This is my brother Paul (right) with a friend, Danny Bergman, who lived four or five houses down the block.  It was taken in 1973 on the driveway in front of our house in Huntington Beach, California.  I built the "machine gun" for them from spare pieces of PVC, wood and assorted hardware that were lying around in the garage.  Next, I nailed a belt of machine gun ammunition to the block of wood and voila, a "machine gun" ...  I used to go hiking with my father up in the dusty hills of Camp Pendleton where I collected spent rounds and belt links from the range.  (At the time, I had no clue that I would end up hiking those hills again in 1979 and 1980 as a Marine myself!  Or did I?)  When I got home, I would reassemble the brass casings with the belt links and make lengthy ammunition belts.  In the late sixties and early seventies I always had an ammo can with ten or so feet of belted machine gun rounds. My friends and I played "Army" a lot back in the sixties.  Anyway, my brother and his friend would go around playing "Rat Patrol" and blow away all sorts of imaginary suburban enemies.  In the garage is my parents 1972 Fiat 124. I never got to drive that thing but it was a dog of a car from what I remember. They ended up replacing the Fiat with a light blue 1975 Volkswagen Rabbit.  I learned to drive in the 4-speed manual Rabbit while I had my learning permit.  I got my license on the day of my sixteenth birthday and drove the Rabbit until 1976 when it was sold after being involved in an accident.  I was not driving it at the time! Scanned from the original 110 negative. View full size.
This is my brother Paul (right) with a friend, Danny Bergman, who lived four or five houses down the block. It was taken in 1973 on the driveway in front of our house in Huntington Beach, California. I built the "machine gun" for them from spare pieces of PVC, wood and assorted hardware that were lying around in the garage. Next, I nailed a belt of machine gun ammunition to the block of wood and voila, a "machine gun" ... I used to go hiking with my father up in the dusty hills of Camp Pendleton where I collected spent rounds and belt links from the range. (At the time, I had no clue that I would end up hiking those hills again in 1979 and 1980 as a Marine myself! Or did I?) When I got home, I would reassemble the brass casings with the belt links and make lengthy ammunition belts. In the late sixties and early seventies I always had an ammo can with ten or so feet of belted machine gun rounds. My friends and I played "Army" a lot back in the sixties. Anyway, my brother and his friend would go around playing "Rat Patrol" and blow away all sorts of imaginary suburban enemies. In the garage is my parents 1972 Fiat 124. I never got to drive that thing but it was a dog of a car from what I remember. They ended up replacing the Fiat with a light blue 1975 Volkswagen Rabbit. I learned to drive in the 4-speed manual Rabbit while I had my learning permit. I got my license on the day of my sixteenth birthday and drove the Rabbit until 1976 when it was sold after being involved in an accident. I was not driving it at the time! Scanned from the original 110 negative. | Click image for Comments. | Home | Browse All Photos