I forgot to mention Mobley. I still see him, his wife and mine were/are good friends from high school, Lakewood. I went to Paramount and am 3-5 years older than all those guys. Norms son Lance was a year younger than me, hell of a baseball player back then.
Never heard the term "*********" but we used "yard lizards and bilge rats".
Just talked to Kent yesterday.
You can't think of Norm without a drink in his hand.
I replied to your message on the PC thread. Our paths must have crossed at some point.
The great thing about the shops back in the day were the guys working there. Like you, I have great memories of all the guys at each shop (for the most part). I mean what the hell, it was the 70s and from what I remember and am told....I had a blast. It all changed by the mid 80s, the whole thing had a different vibe, and that vibe was going up the nose's of quite a few shop owners. lol
Half the guys had their teeth kicked in by the end of '79-80 and closed their doors. The ones left standing had to change the plan a little to survive. It was tough to give away much less sell a jet in 1980. I lucked out and landed at Rogers for 5 years, now there was a guy that liked to party, and then on to Advantage, Howard Warlock blah blah blah. My dad was even luckier than me and got the hell out of it after Hawaiian.