New Camera= New Fun

My picture taking had really slacked off recently, but now that I have a new toy the “magic” is back. We were at the local Honda dealer this afternoon and inside their showroom they a meticulously restored 1973 600 Coupe. I used the 23mm wide angle lens to take the picture and then added a Kodak EasyShare fun filter called appropriately, cartoon, to get the finished product.

This car is famous in my memory because while stationed on Guam, one of my VQ-1 squadron mates owned one. When Super Typhoon Pamela made a beeline for our tiny little island in July of 1976, he had to be on one of the squadron’s planes that flew off to safe harbor in Japan. He left his car parked with those of the rest of the aircrew near the hanger, which was in plain sight from the back of our barracks about 200-300 yards away. On the typhoon’s way onto the island, it was best to be holed up in your barracks room, but after the eye passed the wind shifted so that the back stairs were in relatively quiet air and we could stand on the landings and watch the winds wreak havoc on the airfield buildings and hangers.

As some of us watched 4 x 8 sheets of corrugated tin roofing get peeled off an older hanger, my roommate pointed back towards our hanger. There rolling down the tarmac was that poor little Honda 600. It got rolled onto one side, then onto the roof and then over on the other side before coming to a stop pressed up against the squadron’s duty pickup. To add insult to injury, the wind then pushed a nearby dumpster sliding along the pavement until it mushed into the roof of the tiny 1200 lb car. Needless to say the car was a total loss.