[sup][sup]How is things growing in the bayou, Gary?!![/sup][/sup]
Hey Steve! I know you didn't mean it literally, but Bayou Pierre and Mile Bayou, the two streams that drain my neighborhood, are full up to the banks, so the ground is nice and saturated. The rain and warm weather have really brought out the weeds, and I spent most of the weekend dealing with them. I've been getting the big country garden ready for planting, that is, the rows that needed to be rebuilt....I only ever built one of those 50-foot rows properly, so it needs very little preparation, but the other two long rows that I intend to plant need to be tilled down to the hardpan to remove the Bermuda runners....It's tedious, physical labor, but deeply gratifying....
The starts at home are doing well. There are 6 plants from 6 cells sown of the MoA Bonnets. Almost everything is popping at 100% germination. I can't believe how fast the NagaBrains popped, by the way...faster and more thoroughly than even the Trinidad Scorpions, which seem to grow almost like weeds here. I am now a huge believer in grow lights and heat mats! Pix soon...
Love the old skate pics! When I was about ten years old there was a sick half pipe way back in the woods near my house. In this area you had to keep skate ramps hidden from the cops back then. On any given day in the summer there would be a crowd of twenty or so kids watching people wipe out on that half pipe. It was there for about 5 years til the cops found it and burned it down. I wonder why there was such a crack down on kids skating ramps. I think it made skating more exciting for us though.
Haha thanks! It's so cool to meet other rats from back in the day!
My buddy Damian had a ramp like that in the woods of Morehouse Parish. We called it "The Vine" because there was a big buck vine that hung down over the platform...We would grab it and swing way out over the woods...That ramp had a big transition and 2 feet of vertical...I was so scared to drop in on it, but one day Damian's girlfriend yelled up at me "You're only coming down from there
one way, and it's not by the ladder!" All the guys were watching, so there was nothing else to do...I didn't wipe out, and that was that...
Damian ripped so hard. This is him on my little half-pipe (the coping was 7 feet above the flat) we built at my house in Monroe, Louisiana, when I lived there in the mid-80s:
He was going to go pro, but messed up his back in the late 80s...He and his son came by my house at Christmastime, and left with a big sack of Yellow 7s...
I know what you mean about it almost being more fun when skating was outlawed...I could share more stories about that, but I'll save them for later!
Awesome blast from the past picts Gary! Thanks for sharing them.
I started skating in 84, and never quit. I still ride when im up for it. My back is done so not able to do as much. My boy, who is 18 skates so im still vested. Im guilty of flipping my board, but a backyard ramp it where i always wanted to be. Bombing hills never gets old! Not that many ditches here in Ga, but we have had a few good ones over the years. Carve grind slash.
Thanks Dude! Another style rider....SWEET! Are you still bombing? What do you ride for that? My hill skate is an old Powell General Issue (8" x 28") with Indy 99s and Red Kryptonics C70s (78 durometer). I love to get going really fast on a real smooth hill, tuck way down low with my butt almost on the grip tape, and carve into a frontside bert, no hands. Letting the wheels break loose on their own rather than forcing the slide....Man it's so good to find kindred spirits here! Do we need our own sub-forum?
