By: Stan Jordan
As usual, at 8:00 a.m., we attended the pancake and sausage breakfast at the EMS building. The food was great and I met some old friends of mine.
Along about noon, I visited the Ribfest at the Firehouse. Three of the Fireman took me around and showed and explained the new firetruck. Man! There is a big difference in firefighting between now and the 1940’s.
The new truck is a diesel on a Freight-liner chassis with a Pierce Pumper and full of firefighting accessories. I was really impressed by the new system.
I sat in a lawn chair with the fireman and the auxiliary and enjoyed the ribs and refreshments.
I entered into the firehouse where the cornhole tournament was taking place and I was impressed by the skills and number of styles the contestants used. I understand some of them are semi-pro!
Bob Winslow of the Antwerp Ball Association said they had a great year and outsold last year by quite a bit.
I enjoyed the midway and renewed acquaintances with old-timers and made new friends too.
At 4:00 p.m., we went out to the birthday party of Corky Hughes. It was his 60th birthday. Corky had a cooker full of ribs and chicken. Gene and Ola Hughes lived on my mail route when I was a mail man. I watched their kids grow up and it sure was a treat to meet them again.
The day of the 6th annual Ribfest I will always remember. I turned in early that night. I’m not 29 anymore.
I have used this line before, “In the annual Ribfest, the ACDC has booted home a winner.”
See ya!
The Lobo Tank Busters
By: Stan Jordan
Patton’s forces are about halfway to Paris and are moving along at a pretty good rate. Today they seem to be between Roen and Louviers.
We could look down and see some tank track marks that ended up at a barn door. We didn’t know if that tank had entered or left the barn. We put a rocket down through the roof and a lot of things happened. The wood shingles blew in all directions. Half of the roof disappeared, and the big barn doors blew out and a Tiger tank came out. The barn began to burn, and the tank started down the road. He was in trouble from the start. One of our planes put a rocket in the side of the tank and blew part of the treads to pieces. So, he was stopped dead in the road, and another one of our planes flew down and put a rocket into the engine area of the vehicle. It blew the rear end of the tank to pieces.
The tank was burning, the barn was burning, and the four tank crewman were crawling out of the burning tank. The American half-track with a bunch of soldiers were coming down the road and I’m sure the
German tank crew all surrendered. For them, the war was over.
We all went skyward and formed up at about 1000 ft altitude. We destroyed the Tiger tank and only used 3 rockets. So we looked around to see where to use our other 13 rockets.
We spied a group of four Tiger Tanks in a draw. They could control the highway where they could see the American tanks coming. They just had to come up to the top of the hill and the German’s would ambush the American M4 tanks. It could be a massacre.
We dived down one at a time and hit those tanks with our rockets. They were like sitting ducks. They started to burn, but didn’t have a chance. We destroyed all of them but some of the German soldiers managed to get out and hide along the road. They probably surrendered to the advancing soldiers of the Patton outfit. We had a pretty good flight today.
See ya!
Open House & Cruise In at the Advanced Chassis & Fabrication Shop
By: Stan Jordan
Dan and Traci Bowers are owners and operators of Advanced Chassis out on 107 Victory Lane, or some people call it, Cement Plant Road or CR 176. They are having an open house, cruise in and an appreciation day for everyone. This will be on Saturday, June 20th from 4:00-7:00 p.m.
There will be a Cruise in of cars, trucks, tractors, and a custom bike show of new and old timers.
There will be a 50/50 drawing with any and all monies going to the Ronald McDonald House.
There will be guided tours through the air-conditioned shop showing everything they make and repair with lots of custom work.
Please bring in all your pop can pull tabs to be turned into the Ronald McDonald House.
See you out at Dan’s!
Slim & Leroy
By: Stan Jordan
Slim and Leroy were two young fellows in Tennessee. They went to school to learn to drive a semi-truck or an 18-Wheeler. They planned on being team drivers – you know, one would sleep and rest while the other did the driving. The boys had done very well in all parts of the classes, book work, rules and regulations and actual driving.
One of the instructors was going to ask a hypothetical question to see how quickly Slim could get the situation under control.
“You are going over the crest of a hill on a two lane road and coming up the hill at you are two big trucks side-by-side. One of them is right in your lane. What are you going to do?” the instructor asked. Slim replied, “I’m going to reach back in the sleeper and wake up Leroy.”
The instructor got excited and said, “You only have a couple of seconds to get this under control and you are going to wake up Leroy?”
“Yes” replied Slim, “Old Leroy has never seen a wreck like this!”
See ya!
