CHEERIOS

Cheerios

I mentioned the following conversation
that I had to my cousin Beverly regarding
her father Bill Grigg...(My Mothers Brother)

She was kind enough to send this copy of
the minutes of a 1940 committee meeting
in regards to General Mills purchasing the
rights and formula of Cheerio Milling Company's breakfast cereal . Uncle Bill wasn't
named in the document but he was the owner of the mill and the creator of the cereal.

At a steel guitar jam session Saturday I was sitting with an old friend that has a business

building steel seats designed for pedal steel guitars....I knew that he also worked selling

something that has him on road at lot.

I asked him what he sells and he said "Thread"....I kinda chuckled...envisioning him flying around the world with a little spool of thread trying to make a living. I could see him saying

"See this thread....it normally sells for $.59 but because I like you, if you act now I can let you have it for $.29!" "If this shade of red works for you".

We laughed about that and said that he was gonna start carrying a spool with him on long

flights sitting with other passengers.

He said that he sells packaging equipment and supplies to companies that bag products like charcoal briquettes....dog food....sugar....flour, etc. He is from Texas and got started in the business traveling through the Midwest many years ago....one of the first places he went to

was a flour mill in N. Kansas somewhere.

I said that's a coincidence my uncle owned a mill in Coffeyville back

in the 20's or so.....he said "Really...so your uncle invented Cheerios."

I was taken back and asked him how he knew that. He said that the

man that owned the big mill, he was setting up with his packaging,

mentioned it to him years before that.

He said that he hadn't thought about that for years and was shocked

to know that I was related to Uncle Bill.

...small world isn't it!

WORLD'S FASTEST MODEL "T" FORD

World's Fastest

Model "T" Ford

I laid out the paint design, masked it off and lettered this

race car for Owner/Driver Joel Young. He set the record

at Bonneville last summer at 166 MPH. The engine is a

highly modified 1927 Model "T" Ford that puts out 188 HP.

It's not often that I get to letter race cars any more so this

was fun to do.

Fast forward to August 21, 2010...just received a phone call from Joel and they managed to break their old record at 201MPH!!

My brother Bob

Bob built and flew R/C planes...they were

exact replicas of existing planes....they were

made of fiberglass and must do whatever

the plane was designed to do. He won many

awards at national events building and flying.

His "Best" effort was a plane designed and flown

by a stunt flyer named Wayne Handley...who

lives close to Santa Cruz so Bob was able to make

a great replica of his plane. Bob also had to learn

and fly Waynes "Routine" exactly the way that

Wayne did when doing his air shows.

Wayne crashed his plane at one of the shows and

nearly died...he ended up a few inches shorter from

the compression of his vertibrae after the crash

and a long recovery. He told his wife that he would

never fly that routine again so she OK'd him getting

back into a plane.

After Bob passed away (6 years ago) Wayne

called Darlene from Australia and asked if her and

the boys would be at the upcoming airshow at Travis

AFB that was being dedicated to Bob...she said that

they were going to the show and he said that he'd see

them there.

The show started with the Air Force "Thunderbirds"

flying in formation...as they approached the crowd

they noticed that Wayne was flying his back-up

stunt plane in the formation...as they got overhead

Wayne flew out of the formation into the "Missing

Man" manuver flying straight up in tribute to Bob.

Reaching the top of his climb everyone was shocked

to see him go into the routine that nearly took his life

as he honored his friend Bob.

I couldn't make it to the show but would dearly have

loved to...funny thing...I can't talk about this without

"Tearing up"...I miss that "Grumpy Ol' guy"!!

(Video of Wayne Handley crashing his "RAVEN" stunt plane.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJoSnfcEU68&feature=related

ME N' MY COUSIN BILLY

Me N' my cousin Billy

in 1953, Santa Cruz.

Billy was visiting

and wanted to put on

my Little League uniform.

3 GENERATIONS

WOW!!

Look at us...then look

at my later pictures

and see what is store

for you Jack!!

ME AND MY BROTHERS!

JACK, RON & BOB!

Vicky posted this picture on the "Family Blog".

I believe this is the only picture around of us together.

It's great to see this photo...wish that I could find Ron again.

CHURCH "BALL" AT IT'S BEST!

Church "Ball" at it's best!

Back in the 70’s I was asked to coach our ward’s Varsity basketball team.
Not being much of a basketball player I felt a little inadequate at the challenge.

I called a practice and 5 guys showed up…one of them was about 5’ 5” and weighed
Somewhere over 200 lbs. but he was even much slower than you’d think he could be.
I asked if anyone had a friend of the appropriate age that was not playing high school basketball but could be helpful. A young man showed up the next week that was deadly shooting from the corners. The starting five were pretty good.

Our first game was a blowout...I pulled guys out one at a time and left the chubby guy in for the whole second half trying to slow the game down but we won 65 to 4. I was getting pretty impressed with this tiny squad…we finished the season with one loss..by one point.

We qualified for a spot in the area championships. Our first game was to be played at 1pm on a Saturday so I told the guys to show up at noon…they did…our little band of players looked kinda silly with the other teams all being 12 man units. Sadly, I was given the wrong time…we were to start at noon…so we lost by a forfeit.

I called the guys around me and was hoping that they would understand…they said that they wouldn’t kill me…and that it was “No big deal” (Right!!) The opposing team’s coach and their captain came over to us and asked if we could play them a scrimmage… they had talked the refs into working the scrimmage.

When they walked away I asked the guys if they were up to it and they said sure lets just have some fun….when the scrimmage was over the other team had only scored 10 points… we hit a little over 50. Both teams were high fiving each other…it was kinda fun to see the sportsmanship. While we were packing up to leave the other team came over to us…. their Captain said that they had just had a meeting and that we showed that they didn’t belong there and they were pulling out of the tournament… the directors said that if they did… we could continue on….what a thrill to watch this kinda sportsmanship from these young men showing true “Christian” love for their brothers.

We took second place losing to the same team that had earlier beaten us…by one point again….made more painful by the other team’s coach being a young man that I had known when I first joined the church. Both of our teams went to the “Regional Championships”. They lost early in the tournament…we were in the Championship game… playing a very good team and were down by 20 points…close to the end of the game our team Captain called time out and the guys said that I needed to stop trying to slow the game down, I was trying to help them not die of exhaustion....they said that they were alright and to please let them RUN.

I told them to go for it…they did. We tied the game with a second to spare…went into overtime and won it by about 10 points. What a fun time I had with those 6 guys that would never give up.