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jaymundo

Louisiana old farts

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I've heard the story about that demo...Bubba
is a trip:D The last time I saw him was probably 15 years ago, stopped by his house on
the way to Jazz Fest. Stood in his kitchen eating
anchovies outta the can....(we had had a few, go figure:S)
He had his arm around me & my brother, thanking us..."y'all are the ONLY ones who'll eat anchovies wit me"...aparently (at least that night) that was a good thing.

Haven't seen Jim since one of his "purple koolaide" parties....early to mid '80's

Mardi Gras at Covington.....armadilla gumbo, Mr Douglas loads with the sound sys blaring.....it would get so dark there some nights, if you closed your eyes real tight, then opened them real fast, you would see purple microdots floating around in front of'ya;)

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Yeah, I did that demo one year, into the Prop Stop on the Tickfaw River, right? Got a good story about that one, for a later time. I remember Bubba(Samurai Skydiver). What comes to mind is a Mardi Gras meet in Covington, we were jumping a DC-3. There was pretty solid cloud cover and he was spotting. We couldn't see the ground for about 5 minutes from altitude, on jump run. Some out of town jumper said "Screw it, I'm getting out." Bubba screamed at him, "Hey asshole, do you know what LAKE PONCHARTRAIN looks like!!!" About that time, the clouds cleared and we were right in the middle of the Lake(about 10 miles to land in either direction!) That dude's eyes got as big around as saucers and he sat down without saying a word! No one said a word till we got to the ground when a couple of jumpers thanked Bubba. "When you're in Rome,....." Blue Skies;)

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Quote

Man, what a bunch of old coonass skydivers. reply]

I don't think I've heard the term "coonass" since I was in the Army at Ft. Polk (69 & 70). Not sure what it means, but it's a cool name:S. Most people called me a damn "Yankee" back then. Not sure if that was good or bad, but I kind of liked it. I've got to make a trip down South one of these years. I've got a ton of memories from down in those parts, and most of them are good....Steve1

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Storm Trooper 1983 promoted to Vice Emperor in charge of Substances 1984. Fired in 85 because we ran out.

La Tech 80 -83 anybody go to Coll Nationals during this time

Boy I 'm sure tickled to see some familiar names in this thread.
What I wouldn't give for a Worm Bucket right now.

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Not sure if you remember me, but you and I have made several loads together.
I hit LTU right after you with Jeb Williams , Gonzo, David Miley, and of course Ralph and Dudley.
I later moved to BR and hung out a lot with Bubba.

I think we might have drank a beer once too..ok it might have been more than one

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Yea,Went duck hunting with Jones,Bubba,and several others.Jones decided he needed to poo poo ,so he pulled his waders down and proceeded to go in his waders,pull them back up and was blaming me dog for the smell.When it got light,we discovered what it was.He had it in his hair ,and all over his neck.Needless to say he got alot of ribbing about that one.They broke the mold with that guy ! hahhahhhahha

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Marcus Gagnard (pronounced Ga-yun), did the into the mud streamer thing.

He also had another angle on his shoulder day... up at Bastrop one fine Saturday, we jumping...

He lands, and as soon as the tension came off his risers, one of the French links, which had the barrel unscrewed for some unknown reason, and the gap open wide, since it had been stretched more open by opening shock, just dropped off his riser.

It was just barely hooking the riser, and the rough screw thread end of the link had him hanging by a prayer.

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I jumped with Bubba, and Steve Fuller, and a bunch of the LTU peoples.

One day, Phil Smith, a fellow from West Monroe, and previously from Rayville, showed up on the Tech Farm with a really fat backpack. He did a hop 'n pop, and it was a big, fat, SLOW Thunderbow.

We just gawked, thinking that this was the future. Ram airs had only been around a short while, at least on Tech Farm.. and Starlite and PC were considered state-of-the art.

Hoyt Belamy jumped a PC in those days.

When I was a kid, I lived across from the elementary school ground. There was a circle drive in front of the school, large enough to fly u-control planes.

One day, two guy were out there, and I hear this whee-whow-whee-whow.. so I went running to see them flying their plane. The plane was a large Black Widow. Phil Smith was flying it.

On the perimeter of the drive was a bunch of trees, which we now know don't mix with anything that flies, other than birds.

Phil's Black Widow got away from him... I think he dropped the handle. The plane headed for the trees, wound down the control lines, and impacted the trunk, shattering the plane into a million bits of balsa.

So that was the first time I met Phil.

After he graduated high school, he joined the Navy, as I recall. One day I saw him around town, and he told me about the Navy.

The next time I saw Phil, he was driving a Red Man pest control truck, and that was his line of work.

He married a stunningly beautiful woman, and they raised a son.

The next time I saw Phil, he was on the DZ at Tech, maybe a couple of times.

He invited some of us to his home in West Monroe to talk parachutes. His wife provided coffee, and some of us chatted.

My dad saw him around Monroe, La a few times, and mentioned he had asked about me, I living in Dallas by then.

The next time I heard about Phil, my understanding was that he had passed on... I knew not from what, and was never able to verify the info.

Anyway, Phil was a really decent parachutist, unlike the most of us... very sober, very careful, unlike .... uh... some of us.

Phil, if you're no long around, blue skies to you.

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