going against everything I had been taught. I was driving a pretty unique car and I was sure that the officer had gotten my plate number. As I was coming to the end of the road I knew what I had to do. I stopped to face the music. I looked in my rear view mirror and all I could see was dust. Fearing a rear end collision, I turned at the intersection and looked back. Nothing but clouds of dust, No Flashing Lights!!! I sat there waiting for the dust to clear and started worrying about the police officer, did he get in an accident trying to follow me? The first mile of this short road was bordered by pine trees, did he loose control and hit one? I backed up and headed back the way I had come, dreading to come upon the scene of a horrific accident. No sign of the police car anywhere. I drove back out to the main road....nothing. I sat there trying to figure out what I should do next, turn myself in or go home? Well I figured they knew where to find me, so I went home, expecting the cops to be there when I arrived. Nope. I told no one. I sat there waiting for them to arrive. They never came. I was harassed by State, County, and local police for a while after that with frequent pullovers to do safety checks on my vehicle, (it had been in an accident before I bought it and the rear end was messed up, but all of the lights worked) and they had told me that they were looking for someone with a car matching my description. Yeah RIGHT, I thought! Until one day when I found this other car and it was driven by a guy who looked a lot like me too, but older! It even had a banged up rear end like mine. As I pulled up next to him at the stoplight, I waved to him and he waved back. I wonder if he was stopped as often as I was?




7)What is the funniest thing you've ever seen?

Well this may not have been the funniest, but it was memorable.
About 20 years ago, I was at work at the grain elevator in Saginaw, running the bean plant, and standing in a doorway about 20 feet off the ground. I was looking out at the road about 100 ft. away, watching cars go by and waiting for my shift to end. Two older teen aged schoolgirls were walking down the sidewalk on the far side of the road, when a teenage boy in a car, pulled off the road right in front of me, to talk to them. They came to the side of the road and talked through the passenger side window. I don’t know what the conversation was about, but all of a sudden there was hollering and arm waving. The guy sped off and the girls walked out into the road screaming obscenities and flipping him the bird. Then one girl raised her shirt and bared her breasts at him. It was quite a show. I was laughing and clapping my hands when they finally spotted me looking down at them. They waved at me shyly and continued their walk.


Now if YOU are interested in being interviewed by Me, just send an email to gary_dillon@hotmail.com and I will be glad to make up some questions just for you.

8 comments:

Country Girl said...

Loved your interview. I can't believe you got away with that chase!

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Thanks for participating, Gary. You had me laughing at the vision of you trowing your swim trunks at the female lifeguard. lol!
Man! You sure liked to swim naked a lot, didn't you?

And you were really lucky escaping during the chase.....stupid..but lucky. It's a good thing you had a good upbringing and didn't let that lure you into a life of lawbreaking, too.

Jeez. Gary, you've led a very interesting life, my friend.

~Lisa

GreyWolf said...

Kim: me neither. it still scares me when I think about it.

Lisa: well we were young boys. And it wasn't always on purpose!
After that chase I quit driving fast on the main roads anyway. I learned a pretty valuable lesson that day.
It's amazing what working third shift can do to a persons mind especially when they don't get much sleep during the day.
Over the years I have had many more opportunities of being pulled over for speeding and I never tried that again. I also never got a ticket, though I deserved many. I may have drove fast but never reclessly.

Anonymous said...

Dang dad!! There are a couple stories in there I had certainly never heard before! It certainly explains a few things about the ole apple and tree thing though.... ;)

GreyWolf said...

Ang: WHY? What did YOU do now?

warren said...

I think you must be a regular nudist there my friend! If you ever get the urge again...don't!

GreyWolf said...

Warren: Heard That!!!
No I think my skinny dipping days are LONG over.

Anonymous said...

Great post, I am almost 100% in agreement with you