Rust n’ Dust

I, like a million others in this world, am a sucker for classic cars.  Give me an old, rusty jalopy with an engine making sounds it shouldn’t be making long before you give me a new, shiny hunk of plastic that is churned out on so many assembly lines these days.

In fact, a few months ago, when I was looking for a used car to buy, I contemplated going way back and getting a car from some time between the 1930s and the 1960s to fix.  Although I ended up buying a 1980 Jeep (still older than I am!), my desire to have a classic car has not waned.

While surfing the Pike Brothers Web site after I discovered it looking at the T-shirt that inspired my last post, I found the interesting video that I have embedded at the top of this post.

It is of the Rust n’ Dust Jalopy race in Teterow, Germany.  Teams enter

US Navy Seabees

Navy sailor band, including Seabee trumpet player Wallace Colcord, performing a Sunday concert while other soldiers look on. Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands, March 1944.
Photo by J.R. Eyerman, from the LIFE Archives.

A T-shirt made by Pike Brothers caught my eye when I saw an image of it posted on Rivet Head’s blog.  Printed on the front is a graphic of a helmeted sailor, bayoneted firearm  in hand and cigarette in mouth, operating a bulldozer.  Above the drawing is the word “Seabees” and below is the word “Tarawa.”  The 1940s-esque design intrigued me and reminded me of the graphic style of the pinup girls painted on the side of aircraft in World War II.

I also wanted to know exactly what a “Seabee” was.  I correctly assumed that Tarawa was a location in the Pacific theater, where

Battle in the Saddle

The Oklahoma State Fairgrounds are playing host to Battle in the Saddle from July 5-10.  I stopped by on Monday to see some of the action.  The open, non-pro, and senior cutting was under way.

Cutting is an event where

Nick Offerman’s Woodshop

I saw this on Last Call with Carson Daly the other night, about Nick Offerman (from the TV show Parks and Recreation) and his wood shop. It’s a pretty cool looking place.

Offerman is not only an actor, but a woodworker, who makes canoes, one-of-a-kind furniture, and other pieces in his shop.

I can’t get the embed to work, but follow the link. It’s worth it.

Last Call with Carson Daly: Nick Offerman

I lost to a lawn mower

“Barber giving one of his $2.50 haircuts.” Anchorage, Alaska, November 1952
Photo by George Silk, LIFE Archives

The latest post at A Continuous Lean is especially timely for me.  Yesterday I went to get my hair cut, as I desperately needed.

I go to an old-school barber.  I always have–except  for a year of high school when I went to a unisex salon–but I quickly switched back to the traditional barber shop.

Fishing in the 1940s

Searching the Mother Road

“Dramatic cumulus clouds billowing over a Texaco gas station along a stretch of highway US 66, aka Route 66.”
Photo by Andreas Feininger, Seligman, Ariz., September 1947, LIFE Archives

Always living in central Oklahoma, Route 66 is part of my backyard.  And there are few things I enjoy more than hopping in my 1980 Jeep CJ-5 and cruising a stretch of old highway.