FreezinRafiki
Cold enough for ya?
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2009
My, my we have some interesting folks around here. My stories / facts are nearly as exciting, but here goes:
1. I grew up on a 400 acre Dairy farm. All of us kids (5 total) started "helping" with chores almost as soon as we could walk, then getting more and more responsibility as we grew up. Milking was twice a day, every day. (one of the mottos on the farm: "The Cows don't care that it's Christmas") Looking back, I really enjoyed my 18 years there, but farming long-term was not the life for me. My brother has taken over the farm and still runs it.
2. As a youth, I was in 4-H. Eventually, I started showing steers are the county fair. Since we had a heard of Holsteins, by brother and I just picked two of the calves and raised them apart from the rest of the heard. Holsteins are a "dairy" cattle, not known for good beef, like an Angus or Hereford. It made quite a ruckus one year when, after the fair, my steer was awarded Reserve Grand Champion carcass. (As part of the fair, there is an auction where local businesses bid on the animals, then they are all taken to the same butcher shop. About a week after the fair, carcass judging takes place in the walk-in freezer a la Rocky style)
3. I married my high-school sweetheart. We started dating as sophomores, went to the college where we got married after our junior years. We were both 21.
4. My grandfather (since we're sharing those stories too) was born in 1900, and right up until he had a stroke in the late '80s, still worked at the tractor dealership / blacksmith shop he started as a young man.
5. I've lived in Wisconsin my entire life - although 3 different corners of it. Only been out of the country twice - honeymoon in Aruba and a trip to Niagara Falls.
6. I've been in IT my entire career. I worked for my college's networking department while in school, then at my current employer ever since graduating. We're a national distributor/wholesaler of packaging and shipping supplies. Not exactly up there on the "coolest places to work" list, but its a good job.
7. My biggest claim to fame is that Reggie Jackson almost killed me. I was walking down a sidewalk in Cooperstown, NY during the Baseball Hall of Fame induction weekend. I was crossing an alley, when a big black sedan came flying down the street and whipped into the alley. I had to jump out the way. Reggie was late for an autograph session, and never even slowed down.
1. I grew up on a 400 acre Dairy farm. All of us kids (5 total) started "helping" with chores almost as soon as we could walk, then getting more and more responsibility as we grew up. Milking was twice a day, every day. (one of the mottos on the farm: "The Cows don't care that it's Christmas") Looking back, I really enjoyed my 18 years there, but farming long-term was not the life for me. My brother has taken over the farm and still runs it.
2. As a youth, I was in 4-H. Eventually, I started showing steers are the county fair. Since we had a heard of Holsteins, by brother and I just picked two of the calves and raised them apart from the rest of the heard. Holsteins are a "dairy" cattle, not known for good beef, like an Angus or Hereford. It made quite a ruckus one year when, after the fair, my steer was awarded Reserve Grand Champion carcass. (As part of the fair, there is an auction where local businesses bid on the animals, then they are all taken to the same butcher shop. About a week after the fair, carcass judging takes place in the walk-in freezer a la Rocky style)
3. I married my high-school sweetheart. We started dating as sophomores, went to the college where we got married after our junior years. We were both 21.
4. My grandfather (since we're sharing those stories too) was born in 1900, and right up until he had a stroke in the late '80s, still worked at the tractor dealership / blacksmith shop he started as a young man.
5. I've lived in Wisconsin my entire life - although 3 different corners of it. Only been out of the country twice - honeymoon in Aruba and a trip to Niagara Falls.
6. I've been in IT my entire career. I worked for my college's networking department while in school, then at my current employer ever since graduating. We're a national distributor/wholesaler of packaging and shipping supplies. Not exactly up there on the "coolest places to work" list, but its a good job.
7. My biggest claim to fame is that Reggie Jackson almost killed me. I was walking down a sidewalk in Cooperstown, NY during the Baseball Hall of Fame induction weekend. I was crossing an alley, when a big black sedan came flying down the street and whipped into the alley. I had to jump out the way. Reggie was late for an autograph session, and never even slowed down.
He was also one of the original NASCAR drivers.
. HS days, I participated in football (DE) and baseball (1B), and although I live in Indiana I didn't play HS basketball but played a lot of pickup and IM ball at college so now as an adult I play basketball 2 nights a week fall - spring and softball the rest of the year.
.
<-- (closest I could get to a gangster)
started most of the Unions in Northern California and had JFK to his house for meetings on more than one occasion.
