[ponyakr]

now here's an unforgetable goat tail for ya'll. in early 1970, i enrolled in an ironworker apprenticeship program. we'd go to 3 nite classes a week, taking welding classes as well as some book learnin. i was still also taking a nite class at college. they let us work on construction jobs along with the real ironworkers, so we could learn from them. sort of O.J.T.. i remember my 2nd job. the foreman of my crew said to me, "punkin(thats what they called all apprentices) get 1 of those small choakers & get on the back off that cherrypicker, & go get a piece of iron. the operator will show you where it is". well i only had 2 problems with that. i had no idea what a choaker was, nor what a cherrypicker was. so, i had a lot to learn. from then on i drove the goat to work every day on thru part of '72 to construction sites in n la, s ark, & e tex. so even if the day was hard, at least i could enjoy the ride to & from work. 1 day in march of '71 me & a punkin buddy were workin on a big job at our local papermill, less than 10 miles from home. just after we got to work, it started to snow really hard, & did so for several hours. now for you folks who live up north this is no biggy. but here in the land of rednecks & bayous, cajuns & crawfish, snow is a rare treat. & especialy in march, what little we get is usually in jan or feb. but this day it was just cold enuff to stick to everything it touched. there was soon a nice blanket of snow covering everything, including the trees. it was beautiful. so they shut the job down & told everybody to go home. most did. but me & my punkin buddy didn't go straight home. we popped a top on a brew, which was always handy in the ice chest on the back seat. now folks, i'm not suggesting that you do this, but this is just where i came from, part of my life B.C.(before Christ). we rode slowly out of town & down some of our favorite drinkin roads. it was the strangest & one of the most beautiful scenes i've ever witnessed. it seemed we were the only folks on the road. every road was absolutely smooth & white, with no tire tracks of any kind. we rode rite down the middle of the road. & when we made a pit stop, i'd turn the motor off & there was absolute quiet. no sound of any vehicle anywhere. it was almost like we were the only people left on earth. it was just 1 of those special moments, captured in my memory forever. as we drove on we came to a familar 4-way intersection. i did a couple of do-nuts there just for kicks, then we headed down 1 of the other roads. the ole goat never maid a slip or a bobble. i had a posi (which i think pontiac called a safe-t-track limited slip or something similiar) rear end, & sears steel belted radial tires, which were just beginning to replace bias ply tires. so we drove straight & smooth rite down the middle of the road. when we got to town, we turned around & went back to the intersection & went down 1 of the other roads to its end, then continued the same procedure on each of the 4 roads. still never a sign of any other vehicle. this day made a real special memory which i wish i had captured on film.