I am curious....what is the coolest thing you have done?

[Peter Lombardo]

I am curious…………what is the coolest thing you have ever done? I mean, look, none of us are celebrities, with the possible exception of Gregg, after all he did start a magazine that is sold worldwide which brings enjoyment to thousands, so that has to be counted as “pretty coolâ€, but the rest of us are a rather â€average†bunch of guys.

So I am curious….what is that one (actually, maybe you have a few things that are special to you) thing that you did that when your head hits the pillow at night and you close you eyes it kinda’ floats through your sub-consciousness and makes you smile to yourself and helps you relax?

Think about it….what is that thing that you are publicly or even privately most proud of? Maybe something you have written? Maybe something you have built (not model related)? Maybe something that you created? Something you said at the right moment? Something you did to help someone in their “hour of need� Maybe something that no one expected you to do.

Something that maybe no one else knows about. Maybe that little something that helps define you to yourself…or to others who know you?

Is there something that while you are laying there in your twelfth hour that you, will look back on with a small internal smile?

Don’t be shy here……we’re all friends here.

[Chas SCR]

Funny you bring some thing like this up.. 25yrs ago this coming March I was the first west Michigan Kart driver to ever win the World Karting Asso, Hortsmen Gold Cup Winter Nationals as a rookie and also set the track record that still stands in the books. It was 2006 till some one from this side of Michigan would do it again in the Grand nationals in WKA. At that time also I was team mates to people you may see race in TV now or seen. Jason Keller (Nascar BGN) Shane Hall (Nascar BGN) Mark Dismore from Comet Karting and also Indy car driver. Paul Tracy. I won the 86 WKA Winter Nationals and 86 and 89 World Northern Nationals. In 87 and 88 I won the International Karting World Street Championships. I move to stock cars and ran in Michigan and then moved down south to run in the defunk All Pro Divison.

from the karting in 84 to 90 was better stats then most of today top tear drivers in the world.

In 6yrs of karting here is the stats: 374 starts, 91 A Main Wins, 297 Top 3s, 335 Top 5s, 364 top 10s

ps Pete I have not forgot about you, we had a late Christmas due to my father and it will be on the way to you.

[CAL]

#1 by a long way. I had an unexpected dinner with Elliott Forbes Robinson, he choose to sit right next to me and had fantastic stories to tell. I have also met Paul Newman on a number of occations. Paul was an outstanding guy and always a pleasure to talk to. I also have meet David Letterman, who is a little on the cranky side.

Drove some astonishing cars, and have the great honor of being the steward to a Porsche, another astonishing car.

I did some private pilot license hours, had lunch with a couple of WWII F4F Wildcat pilots at the end of the runway at EEA as a pair of Strike Eagles were taking off stright vertical under full afterburner.

And worked on a few projects with some Hollywood notables.

[ian ashton]

2 chicks at the same time.

/Office Space

Sorry, couldn't resist, lol

[Dave]

I guess a little trip I took in 1993 is still something I talk about all the time. I worked in Alaska for a brief period of time and when my assignment was over, I decided to drive back to Virginia Beach, rather than just fly back. Roughly 5500 miles in a Hyundai Excel by myself.

I wasn't pressed for time and stretched it out about two weeks. I traveled the entire length of the Al-Can Hyway, slept in my car one night during a September snow storm in British Columbia. Went to the cities of Edmonton and Calgary, Saw Mount Rushmore, Wall Drug and The Corn Palace and in general just had a blast! I appreciate much more now than I did then and hopefully wll repeat that trip one day.

[MikeMc]

June 21st 1975...Married my high school sweetie...35 yrs 3 kids later

[Jim0205]

Husband and father would be my top two. Other then that I am really boring guy but the kids and the wife make it very interesting life full of love and happiness.

[Peter Lombardo]

Well I guess I have to respond to my own posting question…that is only fair if I am asking for your “proud momentsâ€, I should reveal mine.

In 2005 my daughter was getting married…..I have to say, there is nothing, and I mean nothing better in the entire world than walking your daughter down the isle on her wedding day. It is a special and proud moment to be sure, but I digress…. So for months my daughter was bugging me to give her the title of the song I wanted for the father/daughter dance after the introduction of the wedding party. I kept telling her to not worry about it as I would “take care of itâ€. Well she kept on bugging me and I kept on stalling her. I had a plan and I needed time to pull it off.

On the Don Henley CD, “Inside Jobâ€, there is a song written by Larry John McNally entitled “For my weddingâ€â€¦maybe you have heard the CD and this song…anyway, it is a rather slow and thoughtful song about how important his wedding day is to him and his bride and how he is praying that they will get through their life together when so many around them have failed to succeed with theirs. I thought it was almost perfect for what I had in mind. The first thing I did was get a copy of the “song tab†on the internet so I would know the guitar chords and lyrics. Then I re-wrote a number of the lines to be appropriate from a father to a daughter on her wedding day….I basically changed it from “For my wedding†to “For your wedding†and changed it so it was a pray from a father wishing his daughter a wonderful married life and hoping that she gets everything in life that she wants.

Then, one of the perks of co-owning an advertising agency is that we have a small recording studio in house that we use for cable and radio production. Our engineer, at that time was a pretty good musician and a great engineer. I play a little acoustic guitar; well I did more back then, so he recorded my basic acoustic chord structure of the song, and then he laid down a keyboard layer, some additional guitar work over the top to round it out. I then recorded the vocal sound tracks for the song and he put it all together. Now mind you, I am not a singer by any stretch but I can carry a note and not be too off key. When it was completed, we recorded it on CD and my plan was well on its way.

I told no one of what I did, not even my wife, who was getting a bit upset with me because I kept telling her and my daughter to not worry about the song for the dance…I would take care of it. I guess they just didn’t trust me completely.

So on the day of the wedding I gave the band that was playing the wedding the CD and told the leader what I had in mind. When he announced the father daughter dance my daughter looked over at me with one of those looks likeâ€what is going to happen now?†The band leader said, to everyone that Melissa, my daughter, had no idea what the music for the dance was going to be and that she was in for surprise…you can imagine the look she shot at me at that point. As to be expected, everyone in the place was looking at us and wondering what was about to happen. Well the music started and we began dancing and after about 30 seconds she realized that it was me singing the song and as she realized it, everyone there finally understood what was happening. It was just an amazing moment. She was crying…my wife was crying and I was just so happy that I pulled it off.

It was one of those special moments in life where a little plan that you hatch and plan and work on for months works perfectly. Later in the evening, she made me dance with her again to the song. She used it as the lead music for her still photo CD of the wedding and of course it is in the video of the wedding where we actually danced to it. She has a CD of the song and it is very important to her.

It was one of my happiest and proudest moments…I was able to give her something very special from me on her wedding day that no one else on the planet has.

[diymirage]

i guess one of my favorite moments was the first time i took my wife to paris (which alone was quite the achievement on her part, i HATE france and paris, it is the one city i know where you can go on any of its streets and smell open sewer, but i digress)

i was 18 at the time and the proud owner of a 1990 opel E kadett 4 door (you might know it as a pontiac lemans)

i had done a few things to the car, including replacing the front seats with a set from a GTI model which had recaro sports seats in it

with the GTI being a 2 door these seats had the little lever on the side which allowed the backs to tilt forward to provide passengers acces to the back seat.

anyway, we left for paris when i got out of work at about 5 and by 2 in the morning the eifel tower was within sight.

i pulled over on the side of the road and popped the trunk

i pulled the levers on both seats so they lay towards the dash and unrolled a twin size mattras over the back seat

me and my then girlfriend spend our first night in paris camped out in my kadett on the side of the street

[imatt88]

Served my country for 24 years

Father of 4 beautiful, grown up children, 2 boys, 2 girls

Cheers, Ian

[my name is nobody]

Edited January 18, 2011 by CJTORINO

[ROB213]

i oiled down "shakira" before a video shoot ahhhhh

j/k

i would say working when i was 16 at a local store to raise up money to buy my first car. it was 84 brown chevy celebrity. i bought for a whopping $175 bucks from a old lady that lived next to me. i hopped in it and it felt like i was driving a lambo i had all the chicks that summer. thats what pops in my head from time to time. and a few things that stick out all the time but cant say on a family site

Edited January 16, 2011 by ROB213

[SuperStockAndy]

Getting my 1971 Chevy C/20 truck when I was 8!

[KingSix]

Taking part in the 50th Anniversary of the D-Day invasion, and calling my Dad in Maine on a SATCOM phone from Utah Beach where he was 50 years earlier on D-Day. It was emotional.

[iBorg]

I got you beat.....at least in my book (which is the one I count).

My wife and I adopted two wonderful children from Guatemala.

Mike

[crazyjim]

The day I graduated boot camp and became a United States MARINE - and always will be.

[Kodiak Island Modeler]

A cousin of mine and I once turned a skunk loose in a high school cafeteria just shortly before lunchtime. I'm not sure how cool it was, but it sure did liven things up around there for awhile. On the serious side, I married my wife; in May, 30 years.

[Foxer]

Now that the Cold War is over and I can talk, I think the one thing I did that always makes me feel good and somewhat special is serving my country as a caretaker of the Pershing Missile in the late 60's. This was a 100 kiloton (more or less) nuclear missile that was 34' long and 3' diameter. It was/is the largest weapon the US Army ever had. It had two solid rocket fuel engines that put the nosecone out of the atmosphere for a reentry on the target. Thankfully a live round was never fired before they were all destroyed peacefully. I did have to hug those warheads when we bolted them all together.

I had a Secret Final clearance and was never allowed to say much about what I did, although the fact I was in a Pershing unit was an allowable statement. It does feel good to say almost anything now that they are all gone.

[gunner]

not sure this counts but 14 yrs active duty US Navy w/ 9yrs on 2 ships, been to over 20 countries from Australia to Russia. Also competed with the Navy Rifle team.

[samdiego]

finding a foundation that truly matches my skintone . . .wait, that's the other modeling website

No really, I did earthquake damage repair on the Bay Bridge in Oakland. Cruising across the bay at dawn on our work boat, cruising under the Golden Gate just because, climbing all over that bridge.

Then I invented the Interweb

Edited January 17, 2011 by samdiego

[Guest Johnny]

1 on 1 lesson on how to race a 4 speed from Ronnie Sox at US30 back in the late 60's!

Graduating flight training and getting my wings was kind of cool too!

[Smart-Resins]

This may be nothing to most of you, but is cool to me! One night on the way home on a weekend trip, I pulled up in front of the white house, parked the car and ran up some of the steps, shot a pic and got out of there. That was pretty cool to me. I doubt any one could do that now! Otherwise, I have done nothing cool. Driven in reverse down a seasonal road at full speed. Beat a chevelle 350 with a GLH Omni. Out ran a lifted 4x4 with a stock heavy half s10 long bed. Had 13 people within the omni and got pulled over and when the cop saw who it was, told to go on. Um,Popped a wheelie and left black marks in the hallway infront of the principals office. I could list tons more stupid stuff I have done as a rebel with no name. But..... Nothing cooler then bringing life into this world! I have three very loving children still alive. Come on now, of course I had to add that. What dad shouldnt be proud to have and raise kids! I guess here, might come a more important one for the kids. When my first wife left me, I got custody of my kids and still do have them full custody. So I am just a normal joe blow! Nothing spectactular!

[Modelmartin]

Haven't done it yet!

Lots of things in the past were good. Getting married 20 years ago, traveling to Europe and many other places, building models and traveling all over to compete and participate in model shows, being at the first NNL ever, went to Bonneville speed week twice, running my own business, autocrossing, drag raced a little too, learned to become a machinist, got into cycling about 5 years ago. It's all good and cool.

In the near future, competing at GSL again, riding my bike across Iowa this summer, completing the garage I started 3 years ago, starting to restore my 72 914.

[Darin Bastedo]

Hmm. the coolest huh?

I've been lucky in that i've had a very fun life with a lot of cool friends and family who have exposed me to a lot of things. as far as cool things I've gotten to do, I would have to break it down by catagory.

Celebrity encounters...

1. lived up the street from Roberta Flack

2. was able to meet and befriend Ed Roth at age 12 and maintain that freindship until his death in 2001

3. met Paul Newman, Rick Mears, Danny Ongias, and Johnny Rutherford all on the same day when I was 13 at the Kent oil 150 at watkins glen in 1979

Cool Cars I've driven...

1. 289 & 427 cobras

2. Lamborghini Countach

3. 1988 Ferrari Testarossa

4. Delorean DMC12

5. 1967 427 corvette roadster

6. Aston Martin DB4

Places I've gone...

1. London England

2. Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, and Stuttgart Germany

But the coolest thing in my book, and what makes me feel good about myself and what I think about when I drift off to sleep, is meeting my sweetie, and falling in love with her, being a good husband to her, and a good father to our daughter. to quote the framed sign on my desk, "A hundred Years from now it will not matter what my bank account balance was, The sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove...but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child."

That I love my family and they love me is the coolest thing in my life.

Edited January 17, 2011 by Darin Bastedo

[ewaskew]

Helping others when I can,and that is always cool to me.

And when God puts it in my heart to help others that is the coolest.