I had this friend years ago, in my salad days

We were running buddies and sometimes roomies, in the mid seventies in Chicago. Eventually I settled in So IL… and he in CT. We stayed in touch for the next 30 years, but not closely, until his passing in 2008. Al always sent a Christmas card. One year the card included a photo of Al, his old lady, their son, and Willie Nelson out in Al’s garage posing behind Al’s bike, which was a meticulously restored 1952 Harley panhead. Here’s a different pic of that bike.

By trade, Al was a tool & die maker. One year he wrote me that his company was building some tricky hardware on a NASA contract, something that was gonna go in the Hubble telescope.

Well, in due time the scope was placed in orbit and it had issues due to its inability to focus…and they had to send a robot ship up to fix it. I’m sure Six whined a lot about the cost, but they did get it fixed.

The following Christmas I received a card from Al, and under his signature was the comment YES, I DID WORK ON THE HUBBLE TELESCOPE. BUT I DIDN’T FUCK IT UP, HONEST.

Today’s story about the QC at the South Carolina Boeing plant reminded me of Al’s card.

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