I heard from Tonya Wildfong over at Team Elmers. I’d asked Tonya if she could rustle up a good picture of Vicky Long, driver of the Big Pink Cement Mixer, on account of none of my snapshots did her justice. Here you go–Vicky at the wheel. Told you the woman has a great smile.
Tonya sent other photos, too, and I thought you’d find this one interesting. Looks like it was taken Out West somewhere, doesn’t it? But no, that’s a Michigan gravel pile. Impressive, I thought. Not something you see every day, a great big pink cement mixer dwarfed by a gravel pile.
Donna Lane sent me an email FWD. Usually I delete FWDs, but Donna is not prone to disseminating tedium, so I opened it. Donna wrote: I did not take this picture. I think this is something to blog about. Babs has said she would lose all the weight and water ski in style this year and she did it at 70. She could become the new poster child for seniors. It is never too late.
Too late indeed. In my opinion Our Babs is just getting warmed up. Anyway, first I had to find out who did take the photo, on account of I do not publish just anything you know. Turns out the photographer was Tyler Sellmer, who is a useful person all the way around, good at things like extracting unwary bloggers from snowpiles. It also turns out that Babs already posted the photo on her Facebook page, so you may have seen it. I did not see it because I hardly ever visit Facebook (sloooow dialup and general crankiness). Scooped again.
Torch Lake Views 
Fee
July 27, 2011
I do love Vicky’s cement mixer – certainly easy to find in the supermarket car park!
Go, Babs. I can’t water ski (can’t ski very well downhill in the snow, for that matter) and I’m a good deal younger. When my granny was that age, she knitted a lot. Socks, mainly. My mum hits 70 this year, and while not water ski-ing she’s a dang sight more lively than the generation before her.
Gerry
July 27, 2011
I aspire to liveliness, but with examples like Babs and Betty Jo and Nora Metz and Donna Moll all around me, I fear the best I can do is to appear reasonably sentient.
kiwidutch
July 27, 2011
That is one COOL concrete mixer: the gravel pile is dwarfed into the background by its coolness! It’s an excellent cause to be Pink for too … well done Team Elmer’s 🙂
Congratulations Babs on losing the weight! You look Fabulous!!!
Gerry
July 27, 2011
Babs has always had a certain fabulosity, but I must say it is even more evident now. As for cool . . . well, there cannot be anything cooler in the world than Vicky and her pink cement mixer. It is possible I will write a song about it. A very cool song.
Dawn
July 28, 2011
Great looking cement mixer and driver…and great looking water skiing Babs! My Mom used to water ski once a year, just to be able to say she could. She was blind as a bat without her glasses, hated getting her face wet when she swam, had grown up afraid of water, yet she put those skies on and went. Once a year. Just because she could. We have a great photo of her waving at the boat…she was probably Bab’s age. THen one year she said she didn’t have to prove anything again…and that was that. But we always knew she COULD…. I miss her, so it was really cool to see Babs on skiis!
Gerry
July 28, 2011
Moms always want our kids to know that we could . . . (fill in the blank). Keeps ’em on their toes, wondering what we’ll get up to next.
I’m glad this post brought back a great memory.
Joss
July 30, 2011
Wow, that paint job must have cost a fortune! She must have some excellent contacts to raise so much money. It’s for a very good cause though. That cement mixer should be made into a toy . Little girls would love it, and it’d make them think twice about their choice of career one day.
Gerry
July 30, 2011
Hi Joss! I think a toy pink cement mixer is a great idea. I expect the real ones need a lot of regular painting anyway, so the special pink job is a relatively small addition–and it’s a rolling billboard that everyone just loves. Nothing like a little good hearted whimsy to brighten the day.
coyote
July 30, 2011
Way to go, Babs!
Gerry
August 8, 2011
I am in receipt of an email from reader Kathleen Fendt:
Just a technical note. I love the pink CONCRETE mixer! Cement is one of the ingredients (cement, sand, stone, water) in concrete, like flour in a cake batter.
Whenever I read or hear about cement sidewalks or cement roads, a very funny picture comes to mind.
Sigh. My reputation for accuracy is in tatters. Although I have to tell you, entire generations of Midwesterners grew up talking about cement mixers. It may be too late to salvage us old bats, but at least the children might be spared the ignominy. I pledge to do my part.
La Mirada Bob
August 8, 2011
A Song From Years Ago: Cement Mixer, Putty, Putty…
See and down to the Dumb Songs list.
La Mirada Bob
August 8, 2011
OOPs. Where did the link Go?
http://tulsatvmemories.com/natlrad1.html
Gerry
August 8, 2011
Wait, wait – that site did not even mention Sgt. Preston of the Yukon or Wild Bill Hickok. How can it possibly call itself a 50s nostalgia site????