As far as I know they stopped making them in '91, somebody may have made some custom wagon's after that. 92 was the first year for the rounded aerodynamic Crown Vic. Back in about '89 I totally dropped out of society, I quit my $70,000 career in the printing trade (got burn out) and drove a cab. My first cab was a brand new '90 Crown Vic with the taxi package. What a nice car that was too. The taxi package was just like a police package but different electrical wiring setup. Man was that car quick! I had some of the best times in my life driving a cab! A real funny thing happened next, I had a portable car phone in my cab and met a lot of business type people that traveled on a regular basis, so I had some business cards made with my phone number on it and had my personal customers call me directly when they traveled back and forth to the airport. This is when portable phones weighed about 10 pounds & 50 cents a min, incoming & outgoing! Well, after I had a ton of regular customers I didn't need the cab company anymore, I bought a '89 Lincoln Town Car Signature and I was off into my own executive sedan business. At one time I had 5 Town Cars going at one time. I did that for 12 years. I dropped out of society again and I sold the business after 911 and moved to the beach. Boy, did I get off topic! Clark
I think it's good to drop out for a while. I joined the Armed Forces after Highschool, in French (where I learned and loved Ancient Latin and Greek) and English (where I learned, loved and hated Shaekspeare), but I enrolled in English Canada, where they let me enroll in the ROTC (officer training), only to tell me that my Grade 12 English graduation wasn't enough, and my Grade 13 plus Pre-University DIDN'T COUNT! I took Basic Infantry Training, Sharpshooting, and Electro-Mechancial Eng. (tank and naval mechanic). Got out, back to Civvy-Street, worked with my dad to build up a scrap business, and when it was solid enough, we went to University, together. We graduated. I went to work for a big Steel company, while my folks moved to the West Coast. Moved here, in 1977, and worked for a big Aircraft and Engineering firm, then a National Window and Autoglass manufacturer, until they sold out to PPG. Went further west and built my own Clock company and sold it to Elgin Clocks in Chicago (We had patents and a better Manufacturing system that they wanted). Took a break for a couple years until 1985, and ran an exclusive reproduction Furniture company (If you had to ask for the price, you couldn't afford it [No sh!t]). Then I started a Technolgy Licensing firm, from Electronic replacements for eyes to the infamous Couch Potatoe figures. I needed software, but DOS 2.0 was all, or Windows 1.04 (I still have a set of 5-1/4 disks and a drive on an old IBM XT.) I got addicted to Windows and lived with every version to this one XP. So I built software, for AMWAY, for Microsoft, for AutoCad, and my own companies. Stayed with that until I got married (3rd time, No Kids ever, except my patents). Then moved to Mexico to work as a Network Exec, for a Mexican-Canadian-US injection molder hooking up a tri-country network to run Inventory and Numercially Programmed molding robots and machines. Came back here in 1999, and worked as an Investment Banking/Trader software developer, until they moved to India and the UAE. Now, my wife and I build backyard related products (some are pretty ingenious) and bird, bat and squirrel feeders, and sell at farmers' markets, besides renovating the house. Small is beautiful. Dropping out, taking a breather from a high-powered lifestyle was healthy for me.
Some of the best things I've ever done were because I dropped out! I never went to college and 12 years of public school was enough for me. I hated school with a passion! Been self employed since '89 and never looked back, I don't think I could ever go back to working for someone else, once you do it, it's very hard taking orders from someone else. I'm in the middle of starting a new business right now. I have a landscaping business now but it's only in the summer and it's really getting to me because of the heat, I'm getting old! While living here at the beach I worked as a parking enforcement officer (meter maid, he he) in 2005 for one summer just for kicks, it's was a blast! I had a real hard time taking orders again. I was told how it do something and I always found a better more efficient way of doing it, oh boy they didn't like that! So one summer was all I could take. I really want to become an independent car dealer. I love to buy and sell cars and I'm good at it, I'm working on it trying to find out all the regulations, licensing, bull crap etc. I never did like the new or used car dealer tactics, so I'll do it my way! All you have to do is put your mind to it, it can be done! Clark
WOW Stormin' you've been around the block a few times! I'm impressed with your resume! Great story! Clark
Runs in the family. I've got an uncle on my dad's side, who was an arrogant, mischievious, ingenious miscreant. He reminds me of the coyote cartoon character. He used to actually drive, shaking his finger and saying "Who's next?" Next to screw out of some of his hard-earned dollars. Back in the mid-50's, he bought an old Provincial Hydro truck, with the poles still on it, at a Hydro auction. He and a couple of his cronies, went up North, where people were still using Iceboxes and lanterns (No hydro). He'd go up with catalogs from the stores in Southern Ontario, and get his buddies dressed up as Hydro guys, looking like they were surveying and laying out for Hydro Service. He'd sell these folks every electrical appliance there was, for Cash Deposits. Not one was ever delivered, and no Hydro got there for 6 more years. He got his pilot's license, and did all kinds of shady stuff. He was the black sheep of the family, and could charm snakewater salesmen. He was a charmer. Every cop in town had an eye for him. They'd stop him, try to rattle him, and he'd just crack a smile, and tell them to charge him. Never had enough to charge him. He had the fastest sleepers in town and outrun the cops, hide, repaint the car overnight, and safe for another week. The last of the cowboys, we used to call him.
My mom had her own high-end gown and fabric shop, and did all kinds of evening wear for the rich and sometimes famous. We lived in the capital, Ottawa, and she'd make clothes for a lot of politicians' wives and daughters, and even some singers. Ella Fitzerald, Diana Ross. Right across from her shop, there was a Hair-dressing shop, which was really a front for an 'Escort' service, and they'd come over (when I was in full-bloom puberty) to get fitted. Torture, pure torture for a 14 year-old. Our family has been entrepreneurial and adventurous, through several generations. Occasionally rich, usually flexible, and always bouncing back. Wouldn't change a thing. Beats merely surviving. When you think about it, most lawyers have to help bail out folks from financial disaster, and never get tainted themselves by all the sad lives they helped fix. They just keep making a pretty decent living. When I've fallen off the cliffs of surrendipity success, I just put on my virtual Teflon suit, and holler "NEXT!" Feels good, cleans off the cobwebs, and gets me cranked up again. A human tuneup!
Sounds like a Soap Opera title! We did get rambling though. RoadKing will be glad to have another Thread-Jacker on the team.
Compared to both of you, im a regular Joe. My first job was delivering the paper when I was in my early teens and switched to delivering pizza when I was 16. The pizza place went bankrupt and my next job was at a car rental agency. It was a great job for a teen as I got to drive brand new or low mileage cars everyday. The people I worked with were all young, including the managers and we had a lot of fun with the cars and it was the best "driving school" I attended I completed a programming certificate when I was 21 and started my first full time job writing programs in COBOL. It was fun at first but working on the Y2K bug nearly killed me. I felt exactly like the character in Office Space. I tried looking for a better job in IT, but after Y2K and dot com bubble had burst, IT jobs were hard to find. Not having a university degree did not help either. That is when I started taking night classes and was determined to get a Bachelor of Computer Science. Through a combination of part time/full time studies/part time work, I completed my degree in 2005. Now I work with cutting edge technologies and switching jobs will be much easier.
I got caught in that IT bubble burst too, but when we moved back to Canada, I had to get a job to act as my wife's Guarantor for 10 years for Immigration. Now that she's a full Citizen, and the house is paid off, I'm ready for another adventure. We hope to get the new Yard products out this year. (I need the wagon! )
Here I am wanting to go back to work and as of a few days ago that won't happen. Due to my back again. I'm ready to move to the Mountains here in my home state. Buy a place get it energy efficient and make what I need to survive.
geez...i hate typing that much pretty cool stories tho boys...i feel that i know you that lil bit more! ...I may get off my arse and do alil 'story of my life'....just not tonite
Check out a Naturopath with a certificate from the Palmer School of Chiropractic - both certificates. Then stay away from acrobatics and any olympic hopes, but you'll keep on drummin' like that Duracell battery. If the doc has both, I can give you some names to drop. Somebody about our age, with a little gray on the roof. One of my best friends on the West Coast is both, and may still be around in Vancouver. One hour! Two visits. Amen!
