The first gym I ever trained in

[p.s.]

70's, disco, polyester clothes, stax...? Wow dude...KC and the Sunshine band, eh? You animal!   

He said early 70s so no disco, as Zepplin, Sabbath, Steppin Wolf, Jefferson Airplane, etc were still all the rage. So I'm guessin' JT that your music highlight was the Disco era, and Saturday Night Fever?......Go Bee Gee's!!!! So JT still got those 8" platforms?

[muscle_n_blood]

70's, disco, polyester clothes, stax...? Wow dude...KC and the Sunshine band, eh? You animal!   

You ain't payin' attention, Jack. I was from a different culture. Our hobbies were sharpening knives, cleaning guns, making moonshine whisky, and raising chickens. We were all armed. All the time. Most would have called us hillbillies. I'm rather more "enlightened" now, but I can't escape my heritage, nor do I feel a need to try. We had a lot of admirable qualities. If you were our friend, dealt squarely with us, we had your back. We weren't afraid of hard work. A handshake was a binding contract. We valued the concept of respect.

People who frequented cockfights didn't wear polyester or stax. If you went to a derby (cockfight) wearing 70's disco garb we would have fed you to the birds. For us it was jeans, boots, t-shirts, and ball caps with a Caterpillar or Manitowoc logo. I was known as a "freakneck",  which is a severe redneck who sported a few vague hippie resemblances. I hated hippie-types but I had very long hair and a fu manchu. I drank a lot of whisky, but also used any other drugs available, especially speed. Smoked a lot of pot, too. My musical tastes were at the extremes. George Jones or Steppenwolf. Merle Haggard or Led Zeppelin. Play KC and the Sunshine Band and I shoot the record player.

Those were wild and dangerous times, Jack. I had some incredible experiences, but I also paid a lot of dues.

[Jack Tragic]

You ain't payin' attention, Jack. I was from a different culture. Our hobbies were sharpening knives, cleaning guns, making moonshine whisky, and raising chickens. We were all armed. All the time. Most would have called us hillbillies. I'm rather more "enlightened" now, but I can't escape my heritage, nor do I feel a need to try. We had a lot of admirable qualities. If you were our friend, dealt squarely with us, we had your back. We weren't afraid of hard work. A handshake was a binding contract. We valued the concept of respect.

People who frequented cockfights didn't wear polyester or stax. If you went to a derby (cockfight) wearing 70's disco garb we would have fed you to the birds. For us it was jeans, boots, t-shirts, and ball caps with a Caterpillar or Manitowoc logo. I was known as a "freakneck",  which is a severe redneck who sported a few vague hippie resemblances. I hated hippie-types but I had very long hair and a fu manchu. I drank a lot of whisky, but also used any other drugs available, especially speed. Smoked a lot of pot, too. My musical tastes were at the extremes. George Jones or Steppenwolf. Merle Haggard or Led Zeppelin. Play KC and the Sunshine Band and I shoot the record player.

Those were wild and dangerous times, Jack. I had some incredible experiences, but I also paid a lot of dues.

   Haha! It's all good to me bro as my best friends are also from your neck of the woods and have remained my best friends since the day that we met!...I'll bet you know them well too! One is from Kentucky and the other from Tennesse...twins Separated at birth but with different Daddy's (go figure)...Jim and Jack. Some potos below... 

[muscle_n_blood]

I know them well. We partied vigorously together... They were so slick, though. I often wound up in jail but they were never in there with me.
Actually, that's not 100% true. I was doing a little stretch in the county penal farm (AKA the workhouse) back in '82-'83. The inmates who worked the laundry 2nd shift had a deal going with the transfer guard. You could get a pint of Jim Beam for $7.
I didn't drink any though, and here's the funny/stupid part: I had decided I was going to quit drinking, but it would be OK to smoke a little pot, which was also available. The problem with that logic was that if you got caught drinking, you got 3 days in the hole. If you got caught smoking pot, you had to go back in front of the judge and got an automatic 30 days tacked onto your sentence.

[p.s.]

I know them well. We partied vigorously together... They were so slick, though. I often wound up in jail but they were never in there with me.
Actually, that's not 100% true. I was doing a little stretch in the county penal farm (AKA the workhouse) back in '82-'83. The inmates who worked the laundry 2nd shift had a deal going with the transfer guard. You could get a pint of Jim Beam for $7.
I didn't drink any though, and here's the funny/stupid part: I had decided I was going to quit drinking, but it would be OK to smoke a little pot, which was also available. The problem with that logic was that if you got caught drinking, you got 3 days in the hole. If you got caught smoking pot, you had to go back in front of the judge and got an automatic 30 days tacked onto your sentence.

Ah how things change. If I nail an I/M drinking then chances are good that I'll charge 'em as booze causes riots, fights etc, but pot hell I just give 'em shit for heating me out and tell 'em to smoke it outside. Pot equals quite I/Ms who eat some dorito's , watch tv and go to bed. Pot is THE BEST BABYSITTER!!!

[muscle_n_blood]

There are better babysitter (I call them zookeeper) drugs than pot. In my recent life, I went into mental institutions and did evaluations on some of the milder cases. The ones that acted up too much were given heavy doses of powerful antipsychotics that rendered them a lot less disagreeable. If they walked at all, they did so with a gait we called the "Thorazine Shuffle".

[Jack Tragic]

I know them well. We partied vigorously together... They were so slick, though. I often wound up in jail but they were never in there with me.

LOL! Yep, very slick! I have never lost respect for those boys to this day. I can always tell when and if I have disrespected them though...they come at me as a tag-team and kick my arse royally, sometimes with their friend Jose`...it's OK though as the next time we meet they are afraid to make a move...they just stand there, looking. Knowing that i'm gonna' slam them all down once again...
                   

[Jack Tragic]

He said early 70s so no disco, as Zepplin, Sabbath, Steppin Wolf, Jefferson Airplane, etc were still all the rage. So I'm guessin' JT that your music highlight was the Disco era, and Saturday Night Fever?......Go Bee Gee's!!!! So JT still got those 8" platforms?

Haha!..."the rage"? whew dude. S/W and J/A are mid to late 60's bands. Ya, down (up) here we are a bit ahead of the curve. This may explain a bit. I did however have a pair of 4'" stax (suede leather) hated them and all of the polyester shirts/slacks, hidious gold chains and rings, etc...smelly assed cologne, blah, blah. BUT alas...i got laid constantly w/o trying. I guess i must have been doing something right...though I did look like a circus clown...Bwaaahahahaha!!          
                                PEACE

[muscle_n_blood]

Getting laid is universal. The disco crowd thought they were way above us, that if guys like us did get any sex it was with farm animals. It's not surprizing that the uninformed would think that there couldn't possibly be any attractive women at a fuckin' chicken fight, could there?
Well, remember that there were a couple of commodities available... Drugs, and bundles of cash. We had enough women. Hot ones.

[Jack Tragic]

Getting laid is universal. The disco crowd thought they were way above us, that if guys like us did get any sex it was with farm animals. It's not surprizing that the uninformed would think that there couldn't possibly be any attractive women at a fuckin' chicken fight, could there?
Well, remember that there were a couple of commodities available... Drugs, and bundles of cash. We had enough women. Hot ones.

M&B...you are funny as all hell bro! (I preferred the "hen-fights" though     ) Yer a good man.