I recently read about a worldwide study concerning the mindset of men through out their lives. The study found that men go through various mental states. When they are kids, they are happy go lucky without a care in the world. As they approach their 40's and "mid-life crisis", they become depressed. When they get into their late 50's, they tend to reflect back on their younger years. I believe this study has some credibility indeed, since I am in my late 50's and have written 138 stories about my childhood. Oh, make that 140 counting this one. That would certainly explain all the flashbacks I've been having during these last few years. All of these stories, of course, are the result of some of these spontaneous flashbacks. On the way to the barn this evening, another flashback suddenly hit me and the result is the premise of the following story. Over the years, several people have asked me how I write my stories. In case the rest of you are wondering, I will explain it. I never sit down and outline any points or plan beforehand or have a draft copy in developing a story from an idea. Most of the time, with very few exceptions, I literally just sit down with my initial flashback thought and type it all in one sitting as the thoughts flow out. I guess the bottom line is that everything is based on impulsiveness, ah, umm, errr, I guess a better word would be spontaneity. On the other hand, to put it simply, I write like I talk. Now you know. I don't know if any other writers' work this way, all I know is that is the way I always have. Ah huh! Now you know what goes on behind the scenes and the story behind the story of my stories. Aren't you glad you asked!

 

All right, with that out of the way, I shall now release my thoughts, which, as usual, I have to type very rapidly to keep up with, so fasten your seatbelts. Gee Whiz, I'm so hyperactive, that right after I die they will have to chase me for 2 miles to catch me and give me a tranquilizer so they can to bury me J

Back in the mid 1960's when all of us guys started driving our own cars; various car fads came and went. One of the fads was having blue lights shining out of the front grille of our cars. Even now, I cannot give any rational explanation for this but only to say that it was "cool". I guess that was the whole reason for everything we did back then. The "coolness" of it all even overwhelmed me and I decked my grille out with blue lights too. That was very unusual because throughout my whole life I have rarely followed trends; I usually started them, at least locally at any rate.  At first, I was very reluctant to install blue lights in my grille because I didn't do it first. However, the urge to be "cool" overwhelmed me and I headed off to Western Auto in Norwalk to purchase several blue lights. Because I always over do everything, I also purchased a 6 toggle switch chrome panel because I planned on installing a lot of blue lights other than just in my grille, if for no other reason to be different. Imagine that! Since they had other colored lights, I briefly entertained the thought of installing additional red, orange, and/or amber lights, but decided not to since blue was and is my favorite color.

 

I installed 2 blue lights in the grille and also installed 2 in the interior. One on each side under the dashboard. To be "ultra cool" and to start a further trend I planned to install one light under each wheel weld to illuminate my tires. Unfortunately, I found I could not do that because my inner fenders were so rusty I couldn't find anything solid enough to bolt the lights on to. I wired all 4 lights to the toggle panel I had installed under my dash, which gave me an on/off switch for each light so I could vary the pattern. A few days later, I installed another light in the trunk. I did this not to start another trend, but because I had one left over and wanted to use it.

 

As an interesting aside to all of this, just before I purchased the lights, a rumor was going around that it was illegal to have blue lights on your car because only snow plow trucks were allowed to have them. After I thought about it, I never recalled ever seeing a snowplow truck with blue lights. I figured I was safe because my car would never have been mistaken for a snowplow since it wasn't yellow and no one would be looking for a snowplow with blue lights in July, which was the month I installed the blue lights. Since I was not planning to drive to the North Pole that summer, I figured I'd be safe with blue lights. Even though I had this confidence, whenever I drove at night I looked over my shoulder now and then for any signs of a police car. I got away clean because my driving record was clear of any tickets for impersonating a snowplow with blue lights.

 

Ignore this last paragraph:

jpqudw66@hockma.con (This isn't a valid email address. I just insert different bogus ones on some of my web pages now and then. It drives the spammers crazy when their spam bots pick them up and send me spam, it is bounced right back to them. (By the way, I have perfected my own spam filter, which blocks 100% of spam. None can get through! Take a look. Follow link below)