It's B-a-c-k-

It's back. After quite a few years of being is disrepair the Snowshark Preservation Society is back online. I had to do some revamping but all the old but necessary information is there. As some of you know the Society exists for the preservation of the crytozoological creatures. While many of know about the SPS and it's goals, you may not know how it began. here is that story.

I had taken a job in the northeast, upstate New York to be exact, and as a southerner was enduring my first winter there. I had never seen so much snow. one day I said to one of my co-workers, "Man, in all this snow you better be on the look-out for snowsharks!" He, of course, didn't know what they were. i had heard of them back in the days of my youth from a rock-n-roll deejay. I did embellish the snowshark story a bit on how they would literally consume anything in their path. A few days later he said that his grandmother thought she had seen and was sure that it had eaten her tomcat. I began to get reports of sightings from others. After work one day while having a few Gennies with my buds the Snowshark Preservation Society was birthed. We talked of organizational structure and publicity and marketing and all those business things. Of course we had to have a logo. And, yes, the logo was designed on a napkin. That is how the SPS began.

See the Snowshark Preservation Society at http://geocities.com/jack_young_us/

The Last Refuge of Man

I believe that the last refuge for men is disappearing. I mean, how many barbershops have you seen lately? They are part of my memories for sure. I still remember when my dad would take me to the barber. It was actually below street level in a small southern town. It was as bright as day in there as with mirrors on two walls behind gleaming black leather upholstered white and chrome barber chairs. And then there was the barber in a starched white shirt with a tie knotted perfectly. His hair cut was immaculate and he had a brush sticking out of the back pocket of his dark trousers. He would put a padded board across the chair arms for me to sit on. His hands turned my head into the proper position for the electric clippers to do their job. In a few minutes he was finished with a sprinkling of talc and a quick brushdown. He gave me a lolip9p and I waited while Dad got his hair cut. I looked at the pictures in the hunting and fishing magazines.Businessmen would come in for haircuts and shaves. Some of them while waiting would get their shoes shined by the old black man who had a shoeshine chair in one corner of the shop. He would sometimes sing a little song and play a little tune with the shine rage on his customers shoes. As I grew older I noticed the odors of hot lather and Wildroot Cream Oil. Yes, there was a time for Butch Wax which was about the time I noticed the scantily clad women on the Lucky Tiger hair tonic bottle.

Barber shops gave way to styling salons and shops that cut both men and women's hair. Men started getting razor cuts and perms. And most of the haircutting was done by women. Now more bottles of Lucky Tiger. No more Hunting and fishing magazines. What was a guy to do?

Not so long ago in a strip mall I found a place with a that rare symbol. Right outside the store front there it was gently turning in the morning that red, white and blue sign which I sought: a barber pole.

So I just had to go in. I needed a haircut since I didn't go to those other places unless I had to. The shop had three chairs and the wall behind them was covered with mirrors. I could smell the hot lather and I believe I saw a bottle of Lucky Tiger on the shelf. I took a seat and awaited my turn. While waiting I checked out the latest issues of Sports Afield and Road and Track. There was some Allman Brothers playing on the music system You know: "...I was born in the back of a Greyhound bus goin' down highway 41..." There was a lot of talking going on around me. Guys were discussing hunting and fishing and that surgically enhanced girl on Bay Watch. Some fella asks me, "Do you ever think that Dale Jr. will get his act together?"

By the time I got into the chair there was hardly any one was left. I got the full treatment: shave shampoo, haircut AND a scalp massage. Boy did I feel good! I paid the barber and when in came a young woman in jeans and a western shirt. She doffed the cowboy had plopped herself down in the chair and said, "A little off the sides, Hank!"

I haven't been back. you see, don't need to.

Calendars and then some

  I've created a calendar today on Shutterfly.com . It was my second time I used Shutterfly which is primarily a photo sharing service. However, they allow you to use you photos in various and sundry ways. I diligently looked through some 600 images to find the ones I wished to use for a twelve month calenday. I found it easier to sellect about 50 imges initially and then editing the number to 12 plus one for the cover. The service offers a numer of templates and styles for calendars but I opted for one large borderless photo. Of course processed all the images with Photoshop before uploading. You can add you choice of dates on significant dates on the calendar such as birthedays , anniversaries, etc. In 5 to 7 business days we should have our calendar. Fortunately I had a special discount so I only had to pay shipping. Calendars are normally $14.99.

2day

Wow! I've been busy with some business type stuff. I have been uploading images to be imprinted on various clothing products. These are on Cafepress at http://www.cafepress.com/1391647. Many of the drawings had been done for quite a while but I refined them for textile printing. As an attempt at generating traffic to my store I added a plug to the end of the tractors slide show on YouTube.

I've also started to work of some products for EBay.

Tractors

I like tractors and I don't know why. Could it be the memories of my days as boy on the farm. I was kind of a thrill when I was first allowed to plow with the Farmall Super A alone. I'm sure that it ws before I had license to drive automobiles. What I remember about it most was that it had no suspension system. It was a rough ride. Another thing that was interesting was that you could start off in top gear unlike an automobile. There were times when you would need to start it my hand. You inserted a hand crank into the front of the engine and turned the handle until the engine started.

The video show some of the tractors I have seen during our travels. Before these machines there were steam traction engines and then some one replace steam with the internal combustion engine. The first tractors were quite simple. The former could perform all the maintenance needed to keep the farm tractor operating.