I GREW UP IN A
WODERFUL PLACE -
THE MIDWEST, IT'S A
GREAT PLACE TO DO
SO, A GREAT PLACE
FOR LIVING YOUR
LIFE BUT I'LL TAKE
ARIZONA ANY DAY OF
THE WEEK, THANK
YOU!
BOTH AREAS OF OUR COUNTY HAVE FANTASTIC PEOPLE AND I HAVE WONDERFUL, LOVING FAMILY MEMBERS IN INDIANA AND ARIZONA. BUT LIVING IN ARIZONA YOU CAN HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO! IF YOU'RE INTO LOTS OF GREEN GRASS AND ROLLING HILLS, THEN ARIZONA MIGHT NOT BE FOR YOU EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE PLENTY OF GREENERY -- IT COMES IN THE FORM OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF GREEN, ALL OF WHICH IS BEAUTIFUL!
BOTH AREAS OF OUR COUNTY HAVE FANTASTIC PEOPLE AND I HAVE WONDERFUL, LOVING FAMILY MEMBERS IN INDIANA AND ARIZONA. BUT LIVING IN ARIZONA YOU CAN HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO! IF YOU'RE INTO LOTS OF GREEN GRASS AND ROLLING HILLS, THEN ARIZONA MIGHT NOT BE FOR YOU EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE PLENTY OF GREENERY -- IT COMES IN THE FORM OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF GREEN, ALL OF WHICH IS BEAUTIFUL!
Though I grew up in the Midwest I'll be the first to admit, I didn't know very much about where I was
going to spend the rest of my adult life BUT I knew where it was! I knew much more about most of the states
east of the Missippippi River, mostly because we vacationed every every summer from Canada to Florida
and it seemed everywhere in between, a good thing! Vacationing with our pop-up camping trailer towed
behind our always reliable Ford Country Squire's that alway's had that "glamorous imitation wood grain" vinyl
decals on the sides of the car. You can learn so much about the states when you're driving all over,
something I might not have enjoyed all that much of the time but looking back, I wouldn't trade those
experiences for anything in the world! Sometimes it's necessary to crack open a book in order to find out
more about certain areas of the country but I found it was much more fun (and easier) to live each adventure
by living my way through each of the states up close and personal! Some of it might've been because
exploring was one heck of a lot more fun than cracking open a books to read.. Camping can bring out the
very best in people and I feel it's by far the best way to vacation since you're able to see and soak up that
much more. Just in case we ever got bored, my mother always had a way to keep us busy with everything
from board games to having us look for as many different license plates we could write down which many
times, kept us from asking those very irritating words; "Are we there yet?" Seeing everything from Niagara
Falls to old civil war battlefield's, caverns and so many other places and things, different people to you name
it, traveling across the Southeast, Northeast and Midwest we saw everything that made our country great to
live or, what ripped our country apart during the Civil War years. I couldn't have been born into a better family!
These were the absolute greatest learning experiences anyone could've ever dreamt up, you would think we
were bored to death but we absorbed each experience like a dried out sponge. Reflecting back on
everything we did it was about the times we spent together in the heat of summer. But those days came to a
screeching halt when my parents decided to divorce in the early-to-mid1970s -- Something I always felt was
my fault for some crazy reason...was it because I was a little child at the age of 12/13, who knows! Much was
the same for my mother after each accident I had to minor incident that drew more than a little bit of blood
from some part of my body! Everywhere from having a face lift by one of the largest St. Bernard owned by
my mother's aunt and uncle to the accident that landed me in a wheelchair and everything in between. I feel it
must be one of those "motherly instincts" to feel they that they're supposed to be there 24/7/365 to protect
and watch over their children -- I'm open to any and all feedback from people on that statement/question!
I had grown up in a small town in northern Indiana, New Carlisle which maybe had a population of 2,500 people if all their relitives were visiting. In the early 1970s a small town where everyone knew everyone, even if they really didn't -- they were sure to know all their business from a nosy neighbor or one of the gossip queens around every small town, it was nowhere for us to grow up after my parents separated. We then moved to Plymouth, Indiana which to me was that the time, a large town/city! It didn't take long to find my way around on my 10 speed bicycle. That was my out, I'd just hop on my bike and go discover new places and never thinking twice about riding over 119 miles from Plymouth to my grandparent's house in the far northeast corner of Indians just east of Fort Wayne. If it wasn't rides to go discover new places, I grew up riding centuries and half centuries (100 miles and 50 miles respectively) with my best friend at the time, Dan Whitten who took me under his arm and allowed me to go on races and rides together throughout Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and I can't number them all but all of the time "spelled out FUN!" Those were the times in my life, peddling my butt off to get rid of all my preteen and teenage energy, it worked out terrific and Dan was/is an awesome guy! From being my Sunday school teacher to a great mentor, if there was something I needed Dan could help me out in that department! But after moving to Plymouth, it made getting up to see him as often a little more difficult yet we are still able to go on rides with our bicycling group, "Three Oaks Spokes" out of Three Oaks, Michigan (http://www.applecidercentury.com/spokes.htm). Even though I was in my teens, I was one of the first members along with Dan and a number of other people that were all from Michigan which never made us an "outsiders" in the bike club, Three Oaks Spokes as they accepted any and all riders!
The other side of Bruce while I was young; I was never the perfect child... Probably anything but perfect as I could always find one way or another to get into trouble or for trouble to find me. That was the case many times when we do crazy things like throwing snowballs at school buses "from my own yard" or many other things that wouldn't be tolerated for one second now days. I never said I was so brightest star in the sky when it came to doing stupid things, though we always thought that we were just like all the kids! I did things that many kids may have thought about but knew they better not follow through in doing so. Very easily, if I wasn't labeled a "troubled child" per se, something would have been wrong. It always seemed as if the word trouble was written across (or should have been written across) my forehead! Thank God I grew out of that stage and found a way of burning off extra energy by riding my bike long distances because it was far before all the true gaming systems were even dreamt up except for "PONG!" That was our first and my only electronic game system which was quite a bit of fun for the time, but it didn't take long to overcome playing tennis/being Pong on a small 12 inch black-and-white TV! If kids now days would only learn to burn off energy by riding their bikes, running or burning their energy in a positive way, what would we think was wrong with them? During my senior year in high school I learned that my parents were heading west to Arizona (a barren desert with nothing but tumbleweed and sand or so I thought!) and this all began as I was heading east to attend college. This was the perfect opportunity for me to grow up to be a man and time to grow up, something I needed to do without anyone being able to bail me out of financial problems, put food on the plate or even cook my meals... You learn to grow up really fast when there isn't a shoulder to lean on, someone that borrow money from because the answer was always No anyways. College life was either going to make me or break me and thankfully it made me much stronger than what I ever had expected to dream of as you can grow very smart when you're hundreds to thousands of miles away from your parents.
But first I helped to move my parents and younger brother to Arizona a week after I graduated high school; I thought it was a great place to live even though I had many mixed emotions about Arizona. Growing up in Northern Indiana and not having any idea what to expect of Arizona, I only had a visual in my mind of "Wily Coyote chasing the Roadrunner cartoons" and thought, "Oh my God what are my family members thinking, it's nothing but sand, cacti and rocks out there…why would they want to move to the middle of the desert?" After helping them move out west, I discovered that it was made up of much more than sand, cacti and rocks like the cartoon portrayed it to be! It was/is by far the most beautiful state I've ever been through but in a much different way than what I used though as it wasn't as green nor were there any rolling green hills. Around the area where they moved, it was nothing but pine trees, beautiful mountains and three seasons a year and at an altitude of roughly 5,300 feet. After attending college in Lima, Ohio and coming out to Arizona during summer breaks only to see what were "nostalgic cars" driving around all year round without a worry that they're going to rust away with absolutely no corrosion anywhere on them. After having two 1969 Mustang Mach 1's while I was in college, one of them being from Georgia and rust free and the other being from Ohio with more rust holes than there was good sheet metal on the car! I knew there was no hope to own my Mustang's and live in the Midwest -- the salt that gets put down to melt the snow and ice would have been no match for good sheet metal! Arizona was going to be the new home not only for my 1969 Mach 1 but for me too, all the humidity of the Midwest didn't want anything to do with me -- and I didn't have any need for the humidity, rain, cloudy days and crummy winter's that I put up with for the past 21 years!
After moving to Arizona in 1981 with an Associates degree in automotive diesel technology and business management; I didn't even have time to enjoy soaking up the new area as I was hired immediately by a local Dodge/Mazda dealership who wanted me to change oil for $8.00 an hour and the only time I was to enjoy my true skills was at my own expense. I then moved onto a terrific family owned Ford dealership; Ed Tinney Ford in Prescott, Arizona until their unfortunate closing in early 1983. It's to bad that a business made up of a wonderful family (the Tinney family) had to go through filing Chapter 7. Though they went under, they were good enough to pay for all my ASE Certifications, but with their closure, it opened a new door for me at local independent garage. That was until a former "big city Ford dealership" lured me away with unfulfilled promises; none-the-less, a Ford is the only vehicle I'll ever own unless the lottery and the odds aren't stacked in my favor but if they were, how I'd love to slap a 420 HP Lincoln drivetrain into my van! If that ever happens, I'll definitely not post it here… Though I was both ASE certified and a Ford technician, it might not do me very a whole lot of good now except for the fact that I still know my in and out's of working on vehicles, something that'll never leave my mind. All my education and hands-on education has helped me to help others, whether it's diagnosing a problem or trying to save them a little money. I think we all know how painful it can be to have a vehicle serviced in the 21st century. How time's changed and so has labor rates; from around $26 an hour in 1985 to the $100 an hour range now, that's a hard pill to swallow but I remember how customers didn't enjoy paying the labor rates in the 1980s!
If you'd like to read further in-depth and more interesting things about my life and what happened before, after and during the time of my spinal cord injury; just click the "About Me" key and continue! Hopefully I won't be boring you to death as my life always had one turn or another -- whether for "Better or Worse..."
I had grown up in a small town in northern Indiana, New Carlisle which maybe had a population of 2,500 people if all their relitives were visiting. In the early 1970s a small town where everyone knew everyone, even if they really didn't -- they were sure to know all their business from a nosy neighbor or one of the gossip queens around every small town, it was nowhere for us to grow up after my parents separated. We then moved to Plymouth, Indiana which to me was that the time, a large town/city! It didn't take long to find my way around on my 10 speed bicycle. That was my out, I'd just hop on my bike and go discover new places and never thinking twice about riding over 119 miles from Plymouth to my grandparent's house in the far northeast corner of Indians just east of Fort Wayne. If it wasn't rides to go discover new places, I grew up riding centuries and half centuries (100 miles and 50 miles respectively) with my best friend at the time, Dan Whitten who took me under his arm and allowed me to go on races and rides together throughout Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and I can't number them all but all of the time "spelled out FUN!" Those were the times in my life, peddling my butt off to get rid of all my preteen and teenage energy, it worked out terrific and Dan was/is an awesome guy! From being my Sunday school teacher to a great mentor, if there was something I needed Dan could help me out in that department! But after moving to Plymouth, it made getting up to see him as often a little more difficult yet we are still able to go on rides with our bicycling group, "Three Oaks Spokes" out of Three Oaks, Michigan (http://www.applecidercentury.com/spokes.htm). Even though I was in my teens, I was one of the first members along with Dan and a number of other people that were all from Michigan which never made us an "outsiders" in the bike club, Three Oaks Spokes as they accepted any and all riders!
The other side of Bruce while I was young; I was never the perfect child... Probably anything but perfect as I could always find one way or another to get into trouble or for trouble to find me. That was the case many times when we do crazy things like throwing snowballs at school buses "from my own yard" or many other things that wouldn't be tolerated for one second now days. I never said I was so brightest star in the sky when it came to doing stupid things, though we always thought that we were just like all the kids! I did things that many kids may have thought about but knew they better not follow through in doing so. Very easily, if I wasn't labeled a "troubled child" per se, something would have been wrong. It always seemed as if the word trouble was written across (or should have been written across) my forehead! Thank God I grew out of that stage and found a way of burning off extra energy by riding my bike long distances because it was far before all the true gaming systems were even dreamt up except for "PONG!" That was our first and my only electronic game system which was quite a bit of fun for the time, but it didn't take long to overcome playing tennis/being Pong on a small 12 inch black-and-white TV! If kids now days would only learn to burn off energy by riding their bikes, running or burning their energy in a positive way, what would we think was wrong with them? During my senior year in high school I learned that my parents were heading west to Arizona (a barren desert with nothing but tumbleweed and sand or so I thought!) and this all began as I was heading east to attend college. This was the perfect opportunity for me to grow up to be a man and time to grow up, something I needed to do without anyone being able to bail me out of financial problems, put food on the plate or even cook my meals... You learn to grow up really fast when there isn't a shoulder to lean on, someone that borrow money from because the answer was always No anyways. College life was either going to make me or break me and thankfully it made me much stronger than what I ever had expected to dream of as you can grow very smart when you're hundreds to thousands of miles away from your parents.
But first I helped to move my parents and younger brother to Arizona a week after I graduated high school; I thought it was a great place to live even though I had many mixed emotions about Arizona. Growing up in Northern Indiana and not having any idea what to expect of Arizona, I only had a visual in my mind of "Wily Coyote chasing the Roadrunner cartoons" and thought, "Oh my God what are my family members thinking, it's nothing but sand, cacti and rocks out there…why would they want to move to the middle of the desert?" After helping them move out west, I discovered that it was made up of much more than sand, cacti and rocks like the cartoon portrayed it to be! It was/is by far the most beautiful state I've ever been through but in a much different way than what I used though as it wasn't as green nor were there any rolling green hills. Around the area where they moved, it was nothing but pine trees, beautiful mountains and three seasons a year and at an altitude of roughly 5,300 feet. After attending college in Lima, Ohio and coming out to Arizona during summer breaks only to see what were "nostalgic cars" driving around all year round without a worry that they're going to rust away with absolutely no corrosion anywhere on them. After having two 1969 Mustang Mach 1's while I was in college, one of them being from Georgia and rust free and the other being from Ohio with more rust holes than there was good sheet metal on the car! I knew there was no hope to own my Mustang's and live in the Midwest -- the salt that gets put down to melt the snow and ice would have been no match for good sheet metal! Arizona was going to be the new home not only for my 1969 Mach 1 but for me too, all the humidity of the Midwest didn't want anything to do with me -- and I didn't have any need for the humidity, rain, cloudy days and crummy winter's that I put up with for the past 21 years!
After moving to Arizona in 1981 with an Associates degree in automotive diesel technology and business management; I didn't even have time to enjoy soaking up the new area as I was hired immediately by a local Dodge/Mazda dealership who wanted me to change oil for $8.00 an hour and the only time I was to enjoy my true skills was at my own expense. I then moved onto a terrific family owned Ford dealership; Ed Tinney Ford in Prescott, Arizona until their unfortunate closing in early 1983. It's to bad that a business made up of a wonderful family (the Tinney family) had to go through filing Chapter 7. Though they went under, they were good enough to pay for all my ASE Certifications, but with their closure, it opened a new door for me at local independent garage. That was until a former "big city Ford dealership" lured me away with unfulfilled promises; none-the-less, a Ford is the only vehicle I'll ever own unless the lottery and the odds aren't stacked in my favor but if they were, how I'd love to slap a 420 HP Lincoln drivetrain into my van! If that ever happens, I'll definitely not post it here… Though I was both ASE certified and a Ford technician, it might not do me very a whole lot of good now except for the fact that I still know my in and out's of working on vehicles, something that'll never leave my mind. All my education and hands-on education has helped me to help others, whether it's diagnosing a problem or trying to save them a little money. I think we all know how painful it can be to have a vehicle serviced in the 21st century. How time's changed and so has labor rates; from around $26 an hour in 1985 to the $100 an hour range now, that's a hard pill to swallow but I remember how customers didn't enjoy paying the labor rates in the 1980s!
If you'd like to read further in-depth and more interesting things about my life and what happened before, after and during the time of my spinal cord injury; just click the "About Me" key and continue! Hopefully I won't be boring you to death as my life always had one turn or another -- whether for "Better or Worse..."
Growin Up in a Small Northern Indiana Town -- Prior to My Little Accident...
Welcome to my website! I'm Bruce