{"id":627,"date":"2009-07-13T06:58:53","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T10:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nathansonweb.com\/blog\/?p=627"},"modified":"2022-04-22T06:34:22","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T10:34:22","slug":"charlie-manson-and-me-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.nathansonweb.com\/blog\/?p=627","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Manson and Me – part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

==================<\/strong><\/p>\n

Charlie Manson and Me<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

==================<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

♦\u25c4\u2560\u2550\u2550\u2550~\u2550\u2550\u2550\u21a8<\/strong><\/span>\u2021<\/strong><\/span>↕\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550~\u2550\u2550\u2563\u25ba♦<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

One hour of life,<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

crowded to the full with glorious action,<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

and filled with noble risks,<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sir Walter Scott<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(1771-1832)<\/em><\/p>\n

♦\u25c4\u2560\u2550\u2550\u2550~\u2550\u2550\u2550\u21a8\u2021↕\u2550\u2550\u2550\u2550~\u2550\u2550\u2563\u25ba♦<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

(…with apologies to those with slow connections,<\/span><\/em><\/span>  as there are a lot of images in this story!)<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This is a l o n g<\/span><\/span> <\/em>story about an exciting adventure trip to a ghost town, haunted mountains, gold mines, borax mines, Death Valley, 20-mule teams, tarantulas, sand and much more excitement than most<\/em><\/strong> folks would ever consider attempting!<\/strong>  Our historic tale began back around June, 1976. We were living in North Hollywood, CA. An acquaintance of mine, in partial payment of a small business deal that had gone awry, drew a map for me, showing the way to a cabin in the Panamint Mountains, by way of a ghost town. The cabin was owned by a Captain of the Riverside, CA Fire Department, who didn’t mind folks using it for an overnight camp. <\/strong>(more about this later…)<\/em><\/p>\n

I convinced my wife, Barbara, that we will have a GREAT time going there with our son Danny, who was 5 years old. We planned to go for the weekend of Halloween to make visiting a ‘ghost town’ more exciting. We planned to camp there if we could.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"DV1-001-family-1976-b\"<\/a>

The Explorers \u2013 1976 \u2013 Bob (32), Barbara (29), Danny (5)<\/p><\/div>\n

We packed up the old ’70 Ford E300 van<\/strong> (<\/em>1 ton, 2-wheel drive, auto trans, manual steering, manual brakes, ‘2-20’ air conditioning [<\/em><\/span>open 2 windows, go 20 mph]. I know, too much information, but this will become important later in the story)…<\/em><\/p>\n

 …with all the goodies we wanted or thought we needed, plus a mattress in the back for sleeping, an extra 5-gal. can of gas, extra oil, oil filter, spare spark plugs, points, rotor, condenser, cap, wires, tools, 2<\/span><\/strong> spare tires, etc. I was a mechanic, y’see, and would ‘be prepared’ for just about ANYTHING!<\/strong>  I also packed my S&W .38 revolver <\/strong>(for protection from who knows what)<\/em>, my trusty ol’ Red Ryder b-b rifle <\/strong>(for plinking fun<\/em>), CB radio <\/strong>(it was WAY-before cell phones were commonly available)<\/em>, 5-gals. of water, food, drinks, fresh fruit<\/strong> (gotta fend off scurvy, ya know!), munchies <\/strong>(yessss, m.<\/span>u.<\/span>n.<\/span>c.<\/span>h.<\/span>i.<\/span>e.<\/span>s.<\/span>! *DUH!*<\/span><\/em>), and some other stuff, too!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"1970

1970 Ford E-100 – not ours!<\/p><\/div>\n