Heck, what's wrong with wood... It's a wonderful thing to build stuff with other than building houses...

Remember the "Spruce Goose" that Howard Hughes not only built but flew???

But back to the woodie fir just a second... Back in my college days I had a very beat up Karmann Ghia that I bought fir about $100... It ran but had no bumbers but still had the brackets so I took a 2X6 and cut it down to the right size, drilled holes to line up with the holes in the brackets and bolted the sucker on...

Well, this poor ol' Ghia had cracked tail lenses and various electrical things either workin...or not...

I rememeber coming back from Christmas break with everything but the kitchen sink tied on top of it and stuffed in it, including my wife, a dog and of course, a guitar...

Well, I got stopped on I-95 by a State Trooper jsut a few miles north of Richmond, Va and he gave the car a good look over... This was way back before the days of "Stay-in-your-car-Sir" state trooperin' so I was outside the car with the trooper while he took me for a tour around the car pointing out all the defective equipement and we ended up at the right rear of t6he poor ol' Ghia and he ended his bill of particulars by looking down at the wood bumber and saying, "And further more, your bumper is on fire...."

Well, sho uff the hot exhaust had the bumper smolderin'... There we're no flame but, yeah a little redish glow and a little smoke...

So, Iz thinkin' maybe jail time, 'er havin' my car, dog, wife and guitar hauled off to the impound lot and wonderin' how I'd get by without my guitar... But is was 'right after Christmas and the trooper told me to follow him and he led me to the nearest service station where he told me to leave the car and have it towed to a repair facility....

And he din't write me a single ticket...

Right after he left the guy at the service staion told me that that particular trooper was the hardest ass troopper in Henrico County and would write his own mother...

Guess he was just trying to aviod the writer's cramps that day...

Well, all Bobert stories do have happy endings so here's the happy ending to this one.... After it got dark that night I snuck into the back lot of that service sation witha couple buddies and we quietly pushed the Ghia down the road far 'nuff to ctrank it up and not be heard and I drove it home... Heck with tow trucks...

The following day, I bough a quart of porch and deck enamal and repainted it so if that trooper saw it again he wouldn't recognize unless he looked closely to see if the rear bumper was on fire...

Bobert