Aftermarket gauges

[Fordum]

Actually, sometimes I help........

The sad part is, I have lots of crazy stuff I could tell, but everybody is dead or moved away, there were no pics taken, and without pics or witnesses, no one here would believe me.

And I wouldn't blame them if they didn't.

Things are great now with cheap digital cameras.
Back when I was doing the wild stuff, cameras were expensive, fragile, and film cost when you bought it and when you had it developed.

So you did not take a camera along if you were going to bad places, if you had one, you only had a few shots per roll, so you did not waste them on funny stuff.

I am still trying to find the picture of my riding a shark when I was about 2 or 3. I found the negative of me about to be put on, but not the one of me actually on him.

I know its here, I've seen it, just have not been able to put my hand on it and get it scanned.

 

[dremu]

I am still trying to find the picture of my riding a shark when I was about 2 or 3.

What, jumping the shark isn't enough, you gotta ride it??

-- A

 

[Fordum]

Only way to go.

That is one of those things we do/did that no one here would believe. I've told this before, but when I was a teenager, we had a cottage on the Gulf beach.

Often a sandbar would form about 50-100 feet or so out from shore.
Usually it was attached to the beach at one end, went out into the gulf and was open at the other.
Deep channel between it and the beach.
Various fish would swim in that channel, Pompano, Whiting, a few Redfish.
Also sharks.
When we saw a shark, we would hurry down to the open end and swim out to the bar.
The bar was usually about ankle deep.
One guy would stay at the open end and make noise when the shark would try to get out.
The other, usually me, would chase him towards the closed end, running along the bar.
If he didn't break past and go out the open end, sooner or later he would try to go across the bar.

If I was quick enough, I could run over and grab his tail while he was in the shallow water and could not maneuver.
My buddy would run over and help, and we would drag him along the bar back to the beach and show him off.
As long as you kept his tail up so his head and chest were grounded he was helpless.

But, I have no pictures, and no one is likely to believe me.
However, when I was about 2 or 3, some folks we knew made a strike (netted) a bunch of mullet in front of the cottage.
They also caught 3 sharks in the net.
They waded out and got the sharks out of the net. Little trickier with them in chest deep water, and dragged them out to the beach.
My father took me down to see.
For fun, he picked me up and set me on one of the shark's back, just behind the fin.
I hung on to the fin, and kicked him with my heels.
Everytime I did, he went nuts and I rode him like a horse.

Perfectly safe, he was on land and I was behind the fins where he could not reach me.
Looking at the negative, judging by my father's height, I would say it was about a 6 or 7 foot sand shark.
If I can't find the actual pic of me on it, I'll scan this negative, reverse it and post it instead.