Today was a pretty special day.
Ms. Smoke and I took a quick drive up to Prather, CA. It is a little wide spot in the road on the way to Shaver and Huntington Lakes. The purpose was to meet up with my old friend and business associate at his cabin.
We first met in about 1970 when he and his first wife moved into the house next door to me. Little did I know how much would occur with this fellow.
Shortly after moving in, he went to a sporting goods store and bought a Remington 1858. That prompted me to go to the same place and buy an 1851 Colt. A few years later I bought a Renegade and he followed suit. Strangely enough, we could not find any .530 round ball in town so we started casting our own. That sparked an idea that if we could not find any in town, no one else could either. So, we started our own little casting business. We called it Smoke and Thunder Gun Supply. Eventually we started going to rendezvous and gun shows selling our wares.
Anyway, that lasted about 3 or 4 years, until a move dissolved the business. He continued on with S & T, and we eventually bought October Country and grew that.
Over the years, we have kept in touch. Here's on the porch today as we were leaving.
NOTE: I am the one with the TMA T-Shirt on.
And here is one of us and Ms Smoke