43 (or
so) years of PARACHUTIST
magazine
If
you have access to any old issues of PARACHUTIST and want to contribute to this
web site, you can scan the cover and email the file to me. Or you
can send
the issue(s) to me and I'll scan them and return them to
you.
So why did I do this? I dunno.
Just sounded like something fun to do. A buddy of mine pointed out
the fact that I'm about to receive my 30 year membership certificate from USPA.
Shocked the crap out of me but I did the math and, sure enough, starting
skydiving in 1975 at age 22 and now, 2005 at age 52......yep, that's 30 years.
So I took at look a this HUGE stack of PARACHUTIST magazines that I saved
for some reason, blew the dust off of them, and thought, "Hey, I could scan them
and put them on my web site!". Why? I still don't know. All I
can say is that each month for the past 360 months, I always was anxious
to check out the cover of PARACHUTIST. (Not that I've ever been on it).
So I sat down with my scanner and this massive pile of
magazines and started scanning them. Then wrote the HTML code to view
them. I figured it would take a couple hours to do this. Try 3 weeks
(and at least a case of wine).
Many issues still have the mailing
labels on them. I tried removing some of these but it left really ugly
marks so I've left the mailing labels on many of them.
I enjoy looking back at these old covers. It reminds me how
much skydiving has changed these past 30 years. Thank God that the age of chest
mounted reserves, motorcycle helmets, combat boots, and round canopies is over!
What hasn't changed is my passion for the sport. I've jumped every
year since 1975 except 1992 (when we didn't have a local DZ). 30 years and
2600 jumps later, I still can't wait for the weekend and head for the DZ.
If you enjoy looking at these old cover photos, drop me an email and share your
thoughts.
Here's to 30 more years! I wonder
what the sport will be like when I'm 82?