40 details

Some things you probably don’t know about me:

1. I am an only child.
2. I set the record for SAT scores in my high school.
3. The first Transcendental Meditation (TM) center in Indianapolis was in my house.
4. I refuse to use the word “awesome” (except to refer to it, like right now).
5. I’ve visited all 48 contiguous states and ridden a motorcycle in 42 of them (still have to ride to New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.)
6. I have a stainless steel plate and six screws in my left femur.
7. My parents would have named me Victoria Elizabeth if I had been a girl.
8. I owned the first pair of Earth Shoes sold in Indiana.
9. I earned a marksmanship ribbon with the .30 carbine during my 41-day career in the U.S. Air Force.
10. I am the first person in my family – going back directly through father, grandfather, great-grandfather, etc., to wear a military uniform. (I am descended from Amish/Mennonite/German Baptist/Dunkards.)
11. I once saw a UFO.
12. I was one of the first motorcycle skills test examiners for the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles and also taught the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s Motorcycle RiderCourse for 10 years.
13. I was at John Kennedy’s funeral.
14. I have a fear of high places.
15. I have ridden to the southernmost point in the U.S. (Key West), the northernmost point in the 48 contiguous states (Sumas, Wash.) and the top of Mount Evans, Colo. (the highest paved road in the U.S.)
16. I once owned the rarest 45 rpm picture sleeve in the world (Street Fighting Man by the Rolling Stones).
17. I was raised a Presbyterian and a Democrat. Now I’m Catholic and Republican. (Well, Tea Party conservative, actually.)
18. I voted for Ross Perot. Twice.
19. I used to smoke three packs of Viceroy cigarettes a day but quit cold turkey in 1978.
20. I was awarded the key to the City of Carmel, Ind.
21. My automotive history includes a VW beetle, a VW Karmann Ghia convertible, a first-year Mustang, a 1957 Ford Fairlaine 500, a 1960 Ford Galaxie, an English Ford Cortina, a Pontiac LeMans, a Mazda station wagon (Wankel engine), 2 Cadillac Sedan de Villes, a Mercedes Benz, a Chevrolet Chevette, a Nissan Sentra, a Mercury Topaz, a Honda del Sol, a Buick LeSabre, and a Subaru Forester.
22. I have flown in a hot air balloon and a glider.
23. I have held in my hands Eva Braun’s monogrammed pink silk slip.
24. I have shaken the hand that piloted the Enola Gay over Hiroshima.
25. I once fed bears from a car in Yellowstone National Park.
26. I once reminded John Raitt that his daughter Bonnie Raitt’s birthday was coming up.
27. My blood type is B-Positive.
28. I love fried morel mushrooms.
29. I can read upside-down and backwards as fast as I can read normal type (used to be a newspaper makeup editor during the hot type era.)
30. I know how to use a slide rule.
31. I’m on a first-name basis with an original Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer (Doreen).
32. I can break an egg with one hand without breaking the yolk. Consistently.
33. I never learned to juggle (but my son Sean founded the juggling club at Broad Ripple High School in Indianapolis).
34. I once designed and built a 2-meter diameter icosahedron geodesic dome in my back yard.
35. I’ve been to a nudist resort (multiple times back in the 1970s).
36. I will not own or use a Ouija board.
37. I once picketed former Alabama Gov. George Wallace.
38. I was a member of Captain Midnight’s Secret Squadron.
39. I refuse to renew my AARP membership.
40. I was an early member of the Patriot Guard Riders (still am).