Hobo Jungle

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Hey Murph!!! A couple weeks ago I was playing around with Google Earth and decided to look up good old Kennywood Park to see if I recognized anything from the 50's. Gosh, that place has changed!

Thinking about you, I scanned down to Miller Avenue. Got to wondering where on that street your old homestead was. Have you ever gone back to see the old house or are you afraid you might be recognized? What was your house number?

Planning another hit and run on Rough and Tumble this year? Missed your presence there last time even though I could only drive up and back for one day. Fixed the blown off radiator hose on the MH and it seems to be behaving itself again.

Tony

105, solid as a rock, in a wonderful solid-as-a-rock neighborhood . I take virtual tours, there, more than actual tours of Duquesne and Duquesne Place, nowadays. Also, I visit a Blog, "Duquesne Hunky," often enough, and enjoy the nostalgic conversations there.

Haven't been to Kennywood for decades, and yes, it has changed immensely, esp. since the Henniger brothers passed, and Carl Hughes recently.

As a teenager, I used to roam the roller-coasters in the Winter (park was closed, but we urchins had our ways in) and during snowfalls, just for the adventure of it all.

Here are a few of us boyhood friends in da'hood back-in-the-day, in our shared backyards. We all played in every yard. Can you spot which one I am?

[healey36]

Sarge, that's an absolute dagger... I'm out back up to my kness in my first post-retirement project:



...and I decide to head inside for a spot of lunch and to see what's up on the forum. There I discover a hammer-blow. Well, I run out to the garage to find the Sprite still entombed from the long winter:



No dice, but this shall not stand. I have to fall back to the "other" roadster, Herr Pischetsrieder's Z3:







I take solace in a distant related lineage for the Z3...it is my understanding that Bernd Pischetsreider was a first cousin once removed of Sir Alec Issiggonis (of Mini, Minor, hydro-elastic suspension, etc. fame)...

And yes, Sarge, I know the June 26th date looms ever closer...

Healey

P.S. That's an MGB bonnet standing in the back of the garage, just in case you put a wrinkle in yours.

[healey36]

Hey Murph...in the last pic, who's the little Sturmbannfuhrer wannabe on the far left? Regardless, I'm thinking you're second in from the right...

Healey

[sarge]

Ah, so, Herr Healey! Perhaps we need to have you re-reg as "Zed-man" now that the cat is out of the bag. Fancy driving about in a BMW whilst the Sprite slumbers. Tut-tut.

I assume by the other items seen in the garage beside the bonnet, you had a B at one time; is that an MG teatowel hanging on the bracket near the exhaust silencer, there?

Ah, well. I know better than to be completely insufferable, because that is what makes one's LBC break. Embarrass the shouty guy; "car"ma and all that...



It is nice to go for a drive for drive's sake, though, isn't it?

[sarge]

Hey Murph...in the last pic, who's the little Sturmbannfuhrer wannabe on the far left? Regardless, I'm thinking you're second in from the right...

Healey

I was going to ask about little Kraft durch Freude guy myself. I share your guess, and in the first picture the blond kid looks strikingly familiar...

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Hey Murph...in the last pic, who's the little Sturmbannfuhrer wannabe on the far left? Regardless,
Healey

I can remember that, even at the time, we were all dumbfounded about his doing that salute. We had no idea why. I'm not sure he knew why. Maybe he watched too much TV. Weird then. Weird now.
Oi-vey.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

...
It is nice to go for a drive for drive's sake, though, isn't it?

I am going to revive that philosophy personally, as of right now.

[healey36]

Ah, so, Herr Healey! Perhaps we need to have you re-reg as "Zed-man" now that the cat is out of the bag. Fancy driving about in a BMW whilst the Sprite slumbers. Tut-tut.

I assume by the other items seen in the garage beside the bonnet, you had a B at one time; is that an MG teatowel hanging on the bracket near the exhaust silencer, there?

Ah, well. I know better than to be completely insufferable, because that is what makes one's LBC break. Embarrass the shouty guy; "car"ma and all that...



It is nice to go for a drive for drive's sake, though, isn't it?

Yes, it was a splendid break from picking up bricks.

The '71 B belongs to my youngest brother...it still lives. It resided in this garage for a number of years until the Z was added to the stable...then it was off to a rented garage and ultimately one of his own. This was the original bonnet on the MG, which had a bit of damage along the leading edge that the prior owner had bondo'd to make presentable. Both the Sprite and the B were stripped down to bare metal before their resprays. Wherever possible any corrosion/damage was replaced with new steel...I became rather handy with a Mig welder on this project (that's sitting in the garage somewhere too). The bonnet was replaced with a new one from Moss, and here sits the old one.

The teatowel (hardy-har-har) is a vinyl fender cover, which is handy when bashing knuckles up front. I think it was a freebie from Moss after I spent my second grand on parts from those guys.

Wait 'til you see the Sprite...I run it on 145 Michelin XZX's...they look like one step up from bicycle tires. They are, however, OEM size...

Alright, enough chit-chat...back to the brick-pile.

Healey

P.S. Another project is to put a copper roof on that cupola, there...not sure I'm skilled enough for that. The Old Man built the cupola for me a year or so before he shot through...hopefully I'll get it finished and up on the garage before I do the same.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

No pictures from my drive today up & back to my place in PA.

But, a new hot water tank has been installed into place into the old cistern and old one removed. Fun times.

A sentence you rarely hear: "Hand me the hot water tank.....".

Was wondering what (which?) failure was responsible - ok, underground in a cistern that's usually got 2-3" of water in it at minimum doesn't help, but it doesn't freeze down there either!

Electrical box on top was a mass of rust.....cover over the one heating element had a nice hole in it where the one wire had burnt its way loose from the mount and then through the cover plate. And, the breaker never threw once.....

Got better than 12 years out of that one, so I figure another decade and we'll be doping this again. 40 gallon tank just barely fits through the cistern hatch....

[healey36]

...so I figure another decade and we'll be doping this again.

I trust that's a freudian slip...

[Rufus T. Firefly]

...so I figure another decade and we'll be doping this again.

I trust that's a freudian slip...

Maybe, Depends on whether there's a dope, a stooge, a mook, or a shmoe involved....

I figure in a decade it'll be my son's problem, and I'll be able to sit back in a lawn chair and watch/supervise while in my dotage being a burden to society,

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Hey Murph...in the last pic, who's the little Sturmbannfuhrer wannabe on the far left? Regardless, I'm thinking you're second in from the right...
Healey

The journeys life provides never cease to amaze me.

The salute-boy (kids can be silly,) a full-blooded Italian, on the far left, became a noted lawyer, law professor, and a judge, known for his good judgement, kindness, and personal class. We have remained dear friends.

The three boys close around me, one of whom plays at holding my head up, are all Jewish, which made that salute all the more unfortunate and awkward at the time for us.

The platinum-haired boy (front row, second from left, became an Olympics-destined swimmer in high school, extremely popular with the girls, and with us, his childhood chums, but he was killed, as a teenager, driving his new Corvette very fast around a sharp left turn onto a bridge between Duquesne and McKeesport, PA. His car slid on its side directly into a bridge abutment. His mother, who enjoyed regularly listening to her police radio while working in her kitchen, heard the call about the accident and went rushing to the site while the police were still newly on the scene. She parked her car just anywhere and walked out into a grassy shoulder, as everybody searched for all of our friend. She bumped into something solid in the grass with her foot. It was her son's head. She was never the same person again. His loss marked us boys permanently. We hold onto friends very tightly.

[healey36]

The valedictorian of my graduating high school class was needless to say a sharp guy. He received a senatorial nomination for the Naval Academy and graduated after four years. I recall it was a bit of a struggle for Eddie, and I know his Dad worried that he might not make it. He did however, and was assigned to the Intel section on Nimitz. He was soon flown to Europe to join the ship on maneuvers in the Med, helo'd out from Naples. The next morning he boarded his S-3 for his first recon flight. They took a cold-cat shot and augered straight into the water ahead of the ship. Three successfully ejected, Eddie did not. The hundred thousand ton carrier, clipping along at 30 knots, laid waste to the S-3 in the water ahead of it.

His Dad was a husk after that...all of the life went straight out of him. When you're 23 or 24 years old and something like that happens to someone you know, you quickly realize you're not as friggin' invincible (read lucky) as you think you are.

Healey

[The Dirt]

Sarge and Healey, GREAT freakin' car pics!!

The brick project is looking good, too. I have a front walk with those concrete blocks made to simulate bricks. The redhead has pronounced that this is the Summer they go away somewhere. Any takers? (Pick-up only)



Murph, hard to see that salute as malicious. Maybe he'd been watching 'Hogan's Heroes' before coming out to play.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

The brick project is looking good, too. I have a front walk with those concrete blocks made to simulate bricks. The redhead has pronounced that this is the Summer they go away somewhere. Any takers? (Pick-up only)

Not a project that I envy. I did our front walk in slate what seems like decades ago - wait; maybe it was decades ago.....

All the neighbors came over to see what I was doing. They'd never seen anyone cutting slate by hand before.

Then again, some had never seen anyone working outside before,