8 Things: a meme

Ilona, at True Grit, has tagged me with a meme to tell you eight things you didn't know about me (of course, how do I know you don't know these eight things about me?).

1. I went to the same university as, and had a couple of classes with, Weird Al Yankovic.
2. I worked in Saudi Arabia for about 6 months in 1983. One of the most interesting things that happened to me there was when a Saudi guard, outside a bank (they always had a guard outside a bank), his hands resting on an automatic weapon strapped around his shoulder, got upset with me for walking around town with my hands resting on a camera strapped around my shoulder. BTW, I don't really know what he said since he only spoke in Arabic.
3. There have been three times that I have jumped out of an airplane (which was flying 3,000 feet above the ground). I made sure, for every jump, to have at least two parachutes strapped to my body.
4. My wife and I were married in 1991, but went out on our first date in 1981, and dated for just under two years.
5. Despite my conservative bent, I looked like this in college, and some of my favorite musical artists  were (and still are) the likes of: the Beatles, Dylan, Neil Young, Lynyrd Skynyrd, well... Classic Rock.
6. And, despite looking like this in college, I've never been drunk (or high).
7. I set a triple jump record, at Mission Viejo High School, which remained unbroken for eight years.
8. When I was younger, much younger, my hair was thicker and very red. My parents gave me the nickname "Rusty" to counter the name "Carrot Top" (which was already being levied against me). "Rusty" is pretty much what I go by in all walks of life informal.

Next on the tag list:

Greg
Bonnie
David
Phil

Comments

[ilona]

I have a cousin, Bill Ginty who worked in Saudi Arabia around that time. You guys were pretty much s'posed to stay in the Westerner's compound, weren't you?

I'm really impressed by that triple jump record- and parachuting? wow.
There is probably a story behind why you never got high or drunk. We're you a Christian then? Or were there other convictions? Drinking was the main form of socializing in the company I kept- maybe it was the fact that you were in athletics? curious.

I don't get the math on you and your wife... and Weird Al, eh?

[Rusty]

When I was in Saudi there wasn't room at the compound (in Dhahran), so they had the single men living in a rented house in town (in al-Khobar... a town that was later bombed by terrorists). We had no restrictions with regards to traveling into town and, in fact, we made frequent trips downtown to the souks (shops) for gold jewelry, etc., or to *some* of the restaurants.

The triple jump is an event that relies mainly on technique. Most good, young triple jumpers excel primarily because of their speed and strength, neither of which I possessed to any high degree. That being the case, I studied the event and went to several clinics, thereby utilizing the technique aspect as much as I could. My marks would not rate so high today but would still be respectable (which hearkens back to the fact that many triple jumpers don't peak until their late 20s).

Skydiving - yep, it's a good thing I did it then (1982), because I doubt I'd have the nerve to do it now (and my wife wouldn't let me do it, now).

Yes, the drunk / high thing has to do my Christian upbringing (and I've never been one to follow the crowd - I've seen people who are drunk and I'd rather not subject myself to that).

Here's the story on me and my wife. We went out for a couple of dates in 1981 but, for reasons that no longer matter, it wasn't to be at that time. We were in the same social group at church, for a few years, but then our paths went different ways until we ran into each other at a mutual acquaintance's wedding (sometime in 1990). We hit it off (again, so to speak), and started dating.

[David M. Smith]

8 things?

I’ll give it some thought, but since most of the things people don’t know about me, I don’t want them to know, : - ), my list will be either short or very boring.