Sep 7, 2006, 12:50 PM
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The Petrified Hand
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Does anyone have or know where I can find the picture of the petrified hand holding the reserve handle sticking out of the desert floor? Also, what was the story behind that?
Does anyone have or know where I can find the picture of the petrified hand holding the reserve handle sticking out of the desert floor? Also, what was the story behind that?
I've read most of the posts regarding the "Hand" and I'm not sure where most of those stories came from. The infamous "hand" from back in the Gulch days at Casa Grande was owned by a jumper named Terry Cooper (now deceased) When not displaying it at some jump function, he actually kept it in his freezer. As I recall, he originally got the hand from some med school lab.
It is not really a reserve handle it is a cross pull back pack. Possibly Navy with the cable going through the diagonal tube like an NB6 or 8 emergancy type from the late 50s or 60s.
I saw a photo in the "skydiving news" way back ,of a gloved hand and ripcord stuck in the ground next to a pair of para-boots (inverted) with the caption " ol dead-eye lo-pull twiggy had a hesitation".........J.....
Does anyone have or know where I can find the picture of the petrified hand holding the reserve handle sticking out of the desert floor? Also, what was the story behind that?
A friend of mine has an 8x10 of the hand on his living room wall (Mahoney gave it to him).
REALLY cool!
'Shell
Oh, hey. You mean me. Yes, it's a great photo and the way Mahoney tells the story, it doesn't matter if it's a legend or not. The thing stays on my wall.
Quack
(This post was edited by quack on Sep 13, 2006, 11:42 PM)
As you can see by the years in the sport I have been around a few. We would take the old frenchy jump boots ,put goggles around the ankles. Then put a helmet down over the boot tops with gloves coming down from under the ear cover portion with just fingers mostly showing . We would sometimes put a ripcord in the glove . It looked a very short person with a pretty bad mal . it would freak out whuffos until thet realized it was only a joke
Sep 20, 2006, 7:29 PM
Post #13 of 21
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Re: [lekstrom10k] The Petrified Hand
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I heard that a few people would stick the hand and arm in their shirt sleeve and then shake hands with some poor unsuspecting soul. I can picture Mahoney doing something like that. Casa Grande must have been quite a place back in the 70's. Anybody remember Jeff Frangos? He was an ex-Vietnam helicopter pilot who drove a hearse for a car. He's since disappeared. B.J. Worth, Skratch Garrison, and Hod Sanders were down there too during that time period....Steve1
Geoff Frangos ... aka "Jacuzzi," is alive and well. Still flying fling-wings for medical lifts, somewhere in California. Spoke with him not long ago while another Gulch denizen, dEd Dugan was undergoing some surgery. I was never at the Gulch until after it was closed down, but "the Arm" made numerous appearances at the Ghoulidge boogies. The arm wasn't petrified, it was mummified ... and there were and are a variety of stories relating its origin. Terry Cooper, (who once had the forethought to bring a bottle of vodka on the Loadstall saved the airplane after some lit smoking material fell through the floorboards, starting a smoldering fire. Cooper put the fire out by pouring vodka on it.) claimed it was found nailed to the wall of a cabin in the deep woods back east. The little fingernail on the hand was known to be used for the nasal ingestion of non-smoking material. Cooper had the arm for years, passed it on to Dugan, and at a Halloween Boogie at Ghoulidge, circa 1978-79, a person I know stashed it out of sight in the desert near the airport and it disappeared. May have been carried off by coyotes???? Somewhere, I've still got a "The Gulch" t-shirt drawn by Bullit Bob of the arm and ripcord and one of dEd's photos of the arm and ripcord protruding from the pea gravel.
Hey Beech Bitch ... how's life?
(This post was edited by Zing on Sep 20, 2006, 11:52 PM)
Geoff Frangos ... aka "Jacuzzi," is alive and origin. reply]
If you see Jeff tell him he is still remembered and missed back in Montana. He was once a member of the Red "Wuffo's". An elite four way team back in about 1972. Greg Nardi (from Titusville) was on that team also....Steve1
Mahoney was never at Casa Grande...a little before his time....
You're kidding! Mahoney looks at least, old enough to have jumped in Casa Grande. I hate to think that I might be older than him. But then again Mahoney has had a hard life, and that's what hard living can do to a person.
I'm just wondering if all that hard living may have affected his brain some. Or maybe dementia is setting in. Last time we were all bent over dirt diving a Mad John load, and I looked over and here's Mahoney humping on one of the members of our group. I mean it was down right discusting. Doesn't he realize he's supposed to be a mentor and role model for all the new young pups who are just coming up in the sport?.....Steve1
I'm just wondering if all that hard living may have affected his brain some. Or maybe dementia is setting in. Last time we were all bent over dirt diving a Mad John load, and I looked over and here's Mahoney humping on one of the members of our group. I mean it was down right discusting. Doesn't he realize he's supposed to be a mentor and role model for all the new young pups who are just coming up in the sport?.....Steve1
I'm just wondering if all that hard living may have affected his brain some. Or maybe dementia is setting in. Last time we were all bent over dirt diving a Mad John load, and I looked over and here's Mahoney humping on one of the members of our group. I mean it was down right discusting. Doesn't he realize he's supposed to be a mentor and role model for all the new young pups who are just coming up in the sport?.....Steve1
Nah, that's just Mahoney being Mahoney. Apparently you don't know him that well.
Maybe he'll chime in ... maybe not. And that's Mahoney too.
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hand.jpg
Doesn't he realize he's supposed to be a mentor and role model for all the new young pups who are just coming up in the sport?
