New Group “W” Bench…..

During the period of time that Mr. Jek was growing up, we would be constantly working on building projects – Models, electronic kits, any and everything, so, we needed a semi-permanet work space….. I had an old Samsonite card table and we named it ” The Group “W” Bench”….. Why?….. If you can’t figure it out, listen to “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” by Arlo Guthrie, or watch the movie “Alice’s Restaurant”…….

Now, this wasn’t just a normal card table…… Jek built what we called a “Tub Adjust” circuit ON the table…. We had a friend that Jek could irritate on command, and Jek claims he could “Adjust” his attitude with the “Tub Adjust”….. It seemed to work somewhat, and, it was fun to play with if you had become frustrated with whatever project you were working on and needed a break….. It was basically an IC chip, a LED, an adjustable on-off pot, a battery holder, and a bunch of hook-up wire…. This wasn’t mounted on a circuit board, he soldered it directly to the table….. As you know, vinyl, solder, and a hot soldering iron combine in curious way…. The “Tub Adjust” naturally became a permanent component of the Group “W” Bench….. Many projects saw completion and/or destruction on the table….. It was finally retired to an outdoor firing range in Seminole, OK where it was used as a cleaning and firing table….. Unfortunately, it was left out in the Oklahoma weather once too much and the top deteriorated to the point that we have to use a piece of plywood on top, but, it is still alive and well…..

Enough background….. Lately I have been going through all the 40 or so years of stuff I have in storage and decided I need a new Group “W” Bench that I could set-up when I needed to work on some of the cool vintage stuff that I hadn’t seen in years….. Hence, let me present to you, without further ado, THE NEW GROUP “W” BENCH…… Everyone should have one….. Oh, Yeah, Jek, I need you to draw me a schematic of the “Tub Adjust” circuit…. Got to have one!…..

Yeah, I know, I dripped paint on it and tried to wipe it up, but, I expect it to see a lot of action in the next month, year, Hell, maybe the next Lifetime – I’ll pass it on to Jek…..  Here’s part of your inheritance, Jek, along with the OU watch……  Boy, are you LUCKY!…..

12 Responses to “New Group “W” Bench…..”

  1. Hay, I was on the Group W Bench. It’s a real thing.

  2. So, anon, you got sent to the Group “W” Bench for hauling out the garbage too?….. ….Or, was it for one of the other reasons listed in the song “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”?….. (Yes, the extra “e” is supposed to be there, making it pronounced Mass-a-kree)…..

  3. There were three of us on the bench. A guy that came in at 400 lb or so. Another guy 6 ft 8, 125 lb wearing tall spike heel boots. And me. At the physical they asked if anyone thought they shouldn’t be in the army. I raised my hand and was sent to the Group W Bench.

  4. I don’t remember them asking that question, but, I’m sure they did…… I actually thought that you might have ended up at the Group “W” Bench because of some minor criminal record…… You did say that you were fairly rowdy in your younger days…… eh?……

  5. Well, yes but no. It was medical. Ended up classified 1-Y.

  6. I got in a year and a half of college with a deferment….. I think it was a 4-A classification…… I screwed-up and dropped the Art History class that I hated, which put me under the minimum 12 hours required for a deferment….. I figured, ah-h, they wouldn’t catch it, and, I would make it up the next semester….. HA!…. Within days, I had a letter to report for a physical, and shortly thereafter a new card classified 1-A, and within a week or so, I got my “GREETINGS” letter to report for induction on the same day I was supposed to get married – 22JUL66….. After some letter writing and hoping that they would lose me through the cracks, they gave me a one month extension…… I was married on 22JUL66 and reported to the induction center on 22AUG66……

    I guess the real point I was going to make before I got sidetracked, was I thought that a medical deferment was a 4-F classification….. That may have been for some permanent physical problem and you were free and clear of being called up ever….. I’ve never heard of a 1-Y….. Does that mean you were a Mental case? Ha!….. Usually if you were in a 1- (?) classification, you could be bumped up to 1-A at any time and taken away with all the other draftees…… Draft Boards were staffed with weird people here in Oklahoma during that time…… If you were breathing, you were drafted!……

  7. I would have gone mental on them.

    1-Y was for physical reasons……with a note from your doctor. Meant they could take you in an extreme national emergency. Remember that was an undeclared war and was not an emergency in my disturbed and twisted mind.

    Still they tried to talk me into joining up. I had to tell the psych. examiner four different ways I didn’t want to KILL. ( I did get busted for dumping garbage once. I dont think the army cared. Glossy photographs too.)

  8. But, did you ever own a VW “Micro” Bus as Arlo Guthrie called it?…… I did!…… It was actually listed as a VW Station Wagon because it had glass windows on the curved sections between the back side windows and the back glass section of the rear hatch….. It was a 1963, hand-painted yellow and I used it to haul almost all of the Band’s gear to gigs….. I developed a system where it was so packed that there was only room for the driver (me)….. It never failed on us and it was a lot of fun to drive….

  9. Nope. But I had a guitar.

  10. ….And, you still do, and, so do I, so, I guess we’re in as good of shape as we can expect……

  11. OK Lets set the record straight. I donated the original Group W Bench. I brought it to use at the 1st Mopar show. (Trosper Park) It got packed up with the stuff that went back to the original MR central (Back then it was called Broad Street), and stayed there. Around that time we started having game nights, (Poker, Monopoly, Beatlemania, etc) Then started getting used to build models with much cutting on. I do not remember who first labeled it with the Group W graphic, It was either MR or Me, but after that it became a work of art.

  12. Thanks for the clarification, Mr. J….. Things were going on at a high rate of speed back in those days…… So fast, in fact, that one brain can’t remember all the details….. I “Assumed”, since I didn’t remember exactly where the table came from, that it was one I had around from an earlier time….. Any more, it takes a “Brain Conference” of at least two or three people that were around at the time to even get close to all of the details of any one event that happened way back then…..

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