Hi all,
Mike did me a huge solid and I could've sent him an email or PM for thanks, but you should all know what a stand-up guy he is, as well as the quality of his work on Penn history:
A good friend and fishing partner was turning 40 this weekend. Back when I lived at the beach, we filled in cold -as -crap Feb weekends hitting the pawn shops and rebuilding Penn's and rods in my garage. We both moved in 2011 for work, me inland and he to Maine. He is a 22 year Coast Guard veteran that volunteered to go to Iraq for active duty when things were pretty hot there. He doesn't say too much about his lifetime of service to our country other than he will send me a pic on Monday morning of his office......he's training our forces to shoot stuff off of a boat....while I'm pounding a computer. Anyway, the dude has done a ton for me and I wanted to return the favor, plus he finally just got his own boat.
Well, last Wed my brain finally registered that Mike's book would be a great gift. The Coastie only fishes old school Penn's; his newest is probably a gen 1 320GTi. Problem: getting it to NC by Saturday. I messaged Mike about my situation and BAM!!!! He jumped out to get me two signed copies (you really didn't think I wasn't getting one too, did you?) in fedex for Sat delivery. My paypal was jacked up due to a security breach and I had not gotten my new card on it yet; Mike even worked with me on that (payment sent). Mike really went out of his way to get me that book on time.
Now, I finally got to crack mine last night.....and read half before I put it down....YOU NEED THIS BOOK IF YOU OWN A PENN!!!!!!! The amount of research and introspect is staggering....I just have one request for Mike: Volume II, 1950's through 2005!!!! (after they ceased 9500SS and Squidder, well....you know!) Thanks again Mike!!!!
Mike is the man! Nice story and thanks for your guys service!
I saw this in the library a couple weeks ago. Picked it up and took a trip down memory lane. After selling that 50th anniversary reel a few months ago I've paid more attention to what I have and had in the tackle box. Really nice book.