Pneumatic Cashier

[Jo McDonald]

Our daughter Sherri has this on her Wii fitness -- she was very good when she was a teen and she told me the other day - she is still just as good now!!  I could do it, but not for as long as she and Teresa could.

[W. Gray]

Folks might remember the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics in California (the one the USSR refused to attend because Jimmy Carter had refused to allow US athletes to attend the Olympics in Moscow four years earlier).

In the opening ceremonies a man flew over, into, and around the playing field in the stadium using a hydrogen peroxide powered rocket back pack.

People claimed they had never seen anything like this and wowed and awed at this amazing U. S. technology.

Fact is, the same individual rocket pack had been developed by Army contractors a quarter of a century earlier. The initial idea was to put the troops into battle much faster and with more mobility.

Trouble is the rocket pack weighed 125 pounds, would fly for only 21 seconds, could not go very far, and made a lot of noise in the process. Another problem was that if the rocket motor should suddenly quit, the flyer would be pushing up daisies in the short time it took him to hit the ground.

The Army killed the contract in 1959.

After the Army gave up, James Bond tried one in a 007 movie released in 1965.

Improvements made in the last fifty years by various tinkerers have not been very productive. They still can only be in the air for less than one minute.

[larryJ]

In my paper today-----

MAKE A FEW TOSSES TO HONOR MAN WHO INVENTED FRISBEES----

By Ben Baeder---Deputy Metro Editor of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Fly long and straight into the great beyond, WALTER FREDERICK MORRISON.

Morrison, formerly of La Verne, CA., is the inventor of the Pluto Platter, which eventually turned out to be the Frisbee.

He died Tuesday in Utah at age 90.

The Wham-O company for years manufactured Frisbees in a plant behind the San Gabriel Nursery.  The plant closed in the 1980's or early 90's according to city officials.

To those of us who spend our free time throwing plastic discs around local parks, Morrison is a member of the disc Pantheon.

His invention eventually led to Frisbee golf, which most people now call disc golf.

The idea for the flying disc came when a 17-year-old Morrison and his girlfriend and future wife, Lucile, began tossing a large popcorn can lid back and forth for fun during a Thanksgiving party, according to the Associated Press.

He and a partner eventually developed a plastic disc.

In 1957 he sold his idea to Wham-O, a fad company that started in the garage of one of its South Pasadena founders.

From a 41,000-square-foot plant in San Gabriel, the company produced Frisbees, the Super Ball, the Slip 'N Slide and the Hula Hoop, among other products.

Wham-O has been sold several times since 1982 and is now based in Emeryville, according to its Webb site.

Whon-O employee "STEADY" ED HEDRICK improved a little on Morrison's design and opened the world's first basket Frisbee golf course at Oak Grove in what is now called the Hahamongna Watershed Park near Pasadena, according to disc golf lore. The sport -- in which golfers throw discs into baskets from hundreds of feet away -- is scored like golf.  There are excellent courses at La Mirada Regional Park and the Whittier Narrows in South El Monte.

It's usually free to play and the discs are cheap -- less than $20.  A beginning golfer really only needs two or three to get started.

I like to say it has all the self-hatred and failure of golf, but none of the expensive green fees.

Some people might tell you that it's mandatory to sneak beer in your disc bag and smoke marijuana, but I can't find any rules about that in the Disc Golf Association guidelines.

The world's leading flying disc maker, Innova, has a big plant in Rancho Cucamonga.  The world-record of an 820-foot throw was accomplished with an Innova disc.

The sport of disc golf is growing, and workers are optimistic the company will be around for a long time.

Larryj

[W. Gray]

How about see through blouses? And, I mean see through--but there were foundation garments aplenty.

Or, pedal pushers with a shirt/blouse that was tied high just under the bra showing plenty of midriff?

Or, Howard Hughes famous invention, the cantilevered bra.

Brylcream for the boys.

Duck tail haircuts.

Black leather jackets.

Chopped Mercury automobiles.

Fruit Boots.

Saturday matinees which included seeing one chapter of a fifteen chapter serial--the hero always escaped the peril no matter how dangerous the situation.

[larryJ]

Hmmmmmmm----

See through blouses---bought my busty sister-in-law one 40 years ago; she wasn't amused.

pedal pushers----never really understood that concept

cantilevered bra----musta missed that one.

Brylcream---"a little dab'll do ya"

Duck tail haircuts----had one of those.

Black Leather jackets------wish I could have had one.

Chopped Mercury automobiles--------brother had one

Fruit Boots--------never heard of this, but I think I am glad I didn't have those.

Saturday matinees----------sometimes those were better than the actual movie.  It was fun to see the gangster's car go off the cliff at the end of one episode only to appear coming around the curve in the next episode.

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

Pedal pushers? They were short so ya didn't get the bottom of your pants caught in the bike chain. Girls didn't wear bicycle clips.

[W. Gray]

I searched the web this morning and did not see a reference to the shoes I was thinking of as ever being referred to as fruit boots.

So, it may have been a regional thing back in Missouri to call them fruit boots.

Fruit boots were a most comfortable shoe and I still have a pair.

These were the leather black and white saddle shoes. Both the boys and girls styles were the same, I think, to begin with but later the girls style changed just a bit, and then finally as the fad wore out only the cheerleaders wore them.

The pair I have is oxblood for the front and back and black for the middle. I have also owned tan and black as well as black and white.

At one time in high school it was stylish to wear black "ivy league" trousers, a thin white belt, a white shirt, and the black and white fruit boots. Some of the guys topped that off with an "ivy league" golf cap.