Sometime in '73 or '74, I got my official Cactus Vick Square Shooters' card. I was about 19 at the time, hanging out with Mike Oldner and James Pascale, among others. I don't recall the circumstances of obtaining the card. Cactus Vick may have had his little kids' carnival thing at Jefferson Square in Pine Bluff, and I picked up the card there. Or maybe I ordered it through the mail, which would be something I'd have done as a gotta-be-clever 19-yr-old. My sense of humor hasn't changed much since then.
In April of '74 I went to Costa Rica with my father and his friend Joe Hardin, from Grady. Daddy and some other Arkansas guys invested in a farm in Costa Rica and tried to grow rice instead of bananas. It enabled Dad to go to Costa Rica about once a year for 6 or 8 years. Even after the rice farming didn't work out and the investors sold the land, Dad still went down there a few more times just on pleasure trips. I got to go with him in '74. We three gringos spent three nights (with 4 Costa Ricans) in a cabin on the square-mile uninhabited Cano Island, now a nature preserve where overnight stays are not permitted. (I think the Ranger Station is at the location of the former cabin.) I hope to return to Cano and go snorkeling next April, the 40th anniversary of our trip. The photo below was taken at the home of one of Dad's Costa Rican friends near San Jose. Joe Hardin is the man in the cap. He ran against Orval Faubus for governor once, and has a lock & dam named after him.
In April of '74 I went to Costa Rica with my father and his friend Joe Hardin, from Grady. Daddy and some other Arkansas guys invested in a farm in Costa Rica and tried to grow rice instead of bananas. It enabled Dad to go to Costa Rica about once a year for 6 or 8 years. Even after the rice farming didn't work out and the investors sold the land, Dad still went down there a few more times just on pleasure trips. I got to go with him in '74. We three gringos spent three nights (with 4 Costa Ricans) in a cabin on the square-mile uninhabited Cano Island, now a nature preserve where overnight stays are not permitted. (I think the Ranger Station is at the location of the former cabin.) I hope to return to Cano and go snorkeling next April, the 40th anniversary of our trip. The photo below was taken at the home of one of Dad's Costa Rican friends near San Jose. Joe Hardin is the man in the cap. He ran against Orval Faubus for governor once, and has a lock & dam named after him.
