Don't know how old my pocket knife is, on my father passed in 1988 I saw it in his things and instantly knew it belong to my grandfather. Still carry it to this day it's been a great knife.

I've also carried a Leatherman for about the last 12 years. I think rule nine says always carry a knife, per Gibbs.

I was told by a friend's mother I would never make it through Marine Corps Boot Camp, I made it plus after four years I got an honorable discharge. My friend at the time who joined with me did make it through Boot Camp but ended up with bad paper and the last I heard was in prison. That was 56 years ago and have been told many times over I could not do this or that but I have successfully done a lot of things the naysayers said I could not.

I was always a pain to managers and supervisors in my working life and I guess maybe you could say life in general. I used to teach auto mechanics at city College of San Francisco and I had a department chair who said he had a PhD in education tell me not to teach in the lab any more but only in the classroom and no more hands-on just theory. For me that was the last straw I decided to retire and go back to life at the horse ranch. Well funny thing is I had some riders out one day and coming down the mountain trail was a bicyclist going as fast as he could. I asked him to slow down and of course he didn't pay any attention to me and after coming to a sliding stop and scaring my horses and riders have to death he looked at me with a big smile. well it turned out to be my old department chair who said I needed to do things his way. I can never tell you the pleasure I had leaning out of my saddle telling him I am the PhD out here and if I ever find you riding like that around my horses again I will show you how efficient the horses are at stomping on a bicycle and giving the rider a kick in the south end. That was a few years back and I have never seen him again.

When I was young my grandfather said he was going down yonder. Still don't know where down yonder is but I think I'll go over yonder and maybe try some fishing.

I had a 1969 road runner and at first it was one bad ass car. then they reformulated the octane in gas and it quickly turned into a pile of junk. Does anyone remember when you got blue gas from Chevron?
I was being discharged from the Marines at camp Penilton and I had to go to the North gate in San Onofre for part of my discharge, had a Texan riding with me. From Oceanside to San Onofre I punched it to see how fast it would actually go. Well long story short the CHP had a roadblock set up at the Northgate and when I stopped I asked what's going on and the cop said just wait for a minute. Another CHP come flying up behind me jumped out of his cruiser ripped my door open yank me out threw me across the hood and cuffed me then put me in the back of his cruiser. He asked me how fast I was going I said maybe 80 miles an hour he said bullshit my speedo was pinned at 150 and you were still pulling away from me. The Texan was still in the passenger seat and was asked the same question how fast were you going. well bless his heart he said maybe 80 miles an hour. He saved my ass that day from going to jail and the other thing that pissed him off was at the time I was in the MP's. He gave me a ticket that cost me $180 a lot for 1969 and an E3. I probably would have been an E5 by that time but I had too much fun pissing off lifers.
You had three types of Marines then, those that wanted to get out, those that made a career of the Marines and then lastly the lifers were too dumb to make it on the outside.

Reminds me of a time in the early 1970s that me and some friends were fishing at San Luis Reservoir and one of them caught a half moon shaped rock and it was spinning in a way when he was reeling in like he had caught one huge striped bass.

Reminds me of a time back in the early 70s that I was fishing on San Antonio lake, my now ex brother-in-law and me were at the north end of the lake where there were a lot of hidden mud flats. Going into that area they were buoys that marked the speed limit at 5 miles an hour and no water skiing. Well Guess What, some idiot thinks it's funny that he can tear through there with a skier behind him as fast as he can and disturb our fishing. not a real smart thing to do with me around. I had 2 Anchors on my boat Front and rear. I told my brother-in-law to just pull one up as I pull the other up and let the wind drift us into one of the mud flats. Not sure how fast the idiot was going but he hit the mudflat and his skier came down in ankle deep water and I heard what I believe was a nasty snap that I think was transom. He looked at me like I should help him however we pull both anchors in fired up my boat and left. I don't know what happened to him and the skier because that part of the lake was pretty isolated. I never found out if he managed to get out of there and quite frankly I didn't give a damn. Don't screw with fisherman!

Sounds like you had quite a life and sorry to hear about your leg. I worked as a mechanic for a Volkswagen, Porsche and Audi for 18 years. When I got too old and burned out I had the opportunity to teach mechanics at City College San Francisco for another 18 years. I finally retired from that after I had a department chair waive his PhD in front of me and told me I had to teach his way. Needless to say that did piss me off because he had no idea about how to teach auto mechanics. The funny thing is one day when I was bringing a ride in off the trail I see this bicyclist coming down the hill as fast as he can, now I mind you I had a horse that had been hit by a bicycle and wanted nothing to do with them. I hollered for him to slow down and not spook my horses, as he got closer I see it is the department chair with the infamous PhD coming towards me. when he saw who I was he stopped and tried to make friendly with me however I leaned out of my saddle looked him in the eye and told him out here I have the PhD and if I ever see you coming down the trail like that again I would kick his rear end all the way back to the parking lot, last time I ever heard or saw him again.

One of the things that really help me with my PTSD was working with the horses, it really calmed me down and allowed me some peace of mind being at the ranch. I stayed there another 10 years before my health went South and I had to quit. I'm still working with horses however it's with an organization called project hope, they work with veterans and horses in a way that psychologists can't.

In the old cowboy movies there was a reason that their hats did not come off. In a sense they were glued on, however that glue was there sweat. I know this because I worked as a wrangler and trail guide at a horse ranch a few years back. I would get so hot and sweaty that my hat would literally glue itself to my head, if I didn't give it a little sideways twist and tried to pull it directly off it would've taken skin with it.

Those were fun days for me, I would try to show men how to properly set the saddle but they never got it so when we got back to the ranch after a good trot and canter they always got off and walked a little bowlegged, not from the horse but from the fact that they would end up busting their balls on the saddle. Not many men really like riding horses, I always had more women come out and ride then men. If a man did show up it was always with a wife that was very anxious to get out and do some trotting and cantering.
Another funny thing was when we came back to the ranch riders would get off and say how sore they are, that's with a little smile I would say wait till tomorrow.

yes that is a lot for old farts like me. you need to be a a young whipper snapper for it to pay.

yes at any age. so the Younger the better. I was 43 when I got mine and this July I will be 74, saved a lot of money over the years. In the beginning they mailed it to me but now I go online and order it and they send it to me.

yes we do have lifetime fishing license in California.

A happy 420 to you.

I got my lifetime license here in California somewhere around 1990, glad I did because over the long run I have saved a lot of money, and it has more than paid for itself. I think back then I paid something around 400 or $500.

Many years ago when I lived in San Francisco, I lived on the top floor of a flat and my downstairs neighbors (they were lesbians) for whatever reason did not like my wife or me and when I was using my smoker(that did smoke a lot) thought it would be funny to call the fire department. Needless to say the fire department was rather pissed that they had wasted their time when there were far more important calls that needed to be taken care of.

I made it to the wall in 1985, found the name of the corpsman that saved my life, I was so overwhelmed with grief that I stepped off the path on to the lawn in front of the wall, a civilian stepped on the lawn to take a photo a ranger immediately told him he could not be there, he looked at me and said, why is he there, the Ranger said he earned the right to be there. United states Marine Corps 1965 to 1969, was in nam 65/66 bravo 1/4