I must say, I have really enjoyed reading all the Bios. In the hopes that
someone may enjoy reading mine as much as I have the others, here goes:
I am 59 years old, and while my body is fully aware of its age, my mind
simply cannot fathom such a thing. As long as there are no mirrors around,
and I ignore the not-so-little aches and pains, I feel like I am still in my
mid twenties.
I began my work career at the age of 12, working for my father in the home
building business in Indiana. A year after high school, I did a 4 year tour
with the Air Force as a radar technician, three of those years spent in
Panama City Florida -- tough duty, but someone had to do it! After that, I
worked for a while in Mountain View, CA, as a tech rep for Philco-Ford. I was
laid off during some bad times, but instead of getting another job, a friend
and I decided to travel the world the cheap way, by hitchhiking. Our plan was
to hitchhike to the Panama Canal, get a ship from there, and continue
hitchhiking through Europe. We got to the Canal, but couldn't get a ship out,
so we returned home with our tails between our legs and went to college
instead. I graduated from the University of Tennessee in '68 with a BSEE.
While working at TVA and attending night school for my Masters, I met my
lovely wife, best friend, and companion of thirty years, and dropped out of
the MS program. We had what might be called a whirlwind romance. I met her
through mutual friends because she was returning to her native Germany, and I
had studied German in college and planned a visit to Germany soon. They
thought it would be nice if I knew someone over there to visit. Eight days
later we were engaged, and married one month later. I had to work fast,
because she already had her tickets and airline reservations for the trip
home. Of all the things I've done in my life, I have to consider persuading
her to stay here and marry me to be the best. Unfortunately, she now suffers
from Fibro-myalgia and can no longer travel with me, so I attend the various
Triumph related events alone.
I have one stepson, 37, living in Atlanta, GA, and working as a program
analyst for the Trism Trucking Co. Although he has no interest whatever in
cars, I have a wonderful 4 1/2 year old grandson who is a car NUT! He
already has his own subscription to a car magazine, and he "reads" it from
cover to cover each month. He called me from Atlanta a couple of weeks ago
just to tell me about some of the cars in the latest issue that he especially
liked.
My hobbies include, among other things, music, reading, history, guitar
building, travel, photography (worked as a professional for a while), and, of
course, cars. I discovered hot rods before I discovered sports cars, but as
much as I like sports cars, I still have a fondness for hot rods. That
combination of car interests naturally leaves me with only one choice, and
that is to combine the two into one car, thus the "under construction" sports
car/hot rod V8 TR6
I retired from TVA in 1994, at the ripe old age of 54. TVA was downsizing,
and made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I got to retire at 54 with the same
benefits I would have gotten had I been 60. In as much as I had always
intended to retire at 55, and planned accordingly, the decision to take their
offer was a no brainer. They made the offer at 4:00 on Wednesday, and I
turned in my acceptance at 8:00 Thursday morning.
Dan Masters,
Alcoa, TN
'71 TR6---------3000mile/year driver, fully restored
'71 TR6---------undergoing full restoration and Ford 5.0 V8 insertion - see:
http://members.aol.com/danmas/
'74 MGBGT---3000mile/year driver, original condition - slated for a V8 soon
'68 MGBGT---organ donor for the '74
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