Bamboo Ben Hits the Front Page! Read All About It!

As I unrolled the OC Register this morning whose smiling face should I see on the front page but Bamboo Ben!

They did a cool story about him and his Grandfather tiki linage.

Get a copy today!

Very cool! Congrats Ben....Another TCer getting props in the O.C. Register.

The legacy lives on.

Nice work Ben, but lets hope none of the OCPD recognize ya!

Chongolio

YAY! When I was chatting with this same reporter for my little story a few weeks ago, we got to talking about OC tiki history, and naturally Eli's name came up quickly. When I told him that Eli's grandson is still in the business and doing great things again today, he got excited to do a story. I'm so happy to see it happened, and turned out so well!

congrats!!! :drink:

what are the chances that us non-oc-insiders can ever see this article?

mahalo, j$

yeah ben, I would like to see the article. Maybe you could send a truckload out to us in TC land.Congrats....

Heres a link to the OC Register digital. The article should be here Somewhere???
http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/02/23/

Here you go:

http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/02/23/sections/news/news/article_417902.php

You have to register to read it, but it's free.

All you have to do is click on "Todays Front Page" on the left colomn about 13 of the way down. You Can't miss that face!!

What a great and facinating story!! Congrats Ben it is good to see that you are being recognized and promoted!!! That is too cool!!!
Later,
Spermy

[ Edited by: The Sperm Whale on 2005-02-23 09:44 ]

ALRIGHT BEN!!

On 2005-02-23 06:39, Tiki_Bong wrote:
Bamboo Ben Hits the Front Page!

Ben! What did that poor front page do to you! :D

Congrats, and may the populace flock to your store!

Great article Ben! Love the suit!!!

Kanaka

Ben, nice story. Reminded me that I still need to get one of your bars for my backyard palapa/tiki hut. See you at the shop, SOON!!!

Wow, Ben. What an interesting story. I never knew about your family tiki heritage! And I like the Register Pic...

Just don't get a big head Ben, and then stop posting here on TC, dis is your extended ohana. Oh, you already have a big head. HAHAHAHA!

Whats this! No eyepatch or hook!
ARRRR,
Chongolio

P.S. That is a pretty snappy suit though.

---

-- I believe that our Heavenly Father invented the monkey because he was disappointed in man."
... Mark Twain

Come explore http://www.lost-isle.com

Bamboo-licious! Here's the text from the article:

The Morning Read: Tropical punch
When customers want that tiki flair, Bamboo Ben whips it up.

By PETER LARSEN
The Orange County Register

HUNTINGTON BEACH – When your name is Bamboo Ben, you buy a nice cream-colored suit and watch the salesman go pale as you admit plans to paint bamboo patterns over every single inch.

And you know the Santa Ana winds are on their way when the bamboo poles that fill your workshop start to crackle and pop like firecrackers as the humidity drops.

Or you fly to Georgia to build a tiki bar for a stranger, because you knew just how he felt when he told you how night after night, stuck in an Army tent in the Kuwaiti desert, he dreamed of bamboo, thatch and strong drinks of rum.

But most of all, you give frequent thanks to the tiki gods for letting you be born the grandson of Eli Hedley, a man whose colorful lifestyle and creative business instincts made him an important influence on the mid-century Polynesian decorating craze.

"He was the one who started making stuff from things that washed up on the shore," says Ben Bassham, 39, owner of Bamboo Ben's Tropical Decor, talking about how Hedley found fame and fortune as a beachcomber.

"It was just this fun, fairytale life, and we were born into it. Big time."

Tiki roots

In hindsight, the first half of Eli Hedley's life seems perfectlyordinary giventhe free-spirited nature of his second act.

Sure, he'd married a woman named Malcolm. And he was always game for the odd home improvement - like the sprinklers he installed on the roof so the family could turn on the "rain" to dampen the Oklahoma dust.

But it wasn't until bad investments and the Depression cost him the three Piggy Wiggly grocery stores he owned that Hedley found the freedom to follow his heart, which as it did for so many in that time, led him out of the Dust Bowl and onward to California.

After stops in Carmel and the San Fernando Valley, Hedley, his wife and four daughters landed in their dream home, a ramshackle hacienda pieced together with driftwood on the beach at White Point in San Pedro.

"He was basically a beachcomber, getting stuff that washed up," says Bassham, whose mother Charlotte was the youngest of the four girls. "One day he sold a truckload to Bullock's Wilshire and bam! That started him off."

By the mid-1940s, Hedley's curious career had made him famous through movie news reels and magazine and newspaper articles.

"One of the weirdest businesses in California, where weird businesses are a perfectly normal thing, is run by a 42-year-old ex-grocer ... who makes a living out of things the Pacific Ocean throws back," began a story in Life magazine in January 1946.

As their beachcombing decor found favor on Hollywood sets and in the homes of stars, celebrities often dropped by the San Pedro home.

"They'd come down there and disappear from Hollywood," Bassham says of the stories he's heard from his mother and three aunts. "The way he was, he'd pull a copa de oro flower off the vine, fill it with champagne and say, 'Here, drink this.' "

Actor Raymond Burr was a close friend, who at one point optioned daughter Marilyn Hedley's book, "How Daddy Became a Beachcomber."

The business grew, and by the 1950s, Hedley was in demand as a tropical decorator. He worked on tiki-themed Los Angeles nightspots, such as Don the Beachcomber and Kelbo's. He carved giant Easter Island heads for the Stardust Casino's Aku Aku bar in Las Vegas.

In the mid-1950s, Disney came calling and Hedley packed up the family and moved to a home on Katella Avenue behind where Disneyland was being built. There he helped design Adventureland and ran the Island Trade Store across from the Jungle Cruise for seven years.

After that, Hedley concentrated on a second Island Trade Store he had opened on Beach Boulevard in Midway City, which remained open until the late 1970s.

"That place was the ultimate playground," Bassham says. "It was awesome."

Late bloomer

Despite growing up surrounded by tiki heads, thatched huts and giant clam shells, the Bamboo Ben side of Bassham did not fully emerge until years after Hedley's death in 1981.

He'd grown up in Newport Beach and after high school worked at the family's lamp and faux-stone furniture business in Westminster.

"We'd always have a party in the summer at our place in downtown Huntington, and about 15 years ago, I started building tiki bars for the summer luau," Bassham said.

"Somebody would drive by the next day and see it on the lawn and say, 'Hey, is that for sale?' And I'd say, 'Sure!' "

But it was only a sideline until a friend referred him to a television producer who wanted a tiki bar for her back yard in Malibu.

"After that, things started to take off," Bassham said.

As he dreamed up more things to make from bamboo - napkin rings for Tommy Bahama, briefcases for Toes on the Nose - he closed the old family businesses and went full tilt into tropicalia.

About five years ago, he saw an eviction notice on the front door of a Von Dutch shop on Yorktown Avenue in Huntington Beach and quickly called to lease it.

"I was ecstatic, because my neighbors were starting to complain," Bassham said of all the work he was doing from his townhouse garage.

Since then, the business has flourished. Weekdays, Bassham builds tiki bars – a five-footer goes for $595 – and bamboo furniture or installs tropical rooms and decor in private homes and businesses. Weekends, he and his wife Vicki run the retail store.

As with his grandfather, the entertainment world has helped the business grow. He built a large tiki bar for the set of the film "Windtalkers." Singer Jimmy Buffett commissioned bamboo shadow boxes to display vintage Hawaiian shirts, as well as a traveling tiki bar to promote his Margaritaville brand of tequila.

In many ways, his work has brought him closer to his grandfather. He's pestered his mom and aunts for stories about the old days, gathered a trove of old articles, photos and blueprints, and learned that in the world of tiki-philes, Eli Hedley remains a much-admired figure for the restaurants, bars, motels and apartments he designed.

"Bamboo is really neat," he said surrounded by finished pieces of his work – tiki bars, picture frames, shelves and beds. "Each piece is different. You have to work with what you've got."

Still, while he loves the lapu lapus at places like the Royal Hawaiian in Laguna Beach, and while he travels to the annual tiki festival at the Mai-Kai Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale each year, there are times when the sight of another piece of bamboo is the last thing he needs.

"Sometimes, I need to get away from it," he said, laughing. "Chromeland! Let's all go to Chromeland, you know?"
Contact Bamboo Ben's Tropical Decor at (714) 960-1860.

I'd like to remind the SD Ohana that the San Diego Public Library has 2 copies of "How Daddy Became a Beachcomber," one copy of which is currently checked out to me. :)

Here's a quick list of other libraries that currently own a copy (from the Online Computer Library Center):

• CALIFORNIA STATE LIBRARY
• UNIV OF CALIFORNIA, BANCROFT LIBR, ARL
• UNIV OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
• UNIV OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE
• UNIV OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
• LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
• NORTH CENT KANSAS LIBR
• CAMPBELL UNIV, INC, North Carolina
• PUBLIC LIBR OF CINCINNATI/HAMILTON CNTY
• EASTERN OKLAHOMA DIST LIBR
• OKLAHOMA DEPT OF LIBR
• TULSA CITY-CNTY LIBR
• UNIV OF OKLAHOMA
• MOUNT HOOD COMMUN COL
• OREGON STATE LIBR

I want that book.
I'll bet that soon....you'll be goin' to Hollywood and you'll be in a few movies. Watch....it will happen.

On 2005-02-23 19:35, freddiefreelance wrote:
Here's a quick list of other libraries that currently own a copy (from the Online Computer Library Center):

If you can't find it in the OCLC catalog, it doesn't exist! :D

Awright Ben! Who says hard work and clean livin' don't pay off?

That is an awesome article! Ben's a good friend of mine and although outspoken, has always been a modest guy when it comes to his creative and artistic achievements. I dug the article especially because they got so many things right. I've read a few past articles on Ben and they've just butchered the heck out of them. With so many things going on with Tiki, there is a lot of room for the writer to slip-up... this was one of the best that I've seen in a while.
Mahaloz,
Holden

I was just sayin to my spouse, we gotta go to Ben's, I read on TC it's sooper. And he opens the paper and goes, What? Here? (Actually he said, Vot? Hay-ear? He's Duetsch) And I actually squeeled with delight! Hurray! But the article ended kinda sad, like a Disney movie begins. When he said he sometimes got tired of bamboo and wanted to go to chromeland! Bite yer cheeky tiki tongue!

[ Edited by: hau 'oli tiki on 2005-02-24 18:43 ]

On 2005-02-23 18:29, Tiki-bot wrote:
Bamboo-licious! Here's the text from the article:
By PETER LARSEN
The Orange County Register
HUNTINGTON BEACH –
. . .
The business grew, and by the 1950s, Hedley was in demand as a tropical decorator. . . . .

Like father, like son.

Thanx Y'all!

Check out the OC Register next Sunday. March 6th. Travel Section. Tell one, tell all.

Ben,

You certainly don't suck. Congrats on the article.

Now send me your copy of "How Daddy Became a Beachcomber". I'm tired of looking for the damn thing!

Great article Ben! You'll need a new suit for Hukilau this year!

Bamboo Ben ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!

What will I find in my Sunday Travel Section of the OC Reg? Do I hafta wait til then? Hint?

On 2005-03-04 17:57, Hau 'oli Tiki wrote:
What will I find in my Sunday Travel Section of the OC Reg? Do I hafta wait til then? Hint?

Nothing. (looks like it got bumped for golf)

Maybe next week?

Ben,
Who is reading/has possession of you're book now?
I'm still waiting to get my hands on it.

On 2005-03-06 13:00, Unga Bunga wrote:
Ben,
Who is reading/has possession of you're book now?
I'm still waiting to get my hands on it.

I have no idea Unga.

**** New rule in the game*****

Whoever has the copy must pm or dig up the old post and let us know. It must be getting pretty crumpled up by now.

Yeah, sounds like a good rule. I'd like to read it before it gets forgotten about in someones magazine rack.
Hey Ben, howzit goin?

No- it was in there, BamBen. "Anaheim Seniors Tap To The Rythm". Right? Good times...

Ok.

OC Register this Sunday. 3/20/05

Tiki stuff.

And, for you San Diegans, look for Bamboo 2U in a paper near you.

On 2005-03-15 21:37, RevBambooBen wrote:
And, for you San Diegans, look for Bamboo 2U in a paper near you.

Hey Ben, does that mean we're gonna hook up at Bamboo 2U for mai-tais with Judy on Sunday? See ya there brah.

I sent it to Alnshely recently. He probably has it by now.

On 2005-03-06 13:00, Unga Bunga wrote:
Ben,
Who is reading/has possession of you're book now?
I'm still waiting to get my hands on it.

Here you go....

On the tiki trail
Visit Polynesia in Pittsburgh or Palm Springs

Like latter-day giant stone heads of Easter Island, the chipped idols, faded driftwood signs and smog-dusted palm trees stick out along the pothole-pitted avenues of American cities and suburbs. Strange and beautiful remnants of a once vast but now largely vanquished culture.

Exotic places with names like Mai Kai and Bahooka, Trader Vic’s and Omni Hut, Royal Hawaiian and Tiki Ti.

Urban oases where the thirsty and stressed can still step out of the light of day into another world. A dark, tropical space filled with lava-rock walls, bubbling aquariums, flickering tiki torches and angry-faced carved idols.

Outside you might be in Modesto or Pittsburgh. Inside, the bamboo-rimmed bar, rattan chairs and glass balls in fishing nets feel more like Bora Bora or Pago Pago. Especially after a shrunken skull, scorpion bowl or ubiquitous mai tai warms your belly and floats your head.

Once sinking under a wave of redevelopment, the world of Polynesian pop is resurfacing. Dozens of classics survive, and “neo-tiki” nightspots are opening across the country. Come to the islands of your mind as we drink in tales of tiki.

By GARY A. WARNER
Register Travel Editor

TIKI'S BALI HAI
If there is a mystical, magical place in the world of tiki, it's Mai-Kai in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Stuck amid the suburban sprawl is a place where sarong-clad "maidens" serve the signature "barrel o'rum," aided by unseen "mixologists" who guard the restaurant's legendary rum concoctions.

"You have to sign in blood not to give away the recipes," said manager Kern Mattei.

Order "the mystery drink," delivered by a young woman who does a seductive wiggle at your table. On some Sundays, kids in the audience can get on stage with the hip-swinging dancers (though they'd best take a seat for the fire dancer). Check out the real shrunken heads, and in the rear garden, the tiki god supposedly neutered at the behest of local 1950s bluenoses.

SLEEPING WITH THE GODS
Caliente Tropics in Palm Springs has been rescued with a $2.2 million makeover that has restored it to its mid-century heyday. The best remaining example of Ken Kimes' five 1960s Polynesian-theme motels in California. The lobby is a riot of tikis and Easter Island stone heads. Anothertiki with its tongue sticking out sits by the pool, flanked by tiki torches. The Reef Bar serves powerful punches. It's still a motel – the walls are thin and the bathrooms are small. Caliente Tropics is the scene of the annual Tiki Oasis party.

ZOMBIE TIME
Here is a recipe for the Zombie, the original tiki drink created in 1934 at Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood:

Ingredients:

For cocktail:

Juice of one large lime

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

1 ounce dark Jamaican rum

2 ounces gold Barbados rum

1 ounce white Puerto Rican rum

1/2 ounce apricot brandy

3/4 ounce papaya nectar

3/4 ounce unsweetened pineapple juice

1 ounce carbonated water

Dash of 151-proof Demerara rum

For garnish:

Mint sprig

Pineapple cube skewered between 1 red and 1 green cocktail cherry

Powdered sugar

Procedure:

1. In cocktail shaker, dissolve sugar in lime juice. Add other cocktail ingredients except carbonated water, 151 rum and garnish. Add cracked ice. Shake well and strain into 14-ounce frosted glass.

2. Add carbonated water and ice to fill glass. Float dash of 151 proof Demerara rum on top. Garnish with mint, pineapple skewered between cherries, and powdered sugar.

AMERICAN TIKI: RISE, FALL AND SEMI-REVIVAL
1934: Don the Beachcomber serves the first Zombie in Hollywood (see recipe).

1941: World War II sends millions of Americans to the South Pacific.

1944: Trader Vic's in Oakland serves the first mai tai (see recipe).

1948: Thor Heyerdahl's "Kon-Tiki" and James Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific" are published.

1959: Hawaii becomes a state.

1963: The Enchanted Tiki Room opens at Disneyland.

1960s: It's the tiki heyday, with hundreds of bars and restaurants popping up. Tiki eateries populate major hotel chains.

1979: Luau in Beverly Hills is bulldozed, an early victim of tiki's waning popularity.

1994: Trader Vic's in San Francisco closes. Tiki News, a revivalist magazine, begins publishing.

2000: Kahiki in Columbus, Ohio, closes, despite preservationists' pleas.
"Book of Tiki" is published, fueling a tiki revival.

2003: "Tiki Road Trip" is published.
Costa Mesa's Kona Lanes, built in 1958, is bulldozed.

2005: Disneyland's Enchanted Tiki Room makes a refreshed appearance March 12.

TROPICAL TEMPERANCE
Before a show at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, take a detour about an hour south to the Omni Hut in Smyrna, Tenn. The 12-table tiki outpost opened in 1960. Owner Polly Walls keeps it filled with tikis and masks, all bathed in soothing blue light. Kids love the 35-gallon aquarium. Families come for miles to down the famous volcano, a dessert concoction with a flaming top. This is barbecue country, and the sweet ribs are outstanding. A slack-key guitar version of "Little Grass Shack" is juxtaposed with Southern mommas telling their little ones to "hush up now." The only thing you can't get: a drink. But you can BYOB for a homemade mai tai.

THE MASTERS
The most prodigious tiki creators still happily toil away in an industrial park in Whittier. Through their company, Oceanic Arts, Leroy Schmaltz and Bob Van Oosting have created the look of Florida's Mai-Kai, Disney's Polynesian Resort and other tiki hot spots. They still draw their inspiration from an epic trip across the South Pacific they took in 1960. Today they are still at it, making tiki items for movies and the Islands restaurant chain.

"Last year was our best year ever," Van Oosting said.

While most of their work is sold wholesale, Oceanic Arts has also has a small retail shop and a rental agency to add a South Seas touch to backyard parties.

NEO-TIKI
Tastes have swung around, and a new generation is entranced with tiki bars.Places like the Tiki Lounge in Pittsburgh and Kahiki Moon in Burlington, Vt., are bringing colorful rum drinks, thatched-roof booths and bamboo-covered walls back to the bar scene. Purveyors like Tiki Farm are creating designs for the next generation of home tiki lounges. Hawaiian merchants Hilo Hattie and ABC Stores have beachheads on the mainland. The tiki revival isn't a sure thing, though: The much-ballyhooed Taboo Cove in Las Vegas lasted just four years at the Venetian Hotel before closing last year.

LOCAL LOCO
Orange County was once a center of tiki culture. Places like the Outrigger in Laguna Beach, Kim's Family Restaurant and the Holo Wai Miniature Golf Course in Orange, and Milan Guanko's carving shop at Gray's Nursery in Westminster are gone. But you can still immerse yourself in tiki at Sam's Seafood in Huntington Beach and the Royal Hawaiian in Laguna Beach. "Neo-tiki" spots like the House of Tiki store in Costa Mesa are sending locals home with tropical décor. In Los Angeles County, there's Trader Vic's in Beverly Hills, tiny Tiki Ti in Los Angeles and the great Bahooka Family Restaurant in Rosemead (look for the whitewashed World War II Navy gun outside).

MODESTO MECCA
The wrecker's ball has claimed tiki outposts less often outside big cities. The town where "American Graffiti" was filmed has three notably tiki spots: the Tiki Lounge has great South Pacific décor marred by Coors Light posters tacked on the walls. The Tropics Motel next door has sad-looking tikis and lacks the AAA seal of approval, but seems simple and clean. Best of all is Minnie's. Don't be put off by sharing parking with Suzie's Adult Video Rentals next door. Inside is a dark refuge with wahine paintings and lots of bamboo, marred only by a TV showing pro wrestling. Chef Paul Man serves dishes created by his father in the 1950s. The outdoor bar with a canoe, tikis and carved masks make you feel you are in Maui, not Modesto.

EXPERT PICKS:
James Teitelbaum, author of "Tiki Road Trip" on his favorite tiki bars:

Mai-Kai, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: "Without question the best remaining tiki mecca. It's huge – several thousand square feet. Excellent food. Tremendously good drinks. A full floor show. The real thing – nothing corny or cheesy."

Hala Kahiki, River Grove, Ill. "About half-hour west out of downtown Chicago is the last and best example of a classictiki bar. Hawaiian music. Wonderful tropical drinks. Waitresses in muumuus. Tikis everywhere you look."

Tiki-Ti, Los Angeles: "A similar vibe to Hala Kahiki, but smaller. The place is tiny. It's been owned by the same family since the 1960s. No food, just a bar. But the drinks are amazing."

Trader Vic's, Emeryville. "It's the best Trader Vic's left in the country. Drinks are as good as it gets. Refined, if you can use that word for a tiki place."

Honorable mentions: Jardin Tiki in Montreal, Tonga Room in the Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, Omni Hut in Smyrna, Tenn., and The Alibi in Portland. Special mention should also go to La Mariana Sailing Club, a tiki classic in rapidly urbanizing Honolulu.

THE TRADER
Don the Beachcomber and Stephen Crane's Kon-Tiki restaurants had their fans. But the biggest name in tiki was - and is - Trader Vic's. The chain created by Victor "Trader Vic" Bergeron now has 23 restaurants – though only six in the United States. The flagship shop is one of the top tiki spots in the country. After a 10-year absence, Trader Vic's returned in 2004 to San Francisco. The Trader Vic's in the British capital was immortalized in Warren Zevon's hit song "Werewolves of London" ("I saw a werewolf drinkin a piña colada at Trader Vic's; and his hair was perfect.")

MAI TAI MEMORIES
Here is the original Mai Tai recipe created in 1944 by "Trader Vic" Bergeron at his original bar, then called Hinky Dinks, in Oakland:

Ingredients:

For cocktail:

2 ounces 17-year-old J. Wray Nephew Jamaican rum

1/2 ounce French Garnier Orgeat

1/2 ounce Holland DeKuyper Orange Curacao

1/4 ounce rock candy syrup

Juice from 1 fresh lime

For garnish:

Half a lime

Sprig of mint

Procedure:

1. Combine all ingredients (but garnish) in cocktail shaker. Shake well, pour into glass.

2. Garnish with half of lime shell inside the drink and float a sprig of fresh mint at the edge of the glass.

TOTEMIC TOMES
"Tales of the South Pacific" by James Michener. Mythical "Bali Hai" becomes prototypical enchanted South Seas isle.

"Kon-Tiki" by Thor Heyerdahl. Brings Polynesian culture to a mass audience.

"Book of Tiki" by Sven Kirsten. Fuels revival of tiki culture with its high-gloss look at the lost and lasting pop Polynesian spots around the country.

"Tiki Road Trip" by James Teitelbaum. Encyclopedic compendium of tiki bars and other spots. Parses the tiki mecca from the merely tamed tiki of renovated bars. Spots rated from one to five tikis.

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CONTACT US: Warner can be reached at (714) 796-7771 or by e-mail at [email protected]

Copyright 2005 The Orange County Register | Contact us | Privacy policy | User agreement
Freedom Communications, Inc.

or........

http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/03/20/sections/travel/travel/article_445902.php

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Did not want to p/o PJ so I posted it under the other ocregister artice. I'm sure it will duplicated though.

Yes, I have the book now. Thanks Atomic. Who get's it next?
Mahalo,
Al

On 2005-03-20 08:14, RevBambooBen wrote:

Did not want to p/o PJ so I posted it under the other ocregister artice. I'm sure it will duplicated though.

Speak against a CARVER? Oh heaven forfend! Isn't that a violation of the by-laws?

Buh-sides, no reason for me to defend Hanford's request if neither he or the assistant moderators seem to be bothered by it being ignored.

P.S. It's a great article, Ben. And that's a really great pic.

[ Edited by: purple jade on 2005-03-20 10:04 ]

Try this link out to get the front page of the travel section.

http://epaper.ocregister.com/Default/Client.asp?AW=1107803390750&Enter=true&Skin=Orange&Daily=Orange&GZ=T

Go to the Travel Section

Hey, I think I'm lucky enough to know those gals!!!!

Cool spread.

Trustar

[ Edited by: trustar on 2005-03-20 10:32 ]