Not a pot head

LURCH: We used to call them the N.T.S.O.B.

 

LOL - yeah, my sister would agree with that.

Actually, she liked working there most of the time she was there. Eventually got a boss who was a micromanager AND had pets. At that point, Sis jumped ship and went to FRA.

(at NTSB, she was THE authority on crossings - created and maintained the database they have, of crossings (location, type, number of accidents, etc) - and ended up heading the investigation into that truck/train wreck a few years ago up near Chicago (Never can remember the name of the suburb - I always just call it "Boulliabase") where the trucker was found to have been falsifying his logs and had been on the road non-stop for something like 48 hours. )

 

Bourbonnais, IL, March 16, 1999.

I attended an EMS seminar the month following that the head of the disaster agency there put on.

 

LURCH: Bourbonnais pronounced like the type of whiskey with an ais on the end but the "is" is silent so it's the whiskey with a long a. It's off I-57 down by Kankakee. I have family all through that area. I was actually RSPA (now PHMSA) but since I had a commercial license I was many times sent to the FHWA/FMCSA for TDY/TAD. As well, I also worked for the old Rock Island Railroad for 21 1/2 years before they went belly-up so I was also sent for FRA stuff as well. I had a hand in writing the Haz Mat portion of the CDL requirements back in the late 80's before its' inception in 1991+/-. I was lead on about 20 Congressional complaints, and was the lead Haz Mat on the Dow Chemical train derailment (CSX Railroad) in Midland, MI back in the mid to late 80's........something like that (I ended up being there something like 27 days). The EPA ripped the CSX boucoup dollars on that & it wasn't their fault but NTSOB got involved because of the evacuation & they (NTSOB) made EPA recommendations that the EPA followed up on apparently without investigating, but just issued the civil penalties. The engineer on the train received a criminal prosecution from the FRA operating practices investigator of something like 7 grand because he had a brake shoe on the dead man instead of his foot.

 

Yah, that's the place. I've got family all through the south-Chicago area, myself - and down into Champ-Urb, as well. Not a LOT of us, just spread out really well.

If you stop in Minooka and look north across I-80 - all that land north of I-80 and west of the exit used to be in the family. Aunt and Uncle sold the last of it about 15 years ago. Road they lived on is still named Holt Road after the family name.

Psanderson - sounds like you've been a busy busy guy!

 

Been through Minooka many times when I was in labor on the Rock even before there was a completed interstate. I remember when I-80 ended at Geneseo & started again just west of Joliet not too far from Minooka.. There was a state cop named Lee Misfeldt who lived in Geneseo. He had a brother, Lester, who was a Moline cop. Where I-80 ended there was a stretch that was completed but unopened. We used to run drag races there on weekends. Lee Misfeldt was the flagman. Said he'd rather see us there that on the streets. He had a Plymouth & I beat him twice with my goat (1965). (Farmer) Arnie Beswick (remember him?) helped me build the 421 for that. I still have it with both engines (stock 389 with dual quads & the tri-power manifolds is still in the garage, and the 421 is on an engine stand). I bought the quad manifold because the tri-power linkage would never stay adjusted, a problem with GM back then. It'll be given to my son when I die. He has his MBA now & works for Cummins Engine at their corporate headquarters in Indiana. I saw Arnie about 10 years ago in STL. I was giving a seminar & he was there for a car show. It was a grand reunion. He had heard I was shot down so he didn't keep in touch.

I was born on a cotton farm in the S.E. corner of MO. A lightning strike literally burnt everything to the ground & we moved to the Quad City area between Moline & Orion just off old US 150. We ended up with almost 2,600 acres there. I sold it in the 80's when Jimmy Carter said to "Plant it, pick it & I'll sell it"..........then he lied.

 

White sox fans???????????? Ughhhhhhhhhhh go cubs

 

whee!

lead a much more interesting life than I did, obviously. Aunt/Uncle worked for Burlington Line, the phone company, Cat. Uncle played minor league ball - I THINK for the Cubs. Would have to ask mom. He was also a mail-pilot and barn-stormer.

me - I went to school, got kicked out (3 times), joined the coast guard, got married, got out, and started a business.

Now I'm trying to drive trucks.

I think there's something wrong with me

 

boy i loved those days as a highschooler in B'ham AL. we used to go to ind. parks at midnight and race. cops show up all 500+ people jumped and moved to another place out of that patrol area (repeat) we often had the hoover cops come to oxmoor rd ind park and watch (it wasn't in their jurisdiction)

 

where I went to high school, their idea of a hot rod was a tractor with the big front wheels