Hi,
I just retired and moved to the Ft. Wayne area from the DFW area in TX (Grapevine in particular). The first question I usually get is, "Why?" Why did I move to cold IN from warm TX? The answer is simple, this is my wife's home town. After faithfully following me from aviation job to aviation job all over the country for the last 30 years she informed me that when I retired it was going to be her turn to choose where we went. I said Yes Mam and here we are!
The next question I usually hear is, "How do you like IN?"
I love it man!.
Last winter I had a ball... and no, I am not kidding! I have a jeep and had lots of fun with it in the snow out in the woods on DNR land. (I figure if your going to live in a place to do all you can to like it. Of course being retired helps.)
The next thing I often hear, sadly, is: "I hate the cold and snow. I hate it here. You will too after awhile." Now this is hard for me to understand. Why live in a place you "hate?" I ask them.
There are plenty of jobs in TX so why not move there? The answer is usually "job" or "family" which I understand to some degree, but for me, I wanted to follow my profession, do what I love and make some money in the process. And yes, I do love Indiana and look forward to some deer hunting (any suggestions?)
So what is next? Well guns of course. I grew up during my early years in Virginia. Then we moved to FL. Then the Army after flunking out of college (I got straight As in drinking beer and chasing women, but I was very young and dumb and not yet a Christian.)
I joined the Army in 67 because it was the only branch you could fly in without a degree. So first I went to Infantry OCS, graduated as a 2nd Lt. Then to 9 months of rotary wing flight school, then to Vietnam. I decided to get out after my 4 year obligation as an officer was up.
Next stop was Bible college (after accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Lord and savior.) Now it became clear to me I was not called to be a minister in the sense of a congregation and pulpit. I figured God was calling me to the work place to witness for my faith. And my witness would be my life more than my words, my performance more than preaching, and His love more than anything else. How did I do? As many of you know, we Christians are as human as the next guy or gal. I did my best.
Back in 77,78 after marrying my bride of these many years I spent some time working at Fort Wayne Air Service at Baer field selling airplanes. This was the year of the "Great Blizzard" of 77-78.
But it was also during the Jimmy Carter years you could not make any money selling airplanes. You see, Carter wanted to "tax the rich" so he instituted a "luxuary tax" on airplances and boats which pretty much put me and thousands, if not millions of others out of work. The so called rich did not get that way being dumb. They above most practice self control with finances so they would just wait till the outragious "punishment tax" went away before they made new airplane purchases. Not all of course but many. Enough to show me I was not going to make enough money to live on.
So we moved to TX, MI, LA, WI, FL, TX again, following jobs. Finally in the mid 80s I found a home with FlightSafety International where I worked for the last 24 years. FlightSafety uses expensive simulators to provide recurrent training to professional pilots in everything from Big jets to medium sized helicopters. It was a ball.
But my health dictated it was time to retire. The big "C" invaded our life twice (and I continue that battle to the present.)
Anyway, back to guns. My background in firearms began with my dad who was a civil war collector. He owned a bar/restraunt in VA and folks would go out the battlefields (then in the 50s) and find all kind of cool stuff and give it to dad so he could display in on the wall of the bar. He assembled a tremendous collection (most was lost though thru divorce, theft, etc.) But I still have some.
Like most of you, we hunted. I have many fond memores of the FL Everglades and hunting trips. so I grew up with a love for guns. I got away from it after the army until about 20 years ago when my passion was relighted.
I look forward to hearing from you, so if you have any questions or comments please make them. Also, I am not too thin skinned so if I inadvertently say or do anything inappropriate to the forum rules just let me know. Thanks for being here. Thanks for the forum.
All the Best,
Joel
I just retired and moved to the Ft. Wayne area from the DFW area in TX (Grapevine in particular). The first question I usually get is, "Why?" Why did I move to cold IN from warm TX? The answer is simple, this is my wife's home town. After faithfully following me from aviation job to aviation job all over the country for the last 30 years she informed me that when I retired it was going to be her turn to choose where we went. I said Yes Mam and here we are!
The next question I usually hear is, "How do you like IN?"
I love it man!.
Last winter I had a ball... and no, I am not kidding! I have a jeep and had lots of fun with it in the snow out in the woods on DNR land. (I figure if your going to live in a place to do all you can to like it. Of course being retired helps.)
The next thing I often hear, sadly, is: "I hate the cold and snow. I hate it here. You will too after awhile." Now this is hard for me to understand. Why live in a place you "hate?" I ask them.
There are plenty of jobs in TX so why not move there? The answer is usually "job" or "family" which I understand to some degree, but for me, I wanted to follow my profession, do what I love and make some money in the process. And yes, I do love Indiana and look forward to some deer hunting (any suggestions?)
So what is next? Well guns of course. I grew up during my early years in Virginia. Then we moved to FL. Then the Army after flunking out of college (I got straight As in drinking beer and chasing women, but I was very young and dumb and not yet a Christian.)
I joined the Army in 67 because it was the only branch you could fly in without a degree. So first I went to Infantry OCS, graduated as a 2nd Lt. Then to 9 months of rotary wing flight school, then to Vietnam. I decided to get out after my 4 year obligation as an officer was up.
Next stop was Bible college (after accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Lord and savior.) Now it became clear to me I was not called to be a minister in the sense of a congregation and pulpit. I figured God was calling me to the work place to witness for my faith. And my witness would be my life more than my words, my performance more than preaching, and His love more than anything else. How did I do? As many of you know, we Christians are as human as the next guy or gal. I did my best.
Back in 77,78 after marrying my bride of these many years I spent some time working at Fort Wayne Air Service at Baer field selling airplanes. This was the year of the "Great Blizzard" of 77-78.
But it was also during the Jimmy Carter years you could not make any money selling airplanes. You see, Carter wanted to "tax the rich" so he instituted a "luxuary tax" on airplances and boats which pretty much put me and thousands, if not millions of others out of work. The so called rich did not get that way being dumb. They above most practice self control with finances so they would just wait till the outragious "punishment tax" went away before they made new airplane purchases. Not all of course but many. Enough to show me I was not going to make enough money to live on.
So we moved to TX, MI, LA, WI, FL, TX again, following jobs. Finally in the mid 80s I found a home with FlightSafety International where I worked for the last 24 years. FlightSafety uses expensive simulators to provide recurrent training to professional pilots in everything from Big jets to medium sized helicopters. It was a ball.
But my health dictated it was time to retire. The big "C" invaded our life twice (and I continue that battle to the present.)
Anyway, back to guns. My background in firearms began with my dad who was a civil war collector. He owned a bar/restraunt in VA and folks would go out the battlefields (then in the 50s) and find all kind of cool stuff and give it to dad so he could display in on the wall of the bar. He assembled a tremendous collection (most was lost though thru divorce, theft, etc.) But I still have some.
Like most of you, we hunted. I have many fond memores of the FL Everglades and hunting trips. so I grew up with a love for guns. I got away from it after the army until about 20 years ago when my passion was relighted.
I look forward to hearing from you, so if you have any questions or comments please make them. Also, I am not too thin skinned so if I inadvertently say or do anything inappropriate to the forum rules just let me know. Thanks for being here. Thanks for the forum.
All the Best,
Joel
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