Say something about your signature

The picture is from my soviet re-enacting days, got bored and set up a snipers nest with a mate, didn't notice him taking a photo. The quote is spoken by Abe Lincoln in an episode of Star Trek, I liked it and thought it was appropriate.

 

As an attack pilot.. all I can say is right on!

My sig is what I've worked my whole life to earn and keep.

 

I'm a Ironworker, I love working as high as they can put me! Hence the sig!

Yours,

Bill

 

I chose mine as I thought it was a great quote that speaks the truth. Also, it was one out of four that I liked enough to place here. The other three consisted of great quotes from: General Robert Edward Lee (God Bless him and may he rest in peace) Captain Eddie Rickenbacker and Supporting Actor: Paul Fix. May they also be blessed and resting comfortably in peace.

 

the signature was found written and left at my cousins gravesite in Holtensen Germany a pilot flying with II./JG 301, KIA on 26 November 1944 along with at least 30 other Kameraden of the Geschwader.

The signature means ~ Only those, which one forgets, are really dead.

 

Happy trails to you, until we meet again.
Happy trails to you, keep smilin' until then.
Who cares about the clouds when we're together?
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.
Happy trails to you, 'till we meet again.

Some trails are happy ones,
Other trails are blue.
It's the way you ride the trail that counts,
Here's a happy one for you.

Happy trails to you, until we meet again.
Happy trails to you, keep smilin' until then.
Who cares about the clouds when we're together?
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.

Happy trails to you, 'till we meet again.

And as "hokey" as it seems, I was a member of the Roy Rogers Riders Club (in the fifties) before I was a member of the Boy Scouts. We didn’t have a BSA troop for years, and while I was still an Explorer Scout with my Life Scout rank in the early sixties, they disbanded again (lack of kids to participate and keep a Troop).

But, that said; merging into the Boy Scouts wasn’t too much of a "leap" since these were the rules of the Roy Rogers Club:


1. Be neat and clean.
2. Be courteous and polite.
3. Always obey your parents.
4. Protect the weak and help them.
5. Be brave but never take chances. (I failed at this one time and time again)
6. Study hard and learn all you can.
7. Be kind to animals and take care of them.
8. Eat all your food and never waste any.
9. Love God and go to Sunday school regularly.
10. Always respect our flag and our country.

It wasn’t until much later in life that I discovered the "source" of the song I had thought "hokey" and maudlin, sweet in the sixties, that I took it to heart. After my Mother had died (on Pearl Harbor Day) in 1972, and my own cancer was discovered in 1994 coincidentally.

That song was "penned" by Dale for Roy to sing after they discovered their daughter was a Down’s Syndrome child (Robin Elizabeth), and the "studios" and their manager had advised them to have her institutionalized so they could maintain their tours, TV, and movie productions. They refused the studio, fired their manager for a new guy, tried to give her as normal a home-life as possible at the expense of their tours and movies. They kept up the TV work since that could be done on a "site", week after week, and they could keep their daughter with them while doing the series, and just let her have "fun" as a kid. She died before her third year, but they didn't "shuffle her off" for their own convinence. The second verse is the one which draws me to their "hokey" Americanism:

Some trails are happy ones,
Other trails are blue.
It's the way you ride the trail that counts,
Here's a happy one for you.

This happens to be a concept I have taken to heart, since it violates neither a Christian nor any other religious precept. It only wishes that everyone can "ride the trail" of life with dignity and strength of purpose.

So, there ya have it. And still I wish...

 

Hey Clint, I share with you two things, liking that song "Happy Trails" as well as achieving the Boy Scout rank of, Life Scout-before I got too old to be in the troop.

Anyway, what I was wanting to ask you is, did you ever get to visit the Roy Rogers MUseum in Victorville, Calif? I did when I was 15, and the day we were there-Roy Rogers was supposedly in his office. We didn't get to meet him, but I did get to shake hands with his Son: Dusty. "Dusty" I think was his nickname-I can't remember what his real name is.

Anyway, speaking of the Roy Rogers Museum, it is now located in Branson, Missouri.

 

I got to visit it one time way back when, in the seventies when I was driving OTR I had a load near Victorville, and made a point of going over to "check it out". I don't recall "Dusty's" real name right off the top of my head either.

I wonder what my old Roy Rogers Riders Club card would be worth to these guys today? If I remember correctly I got the "application" off a box of cereal, and sent it in with $.50 worth of stamps! Each stamp off of each box of cereal had a "value’ on it. If I could find it, and if it wasn’t just "trashed out" once upon a time when I moved from one farm/ranch to another; I wonder what it would be worth?

It was "signed" by Roy on the front and "countersigned" by Dale on the back. Of course they just authorized the mass printings, but my own name was embossed on the front. This "wallet size" card came with a very official looking "certificate of authenticity" and the rules of the "club" on the back of that page! A kid could get some neat stuff for fifty cents worth of cereal coupon stamps back then.

I looked at the new "site" (and no I didn’t know they had moved from CA. To MO.), and while I understand it, I think both Frances Smith and Leonard Slye would be somewhat disappointed. That is up to their descendants to decide upon, not I.

 

Hi Clint, glad to see another here has enjoyed their Museum too.

On the Roy Rogers premiums-you can beet your boots that they are worth some decent $$$. Almost anything Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and John Wayne, command high prices these days. I used to have a John Wayne comic book-but it got stolen about 15 years ago. Even back then it was worth several hundred dollars-no telling what its value is today.

Hard to believe Slye-Rogers-came from New York. Also, I was a bit disappointed to find out that Dale-Francis, was married at the age of 15, and had a Son. Her marriage lasted 2 years and apparently she was married I think 1-2 more times before settelinig in w/ Roy.

Yep, im not sure when the Museum moved from Calif to Missouri and agree-the family should have had more say-so in the matter.

 

My signature is the top half of a 1940s advertisment for the Parker Pen Company. It is advertising its new (introduced 1941) Parker '51' hooded-nib fountain pen. Given the date of the advertisment, the pen is of the older Vacumatic 'Blue Diamond'-clip variety (which were ended in 1948 and 1947 respectively). Above the pen is a P-51 Mustang fighter-plane.

The Parker Pen Company did not call the Parker '51' that name to compare it to the plane, it was so-named to celebrate the company's 51st year in business. But when they realised the similarity, they ran numerous ads (this being one of them), comparing the pen and the plane. '51's were very very hard to get during WWII due to the manufacturing restrictions. Those which were produced were given to soldiers who took them with them when they went off to fight in Europe or in Asia. Indeed, I believe one was used to sign the peace-treaty with Germany.

The Parker '51' was not selected by soldiers because it was new, it was not selected because they were one of the few groups of people allowed (key word there) to use them, but rather because of the convenience. You could not put just *any* fountain pen in the pocket of your uniform. It had to conform to various guidelines (which I won't go through here), but the Parker '51' was one of the very few pens that actually conformed to these guidelines, which is why they were used most by soldiers.

This is the original advertisment:



At the bottom, the handwritten slogan reads: "Writes dry with wet ink".

I thought this picture showed two of my loves/interests. WWII, and fountain pens. I don't own any P-51 Mustangs, but I do own three Parker '51's and they are wonderful pens to write with...

 

I just realised why that pen looks familiar, I've got one in my desk! It was given to me by a neighbour years ago before he died.

Cheers Shangas.

 

You're welcome, Stefan.