PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

That is beautiful.

 

I love 1967-1972 GM trucks! Suburbans from that era are not easy to find!

 

@shakerhood

I did not know how to drive a stick shift when my dad bought my first and so far only Tacoma, which is the primary reason why my truck has a slushbox...

My uncle taught me how to drive a stick shift in August 2014, at the age of 25; Now, I am quite proficient at driving stick! One thing I've noticed is that every single Taco owner I've ever met, even the ones with automatic transmission Tacos, knows how to drive a manual transmission.

I can also proudly claim that in my group of Aspie friends who all have driver's licenses, I am the only one who knows how to drive a stick shift!

 

@shakerhood

I have very fond memories of the Coopers because they were very nice; Their daughter and oldest child, Abbie, was my age and was always very kind to me in an era when many of the neighborhood kids were picking on me. We were in the same third grade class together as well...

I'd say I can remember 90% of the parents drove when we lived in base housing; There was a kid named Tony who was about a year younger than me, and his parents drove a blackish blue 1994 Mazda MPV and a green 1994 Geo Metro..

There was a girl named Hannah whose parents moved in after we did, and I forget what her mom drove but her dad had a dark red 1988 Ford Ranger XLT SuperCab 2WD.

Then there was this little girl named Laya (pronounced like the Star Wars princess played by the late Carrie Fisher; It was spelled differently than the Star Wars characters name and I forget how to spell it) who always followed me around; Her mom drove an America-spec 1997 Toyota Camry in Boring Beige that they'd purchased in Germany while her husband was stationed over there, and the husband drove a gold 1985 Pontiac Grand Grand Prix with a T-top.

There was a kid named Garret, who I thought was kind of annoying, whose parents drove a 1994 Ford Explorer and a 1997 Chrysler Sebring convertible that they bought brand new after moving to Wescoat Court.

There was this one guy named Gary who was in the Army and had like four kids; They had 1993 Dodge Grand Caravan, a 1985 GMC Suburban 2500 4x4, a Volkswagen Westfalia camper at one point, and at least one other vehicle I can't remember; Gary is the one who converted my Power Wheels Jeep to run on a tractor battery!

 

Also while lived in base housing, there this was this blonde girl named Brooke Davis who lived in the court/culdesac across from ours; Her dad was Navy, and she had a little brother named Austin; Her dad drove a red 1985 Toyota Extracab 2WD pickup, and her mom drove a green 1994 or 1995 Dodge Grand Caravan (Again, this was 1997-1998 so the minivan was only a few years old); I had quite a bit of a crush on Brooke! She was a year younger than me, and at an age when boys mostly played with other boys, I hung out with her fairly often. She was never really the type to play with dolls; She seemed happier cruising around the neighborhood with me in my Power Wheels Jeep...

I've talked about Brooke before, and how I've tried to find her on Facebook to no avail; Brooke is one of the many girls I knew in my younger days who I probably would have dated and/or taken to prom if I'd known her through high school, but we both moved...

I have no idea where she could be now!

 

There was another brother/sister duo I knew (but I forget their names), and their mom drove a white 1995 Pontiac Trans Sport (remember those Dustbusters on wheels)?

 

There a guy named Lurch who my dad was in the Navy with, who lived on base as well; He had a daughter my aged named Tiffany, and a younger son named Zach; Their family vehicle was a burgundy 1993 Chevy Suburban 1500 Silverado 2WD, and one time I drew the ire of Mr. Lurch because I was stupid enough to sign my name in the dirt on said Suburban (instead of a simple WASH ME). The Lurch children and I had a very fair weather love/hate relationship, but the parents were very nice; Though Mr. Lurch gave me a stern lecture about touching vehicles that didn't belong to me, he didn't hold it against me for more than a few minutes.

My dad sold my Power Wheel Jeep to Mr. Lurch for fifty bucks when we moved to Virginia Beach in 1998, and I remember complaining that he didn't give me any of the money; My parents bought me a brand new Tacoma and put me through college, so I am not complaining about that anymore...

 

Then there were the Lobecks who lived right next door to us in the Wescoat Court (on-base) house. They had a light blue 1990 Dodge Grand Caravan and a red 1994ish Volkswagen Golf; Again, the parents were lovely but the kids tended to act like dicks when mommy and daddy weren't around.

 

Actually, now that I think about it, Abbie was not the oldest Cooper kid; She had an older brother who was either in 5th grade or early middle school in 1997, and the way I remember he was built like an NFL linebacker...

Even better than his size was the fact that he more or less seemed to like me and was always nice to me, and as a result other kids didn't mess with me when he was around.

 

@El Duderino

Another kid who I thought was really cool was Spencer Kekauoha; He was from Hawaii, and his family was native Hawaiian. Spencer was generally quiet, but at the same time cool, and I remember that everyone loved him; Like Abbie Cooper, he was in my third grade class. Spencer was so nice, and just about everyone was his friend; I invited him to my ninth birthday party if I remember correctly (he moved to California after my eighth birthday). The only reason I know how to spell his name (or think I do) is because I typed into Facebook and I found one guy by that name who lives in Hawaii and looks a lot like the Spencer I went to school with (I know it's him, but he hasn't been on Facebook in almost a year). Their family vehicle was a white 1990 or 1991 Chevy Lumina APV, shipped to California from Hawaii. Spencer was not somebody I hung out with on a regular basis, but like I said he was a genuinely nice guy who was always nice to me; He was part of the group I hung out with, typically on the school bus, and like I said he went to my ninth birthday party.

 

The one person from my 2nd and 3rd Grade years in California who I was able to reconnect with on Facebook is a guy named Andrew, who I hung out with regularly, but who did not go to the same school as me. His dad was in the Army, he a younger brother and a younger sister, and the family vehicles were a 1985 Ford Bronco II and a 1985 Ford E150 conversion van (quite old by 1997 standards).

 

That describes most people from Hawai’i.

 

One thing I wish I had while living on base in California was a camera; A Navy base, in California, in the late 1990s, was a goldmine of cool and unique vehicles; My friend Braden's family lived in off-base military housing, and someone who lived in his neighborhood had a late 1980s or early 1990s Mazda B-series lowrider...

Whoever owned this truck had cut out the section between the cab and the bed, turning it into panel truck of sorts; From what I remember, the truck had a hell of a sound system in it too!

Well-maintained 1980s and 1990s minivans were the norm as family vehicles, with quite a few Suburbans and Explorers thrown in as well. One person on Brooke Davis's street had this beautiful 1989ish Jeep Wrangler Sahara, and a friend of my dad's who lived on that base had a 1989 GMC Suburban 2500 SLE 4x4 as the family vehicle; The Suburban was apparently purchased new, and they still had it as late as October 2002!

 

Everyone loved Spencer!

Now my friend Braden was not Hawaiian (just another white kid), but he would fight anybody at the drop of a hat. He liked me, and I can recall that he once beat the shit out of another kid who made the mistake of picking on me; I met Braden not long after we moved back to California in 1996, and we were the best of friends until we moved away in 1998. We tried to keep in contact via email, but I think Braden's mom or my mom misspelled an email address because the address we got from Braden's mom never worked.

 

@El Duderino

I wish you could have stuck around a bit longer to meet my friend Doug, the one who was a tank crewman in the Corps...

 

Going back to Braden; I know I've talked about him and his family in this thread before, but...

Like I said, there was SNAFU with the email exchange between our moms; The email we got from Braden's mom didn't work for some reason...

I have not seen Braden since probably June of 1998, even though he was easily my best friend during the time we lived in California. For some reason, I remember Braden being at minimum a grade below me; He was born in either very late 1989 or very early 1990. He had an older sister named Angel who was in middle school in 1996-1997, and I seem to remember that his dad was in the Army. We met in September or October 1996, when my dad happened to see Braden riding around on his bike down the street from our house; I was bored, and my dad wanted me to play, so he suggested I go play with Braden on the grounds that he appeared to be about my age. I hopped on my bike and rode over to him, we introduced ourselves, and the rest is history...

Their vehicles were a white 1990 Mazda B-series 2WD pickup and a black or dark blue 1990 Ford Thunderbird; I rode shotgun in the Mazda at least once (Braden was nice enough to cram himself into the tiny backseat, when I would have happily ridden in the bed since we were just driving a couple blocks). I never got to ride in the Thunderbird, because a short time after I met Braden the transmission went; The Thunderbird's replacement was a white 1994 Chevrolet S-10 Blazer 4-door 2WD, purchased used sometime in early 1997.

 

Having driven a Tacoma for more than ten trouble-free years and early 110K miles, and looking back on how many problems my dad's 1993 S-10 Blazer had in three years and less than 50K miles, I will admit that the S-10 Blazer was far from being the best vehicle in its class. However, the memories made in my dad's black Blazer far outweighed the problems we had with the vehicle.

In early 1997, it had been less than a year since my dad traded his 1993 S-10 Blazer for a new 1996 Nissan Pathfinder. After we moved out of the off-base Stevens Creek neighborhood, our families ended up in different neighborhoods; Braden's family lived in the same type of house we did, but they moved to another on-base neighborhood. My mom would not let me ride my bike over to Braden's house, so our moms made an arrangement where we would hang out every week; One week, Braden's mom would drop him off at our house for a few hours, and the following week I would be taken over to Braden's; Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Sometimes my mom would drive me over to Braden's, and sometimes Braden's mom would pick me up. I remember Braden's mom showing up to get me in that new-to-her Blazer one afternoon in about April 1997, and I was utterly ecstatic!

My dad's Blazer was a 2-door 4x4, and Braden's mom's was a 4-door 2WD, but it was still an S-10 Blazer! Braden's dad was almost always at work, so his mom was the only parent present. We never got into arguments over the front seat; Braden for whatever reason would just let me ride in the front. One time, we had to pick up Braden's older sister Angel from school before going back to the house, and I was actually about to relinquish the shotgun seat to her, but she insisted that I could remind in the front. Without a doubt I told the whole family stories of adventures in my dad's Blazer, and the kids knew how obsessed I was with theirs, so they just let me ride in the front.

Angel had this bizarre issue with one of her legs that just came it out of knowhere, where it just locked up and she couldn't walk. The doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong and she was on crutches for the longest time; The unwritten rule of "shotgun" is that any injured parties get first dibs, but even when she was on crutches, Braden's sister let me ride in the front at least once!

The things I remember most about Braden's family are the Blazer, two family dogs (a Keeshond and a Border Collie mix), Braden being obsessed with the computer game Doom and playing it almost nonstop, and that the whole family had a thing for riding dirtbikes.

 

I reconnected with Spencer! I even showed him this thread!

 

Having been in the photography industry for a while, it's not just about protecting the pro photographers. It's also about the venues who issue permissions to credentialed shooters and agencies. I have been guilty of sniping shots at events where I either forgot to submit for a credential or just got lazy, so I snuck in my gear, got my shots, and made my money. Photography industry is shady AF and competition can get fierce as publications pay shit with the dawn of the digital camera. I miss the film days where we made $1,000+ for one great shot, but now it's dime a dozen selling files in bulk for pennies on the dollar as most content is used online instead of print.

As for the photo quality issue, while phones and point and shoots have come a long way, high speed sports photography in high resolution usage and post production zoom and edit still benefit more from SLR level sensors. BUT, a lot of that is subjective and for online use by smaller websites, the need or ability to afford the higher resolution files is not a major priority.

 

So, if there's one song by a female country artist that I really, genuinely like, it's "I'll Think of a Reason Later" by Lee Ann Womack. I am listening to it right now, and I've cranked it numerous times in the Taco...

It was released in late 1998, and I believe I heard it for the first time in the June or July of 1999; It came on the radio (specifically Eagle 97.3 in Virginia Beach) while my mom was driving me to swimming lessons.

I hated riding in the '96 Pathfinder because it had dual airbags and I couldn't ride in the front seat; My dad's 1990 Mazda B2600i 4x4 had no airbags, and during the summer of 1999 my parents would switch vehicles every other day to appease my desire to ride shotgun. The Pathfinder did not have the optional Bose stereo, but it had a better sound system than the Mazda by far! However, it did not matter; I liked riding in the Mazda better because I could ride shotgun! What I've currently got in my Taco blows the factory stereos in both the Pathfinder and the Mazda right out of the water...




Without a doubt, I first heard the aforementioned Lee Ann Womack song in the Mazda pickup, the 9-year old stick shift Mazda pickup that had a slight oil leak, and that mom really did not like to drive because it was practically falling apart, but which she drove at least twice a week to keep me happy!

The Mazda was not a piece of junk by any stretch of the imagination, but there was the oil leak for starters; My mom was quite proficient at driving manual, but she preferred the automatic Pathfinder. In addition to the oil leak, the the back bumper was rusted, and my mom didn't like that it lacked power windows and power locks. That Mazda was practically falling apart, and the Tacoma I've got now looks like a Rolls-Royce by comparison, but it also never failed to start and never EVER left us stranded. That truck had the good stuff (R-12 Freon) and the A/C was ICE COLD. The factory cassette stereo worked fine, but at least two of the four factory speakers were on their way out; My dad refused to sink any money beyond what was necessary into that truck, and only installed cheap CD player in January 2000 after I begged him for months. During the summer of 1999, that truck still had the factory tape deck, and the speakers would crackle, most notably during parts of Roy Orbison songs.

Another country song by female singer that I loved, and still love now for it's bass, was "Whatever You Say" by Martina McBride. My dad was never a fan of country music, but he would tolerate it for my sake sometimes; Luckily, I had the same musical tastes as my dad (Bruce Springsteen, Roy Orbison, etc) so we didn't argue over what to listen to. My mom was the one who got me into country music, by playing her CDs (Wynonna Judd and Reeba McEntire, mostly) while I was doing my homework after school. My parents had the 1980s shelf system with the 3-foot Yamaha speakers back in the day and that system could really belt it out!