My Dream car

My 1987 Corvette

I wasn't able to get my dream car until 1987. What is my dream car? It is a Corvette, I wanted a 1967 with a 427 cubic inch engine. But they were going for about $125,000 so I got what I could afford.and that is the 1987 Corvette. It was brand new. Drove  it off the dealers lot with only 24 miles on it and it was beautiful blue with charcoal interior. I couldn't wait to show it off to my family and friends. I drive it straight home and had my mom come out and see it. What a surprise to her. So I got her to hop in the car and we went over to John and Sue's house to show them. It was a Saturday and I wouldn't be able to show my fellow workers until Monday morning.

Sure is shiny 

When we got to John's house I told them that they should come out and see what I have. John and Sue, John's wife, came outside and got a good look at my new baby. John didn't really care about it, he was never impressed with cars. But Sue was and asked if she could drive it. I think I surprised her and handed her the keys and off she went. She was gone for about 5-10 minutes, I didn't care I trusted her. When she got back she was smiling like it was hers, but she knew it wasn't. We went inside their house and I told them that I was leasing it and after my 36 month lease was up then I would decide if I was going to buy it or return it and walk away. Lease was the only way I could afford the new car. I didn't have the down payment or the money to make the monthly payment to purchase it.

I loved the gauges

When we got home from showing my new car off to John and Sue, Mom and I called it a night. There were times that I woke up in the middle of the night and I would go to the back door and open it and check to see if the Vette was really there. Every time I checked, it was there. Sunday I went out and hand washed it and then waxed my new baby. After that I would dust it off every night before I went to bed with a California Duster. I would hand wash and wax my Corvette every weekend. In about a week or so I got a car cover for it and I would cover it every day at work and every night at home. 

The first day I drove it to work everyone wanted a ride and of course I was obliging. My best friend at work was Brett and we palled around a lot, we went to Star Trek conventions, Comic book shows and other things. He was the first one to get a ride, when it was lunch time we hopped in the Vette and took off to get something to eat and drive around some. There were only a couple of others that worked with me and I took them out different days for lunch and a ride.

The view I showed a lot of people

What a great car! One of the first times I found out how cool it was, I was coming home from work one night. It was about 10:30 PM. I was holding down two jobs because. Because I had to support Mt Baby! While on my way home this Lincoln Continental pulled up beside me with four guys in it. It was obvious that they wanted me to show off. Well I wasn't about to disappoint them, so I gave them a show. I gave them a good look before I floored it and showed them her rear. I had to slow down for a red light but just before I reached it and they caught up to me, the light turned green .  I floored the Vette and I was off like a bat out of h*** and left the guys in the Continnetal behind me. The road made a gradual curve to the left. When I came out of the turn I still had the pedal to the metal. I looked at the speedometer and I was doing about 105 mph and it was hugging the road as if it was on rails. SWEET!!! I had two intersections coming up and I could see that the first light was green and the second one was red so I started to slow down. I had to stop at the red light and the Continental finally caught up to me. I took a look at the guys next to me and when I  did they all grinned and gave me the thumbs up. They got what they wanted. They wanted to see what the Vette would do and I was happy to show them. So I gave them a big smile and waved. When the light turned green I floored it, smoked the tires, and left them a calling card... a strip of rubber about 15 feet long.

That's just one story of my '87 Corvette. Wait till I tell you about joining a Corvette club and some of the stories from that experience..

One of my passions goes charitable

Granny Square Afghan

One of my passions is crocheting. I learned when I was in high school. I would sit at home watching TV and my mom would sit in her rocker and crochet night after night. She mostly made granny square afghans. Sometimes she'd make something else. She would use the afghans as gifts for friends and family. A lot of her afghans were gifts to friends getting married. The friends that were getting married and received an afghan were so thankful. Mom loved the fact that they loved her afghan but too often she would hear "It's so pretty, I'm going to put it in the closet and keep it safe." Mom hated this, she wanted them to use them, drape the afghan on the back of the couch as decoration or just to have handy if someone gets cold. She ready loved it when she would go over to someone's house and there was the afghan she gave them out and ready for someone to use.

Made from a pattern

As I said mom taught me how to crochet when I was in high school that means I've been crocheting for about 47 years. I did the same thing, I made afghans for friends that were getting married and that was their wedding present. I also wanted to see them used so I would tell them please don't put it in a bag or box and stick it in the closet but leave it out and let it be used. They are strong and can take a lot of abuse. I have made probably 12 to 20 afghans for friends. I also taught myself how to read a pattern so I could make afghans that were different, not just granny squares. and I did make a lot of different afghans, some I gave away  as gifts and some I sold. 

As the years went along and I got older and retired I had more time to crochet. In fact I spend a lot of time sitting in front of  our TV crocheting. All of my yarn is donated from friends or from other sources. Well with so much yarn I had to figure out what to do with it all. One day I was in Michael's and they had a project sheet for making squares so they could make blankets for the homeless. They wanted the squares to be a certain size and that's all they wanted. They said bring your squares to Michael's and they would sew them together and get them to a shelter for the homeless. So I started making squares, actually they are rectangles about 7" x 9", well after awhile I stopped taking them to Michael's and kept them and made the blankets myself. When finished I would give them to one of our neighbors here at our apartment and he took them to the church next door and they would take them to the homeless that were living down by the river. I gave the church about 12 or 15 blankets.

One night I was watching "The Celebrity Apprentice". Meat Loaf, the singer, was one of the contestants and  his charity was Painted Turtle Children's Camp. We had never heard of them and so we Googled them and we found that they are a camp that takes children with all life threating diseases and one of them is Muscular Distrophy. I have worked with and donated to MD since the early 70's and they are dear to my heart. So when I heard that MD kids could go to "The Painted Turtle" camp I wanted to see if I could help. And I found that Painted Turtle gives each camper a quilt or an afghan when they come to camp and they get to keep them. So I contacted Painted Turtle to see what size the afghan had to be. When I had the size in hand I started making afghans for " The Painted Turtle " So far I've sent 5 afghans and I am making more.

Another charity has received an Afghan from me and I have more for them now and will send them soon. It is FFRC (Friends of Feline Rescue Center). The center has a 24/7 web-cam and a pretty large following  Last year, 2011, they had their first Catathon. It is their yearly fund raiser for the center, in fact last year they had some construction done on good faith that it would be paid for. So the Catathon was started and just to let you know they raised the money they needed. This year they are raising money for their new storage room that's being built. So I have 3 afghans I'm sending them and a poncho. I hope the afghans can help them raise some money by auctioning them off.

As long as I have yarn and the use of my hands I will continue making blankets for children at camp or for the homeless. If anyone reading this has any extra yarn that they would like to donate to me to make more blankets please leave a comment and I can get back to you with an address to send it to.


Later I'll post about some of my other passions. I love to shoot black powder guns and I collect pins. Just a couple of things you'll be hearing about from the one born in '49.

When Joe Montana wasn't a big star.

Joe Montana 

A story about Joe Montana and the 49ers. I don't remember the exact year but there was a card show at the Cow Palace in Daily City but it's billed as the San Francisco Cow Palace. The card show had Joe Montana signed to do autographs and I was not about to miss this. To have Joe autograph a picture was a chance in a life time. the surprising thing was that he was not as popular as I thought he was at that time. We were told that he would not be personalizing anything autographed, this was to speed up the expected long line. Well the surprise was there was about 25 people in front of me when I got into line and only about 10 behind me. I don't know about anyone else but I was shocked, here was the greatest quarter back San Francisco has ever seen and only 25 people standing in line in front of me. Well any way we went through and got our autographs and when everyone had gone through the line they made an announcement that if we wanted to get in line again he would personalize his autograph. So I got back in line and had him add, "To Dave" on my picture and for my mom I had him sign it "Get Well Anna" because mom was in the hospital. Joe was very polite and accommodating and a very friendly person. Later I would get a autographed football card of Joe's. Then in 1991 I got the opportunity to meet Joe's wife Jennifer and that year they made sports cards of some of the football players wives. In my meeting of Jennifer I was able to get her to sign her card and I put hers and Joe's card in an acrylic holder that holds two cards side by side.

Mom knew I was going to the Cow Palace to see Joe and she understood and didn't mind me not coming up to the hospital to see her that day. Besides she was getting an autographed picture of her favorite quarterback and the main reason she started watching football. Mom never watched football until Joe started playing for the 49ers and she really liked Joe, so every Sunday there she was sitting in front of the TV watching the niners win or lose. It is sad to think that the day that the 49ers won the XXIX Superbowl on Jan. 29 1995, mom was lying in the hospital in a coma. She was looking forward to watching the game in the hospital but that morning she had a stroke and went into a coma. John and I were going to have a little party at his house to watch the game but that never happened. We did manage to watch the game at the hospital while spending time with mom. I like to think that she was listening along with us and enjoying the win as much as we did. They say people in comas can hear and feel.

The Catch

Living in Mountain View which is close to San Francisco and very close to Santa Clara which is where the 49ers practice field is now, we get a lot of opportunities for autographs. Some of the 49ers I have are, Dwight Clarke, the other half of "The Catch" I'm sure there are some who remember that from the 49er/Dallas game in 1981. Also I have Roger Craig, running back, Tom Rathman, fullback, Ronnie Lott, defensive back, Steve Bono, quarterback, Jerry Rice, wide receiver, Merton Hanks, defensive back, Brent Jones, tight end, Jamie Williams, tight end, Eric Davis, defensive back, Bill Romanowski, linebacker,Mike Walter line backer, Jim Johnson, safety and wide receiver, Dana Hall, safety, and Bryant Young, defensive tackle.


Another story I'll relate later is telling you more about the other autographs I have, over 100.

It's April 23, 1949, It's a bouncing Baby Boy

It's April 23 1949, what time is it I don't know and my parents are no longer with us so I can't ask them what time I was born but I believe it was very early something like 1 or 2 AM. But I am born in Franklin, PA. and I am headed for living in the cold of winter and the hi-humidity of Pennsyvania. But I won't remember any of those first 4 years of living in Franklin.

My dads health was not good and he had to find a better climate and the doctor suggested Arizona or California or any other warm state. At the time he had a brother, my uncle Aurther or uncle Irish as we called him, lived in Mountain View Calif. so my father went to Calif. to live with his brother as he looked for  work  and a place to stay. My dad was able to find a job with the US Post Office and found a house on Boranda in Mountain. View then he sent for us to come to Calif.

So my mom and my brother and I got on an airplane and flew to San Francisco airport where my dad and my uncle Irish picked us up. I don't remember a lot of that trip but I do remember the Stewardess taking John, my brother, and I up to the cockpit to meet the pilot and see all the instruments. They gave us some plastic wings and told us we were junior pilots. I do remember most of that but not much else of our trip from Penn. to Calif.

So this is 1953 which makes me 4 1/2 and we live on Boranda for almost 2 years before we move over one block and down a block to Bonita. I don't remember a lot about the almost 2 years on Boranda but there are a couple of things I do remember. One of them was that for some reason I stuck my mom's keys into a wall socket.  You have to understand this is so many years before all the child protection devices that come later. The plastic things that you plug into the wall socket so kids can't do what I did and drawer and cabinet door devices that keeps prying hands and fingers out of them. Back to my mom's keys in the wall socket, I didn't get hurt but I did blow the fuses in  the house and my mom was so mad. I really don't think she was mad but more scared of what could have happened to me. I could have electrocuted myself and that scared the s*** out of her. Another thing that sticks out in my memories was Christmas eve 1954. We were spending the evening with Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Irish and my cousin Donna Lee. And Christmas day was  to be spent at our house. The thing that I remember and just blew me away  as a 4 1/2 year old was that when we got back from our aunt and uncles house Santa had already been there. And later as we grew up I never understood how this happened. What I didn't realize was when my dad said he had "forgotten something" and had to go back in the house, he was actually setting out all of our Christmas presents so they were there when we got home and it seemed like Santa had been there.

House on Bonita

Then in the summer of 1955 we moved over to Bonita just before I would start kindergarden. Our next door neighbors are the Sanchez's who would become life long friends. Becky Sanchez and I were the same age and we grew up together and there will be more about this friendship later in my blog.

Becky Sanchez

Okay we have it, Gold Fever!

After our time at Knotts Berry Farm John and I got hooked and we could do nothing but talk about getting gold pans and going up to the gold country and try some panning. Now there was no guarantee that we would get gold. What we call the gold country is about 130 miles East by North East  of Mountain View Calif. This is up along highway 49 which goes threw the original gold country from the 1849s. We would go to this area on the Mokelumne river just south of Jackson. There is this little dirt road that follows the river up stream and ends at a hydraulic power plant. This dirt road is called Electra Road and we would travel to the end of the road and we would find a spot to park and get out and pan for gold. The best part about doing this was that while we were panning for gold my dad could fish for trout and mom would just sit and relax or if they were ripe she would pick wild black berries. Those berries were so good I remember eating as many as we could pick.

Our first time we went out to try our luck at getting some gold we first had to stop in Jackson at the hardware store and buy our first gold pan. Our first ones were metal, later as we got into prospecting we found better pans that were lighter and improved and made of plastic. But here we are headed out to the river armed with our new metal gold pans and info from books on panning. We were far from experts, it would be later that we would acquire the knowledge and experience to have a better chance at finding some gold. When we got to the river we were so excited that we ran to the river and found a big rock to sit on and start panning.

We would take our pan and scoop up some sand and gravel and some rocks that we would just pick out and trow off to the side. I don't remember how many pans full of gravel and sand that we panned down to find nothing in our pan except maybe some black sand which is heavy and would stay in the pan like gold. Gold is one of the heaviest metals on earth and has we pan it settles to the bottom of the pan and will stay there if you do everything correctly. Also you collect what we call black sand, which is mostly iron flakes and is magnetic so sometimes we use a magnet to pick the black sand out of the pan. After a half day of panning we didn't find  anything. so we quit and tried some fishing, didn't catch anything either. Kind of a bust our first time out but we still had fun and this is just a long day trip, about 3 hours drive from Mountain View to Jackson. We are hooked and we knew we would come back and be better informed and ready to find some gold.

Why All Things 49.

Okay on my profile you can see in a very short version why "All Things 49" It starts with me being born on April 23rd in the year 1949, this making me 63 years old. Some years were not as good as others but most of my years growing up were quite good.


Next part of "All Things 49" I grew up in Mt. View a small town about 45-50 miles south of San Francisco and about 8 miles north of San Jose, Do You Know the Way to San Jose? And growing up in the Bay Area a kid can't help but grow up following and loving the 49ers. The Raiders were not in Oakland when I was  kid and besides I would never be a Raiders Fan.


Next It's about 1965 and my brother John and Mom and Dad went to Knotts Berry Farm and for the first time  John and I panned for gold at the gold mine display and the gold panning area. It was set up with water troughs that had sand in the bottom of the trough and it had gold sprinkled in the sand and the person working at Knotts would scoop up some sand in your pan and he would show you how to pan it down and then let you have the pan to finish. If you were a small kid they would help you but older kids like John and I they let us do it our selves. If by any chance you didn't get any gold or you panned the gold out and back into the trough they would scoop up another pan full of sand and let you pan it down. They would make sure that you got a little gold to take with you. The gold that you panned would be put into a little plastic vile with a screw on lid that was filled with water and then they washed the gold out of the pan into the vile.


So John and I started our days as gold prospectors and just like those men of 1849, the original 49ers, we were hooked. This is why I'm calling this "All Things 49". Anything else in my blog will be about my life, the SF 49ers and John and I prospecting. Modern day 49ers.