At Day 11 of the challenge, I’m to scrounge around and find more pictures of me and my friends. I had to dig very deep, and I came up with some oldies.

This was Babe, my St. Bernard, adopted when she was five. She had huge personality. She was a great dog, but she could be impish at times. The problem with a St. Bernard is the kitchen counter is at eye level. And thawing beef ribs are just too irresistible. By the time I caught her, she was already feeling miserable from eating too much, so all I could say was, “Babe, you shouldn’t have done that,” and the look on her face indicated complete agreement. We had her from 1981 to 1985.

I mentioned my friend, Dane, in the last photo post. I found an old photo of him (from 1992, I believe). He’s retired with a rather extravagant pony tail now. (The photo appears to have deteriorated some through the years, but Dane’s holding up pretty well.)

These next photos go all the way back to tech school in San Antonio in 1980. Taken in Brackenridge Park, we’re posing with my invisible St. Bernard, Barney. (He’s the one without the matching shirt.) We have Robin, Barney, Me, and Vicky. Cheryl is taking the picture.

Here’s the four of us on a picnic table back in the student squadron dormitory area (I think I’m the only one who didn’t smoke):

Yes, our shirts were matching, except on the back, they were numbered. Robin (4 of 4), Vicky (3 of 4), Cheryl (2 of 4), and Me (1 of 4). People were very concerned because they didn’t understand the shirts, but we employed a simple code. The shirts read,

WE’RE

DSZQUP

WE’RE KINKY

DO IT AGAIN

I’ve lost touch with all these folks. Robin and Cheryl both left the service after their initial commitments. I saw Cheryl up in Wisconsin years ago. Vicky retired from active duty a few years before me. She was serving an instructor duty tour when I got my commission, so she was there to render me my first salute, and I had the traditional silver dollar for her. Last time I talked to her (around 2005-2006), she was in South Carolina working as a contractor and enjoying life.

And then there was the “Gang” from high school. The six of us were pretty close our senior year: Kim, Regina, Margie, Patty, Tracy, and Me. We even had formal pictures made of us together — you just might be able to see them on the upper right of this scrapbook page.

This is a page from a scrapbook my mom and dad made for me for their 50th anniversary in 2010. In the lower right, we have my two brothers (Dave and Bob, and my little sister, Debra. Ann is missing from this one somehow. The two shots of me were taken around 1982.

I’d be remiss not to mention Melody (my photo of her is buried in an analog album somewhere).