I've posted a couple of old avatars before, I'll see what I can find. I kind of doubt that I'll ever do it again, lol.
OK, boyze and gurlz, Walt's story hour (less, I hope, lol.)
I first grew mine, I believe, in about '67 or 8. This was in Texas, during "The Red-Neck Years," lol. I was a
qualified turret-lathe operator. Was 25 in '68. Knew everything there was to know. Or just didn't care, lol. They came to me after a few weeks and said, "You gotta cut it off." I said, "No I don't, either." You know who won, lol. I know for sure that I had it after a short time in Alaska. I've only cut it off about 4 times, I think. Last time was about '92. I was working on that Magellan project I talk about.. Well, one day, I made the decision to cut it off. I knew I'd grow it back, but, well, I wanted to see what the hell was under there, lol.
I wanted maximum shock value, so I waited until my next haircut. I wanted to look shaggy on the day before. That night, off she came. Next morning, I did a final trim/clean-up, and off I went to work. We worked behind closed door, so I decided to knock. Betsy Marlowe answered the door. I'm not any good at voice mimicking, but I tried.
"Does Walt Brown work here?"
"Um, yes, he does."
"Would you tell him that a friend is here to see him?"
"Um, sure. Just a minute." She turned and let the door go. Just before it closed, she grabbed it.
"Come on in. I'll just take you to his desk."
"Sure, OK."
As we walked, I could tell she was thinking. I forget how I responded, but it went something like this;
"Have you worked with Walt before?"
"Yeah, we worked on a project together."
"Have you known him long?" (I swear, I could see the steam coming out her ears, she was thinking so hard, lol.)
Suddenly she stopped. She turned sharply, lifted her arm and pointed her finger, "You ARE Walt!!!!"
I don't think I laughed so hard in my life. We both did. By then, we were in the control room, where everyone thought we had gone over the edge, lol. As the joke spread around the room (I heard it several rimes,) "That's
WALT?"
A couple days in, I was walking from our main bldg to another. One of our guys was walking up. It was a bit of an incline, so he was walking with his head down. As he moved to one side, I moved in the same direction. He moved the other way, and I did, too. I did this 3 or 4 times before he looked up with that "OK, Asshole, which way you going now?" look on his face. So I said, "You don't say hi to friends anymore?"
"Walt?"
"Yes."
"Really?" When I laughed, he did, too, lol.
It was a fun day. Actually. a few days. People were coming up days later, commenting or just shaking their heads,