KatesTrackShack

Updated List 01/20/2012

2012-01-20T21:56:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone has recovered from the holidays!

Sometimes I think you need a break from the break.

It's winter, but our temps today were in the 70's! It's supposed to cool down a little over the weekend and into next week (low to mid 60's). I guess we can't complain to much. Our oldest daughter's friend is up in MN and she said it was -2 today.

We'd love to hear from you as to what your weather is like where you live. If you want to send pics, that would be cool.

We put up a new list today so check it out. Since it's winter and you may be stuck inside due to weather, we've put some of our repair supplies on sale.

Stay warm!

K

Happy New Year!

2012-01-04T22:42:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with Christmas and New Year's!

We enjoyed our time off to be with friends and family!!!!

Santa brought me a new telescope that is pretty nice. I'm enjoying looking at the moon and Jupiter. Will be checking out some of the of the other coolness of the night sky. I'm thinking of getting a few more filters and other items to help me take pictures of the night sky. My parents gave me a gift card for time at a website that allows you to look at the night sky through some powerful telescopes around the world - www.slooh.com. Pretty cool!

We have put up a new list up today so be sure to check it out. http://www.katestrackshack.com or our mobile site - http://www.katestrackshack.mobi.

Let us know what cool toys you got for Christmas!

We're looking forward to another great year and wish you all the best for the same!

Kathy & Dan

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays! New Updated List 11/27/11

2011-11-28T14:06:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We had Thanksgiving with my parents out in Ranger, TX! Smoked turkey, dressing, corn, mash potatoes, gravy, rolls & veggie tray. I made a buttermilk pie and an chocolate buttermilk pie. Yum! Ate too much, but I think that's one of the things that just goes along with that holiday!!!!

Gearing up for the Christmas holidays. Got the tree up and decorations on and around the inside of the house. The temps are a bit cooler and we had a couple of very blustery days. With it getting dark so early, the lights may have to wait until this weekend. I'll put up my few things that I can do without Dan's help and the ladder.

One of our traditions is to turn on Christmas music while the tree is being put up or at least while it's being decorated. Another is that the tree or decorations don't go up before Thanksgiving. It's usually the day after.

What are some of your holiday traditions? Let me know.

Also put up a new list this weekend so check it out. We have cassettes on sale - buy 2 get 2 free.

Gotta get back at it!

Have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year, if I don't get back to the blog before then!

Happy Fall Yall! More Photos & Udated List - 11-8-11

2011-11-11T10:35:00.007-06:00

Hope everyone is enjoying the cool fall weather! Hope you're not one of those that got hit by the snow storm and lost power.

I just love this time of year! The changing of the leaves is beautiful. I took a road trip to pick up some players and tapes the other day and ended up going down a state highway. I saw some amazing foliage as well as buffalo, ostrich or emu, lamas and other wild life.

What's crazy around here is that I've been seeing some of the Bartlett Pear trees blooming. This crazy drought and now cooler weather has tricked them into thinking it's Spring.

I've uploaded some of our San Francisco photos from Photobucket - so take a look. Some of the photos are from a trip we took to Wisconsin a few years ago. Sorry for any dups of pics and all of the aerial photos, but some of those were pretty cool from the air. What can I say, it was a long flight! (I corrected all of my poor spelling on the photos in the slideshow, but it doesn't seem to show them (the corrections) on the uploads).

We've also put up a new list so check it out - www.katestrackshack.com. Remember that we also have a mobile site that you can check out on your mobile devices. It's still under construction, but getting there. You can check it out at - www.katestrackshack.mobi.

We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving Day next week! Don't eat to much, shop to much or watch to much TV!

Can you believe that they are already laying on heavy Christmas ads. I've seen stuff out for Christmas since before Halloween. I saw some folks who already had their outside Christmas decorations up. I love Christmas, but let's at least get through Thanksgiving first!

Enjoy a wonderful holiday with your family & friends! We will be!

Kathy

Updated List 10-24-11 San Francisco Trip

2011-10-25T21:40:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone is having a great fall season!

Just got back from a great trip to San Francisco! Lots to see and do and even got to experience two earth quakes while we were there! The first one was 3.8 and the second 4.0. Not huge, but a quake non-the-less. The funny part was that it happened on "Earthquake Awareness Day." The other thing I found of interest, was that it happened during the World Series, which is when the last really big one hit SF in '89.

Here are some pics of the trip:

Fisherman's Wharf

Painted Ladies Houses (I think)

Golden Gate Bridge from the Presidio

Inside a giant sequoia tree at Muir Woods

Houseboat in Sausalito - lots of cool houseboats, but this was the best!

Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz "The Rock" Island

Dan about to be locked up on Alcatraz

Sunset view of the Golden Gate Bridge on the way back from Alcatraz

Another sunset view of the Golden Gate Bridge on the way back from Alcatraz

There are lots more pictures, but I need to download them from mine and Dan's phones.

I also went to a fortune cookie factory (well maybe not that big), but it was fun watching the three ladies cook and make the fortune cookies. They even make "adult" fc's.

For those of you who use your mobile devices to check out the website, we have just added a mobile site for you. It's still under construction, but take a look and let us know what you think - http://www.katestrackshack.mobi

We also just put up a new list today so take a look - http://www.katestrackshack.com

We've added some more bulk lots so be sure to check those out. We'll be adding more as time permits. Also have lots of cassettes that need to move!

Have a good week/end!

Kathy & Dan

Vacation/Back To School/New List

2011-08-25T15:52:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone had a good summer! The kids are back in school and lots going on!

We took our vacation this year in conjunction with two conferences Dan had in Washington DC. It stunk for him to not be able to go and do a lot of things with us, but he did get to do some things. Instead of flying this year, we drove.

Since we needed to be up in DC by Monday, we headed off on Friday morning. We didn't push ourselves and made it to Memphis, TN. By the time we got there it was really to late to do much site seeing. We were going to see a movie, but decided dinner and back to the hotel sounded better. Saturday we drove until we got to Abingdon, VA. Dan and I left the girls in the hotel and we went off to the movies. We saw Cowboys and Aliens. Not a bad flick. The popcorn machine was hosed up and they didn't have any ready before our movie so they hand delivered it to us just before the movie started. Very nice folks there!

Dan wanted us to go to the Air/Space Museum near Dulles Airport so we did that before heading to the hotel where his conference was being held and we were staying. Here are a few of the many pictures that we took while we were there.

This is the Enola Gay, the airplane that dropped the bomb on Japan.

Dan and two of of the girls in front of a flying car. We need one of those to go with our boat car!

Another picture of the Enola Gay with Dan and girls.

An overlook of the space area. You can see a small part of the life size mock up of the Enterprise Space Shuttle.

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On Monday, before Dan had to go to his conference, we went to Arlington Cemetery. What an awesome place to go. To see the gravestones of so many men/women who gave their lives for this country. Some very famous and many not so famous, but the sacrifice was the same.

Lee's Home. They were remodeling when we were there so a lot of the furniture is at Mt. Vernon - Robert E. Lee married the granddaughter of Jackie Custis who was Washington's stepson. Lee is also GW's third cousin, twice removed, since both men are descended from Augustine Warner, Sr., and Mary Towneley Warner (GW by way of their son, Augustine, Jr., and Lee by way of their daughter, Sarah. Just a brief history lesson.

View of DC from the front yard of the Lee home. It was very hazy that day. You may have to enlarge the picture, but you can see the Washington Monument and the Capital in the background.

Another view from the front lawn of the Lee home. In this picture you can see the Capitol and Jefferson Memorial in the background.

In this picture you can see the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial (left side of picture) in the background. They have dug up the Reflecting Pool to do renovations to it. Pretty weird not seeing it there with water in it.

This is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Very solemn place to be in the cemetery.

This is one of the soldiers that guards the Tomb. They walk 21 paces, turn and walk another 21 paces. You can see the wear marks where they stop after those 21 steps each way. Watching the changing of the guard is very cool. We saw it last year. We were getting ready to leave but our middle daughter got to watch part of the ceremony. Last year, when we were there, the soldier coming onto duty had to be inspected before she could take over. She had her flap up on her uniform and the soldier inspecting her fixed it before letting her take over. We also saw a military funeral when we first got there. From the uniforms, the person was in the Navy. They were given a 21 gun salute. Very chilling!

This is John F. Kennedy's grave. Jackie O. is buried beside him as well as two of their children who died as infants. Bobbie is not buried here, which I thought he was. Teddy is buried near but not in the same plots as JFK, Jackie O. and the two children. I was also surprised to not see John Jr. buried with his parents.

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I took the girls to New York City for a couple of days. Except for Susie getting sick, we had a great time! Here are a few pics of that trip -

A view of Herald Square. You might remember this name mentioned in the song "Give My Regards To Broadway"

We had taken a few pictures of the Empire State Building up close, but a guy on the street blocks away tapped my shoulder and pointed up to this great view! He said sometimes you just need to see something from a different point of view.

Macy's and 34th St. Miracle on 34th Street is my all time favorite Christmas movie (the Natalie Wood version). Couldn't go tho NYC and miss seeing this corner!

This was strange statue in the Madison Square Park around the corner from our hotel.

These are a few pictures from Central Park -

The Plaza Hotel outside of Central Park. This is where the Eloise movie with Julie Andrews takes place.

Carriage rides around Central Park. There were lots of guys trying to get us to buy a ride on the carriage, bikes or rickshaws, but we wanted to walk. I didn't get a picture of it, but we did buy hot dogs from one of the vendors at the entrance to the park. A little pricy, and not that good!

A beautiful view of NYC from Central Park.

A guy playing the sax in the park. He was good, but forgot to put money in his case.

Mary posing for me in CP.

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Off to 5th Ave and Tiffany's

Susie in front of Tiffany's window - just like Audry Hepburn in Breakfast at Tifrfany's.

Front of store. Lots of women getting their picture taken in front of the store. We went in and the cheapest thing they had was a charm for $150! BTW, there are 5 floors to the store.

Don't know if you've ever seen the show Obscura on cable tv, but it's a very fascinating show. Basically, a husband and wife, who own a shop in East Greenwich, buy and sell obscure and odd items. The show is a lot of fun to watch and I though since we were there, we should check it out. It's a very tiny store. For a souvenir we bought Dan a t-shirt and a real stuffed Parana.

When we came back to DC, we walked the National Mall, but I forgot to take my camera with me. We also did one of the museums at the the Smithsonian, but again, I forgot my camera. The girls got some cool pictures. I think I might have a few on my phone that I'll post when I get them uploaded to the computer.

I was grateful that we were not there for the earthquakes. I can't imagine how terrifying it would have been to be on the Metro (subway) or in the Washington Monument or the Pentagon when they hit.

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As for business! We just put up a new list yesterday. Sorry it has taken so long! Trying to get ready to go on vacation, being gone and then getting back and trying to get the kiddos ready for school.

We've added a new page for cassette tapes. Folks have asked for them, so we've put them on. We also have lots of cases, both for cassettes and 8-tracks, so let us know what you need.

We're also having a 10% off back to school sale (doesn't include s/h).

We've got a couple of other things in the works. One of the things we're working on is putting up an auction site where you can sell anything musical - tapes, players, etc. We'll keep everyone posted when it's all up and running.

Have a great week(end)!

Updated List 7/17/11

2011-07-17T21:30:00.013-05:00

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th!

It's been pretty busy around here!

A couple of weeks ago, Dan and I went to an air show. It was pretty small, but we were able to see some cool planes. I went up inside a B25 - Fifi. We saw her in Midland, Texas at the air show there where we flew on a B17 but she wasn't flying at the time. Pretty small quarters up there!

Late last week, Dan and I headed up to Wisconsin to a car show - Iola Old Car Show.
They said there were over 115,000 people this year. We went last year and it was great! Very hot and humid last year, but this year it was in the high 80's! People were complaining about the hot temps up there and we just laughed. We left temps of 100. I'm posting a picture of our thermometer in the kitchen. You'll notice the outside temp of 110! The inside is high because I accidentally weed-wacked one of the a/c lines and I didn't want to run the a/c until Dan could get home from work and make sure I hadn't damaged anything (I did, but nothing he couldn't fix!!!). We left on Thursday, got up there Friday night and back home early Sunday evening! We stayed at a wonderful Bed & Breakfast called Apple Tree Lane B&B in Waupaca, WI. It was located in an historic Victorian farmhouse built in the early 1880's and sits on 7.5 acres in a park-like setting along 400 feet of beautiful Crystal River frontage. The rihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifver was beautiful, but the mosquitoes were horrible! We want to come back here again when we have more time to enjoy everything.

We also just closed on the house that we've been working on. This was our first house that we bought 24 years ago. We sold it to a friend and he needed to sell it and we were given first dibs out it. It needed a ton of work on the outside, which is almost finished except for the landscaping and the inside will be next. Two of our three kiddos were born while in this house. It backs up to a horse field, which is kind of cool! We will probably move the oldest into this house once we get it fixed up. Right now she lives down the street in a little bit smaller house. We've already got lots of folks wanting to rent hers out. This was such a cute, well kept house :( We'll get it back to that state again! This is not the best view of the house. I'll try to find a better one and post it.

And let's see, I ended up with a black eye earlier this week! I promise, Dan didn't do it! One of the dogs (youngest corgi) did. Man does he have a hard head! It seems like it just keeps getting worse.

We also just updated the list with lots of tapes so you'll want to check it out - www.katestrackshack.com. We have tons of cases for sale so get 'em while you can.

We'll be headed up to DC for vacation in mid August. Dan has a week long conference and the girls and I will be out doing stuff while he's stuck in his conferences :(.

We'll be driving for about 3 days up/back. If anyone has any good places that are worth stopping out, please let us know. We like the weird and crazy places!

Everyone have a great week and stay cool!!!!

Kathy & Dan

Happy 4th! Updated List 06/30/11

2011-07-01T08:35:00.006-05:00

Happy 4th!!!!!!!

It's been a busy May and June for us! Dan having a huge kidney stone (8mm) that took a month and finally surgery to get rid of. Kids are now out of school. We're buying back our first house and about to take the contract over to the title company to get scheduled for a closing date! We picked up close to 5000 8-tracks (most in cases - around 300+), about 1000 cassettes in cases, and around 30 players. So, how's your summer going so far...

I'll be posting some pictures of the haul so you can see how crazy this is. This isn't, however, our largest haul of 8-tracks/players, etc. I think our biggest was 10,000 from a friend up in Oklahoma. We haven't even had a chance to look through the boxes and cases, but hopefully will get to this weekend.

We've got a sale on these tapes for a very short time - A case of tapes for $.25 a tape (must take a whole case of tapes). Most of these cases hold 24 tapes. S/H depend on the weight of the cases with the tapes in them. They'll ship media mail. Keep in mind that the cases are just shipping vessels. You might get lucky and get a good case, but you might not. The tapes are as is and we won't do special requests. What's in the case is what you get. We also have some of the bargain basement tape lots on sale 30% off regular price. Check out the website at - http://www.katestrackshack.com.

I thought I had some pictures of our first house that I could put up, but can't find them. Next update. I've got some from when we first moved into the house and I'll find some of when we first started working on the outside to what it looks like now on the outside.

Again, have a Happy 4th!!!

Happy Mother's Day/Updated List 05--09-11

2011-05-09T16:11:00.003-05:00

Hope all you Mother's out there had a Happy Mother's Day! I did! My three beautiful girls brought me breakfast in bed and then some very nice gifts. Our middle daughter, Susie, made me a delicious cake!!!

We are in the process of buying back our first house that Dan and I bought about a year after we were first married (working on 25 years in January!). The house needs lots of help! We just finished having the backside of the house resided and are working on replacing lots of rotten wood. Once all of that is done, the inside is next! The inside looks exactly as it did when we sold it to our friend except for the nasty carpet that will have to be replaced and having some plumbing done. We will need to update it inside, but that won't be to bad. We have some neighbors across the street that we've hired to do some of the work that Dan can do, but that they can do faster!

We'll post some pictures soon.

We just put up a new list today, so take a look!

Have a wonderful week!!!!!

Kathy & Dan

Happy Easter! Updated List 4/21/11 New Photos

2011-04-22T15:28:00.001-05:00

Happy Easter everyone!

This year is flying by! In a month and a half our kids will be out of school for the summer and then before we know it, Christmas will be here again! I heard one of my girls telling a friend the other day that when you're a kid, it seems like it'll everything takes forever but when you're an adult it just flies by. How true!

I've been very lax about updating my blog. I keep telling myself to get it done and then something else comes up that keeps me from doing it.

Here are a few pictures from Spring Break (last month, I know!)

Spring Break 2011 @ Turner Falls, Oklahoma - Dan (behind the bars) and Mary

Girls - Susie, Mary and Becky, with beautiful waterfall in the background

Susie, Becky and Mary (TF, OK)

We finally got the wheel back for Harold a few weeks ago! It took about 6 months to get a new wheel made, but it's back and on Harold! We've only taken him up to the local cruise in, but will take him to the official "first" car show of the season for us. We had someone come out yesterday to take a look at Harold and see about making a new top for him. We have the pattern for it, but no one really wants to do it! And unfortunately, you can't just go buy a new one. The smaller Chevy's you can, but not for the FB50.

I've also been taking some pictures of the moon through the telescope that I got for Christmas. I'm not very good at it, but it's a lot of fun. I'm waiting on a stronger lens to come so that I can hopefully get a better look at Saturn and get some photos of it. Some of these are night shots and some are morning shots (around 8 am).

10mm lens. Awesome to see the craters!

Click here for a larger view.

Check out the detail! (25mm lens)

This is a daylight photo (10mm)

Another daylight shot (25mm) Can you see the man in the moon in this one?

Click for a bigger view

Happy St. Paddy's Day/Spring Break - Updated List 3/10/11

2011-03-10T16:37:00.002-06:00

Hope everyone is staying warm and getting ready for Spring to appear next week!

We're going to take the girls on some day trips next week. We'll take some pictures and post them.

We'll also be getting together with my siblings to take my parents out to eat for their 60th anniversary next week. Wow! 60 years! It's hard to believe that they have stuck with each other this long! Dan and I will be celebrating our 25th after the 1st of the year. Time sure flies when you're having fun!

The new list is up. To help celebrate St. Patty's Day and Spring Break, we've got a sale going on. All Bargain Basement tapes are on sale for $.50 ea. At this price, load up and expand your collection!

Have a good weekend!

Kathy & Dan

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!! / New Updated List

2011-02-14T21:47:00.003-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Hope you've had a wonderful day! Instead of going out and spending way to much money on a dinner at a fancy restaurant, I spent a lot of money at the grocery store buying food for a home cooked meal. Dan's favorite is surf & turf. We had grilled steaks, mashed potatoes, corn, a lobster (I actually ate him), snow crab, fake lobster bites, shrimp, applesauce and croissant rolls. For desert, we had mini cupcakes and ice cream. Yum!!!!!!!!

Email us and let us know what goodies you had tonight!

Tonight was another big night for 8-tracks around our neck of the woods. Bucks Burnett had his official opening of The Eight Track Museum in Dallas. He had Stu Discious to open the party and The O's were also slated to perform. The O's were also going to be selling their new 8-track release which KTSP recorded. The Tom Tom Club was also going to be there but not performing. They were having a meet/great and selling and signing their new 8-track release, again recorded by KTSP. Both are great albums and we wish them well. They have said that the Tom Tom Clubs 8-track release, which is a limited edition, will only be sold tonight.

You can check out both groups - The O's and The Tom Tom Club.

We also were fortunate enough to be interviewed last week by the Dallas Observer along with Bucks Burnett and a couple of others regarding the resurrection of 8-tracks in the Dallas area. Here is the link to the story. If it's gone, you can see it at on our KTS Productions website.

The list has also been updated today. Sorry for the delay. We had a couple of weeks of nasty frigid cold weather where it just to darn cold to work out in the office. The last couple of weeks we've had temps down in the low teens with ice and snow and now it's going to be in the high 60's and 70's this week! Go figure! Email us and let us know about your weather where you are.

Again, Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!!! We love our customers!!!!!!!

Updated List 01/21/11 New 8-Tracks & News

2011-01-22T13:39:00.001-06:00

Hope everyone is having a good New Year in 2011!

Just put up an updated list last night so be sure to check it out - www.katestrackshack.com.

In other 8-track news, you may have heard that Bucks Burnett opened the 1st 8-Track Museum. It's in Dallas, TX. Check it out at - http://theeighttrackmuseum.com/ Bucks has also started a new 8-track label called Cloud 8. We will be doing some more new 8-tracks in the next few weeks that will be featured at a grand opening reception for the new museum. The artists will be the Tom Toms and the O's. You can read more about them at http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/dc9/2011/01/buck_burnetts_eight-track_muse.php

Another bit of 8-track news. We just finished an 8-track that will be used in an upcoming movie. The title of the movie is Driven To Kill...Again. You can see the trailer here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0HaUsr23SY It is being produced by Pagliacci Records & Films and will be coming to a theater near you!

We also just came out with some more new sleeves. These are very similar to the last sleeves we had made up, but they are lighter weight; like the originals and have cut outs on the sides. We have both the single window and double window style of sleeves. We'll be putting up photos of them soon.

If you have any interesting 8-track news, please email us so we can let other 8-trackers know about it.

On non-8-track related news, Dan and I celebrated our 24th anniversary last Sunday (16th). It's been a wonderful 24 years! Dan has taken me to places I never would have dreamed of going to and doing things I never dreamed of doing. The 8-track business was one of those. Together, we've been blessed with 3 beautiful girls!

We went to the Gaylor Texan last weekend for a couple of nights and had a great time. This was our first time to visit the Gaylor and it was amazing! We ate at a little Mexican restaurant at the hotel and had a mariachi band serenade us with a Mexican love song. So romantic!!! On Saturday, we walked around historic downtown Grapevine. Not quite as cool as Gladewater, but nice. We walked down to the Cotton Belt train station and looked around. My Dad worked for the Cotton Belt Railroad for as long as I can remember. He said they didn't make it out to the Grapevine station very often, but had been there before. I'll post pictures as soon I get them uploaded to the computer.

Hope everyone has a great week and hopefully, I'll be better at posting to my blog in the new year!

Keep on trackin'

Christmas Tree History

2010-12-16T09:52:00.003-06:00

Here is the last story from the little newspaper that we picked up. Ever wonder why we use a tree at Christmas time?

Did a celebration around a Christmas tree on a bitter cold Christmas Eve at Trenton, New Jersey, turn the tide for Colonial forces in 1776? According to legend, Hessian mercenaries were so reminded of home by a candlelight evergreen tree that they abandoned their guard posts to eat, drink and be merry. Washington attacked that night and defeated them.

The Christmas tree has one through a long process of development rich in many legends, says David Robson, Extension Educator, Horticulture, with the Springfield Extension Center. Some historians trace the lighted Christmas tree to Martin Luther. He attached lighted candles to a small evergreen tree, trying to simulate the reflections of the starlit heaven - the heaven that looked down over Bethlehem on the first Christmas Eve.

Until about 1700, the use of Christmas trees appears to have been confined to the Rhine River District. From 1700 on, when lights were accepted as part of the decorations, the Christmas tree was well on its way to becoming a tradition in Germany. Then the tradition crossed the Atlantic with the Hessian soldiers.

Some people trace the origin of the Christmas tree to an earlier period. Even before the Christian era, trees and boughs were used for ceremonials. Egyptians, in celebrating the winter solstice - the shortest day of the year - brought green date palms into their homes as a symbol of "life triumphant over death". When the Romans observed the feast of saturn, part of the ceremony was the raising of an evergreen bough. The early Scandinavians were said to have paid homage to the fir tree.

To the Druids, sprigs of evergreen holly in the house meant eternal life. while to the Norsemen, they symbolized the revival of the sun god Balder. To those inclined toward superstition, branches of evergreens placed over the door kept out witches, ghosts, evil spirits and the like. This use does not mean that our Christmas tree custom evolved solely from paganism, any more than did some of the present-day use of sighed in various religious rituals.

Trees and branches can be made purposeful as well as symbolic. The Christmas tree is a symbol of a living Christmas spirit and brings into our lives a pleasant aroma of the forest. The fact that balsam fir twigs, more than any other evergreen twigs, resemble crosses may have had much to do with the early popularity of balsam fir used as Christmas trees.

Happy New Year

2010-12-16T09:41:00.003-06:00

In the same paper that we got in East Texas was another story about the origin of our New Year's celebration.

"Happy New Year!" That greeting will be said and heard for at least the first couple of weeks as a new year gets under way. But the day celebrated as New Year's Day in modern America was not always January 1.

ANCIENT NEW YEARS

The celebration of the new year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonians New Year began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible crescent) after the Vernal Equinox (first day of spring).

The beginning of spring is a logical time to start a new year. After all, it is the season of rebirth, of planting new crops, and of blossoming. January 1, on the other hand, has no astronomical or agricultural significance. It is purely arbitrary.

The Babylonian New Year celebration lasted for eleven days. Each day had its own particular mode of celebration, but it is safe to say that modern New Year's Eve festivities pale in comparison.

The Romans continued to observe the New Year in late March, but their calendar was continually tampered with by various emperors so that the calendar soon became out of synchronization with the sun.

In order to set the calendar right, the Roman senate, in 153 BC, declared January 1 to be the beginning of the New Year. But tampering continued until Julius Caesar, in 46 BC, established what has come to be known as the Julian Calendar. It again established January 1 as the New Year. But in order to synchronize the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year drag on for 445 days.

The Story of the Ninth Reindeer

2010-12-16T08:20:00.007-06:00

We were in East Texas last week checking out a little town someone told Dan about - Gladwater, TX. It's supposed to be the antique capitol of East Texas. While there I picked up one of those "free" papers they have in the local restaurants. Being Christmas time it had several stories that I found very interesting and wanted to share them with you guys.

The first one was entitled The Ninth Reindeer.

Rudolph, "the most famous reindeer of all," was born over a hundred years after his eight flying counterparts. The red-nosed wonder was the creation of Robert L. May, a copywriter at the Montgomery Ward department store.

In 1939, May wrote a Christmas-themed story-poem to help bring holiday traffic into his store. Using a similar rhyme patter to Moore's "'Twas The Night Before Christmas," May told the story of Rudolph, a young reindeer who was teased by the other deer because of his large, glowing, red nose. But When Christmas Eve turned foggy and Santa worried that he wouldn't be able to deliver gifts that night, the former outcast saved Christmas by leading the sleigh by the light of his red nose. Rudolph's message - that given the opportunity, a liability can be turned into an asset - proved popular. Montgomery Ward sold almost two and a half million copies of the story in 1939. When it was reissued in 1946, the book sold over three and half million copies. Several years later, one of May's friends, Johnny Marks, wrote a short song based on Rudolph's story (1949). It was recorded by Gene Autry and sold over two million copies. Since then, the story has been translated into 25 languages and been made into a television movie, narrated by Burl Ives, which has charmed audiences every year since 1964.

When I got home, a friend had sent me an email with a very similar story, but with a little more background info. Here it is:
____________________________________________________________________________________

The True Story of Rudolph
A man named Bob May, depressed and brokenhearted, stared out his drafty apartment window into the chilling December night.

His 4-year-old daughter Barbara sat on his lap quietly sobbing. Bob's wife, Evelyn, was dying of cancer. Little Barbara couldn't understand why her mommy could never come home. Barbara looked up into her dad's eyes and asked, "Why isn't Mommy just like everybody else's Mommy?" Bob's jaw tightened and his eyes welled with tears. Her question brought waves of grief, but also of anger. It had been the story of Bob's life. Life always had to be different for Bob.

Small when he was a kid, Bob was often bullied by other boys. He was too little at the time to compete in sports. He was often called names he'd rather not remember. From childhood, Bob was different and never seemed to fit in. Bob did complete college, married his loving wife and was grateful to get his job as a copywriter at Montgomery Ward during the Great Depression. Then he was blessed with his little girl. But it was all short-lived. Evelyn's bout with cancer stripped them of all their savings and now Bob and his daughter were forced to live in a two-room apartment in the Chicago slums. Evelyn died just days before Christmas in 1938.

Bob struggled to give hope to his child, for whom he couldn't even afford to buy a Christmas gift. But if he couldn't buy a gift, he was determined to make one - a storybook! Bob had created an animal character in his own mind and told the animal's story to little Barbara to give her comfort and hope. Again and again Bob told the story, embellishing it more with each telling. Who was the character? What was the story all about? The story Bob May created was his own autobiography in fable form. The character he created was a misfit outcast like he was. The name of the character? A little reindeer named Rudolph, with a big shiny nose. Bob finished the book just in time to give it to his little girl on Christmas Day. But the story doesn't end there.

The general manager of Montgomery Ward caught wind of the little storybook and offered Bob May a nominal fee to purchase the rights to print the book. Wards went on to print,_ Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer _ and distribute it to children visiting Santa Claus in their stores. By 1946 Wards had printed and distributed more than six million copies of Rudolph . That same year, a major publisher wanted to purchase the rights from Wards to print an updated version of the book.

In an unprecedented gesture of kindness, the CEO of War ds returned all rights back to Bob May. The book became a best seller. Many toy and marketing deals followed and Bob May, now remarried with a growing family, became wealthy from the story he created to comfort his grieving daughter. But the story doesn't end there either.

Bob's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, made a song adaptation to Rudolph. Though the song was turned down by such popular vocalists as Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore , it was recorded by the singing cowboy, Gene Autry. "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was released in 1949 and became a phenomenal success, selling more records than any other Christmas song, with the exception of "White Christmas."

The gift of love that Bob May created for his daughter so long ago kept on returning back to bless him again and again. And Bob May learned the lesson, just like his dear friend Rudolph, that being different isn't so bad. In fact, being different can be a blessing.

Happy Father's Day! / Udated List 6-18-10

2010-06-18T15:46:00.002-05:00

Happy Father's Day to all you Dad's out there!

Email us and let us know what cool Father's Day stuff you get this year!

The kids are off to camp until tomorrow, so I'm enjoy my last bit of quiet before they get back home! Now, if I could just find them camps all summer long...

I've got some cool pictures of a road runner that was running around my mother-in-laws house a few weeks ago. It wasn't really scared of us and didn't really run away while Dan was out mowing her yard. Noisy little critters!

Posted a new list this afternoon so take a look and see if there's something you'd like to get yourself for Father's Day if the wife and kids don't get you what you want! Also, mention code FDAD and get a 10% discount off of your total order.

Take care and have a wonderful weekend! And, again, Happy Father's Day!!!!

Updated List 05/28/10 Happy Memorial Day!

2010-05-28T16:53:00.001-05:00

Just a quick blog to let you know that the website has been updated with new tapes and some Memorial Day sales. If you're a vet and email us and tell us what branch of service you are/were in, you'll receive and extra 10% off of your order.

I'll post another entry with pictures of Harold's car show ventures and the Frankenschmitt's first cruise-in last week.

Be safe and have a great holiday weekend!

Dan/Kathy

Happy Mother's Day!/Updated List 5/5/10

2010-05-06T13:12:00.005-05:00

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's out there! I'm a Mom of three beautiful girls! One in collage, one in high school and one in junior high. When you put it like that, I feel old!

I have to give you an update on Harold! After to many months of fighting bureaucracy, Harold is now legal! He is registered and has a title. Dan's been driving around the neighborhood practicing his shifting skills. This is no normal shifting automobile. Most cars have a syncromesh transmission, but not this baby! I actually tried driving Harold this weekend, but never made it out of 1st gear!

The day we got the paperwork making it legal, we took it a cruise-in about 1 1/2 miles from the house. Harold ran like a champ! One of our friends follow us home since it was after dark and Dan's never driven it after dark. He said we were going about 30 mph. The owner's manual says you should drive the car at around 15 mph and not speed by taking it up to 30-35 mph.

The next night we were a little more ambitious and took Harold to the first car show of the year at one of our favorite car shows. This was about 3 miles from the house. Harold took 2nd place!

Just put up a new list yesterday. After the story in the local newspaper last month, we've gotten some really good tapes in from folks who have just dropped them off or we've purchased. We've also got a few sales going on so stop by and take a look - www.katestrackshack.com.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kathy

Happy Spring!/Updated List 04/20/10

2010-04-20T13:59:00.002-05:00

Hope everyone had a nice Easter! I took our middle daughter to the ER Easter night. She had fallen at school the Thursday before and landed on her side. We figured she may have bruised her ribs. On Sunday night, she though she was feeling better so she bent down and then heard and felt a snap. She was really hurting and said it hurt to breath so we called the doctor's answering service. The nurse said she might have punctured a lung and she needed to have an x-ray. We got there around 7. Sometime around 11:30 they took her for the x-ray. We got home around 12:30. They said she had probably torn or strained a muscle and would be hurting for a while.

On Tuesday, she texted me from school to say her stomach hurt really, really bad. Within 15-20 minutes the school nurse called and said she was in her office saying she had thrown up and felt really bad. She didn't have a temperature, but the nurse said she looked pale. I picked her up from the high school and took her home. She was throwing up every 30 minutes. We couldn't get an appointment with the doctor until 2 that afternoon. I felt so bad for her!

The previous day, I had gotten a call from one of our local newspapers who had seen various things about us and our 8-tracks and wanted to do a story. I talked with him for a while and worked it out for him to come Tuesday around 1 so Dan could be home as well. Since I had already talked with the reporter for some time on Monday, I left them to take our daughter to the doctor. The kids' doctor had recently moved and I'd only been there one other time and thought I new a shorter way to get there. Almost and hour later, I made it! Poor kiddo! The doctor told us there was a viral bug going around and it was pretty nasty. I'm guessing we picked it up in the ER Sunday night.

When I got home, Dan told me the reporter was going to have a photographer come out on Wednesday to take some picture. By Wednesday, I was starting to feel bad. The photographer got there at around 4:30. Dan came in a few minutes after. He was a very nice guy and took some great pictures. But I was hoping he'd get finished up as I still wasn't feeling very well. Two hours later, he left. Dan and our oldest daughter went to get something to eat and bring home. She set some food in front of me and I just stared at it and said "I don't think so!" I drank some of my drink and headed for the bathroom. Now, I had it too. By 10 or so that night our youngest daughter had it. Dan went to work on Thursday not feeling the best, and before noon, he was home with it.

I've been sick before, but never quite like this. You feel week and tired. I just wanted to sleep. We all stayed in bed for several days. Then by the Sunday after Easter, our oldest daughter, who lives a few miles away, called to say she had it! Being the good Mom that I am, I went over to take care of her and her dog. I was fearful that we'd get it started again, but we didn't!!!!!! (knock on wood!).

The article came out that Sunday and it was great. We started getting emails and calls from folks wanting to sale or give us tapes and players. We've meet some very nice folks! Some were a little shady looking, but turned out to be nice people.

I've spent the last week or so trying to play catch up with emails and orders. Tapes have been tested and the list is now updated!!!! We have a few sales and a fun way to get an extra 10% off your order, so check out the website!

On a different note, we finally got Harold titled and licensed! I was beginning to think it would never happen!!!!! We bought this car in August, got it in mid October or November and having been trying since then to get it titled and registered. Our state can be very annal about paperwork. I'm sure it never had a title to begin with. Then we were penalized because it took us longer than 20 days to do the transfer!

Last night we took it up to the gas station to fill it up with gas. The gas station is about a half mile from the house. We made it okay, but when Dan finished filling the tank, it started leaking out. We made it back home okay, but the gas was pouring out of the tank. It turns out that it leaks around the top of the tank. Dan drained it a little more. He should be able to fix the leak with little trouble. We've got a couple of car shows this weekend; one on Friday night and one on Saturday night. The Friday night show is a cruise-in; come and go. And the one on Saturday is a monthly car show that starts in April and goes through October. You have to pay an entry fee for this show and at the end of the evening they give out trophies. The winners are chosen by votes done by those in the show and those that come to the show to see the cars. We generally take the Amphicar and sometimes the '72 Chevy or '73 TR6. Our oldest daughter likes to take her '76 Pacer (yes, it has an 8-track player in it!). We'd like to take the '22 Chevy, but it's probably a 20 mile round trip. Doesn't seem far, but when you're only driving at 15-20 mph, it takes awhile! It's also not very easy to shift. The shifting mechanism is not like modern sticks.

I'll try to take some more pictures or videos of Harold soon. We do have a video of the Frankenschmitt that we recently took and uploaded to YouTube.

Well, gotta go get some more stuff done before the kids start getting home from school!

Have a great week!

Happy Spring! Finally!!!! - Updated List 03/24/10

2010-03-25T09:32:00.002-05:00

Happy Spring to everyone!

It's been a little crazy around our household the last few months!!!!!

We had a major computer crash and lost some stuff and were able to recover some stuff. Dan was able to finally recover most of my databases for the Track Shack but they weren't current so I basically deleted everything and started over.

I got bronchitis and am pretty much over it but still have a bit of a lingering cough. For those of you who have heard about our youngest daughter Becky's ongoing ear problems, she had to have another surgery just before Spring Break. We found out she was allergic to one of the antibiotics that he used in and around her ear. He ended up taking the packing out early and we go back today to see how it's progressing. We think there may be a problem, but won't know for sure until we see him later today.

Spring Break has come and gone for us! The first part of it was spent with Becky home after her surgery. Then Dan took off last Wednesday for the rest of the week. We had plans to paint the outside of the house and do some stuff around the house and maybe get away for a day to Oklahoma. Of course things never work out like you plan! I got our hallway painted and we had some furniture delivered. Finally got a new sofa and love seat after giving our old one to our oldest daughter Mary for her new house. Thursday I started painting the back porch and Dan started to rebuild and move one of our fences to help keep the dogs out of our garden with the pond. The puppy somehow managed to chew the electrical cord to the pond pump into. Fortunately, it was unplugged! As I said, we got started on these things. On Friday, we decided to go up to Oklahoma and have a picnic at Turner Falls. We had heard the weather was going to be great Friday, but not so great for the weekend. It was a little bit windy, but beautiful!!!!

(Pictures will be posted as soon as my camera's batteries charge up again!)

There is a house at the top of this place that is called the "Rock Castle". It's a very steep climb up to this place and then if you want, you can climb up to the road where the driveway and rock garage are. Well, I'm not rock climber and definitely afraid of heights! The last time we were there it was raining and I was terrified going up the steep steps. I didn't attempt to trek up to the hill to the road. But this time, Dan and the girls begged me to try it. I most certainly got my exercise that day!!!! There is also a beautiful waterfall and cave. Mary and Becky were going to go to the cave but there were to many people and you have to jump across a ravine to get to the part of the cave that looks out onto the falls. They ended up going on top of the falls to an outlook. Dan and I were going to try it, but decided probably not a good idea! The water is so clear there. I don't know to many lakes, if any, here in Texas that are as clear as this water is there.

On Saturday, we took Dan's Mom to Weatherford to see his brother (one with MS) and sister-in-law. As we approached their house, it started to snow! Go figure - Friday is in the high 70's and Saturday it's snowing!!! We got hit with an arctic blast from Canada. It was pretty much just a light dusting and gone by mid day Sunday.

Yesterday was overcast and then turned out to be nice and warm and then by 5:30 or so, the sky's turned dark and ominous and thunder storming. We were lucky not to get any of the hail they said we might get.

I've been working on trying to get the list updated among doing these other things around the house and it's finally done! I still need to add a couple of pictures of the new sleeves we just had done. These are like the last ones; the heavier ones as well as the lighter weight sleeves, but they don't have to be glued! These have locking tabs on the sides. We have them with the double windows and ones with just the front window. I should have the pictures of them up in the next day or two.

We've got a few things on sale so stop by and check them out. Kate's Track Shack.

If this blog doesn't get updated before then, have a Happy Easter!!!!!!!

Kathy

Mischief In The Magnolias

2010-01-27T14:38:00.006-06:00

Our youngest daughter, Becky is in theater class this year in her first year of junior high (7th grade). Her next oldest sister, Susie was in theater last year. Actually, last year was the first year that their junior high offered offered a drama as an extra curricular activity and Susie was it's first President of the club. This year it is being offered as an elective class, which Becky has been in.

This was Becky's second production this year. Her first was The Wizard of Oz. She was one of the Munchkins - Punchie - Let me at 'em. Let me at 'em!

Mischief In The Magnolias was her second. She played "Granny" She was a feisty old thing! She brought her gun for one of the props, but then the teacher changed his mind and decided the cane would be a better prop to use.

Here are some pictures from the play:

Watch out Hollywood, you may have a new star headed your way!

23rd Anniversary - Jefferson, TX

2010-01-27T08:24:00.027-06:00

A few weeks ago, Dan and I took a trip to Jefferson Texas - about 3 hours east of here - to celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary. We had originally thought of going up to Oklahoma - only an hour away. Hard to believe you can go to another state in hour, but it can take 5-8 hours to get half way across the state.

We had heard that Jefferson was a quint little town close the the Louisiana border. It's famous for it's ghost stories and antique malls.

I wanted us to stay somewhere other than the same old hotel chains, so I went to their official website and started looking for some place different. The first place I looked at was the Jefferson Hotel. I had heard about the ghost stories and thought that might be a fun place to stay. But after checking with them, they only had one room available and it only had a bathtub with no shower. Dan is to tall for most tubs and didn't think he'd like it so I started looking again. This time I came on the Excelsior Hotel. It was older than the Jefferson Hotel and had some Famous people registered at the Excelsior House including Ulysses S. Grant, Oscar Wilde, Rutherford B. Hayes and Lady Bird Johnson to name a few.

I had a couple of choices of rooms, but decided on the Lady Bird Johnson room - room 214. Lady Bird Johnson had stayed in this room and had given the hotel some personal belongings for the room. Her husband, the President, had also stayed at the hotel, but I don't think in this room. Some of the pictures may be a little blurry. We got a new camera from one of our daughters, and I haven't figured it all out!

It was raining when we got to Jefferson (always rains when I drive!) and a little cold. We got checked in late in the afternoon on Saturday and checked out our beautiful room. After making sure the bed was nice and comfy we headed out to check out the town. With umbrellas in hand, we went in search of treasures.

The one thing about some small towns is that they roll up the street at 5:00. We did find some places open and checked them out. One of our first stops was the store with fudge and other delectable goodies! I resisted the fudge and went headed on. Our next stop was a Vintage Car Museum on Lafayette St. It was owned and run by a very nice older gentleman. He had probably 10 cars. The oldest car was a Model T Ford. He had some beautiful cars. The building had once been a doctors office run by his father-in-law.

We continued to walk the streets and freeze our behinds off until we came to the Old Mill Antiques. It's amazing what you can find in these places. Some, down right scary! I was on a mission to find some stuff for our daughters house. And of course, I always look for 8-tracks!

In one of the far back parts of the building, Dan saw a couple of things that peaked his interest. One was a 50's portable Zenith tv. The other was an old organ called the Sardarflute from India. It's also called a harmonium. It is small and had a bellows to work the keyboard. Dan is fascinated by these types of things. Since we were walking and the car was back at the hotel, we couldn't take them with us. The great thing was that everything in this booth was 50% off! We paid for the two items and walked back to the hotel. Dan looked up the organ and founds some videos on youtube showing how it worked.

After warming up, we decided to look for some place to eat. We finally decided on the Old Fashioned Hamburger Store. It was just across the street from the hotel and we could walk to it.

What a cool place. When we walked in, there were decorated dollar bills covering the walls and ceilings. There must have been $6K lining those walls. Of course we did our part and decorated one to hang on the wall. I had the steak and Dan had the chicken fried steak. The food was mediocre at best, but it was something different.

(click on the photo to see where our dollar is)

After that we went back to the hotel to chill out (actually, warm up). Sunday started out a little cool and overcast but warmed up. Before we left Jefferson, we walked across the street to the Jay Gould Victorian Railroad Car. In the 1930's East Texas oil boom,it was a family residence. It was sold in 1953 and relocated in 1954 to it's present day location. Pretty neat!

They have a ghost walk too, but it was canceled due to the rain.

We picked up our purchases at the Old Mill and then went and looked at a few more stores before heading out of town.

We wanted to check out a couple of flea markets but couldn't find them so we head back towards home. One of the places Dan wanted to check out was Overton, TX. We had been there before and they had a cool old movie theater. It was closed and run down, but we thought it would be fun to buy it and reopen it and show movies on the weekend. It was still there, but after we got home and checked it out online, we found that it had already been purchased. Very disappointing!

Here was another cool building in Overton that is no more!

It was a fun trip. Maybe we'll go back for our 24th!

Happy New Year 2010!!! New Updated List

2010-01-08T17:19:00.002-06:00

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas holiday and a good New Year! We enjoyed our time off and being with family and friends. The only bad thing about taking off so much time is you have to play catch up.

Dan had two of his brothers and their families here for Christmas. One from Arizona and one from Tennessee. We didn't get to do as much with my family as I would have liked, but when they're here there and yon, it's not very easy! It just makes Christmas last a little longer that way!

Hope everyone got what they wanted for Christmas. We did okay here. I got a bunch of English released 8-tracks over the holiday. You'll find some of them up on a new web page - http://www.katestrackshack.com/english.htm. I'm fortunate that I have some friends over there for a couple of years and they were kind enough to bring them to me when they were here for the holidays.

I found it very interesting that some of the tapes like the Beatles and a few others had black/white labels compared to ours here in the states that are in color. I also have one cart that has a picture sleeve, but instead of the picture printed directly onto the sleeve, it had a removable label over the sleeve.

Anyone have any tapes from other countries that are unusual? I did put one on the list that is greek. We've had several of those. Pretty cool.

Speaking of pretty cool... We've had some of our coldest temps in a long time. It was down to around 20 this morning. It looks like we'll have a little warmer temps in the next few days, but this is darn cold! You know it's cold when the water in the dog's metal bowl is completely frozen! Thanks Siberia and the North Pole!

For those of you keeping up with Harold, it's been a little to cold to work on him. I went on a road trip a few weeks back to meet some nice folks that had an old top that we can use for a pattern. Today, we got a huge box from these nice folks with some upholstery from their old '19 Chevy.

We normally go to a car show on Friday nights, but it's just to cold. The guy that runs it said that they'll only have it when it's above 40 degrees and not raining.

Be sure to check out the website. We updated the list with lots of new tapes and have some good sales going on.

Have a good weekend and stay warm!!!!!!!

Dan/Kathy

Happy Holidays/Updated List 12/02/09

2009-12-03T12:50:00.003-06:00

Now Playing: Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! Ours was a little crazy, but greatful for all of the blessings we have received!

It's hard to believe that it's almost Christmas time! Trying to finish up Christmas shopping so I can enjoy being with family and kids.

We'll be closing sometime the week of Christmas and will reopen after the first of the year.

We've updated this list so be sure to check it out! We've got lots of Christmas 8-tracks up for sale as well as some other specials - sale on sensing foil, license frames and free shipping on gift certificates of $25 or more.

We want to take the time to wish all of our customers a happy holiday season and thank you for being loyal customers!

Dan/Kathy Gibson

Updated List 10-20-09/B17/FB 50 Baby Grand

2009-10-20T20:47:00.009-05:00

The feel of Fall is in the air! We've had beautiful weather the last week or so. I understand heavy rain is in the forecast for tomorrow night. I guess that just means that we don't have to run the sprinklers and a lower water bill!

We put up a new list today. You can check it out at www.katestrackshack.com.

It's been a pretty busy last few weeks for us around here. The week before last, I took Dan to Midland, TX to the CAF Air Sho. I had planned to take him on a secretive get away and down to Galveston to ride a B17 and possibly a Stearman or or PT6 Trainer, but the weather down that way was supposed to be rainy so, we went to Midland instead. The weather showed to be cool, but no rain (at least it waited until Sunday). There were some really cool planes there and they put on a good show. We took the kids there back when they were a lot smaller. After the air show we went for a ride on a B17. Dan has wanted to do this for years, but it has just never worked out. It was fun, but for me, a little scary! Once the plane is off the ground you can get up and walk around, but that's a little easier said than done! Dan did pretty well until about 5 minutes before we landed (ride is about 20-25 min.). We purposely didn't eat lunch! Dan will tell you that he flew up and then he threw up! Here are a few photos:

This past weekend, we finally got our newest acquisition. Dan loves cars!!! At present, we have 7. I couldn't begin to count all of the cars that we've had since we've been married, much less how many he's had before that! Dan has wanted a really old car for a very long time. We like to watch old movies and enjoy Harold Lloyd's films. In one of those movies - Hot Water (1924), he get's a Chevrolet Superior Sedan. In the movie they called it a Butterfly Six. It's a very sharp l

ooking car. Dan periodically looks for them on the Internet. Several months ago, he came across a 1922 Chevy FB Baby Grand touring car on Craig's List. For the price, Dan expected it to be a real heap that had probably come out of a barn. Well, not quite. The previous owner had found it that way! This gentleman did a lot of work on the car. He stopped working on it about 10 years ago and then passed away about 3 years ago. It's been sitting in the garage and his wife wanted it gone.

After a lot of hassle and frustration, the car finally arrived Sunday afternoon! Dan has been working on it to get it to start. He is so close! The one really great thing about this car is that the gentleman who owned it, keep a journal of his work on the car. His wife sent us all of his paperwork, pictures, receipts, etc. She also loaded up the car with lots of extra parts and goodies!

The first picture is what a 1923 Superior looks like and the other picture is ours (1922 Chevy FB 50 Baby Grand touring car). BTW, we named the car Harold!

Updated List 09-24-09

2009-09-26T22:39:00.002-05:00

The list was updated a couple of days ago, but to much going on to put up a post! I've added the picture of our signed 8-track to the front page of the web page. Pretty exciting!

We just got back tonight from a car show where we took our '64 Amphicar and our daughter's '76 AMC Pacer. The Pacer just got the windows tinted and some new trim on the sides. It looks great! It still has an 8-track player in it and one of our license plate frames.

We're hoping to get our latest acquisition here in about a week and a half. It's a 1922 Chevy Touring Car. Don't think we'll be putting an 8-track player in that one!

Have a great weekend!

Kathy

New Updated List 08/31/09

2009-08-31T20:05:00.002-05:00

What a summer it's been for us here! Kids are back in school (college, high school and jr. high). I was able to tag along with Dan to DC and see some our country's famous landmarks.

We finished the Cheap Trick 8-tracks, but have more bands wanting to put their latest albums out on 8-track. It's very exciting to see this "dead" media coming back to life!!! We were able to meet with two of the band members from Cheap Trick and get my picture taken with them and was able to get one of our 8-tracks signed. They also held one of the new tapes up for the audience to see.

Be sure to check out the newest list; there's a lot of good stuff on it! www.katestrackshack.com

Hope you're staying cool where you are!

Updated List 07-16-09/Cheap Trick 8-Tracks

2009-07-16T11:44:00.002-05:00

I am such a terrible blogger! I need to getter at it and do it more often. I have a friend who blogs almost daily! Where does she find the time to do it!!!!

Just letting you know that the list is finally updated on our website!!! I promise (I know I said that last time!) that I'll try to do better at keeping it updated more often!

The exciting news is that we're producing Cheap Trick's newest album - The Latest, on 8-track. You will have to order directly from their official website - www.cheaptrick.com. I think my favorite song on the album is Smile. Let me know what yours is.

We were on vacation when Cheap Trick, one of the 8-tracks we made and one of our players we sold CT showed up on the Steven Colbert show. We didn't get to see the show until Tuesday, but it was awesome!!!!

We may be having Night Line coming out to do an interview with us soon. We'll keep you posted.

Hope everyone is having a good summer!

Kathy

Updated List and Cool News!

2009-06-16T17:02:00.002-05:00

It's been awhile! So much going on around here! Kids are now out of school and we had one to graduate high school last weekend!

The big news around here is that KTS Productions is producing new 8-tracks for Cheap Trick! The latest album - The Latest will be produced on cd, lp and 8-track. They are taking pre-orders now. Be sure to get your order placed quickly as this will be a limited run. http://cheaptrick.shop.musictoday.com/Product.aspx?cp=10_21036&pc=CTAM64

If your band is interested in having your next album put out on 8-track send us an email and let's talk!

We added a couple of new pages with tapes to the list so check it out too! www.katestrackshack.com.

Hope you're having a good beginning of summer! Stay cool if you can!!!!

Kathy & Dan

Updated List/March Madness Sale

2009-03-13T09:20:00.003-05:00

Hello All!

Hope you're having a great day and getting ready for a better weekend! It's lightly raining and a bit chilly around here.

From now until the end of March we are having a March Madness Sale. We're bringing the price of all 8-tracks back to what they were when we first started selling tapes at Kate's Track Shack - .75 for any tape - Rock/Pop/Jazz, Beatles, Car Tapes...

Got your tax refund back already? We'll help you spend it! Even if you don't have it back yet, we'll help you spend it! Take a look and go nuts!!!!! www.katestrackshack.com

Kathy

Updated List 2-10-09 Robert Update

2009-02-10T16:20:00.003-06:00

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Just to give you an update - we will be able to give Rob and Donna about $1200 for our sales in January! Thank you to everyone who helped us out! We will keep you posted on how they are doing with the fund raising. Anyone donating over $250 will get an automatic tax receipt.

The list is now updated! We're working on some cool things for the site that I think will be a lot of fun and you'll like. We'll keep you posted on those as they get closer to being unveiled!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!!

Dan/Kathy

Updated List 01-12-09

2009-01-13T09:33:00.002-06:00

Hello Everyone!

Hope everyone is having a good week!

We wanted to let you know that we've raised nearly $500 so far for Dan's brother Robert. We're hoping to be able to give him much more! We appreciate everyone's help in helping Robert and Donna reach their goal!

We've updated the list with more tapes. We've also reduced the price on the Beatles tapes. They are now $3, but also will be sold As-Is. They have been tested like the other tapes.

If you want to see something really funky, you need to check out Dan's latest project that he's working on! We call it Frankenschmitt! This thing is going to look so cool when he gets it finished. I think Dan should put an 8-track player in it don't you!

Thanks again for being such great customers!!!!!

Dan/Kathy

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!!

2009-01-01T21:15:00.002-06:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

It was good to see family that we hadn't seen for a while and to meet those who we hope may be family some time in the near future!

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and got everything they wanted!

We also want to wish everyone a most happy and prosperous New Year for 2009!!!!

In our last post, we told you about Dan's brother, Robert and his goal of trying to raise at least $20,000 to have a medial procedure that will hope will allow him to walk again. Therefore, we have decided to donate all of our sales for the month of January to Robert and his wife Donna in hopes that this will get them a little closer to their financial goal.

We've tried to add a lot of good tapes to the list this time so take a look! There are a few items on sale this month as well like sensing foil and large cases.

Again, Happy New Year to you all!

Dan/Kathy

Happy Holidays! - Special Auction

2008-12-20T21:37:00.002-06:00

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Hope everyone is having a good holiday season!

In addition to the box lots that we have up on our website to help raise money for Dan's brother Robert, we have put up a special auction. It will end on December 24th at 12 noon CST. The opening bid is $9.99. We will be taking sealed bids. The highest bidder will take the tapes. This is for a good cause! There are some good tapes here, so bid generously!!!

We want to wish you all a the Merriest Christmas and Happy New Year!

Kathy & Dan

Updated List 12/6/08 - Need Your Help!

2008-12-06T21:36:00.002-06:00

Hello Everyone!

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving and didn't eat too much!!!!

An updated list has just been put up - www.katestrackshack.com.

We need your help! Dan's brother, Robert has MS. He's homebound and been unable to work since 1994. He and his wonderful wife, Donna need our help. Robert is trying to raise funds to help him undergo a medial procedure that may help him walk again. He and Donna need to raise $20,000 for this procedure. Robert and Donna have meet with some MS patients that have had this procedure done and have had amazing results. They will have to travel to Costa Rica to have this done. They will be there for several weeks. A web site has been setup through NTAF South-Central Stem Cell Transplant Fund. You can find out a little more Robert and their web site at http://www.transplantfund.org/restricted/patient-detail.cfm?pat_id=2732. We are trying to find some other ways to help raise the money for Robert and Donna. One of the things we will be doing is to donate100% of the money that these box lots bring to them. I'm not a non-profit organization so I can't give you any type of tax write-off unless you make a donation in Robert's behalf through NTAF. Robert and Donna are hoping to raise most or all of the funds needed by early next year. We're very hopeful that this procedure will have Robert walking again very soon. This is not a 100% guaranteed procedure, but the testimonials of those who have had this done are amazing according to Robert & Donna.

If you have any questions, please email us. I'll try to answer them as best I can or get answers from someone who does know.

Thanks again and Happy Holidays!!!!!!!!

Kathy

Updated List - 11-15-08

2008-11-15T23:02:00.003-06:00

Here is a photo that one of our customers - Beth (former Texan) now in Hillsboro, OR sent to us - Thanks Beth!

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away and Christmas will be falling close behind!!!!

We're having a pre-Thanksgiving sale on Sensing Foil. For a limited time it will be on sale 10% off or $8.99 a roll.

We also have our Christmas tapes up so you can get a head start on listening to your favorite Christmas music and put you in the mood to get your Christmas shopping done early. I've got a lot of mine done, but still have a little more to go. My goal is to have it all done by the end of the month.

And, if you're not sure what to get that special someone this year or you are that special someone, we have Gift Certificates.

The list has been updated as well so take a look!

Thanks again, and have a great and safe Thanksgiving!!!!

Dan, Kathy & Girls!

Updated List 11-05-08

2008-11-06T14:24:00.003-06:00

The elections are over - thank goodness!

The weather here is beautiful! I saw some of the most beautiful trees changing color today as I was driving around running some errands. I'll have to stop and take some pictures to show you. I know some of you guys live in places where the changing of leaves is an event to travel to and see. I'd love to see pictures from where you are of the fall leaves changing. That's one of the things I miss about being in Rhode Island.

I updated the list last night so be sure to check it out.

Have a great weekend and if I don't get back on here before Thanksgiving (which I should), have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!!

Kathy

Updated List and Website Changes 9-4-08

2008-09-04T14:50:00.003-05:00

Hope you were lucky enough to have had a long weekend last week. It's hard to believe that it's almost the weekend again!

Just a note to let you know that the list has been updated! I had it updated yesterday, but was having some problems with some of my graphics. I finally figured out the problem and hopefully they're working right now. We're having a back to school sale on tapes, so take a look!

I'm working on changes to the website. I'm not done yet, but needed to get the list up. Hopefully, I'll have the rest of the pages done tonight or tomorrow. Let me know what you think.

Hope no one has been adversely affected by all of these storms! We have had some beautiful weather here. The last few days it's been in the 70's. It had looked like we were going to get rain since Monday, but we got nothing. Well I say nothing, we got lots of strong winds. Today it's been in the low 80's and no sign of rain. I guess I'll finally have to turn on the sprinklers and water the yard.

Gotta put this post up so I can go get one of the kiddos. She'll be out of school in a few minutes and I need to walk up to get her.

Have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Kathy

Updated List 8-19-08

2008-08-19T16:06:00.002-05:00

It's hard to believe that we have a senior this year! Just took her today to get some of her senior pictures made! Doesn't that make me feel old! We'll have one going into high school next year and the youngest going into middle school next year! School hasn't even started yet (next week) and already, I'm going and blowing with them trying to get ready to start back! We've got some great kids!!!!

The list has been updated today. There are some great carts this time; just a little worn. Let's just say they were well loved!!! Be sure to check out the new list at:
Kate's Track Shack!

Thanks and have a great week!

Kathy & Dan

Vacation 08 for the Gibson's

2008-08-05T16:38:00.018-05:00

We had a great vacation but it's good to be home!!! We traveled about 4000 miles round trip. Dan's family had a family reunion up in PA and since it was going to be such a short weekend we decided to do some stuff before we got there.

We got a little bit of a late start on Friday and stopped for the night in Olathe, KS.

On Saturday we head up to Wisconsin Dells. We've been there before and it was lot of fun. We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge which we'd never stayed at before. We have one locally, but haven't been to it either!

The only bad thing was they had had a lot of heavy rains and in some places we saw water covering front yards still. One place we were near - Lake Delton, had a breach in the lake and all of the water drained out!

Wisconsin Dells is a very touristy place. One of it's big draws is the hotels with indoor and outdoor water parks. We didn't take the camera with us into the water park portion of the hotel so I don't have any pictures to show you. We did however go to a really fun place that we'd gone to the last time we were there. It's the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory Museum. If you ever get a chance to go, you should!

It can be a hair raising experience!

We kind of lost our heads at this place.

Does it look like I'm terrified - I am!!!!!!

We also went to a really cool place about an hour away. If you've ever seen those huge fiberglass statues or "Muffler Men" that Roadside America talks about, we found the place that makes them. It's called the F.A.S.T. Corp. and to most folks this would be boring, but it was a lot of fun; even the kids enjoyed it!

These were just a few of the molds. There were acres of them.

Next, on our journey was to Indiana. We stopped by one of the houses Dan lived in before coming to TX with his family. Then it was on to Auburn, IN. We forgot about the time change and missed getting to see one of the car museums there, but that was okay since it wasn't the main car museum we went there for. If you're into cars, and even it you're not, this is a really cool car museum. It's the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum. I couldn't tell you how many millions of dollars worth of cars are housed there!!! Here are some pictures of just a very few number of cars there are to see here.

What beauties!

Next we headed up to Niagara Falls, NY to stay for a couple of days before the reunion. The last time we saw the falls, we stayed on the Canadian side. It was amazing how much there was to do on the Canadian side, but nothing really on the American side. We talked to several people and they said it's been very sad to see so much closed up on the American side. It only cost us $.50 ea. to cross the border into Canada. Our daughter Mary and her dad took some really cool pictures. I just don't have enough room to post them all! The garbage barge you see in one of the pictures has been there since 1918. Dan said his grandfather remembers seeing it.

About to enter Canada!

Half of us are in the US and half in Canada! Dan is in both countries!

This is the garbage barge that his been here since 1918.

American Falls taken from the Canadian side.

Our last leg of the journey was to Dan's family reunion in PA. We stayed at a Salvation Army Retreat. Mainly older folks there, but it was nestled in 1400 acres of beauty! We saw deer, groundhogs and, the girls even saw a bald eagle (the camps mascot). It was good to see family that we hadn't seen in a long time. We spent one afternoon at a school where we met more of Dan's family. The only surviving sibling of Dan's grandfather was there and had just celebrated his 95th birthday! Go Mitch 95!

We didn't really stop for much on the way home. We were tired and ready to get back home to our pooches and fish (and you guys of course!!!!).

This was a good vacation but it's good to be back. I just need another vacation to catch up on all of the things I didn't get done while we were gone!

School will start in a few weeks and maybe I'll get a little bit more done that I need to, but probably not!

Enjoy!

Happy 4th!

2008-07-04T21:23:00.003-05:00

Hope you are having a great 4th of July!!

We spent ours at Dan's sister's swimming and eating hamburgers/hot dogs and all the fixin's.

The folks at the lake and the yacht club put on their second annual Light The Lake event last night. This is becoming a big precursor to the 4th. There were probably close to 10,000 people at both boat ramps. They had music, and vendors setup at one end of the lake. We got there to late to do that stuff, but drove the Amphicar across the lake from the other end of the lake and watched the fireworks from the water. There were some pretty spectacular fireworks! It wasn't so bad driving in since most of the boats were already on the water, but coming out there were a lot of them lined up waiting for their trailers. We were lucky to find an open lane and just drove right out! There is something to be said for having a boat that is also a car and not have to deal with a trailer!

Wishing you a fun and safe 4th!!!!!

Dan/Kathy

Updated List 6-24-08

2008-06-24T15:20:00.003-05:00

Just letting you know that a new list has finally been put up!!!!!!

Also, here is an updated picture of LuLu that cute little puppy that we put a picture up of last time. She's grown just a little bit (see picture below) don't you think!

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer and not having to work to hard. Vacation is coming up next month. We'll be doing a lot of driving on the way up to a family reunion in PA. We plan to do a lot before we get there and probably not so much on the way home. We'll keep you posted on the trip and what we'll be doing and post lots of pictures.

For those of you who may remember "Otto" our Messchersmitt, we no longer have him. After we sold Otto, he was resold at Kruse auctions in AZ for some big bucks! Dan did a great job on the restoration and someone else must have thought so too! Well... we have another project going. This one is called Frankenschmitt. To see more about this little beauty check it out here. Some of the die hard purist think Dan should put it back to an orig. Messerschmitt, but Dan's thinking of doing something funky with it like the guy modifying it tried to do. What do you think? Let us know if he should go back to an orig. schmitt or go with the modification.

Dan/Kathy

Updated List and Extended Memorial Day Sale

2008-05-27T21:28:00.002-05:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!! We began a MD sale, but I forgot to email everyone and put up a post here, so we've extended the sale until this Saturday, May 31st. Pick any one item from the website and get 10% off. Just let us know which item it will be.

The list is also updated. Hopefully with the kids getting out of school in a little more than a week, I can get it updated a little more often! Take a look at the list and see if you see anything you'd like.

LuLu is getting so big! I'll have to post a new picture of her so you can see how big she has gotten!!!

Take care and have a great week!

Kathy

Updated List 05-07-08 & Newest Addition

2008-05-07T12:38:00.004-05:00

Sorry for taking so long in getting the list updated! With the end of school coming up, it's been very very busy around here! We also added an addition to the family this weekend. Yes, I am crazy, but this little one was so cute I couldn't resist! Her name is LuLu! The other two are brother and sister (same mom diff. dad and litters) The bigger one laying down is Snickers (almost 5) and the cowering one is Daisy (2 years old). She's afraid of cameras. I think she's in the shower hiding right now.

It may be hard to tell (pun intended), but LuLu has a tail and the others two don't! That's hard for my kids to deal with since all they've ever had are dogs without tails! Yes, check out her paws! She will probably tower the other two!! We'll post pictures when that happens!!!!

Be sure to check out the list when you get a chance! www.katestrackshack.com.

Thanks!!!!

Kathy

Website Back Up

2008-04-19T23:57:00.001-05:00

Kate's Track Shack is back up and running again!!!!!!

I'm working on testing more tapes for the list so you should be seeing a new updated list early next week if not sooner.

Thanks again and have a continued beautiful weekend!

Kathy/Dan

Website Down Temporarily

2008-04-16T08:23:00.002-05:00

Kate's Track Shack is currently down due to problems with the server. We are working hard to get it back up. Hopefully, by this evening.

Thanks for your understanding!!!!!!!

Dan/Kathy

Updated List and Spring/Anniv. Sale 04-04-08

2008-04-04T14:39:00.003-05:00

Hope everyone had a great week and is looking forward to a relaxing weekend!!!!!

We just put up an updated list today. To help celebrate 10 years in business we're having a sale that we had back in 1998 - buy 10 tapes get 1 free. Check out the list and let us know if you see anything you like!

Thanks!

Dan/Kathy

Updated List 3-28-08

2008-03-28T11:53:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone!

Hope you had a great St. Patrick's Day and a Happy Easter!!!!

Just put up a new list today. Be sure to check out our website - www. katestrackshack.com and let us know if you see anything you can't live without!!!

Enjoy a wonderful weekend!!!!

Dan/Kathy

New Updated List - 3-15-08

2008-03-15T23:07:00.002-05:00

Thanks for your understanding while we were down. I had to have some surgery and am starting to get back on my feet. We appreciate your patience!!!!!

We have just updated the list tonight. You can check it out at www.katestrackshack.com.

Happy St. Patrick's Day and Happy Easter to everyone!!!

Kathy & Dan

Looking For Don Ho!

2008-02-18T09:08:00.001-06:00

You didn't leave any way to contact you. Email me at dkgibson3@tx.rr.com.

Kathy

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!!!!

2008-02-14T19:08:00.002-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day to you!!!!!

Just letting you know that a new updated list went up today. Please check it out at www.katestrackshack.com. We've also got a Valentine Special going. If you buy tapes from the list from now until the end of Feb. and have them tuned-up before they ship, the cost of tune-up's will be $1.50 instead of $2 per tape. Just mention the Valentine special when you place your order if you want them tuned-up.

We love our customers - Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!!!

Kathy & Dan

Updated List! 02-05-08

2008-02-05T10:04:00.000-06:00

Just letting you know that a new updated list has just been put up. Hope you are staying warm and having a good week!!! The flu hit here last week with two of our girls getting sick. We've had a couple of high 70's days the last few days but it looks like we may get some rain (much needed) and some colder weather coming our way. I guess that's to be expected in February!

We haven't had any good memories for our memory page in a while. If you've got a good 8-track related story to tell, let us know and we'll put it up on the website.

Take care!!!!!!!

Kathy

Updated List 01-22-08

2008-01-24T10:19:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the delay in letting you know the list was updated. I had to have some minor surgery and forgot to make a post and send out emails before I left.

You can check out the updated list at www.katestrackshack.com.

Dan/Kathy Gibson

Happy New Year!!! - Updated List 01/03/08

2008-01-03T09:13:00.000-06:00

We hope everyone enjoyed the holidays!

The kids are back in school today and it's time to get back to business!

This year marks our 10th year at Kate's Track Shack!!!! We're looking forward to a great year with some new things on the horizon. We are working on some updates to the website that we think we be more beneficial to our customers. We'll also be having sales and promotions throughout the year to help celebrate 10 years at KTS.

The list has been updated and we have an after Christmas special on Christmas tapes. Buy 10 and get 1 free.

You can check out the updated list and sale at www.katestrackshack.com.

Thanks to all of you, our friends and loyal customers, who have helped to make this business a sucess!!!!!!!!

Dan/Kathy Gibson

Updated List 12-3-07

2007-12-04T17:23:00.001-06:00

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We did! Ate to much, but I think that's the way it should be! We were able to enjoy visiting with family and the huge snowflakes that came our way. They didn't last, but that's okay!!!!

We just updated the list today with lots of tapes. You'll especially want to order up those Christmas tapes! We also are offering Gift Certificates again this year. These make great gifts for family and friends not only for Christmas but all year round. They can be for any amount and can be used for anything at the Track Shack. You can check it all out at www.katestrackshack.com.

Enjoy your holidays and stay warm and safe!!!!!

Kathy, Dan & Girls

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!

2007-11-22T10:04:00.001-06:00

We wish everyone from our family to yours a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Make sure that you check out our website tomorrow so that you can start ordering up those Christmas tapes! And don't forget to order up gift certificates for all of those hard to find friends and family who you want to get hooked on 8-tracks!!!!!

www.katestrackshack.com

Dan, Kathy, our girls & the dogs (Snickers & Daisy)

Updated List 11-07-07

2007-11-07T22:24:00.001-06:00

Greetings to all!

Our weather has turned a little cooler down here in Texas! Of course it's November and it should be getting cooler, but when you live in Texas, you never know what the weather will bring! I think the temps today were in the high 60's with a low expected tonight around 40.

I really enjoed the picture Larry sent a few weeks ago. If you have one to send, let me know. Thanks again, Larry!!!!

The list has been updated so take a look and let us know if you see anything you want to order - www.katestrackshack.com. We've added the Christmas tapes again this year. I've been seeing Christmas stuff out for several months now. I think I saw Christmas stuff out before I saw Halloween stuff!

Also, again this year, we will be doing gift certificates. These are great especially if you know what type of music that someone special would like.

Take care!

Kathy

Check out this photo!!!!!

2007-10-24T14:50:00.000-05:00

Thank you to Larry Parker who sent us this photo today! The picture is from Letchworth State park also know as the "Grand Canyon" of the east!!

We lived in Rhode Island for about a year and being able to see the seasons change was so nice! That would have to be one of the things I miss most about being up North.

Thanks again Larry!!!!

Kathy

1 Week Left on Halloween Special!

2007-10-24T13:01:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder that the Halloween special on cases is good for 1 more week! The list has also just been updated so check it out at www.katestrackshack.com to see if you see anything that will fill those cases to get it free!

Hope you're having a great day! It's windy here in the big state of Texas today!!! Our temperatures dropped on Monday and brought a little bit of rain and cooler temps. We can't really complain (although my kids are complaining about needing warmer clothes!) since it's the middle of October! But here in Texas you never know what kind of weather you'll be having!!!

Have a great week!!!!!!

Kathy

Updated List 10-16-07 - Halloween Special

2007-10-16T21:23:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

Hope you're all having a good week!

I just updated the list today. We're having a Halloween special! No tricks just a little treat!!!

Check it out at: www.katestrackshack.com.

Thanks!!!!!

Kathy

Updated List 10-07-07

2007-10-07T22:56:00.000-05:00

Happy Columbus Day tomorrow! Hope you're lucky enough to have the day off!

Just updated the list tonight. Check it out at www.katestrackshack.com

Remember, if you want to be added to our subscriber list to be notified when the list is updated, just send us an email with "subscribe" in the subject line.

Have a great week!!!!!!!

Kathy

Updated List 9-24-07

2007-09-23T21:12:00.000-05:00

Finally a new updated list!!!!!! www.katestrackshack.com

Sorry for the delay in getting the list updated, but after we got back from Canada we had some computer problems and lost our emails, address books and some programs that helped me update my list. My wonderful husband recovered a lot of stuff but not the emails or address books.

If you sent were on our subscriber list, please send us another email with "subscribe" in the Subject line so we can rebuild our list.

Also, if you sent us emails about special tapes you were looking for, players, etc., please email us again so we can get back on track!

We really had a great time in Canada and I'll be posting those picts as soon as I get them uploaded.

Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!

Kathy

MDA Update

2007-09-23T21:07:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone that helped me out by generously donating to this year's MDA Lockup. I was able to raise enough money to send at least one child to MDA camp this summer. I was told that this was this childs first time to be able to go to camp.

I'm putting up the photo that was taken on the day of lockup. It was a lot of fun and helped raise money for a really good cause.

Again, thanks to all those who gave without question!

Kathy

MDA Lock-Up

2007-08-24T08:57:00.000-05:00

The MDA Lock-Up was a success! I was able to raise my bail with the help of great friends and family!!!!!!!! I was able to raise enough to send one little girl to camp! All those that participated have been given a little more time to raise extra money to help send other kids to camp or to other much needed services.

We still have some cases of 8 tracks that we'll be taking bids on to raise a little more money. If you would like to see the tapes, check out our website - www.katestrackshack.com. You can also make donations via the website they have setup for me at - https://www.mdaevent.org/ParticipantInfo.aspx?j=a7c8fb44-416b-4d19-a500-5455c7495d8c
You can also email me at dkgibson3@tx.rr.com if you have any other questions.

I'll be posting my mug shot as soon as I can get my scanner working again!!!!!

Thanks again to everyone who helped out!!!!!!!!

Kathy

MDA Benefit - Cases of Tapes For Sale

2007-08-03T17:28:00.001-05:00

We had one of our customers donate a bunch of 8 track tapes to help raise some extra money for the MDA Lock-Up that I will be doing in a few weeks. I added a couple of cases so that all of the tapes except one lot that has about 10-11 extra tapes not in a case.

If you will go to our website you'll find the pages we've built for this event. There are 6 lots of tapes for sale. There are 3 lots that have a cases holding 24 tapes, 1 case holding 40 tapes and 2 that hold 30 tapes each (one of these has 10-11 extra tapes). We will be taking offers on each lot until next Sunday, the 12th of August. Those making the highest offers will get the tapes. S/H will be $8 on each case. If you win more than one lot, we'll combine the s/h. Email us if you have any questions.

Remember that this is for a good cause so please help out if you can!!!!!!!

Thanks again!!!!!!

Kathy

P.S. You can also donate on the MDA Lock-Up website they have setup for me - https://www.mdaevent.org/ParticipantInfo.aspx?j=a7c8fb44-416b-4d19-a500-5455c7495d8c

Friendly Reminder - Time is Running Out!!!!

2007-07-28T16:09:00.000-05:00

Hey guys!

Just a friendly reminder that the MDA event is coming up pretty quick here!!!!! If you haven't had a chance to donate and would like to you can make a donation on-line using a credit card or you can send a check to me. Just email me for more details if you want to send a check. The website to donate on-line is https://www.mdaevent.org/ParticipantInfo.aspx?j=a7c8fb44-416b-4d19-a500-5455c7495d8c

Thanks again!!!!!!!!!

Kathy

WANTED - Portable 8-Track Players

2007-07-19T22:40:00.000-05:00

We are looking for portable 8-track players. If you have one (or more) you want to sell/give away you can email us at dkgibson3@tx.rr.com

Thanks!!!!

Kathy

Please Help If You Can!!!!!!

2007-07-17T11:18:00.000-05:00

This year, I have the honor and pleasure of participating in MDA's Arlington Telu 2007 to help "Jerry's Kids®". To reach my goal I need your help!

I'd like to include you or your company on my list of contributors who are helping me reach my goal. Your donation would help MDA continue the important fight against muscular dystrophy. Check out my web page by clicking on the link below. There you'll find all kinds of information about MDA, and be able to make your tax-deductible donation on-line using your credit card.

MDA serves people in our community with neuromuscular disease by providing clinics, support groups, assistance with the purchase and repair of wheelchairs, braces and communication devices, and summer camp for kids. MDA also funds research grants to help find treatments and cures for some 43 neuromuscular diseases that affect people of all ages, right here in our community.

I sincerely hope that you'll take the opportunity to support MDA. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call or e-mail me.

On behalf of the families MDA serves, thank you!

Kathy

Click here to visit my Participation Page.

If the link above does not bring you to my Participant Page, cut and paste the address below into the address bar of your internet browser.

https://www.mdaevent.org/ParticipantInfo.aspx?j=a7c8fb44-416b-4d19-a500-5455c7495d8c

Updated List 07-16-07

2007-07-17T11:03:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

Just put up a new updated list at www.katestrackshack.com.

We've added another new page - 4-tracks. You can check it out at http://www.katestrackshack.com/fourtracks.htm.

Sale! Easy Listening tapes are 20% off - $.60 ea.

Thanks!!!!!!

Kathy

Track Shack In The Spotlight

2007-07-11T17:28:00.000-05:00

One of our local tv celebrities, "The Why Guy", came out Monday to do a story on Kate's Track Shack and our daughter, Mary's AMC Pacer. It was a lot of fun!!!! We met Mike and his cameraman, Billy about a month ago when they did a story on our Amphicar for an upcoming Amphicar meet that we did on the 23rd of last month (story below). Mike is a great guy and when we mentioned we sold 8-tracks and had an AMC Pacer, he wanted to come out and do another story.

Here is the url to see the video of the story. They even put up a link to the "Shack".

http://www.wfaa.com/video/index.html?nvid=157557&she=1

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Kathy

New Website!!!!!

2007-06-28T20:29:00.001-05:00

We've just put up a new website that is the sister site to Kate's Track Shack. KTSP is the 8-track production company for Kate's Track Shack.

KTSP's mission is to bring the 8-track into the 21st century. We have had bands and individuals contact us about putting their cd's or other media onto 8-track. Can it still be done you ask? Yes, and KTSP can do it for you!

Check it out at www.ktsprod.com

Dan/Kathy

1st Annual Lake Arlington Swim-In

2007-06-27T15:36:00.001-05:00

Saturday, June 23rd, we hosted our 1st Annual Lake Arlington Swim-In. We had 5 Amphicars come from all around Texas. Ours, one from Mesquite, Westlake, Austin and even one from Houston!

We have a great time. We gave out lots of Amphicar rides (free) and meet a lot of great people! I'm including a few pictures of the Swim-in.

One of our local tv stations came out and did a short story on us. As soon as we get it copied over we'll post it.

I'm still pretty new to this blogger thing so I haven't figured out to put a caption with each of the pictures. When I do, I'll fix this thing!

The first picture is me driving some friends of my mother-in-law's around the lake. The second picture is of Dan in the foreground just before he takes someone out for a ride (yes, those are longhorns on the car in the water!). The third picture is of all the Amphicars in the parking lot while we had lunch. One of the cars is hiding on the other side. The fourth picture is Dan tubing one of our girls. And the last picture is of four of the cars at the car show we did at Bruster's Real Icecream after we finished up at the lake. The make wonderful icecream!!!!

Gotta get off of this thing; we're about to get hit with a storm and I need to shut the computer down for a little bit.

Kathy

P.S. Thank you to Al & Debra Heath for taking these and the other great pics on Saturday!

New Updated List 6-27-07

2007-06-27T13:52:00.001-05:00

Just letting you know that the list has been updated!www.katestrackshack.com

I hope all you Dads had a great Father's Day!

We'd still like to hear from you guys with your 8-track stories. Email us at dkgibson3@tx.rr.com.

Have a great 4th!

Father's Day Special

2007-06-12T22:45:00.000-05:00

I forgot to mention that this special discount is only good through 6-17-07!

New Updated List 6-12-07

2007-06-12T22:17:00.000-05:00

A new updated list has been put up on our website tonight - www.katestrackshack.com

*****************************************************************************************************************

$$$New$$$ We have reduced the price on the Country/Western & Easy Listening Quads to $3.99.

***************************************************************************************

In honor of Father's Day, if you mention that you saw this posting, we'll give you an addional 10% off of your total order.

***************************************************************************************

As a reminder, if you're in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area on June 23rd, we'll be hosting an Amphicar Swim-In at Lake Arlington around 10 am at the Arkansas Ln. ramp. We're expecting about 5 Amphicars to be there. We'll be giving Amphicar rides as long as we hold out or the cars hold out!!! We've invited the media, so you may find yourself on tv! Then around 4:00 pm, we'll be heading off to Bruster's Ice Cream up on South Cooper for a mini car show and some good ice cream!!!!!

Hope to see you there!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DADS!!!!!!!!

Updated List/Happy Memorial Day!!!!!

2007-05-27T19:52:00.000-05:00

Thanks for your patience!!!! I'm out of school and so are the kids for the summer!

The list has finally been updated!!!!! www.katestrackshack.com.

We've added a new page for car tapes and put carousels and cases on sale.

Take a look!

Happy Mother's Day!!!!!!

2007-05-13T14:58:00.000-05:00

Happy Mother's Day to all you mom's! So far, it's been a great day for me! In fact, it's been a great weekend!!!!!

Friday night I finally graduated from college!!!!!! It only took about 5 years, but I did it!!!!!

I'll post pictures when we get them back.

Again, Happy Mother's Day to all you mom's!!!!!!!

Kathy

Updated List

2007-05-07T20:56:00.000-05:00

Just letting you know that the list has been updated! www.katestrackshack.com

Let us know if you see any thing.

Thanks again!!!!!!!

Website URL

2007-04-20T15:31:00.000-05:00

You may need to rebookmark our website if you haven't done so. The old bookmark probably doesn't work anymore. It just needs to be "www.katestrackshack.com".

Thanks!

Kathy

2007-04-12T12:28:00.000-05:00

Kate's Track Shack is back up!!!!! Hopefully we won't have this problem again!!!

There is a new updated list out there - www.katestrackshack.com. Take a look and let us know if you see anything!

I hear you New Englanders are still getting snow! We had snow flurries on Saturday here in sunny Texas! You guys stay warm up there!!!!!!

Kathy

Website down again!!!!

2007-04-06T22:40:00.000-05:00

We are aware that the website is down again! We've been talking with Road Runner again and it looks like they've screwed up again!!!! It seems we will have to manually migrate our website. I'm still waiting on a call from them. It looks like I'll have to call them back since my 24-48 wait is just about up to hear back from them.

I apologize to everyone that has tried to get onto the site and can't! We're still here, just not being seen!

I'm also working on testing more tapes to put on the list. I'll email those on the "Subscriber" list and let you know when the list is updated and the website is back up.

If you aren't a "Subscriber" and want to be, just send us an email at dkgibson3@tx.rr.com and put "subscribe" in the Subject line. We'll send you out emails to let you know when the list has been updated and other important info.

Kathy

Website Back Up!!!!!!

2007-03-26T08:22:00.000-05:00

It looks like Road Runner has finished with the migration (at least for our website) and we're back up again!!!!!!

Sorry for the inconvenience!!!!!!!!

Web Site Down

2007-03-21T22:10:00.000-05:00

Hi!

Thanks to everyone who has notified us about our website being down. What a bummer! I've talked with our service provider and it seems that our website is being migrated from our old provider to the new one. They say that it shouldn't be down more than a day or two. I'm doing all I can to get it back up again as quickly as possible.

Thanks for your understanding!

Kathy

Updated List 3-19-07

2007-03-19T21:55:00.000-05:00

Just put up a new list tonight! Be sure to check out our newest page at www.katestrackshack.com! It's Beatles & related tapes. We get lots of requests for these tapes so we decided to put up a special page for them. These tapes will be a little more than some of our other tapes, but they will be tuned-up with new pads/splices. Tapes that are sealed, you decided if you want them tuned-up or not.

If you were lucky enough to be off last week for Spring Break, hope you had a good time! We had some fun and got a lot of things done around the house the needed doing. The kids begged us to put up our pool, so Dan did that this weekend. They were brave enought to get into it tonight and go under water (water about 60 degrees maybe!). Still a little to cold for me!!!!!

We also have some auctions on Ebay right now. Dan and I have some under seller name - dkgibson and our oldest daughter has some under seller name - katestrackshack. She is selling some quads to help put some money in her college fund and to pay for gas for her '76 Pacer!

Take care and have a good week!

Kathy

Updated List 03-06-07!

2007-03-06T07:38:00.000-06:00

Just letting you know that a new list was put up last night! I think you'll find some good stuff this time around. Check it out at www.katestrackshack.com.

I hate to make reminders like this, but sometimes it has to be done. If you place an order for tapes/supplies, etc. you need to pay for that order before placing another order. That's how most businesses work. We're not trying to be buttheads! Thanks for your understanding!!!!!

Another heads up! Most of you have probably already heard that there is going to be another rate increase in postage! The lady at the post office said they weren't given an exact date, but probably would be sometime in May or June. We'll let you know how it will effect shipping costs once we know what the rate increases will be. I think 1st class on one oz will be raised to .41 cents. The Post Office would love to get rid of media mail, but I think there are too many of us out there that still use it quite a bit!

Next week is Spring Break for me and the kids. Not sure if we'll go anywhere, but in case you email and we don't get back to you right away, that will be why.

Have a great week!

Kathy

Updated List! 2-17-07

2007-02-17T10:41:00.000-06:00

It's been a little while, but the list has been updated - www.katestrackshack.com.

Take a look and let us know if you see anything you'd like to buy. You can email us at dkgibson3@tx.rr.com.

If you're lucky enough to have President's Day off on Monday, enjoy!!!!!!!!!

Kathy/Dan

8-Track Review - "Sandman" by Harry Nilsson in Quadraphonic!

2007-02-12T20:54:00.000-06:00

Program 1 - I'll Take A Tango, Something True, J*** C**** You're Tall, The Ivy Covered Walls, Thursday Or, Here's Why I Did Not Go To Work Today
Program 2 - The Flying Saucer Song, How To Write A Song, Pretty Soon There'll Be Nothing Left For Everybody, Will She Miss Me

1976. Even though his voice was recovering from blowing it out (literally) recording the drunken disaster "Pussy Cats" with John Lennon, this year was just about rock bottom for pop wunderkind Harry Nilsson. His (very expensively produced) albums and singles were not charting, and RCA was running out of patience. And what does Harry come out with.."Sandman"! Oops.

I am a very big fan of Nilsson, and have all his albums on more formats than I care to think about. But lets face it, albums like this are not the way to stay in the good graces of your record company, especially when you recently signed a contract where they eat all the production costs. However, 30+ years on, I sure am glad that Harry was not too worried about staying in their good graces.

"I'll Take A Tango" starts the album off in fine style, with Harry proclaiming that "Deep down in my soul I hate rock and roll", continuing with him hanging out with Valentino and Marlin Brando, and wrapping up with on of the most throat tearing screams ever. "Something True" is a nice love song, and is what he should have released as a single. " J*** C**** You're Tall", a very blasphemous, but very funny song cracks me up every time I hear it. Side note..this is the song he introduced the rough cut of on his previous album "Duit On Mon Dei". "The Ivy Covered Walls" and "Thursday Or, Here's Why I Did Not Go To Work Today", are two very forgettable album fillers.

Program 2 opens with "The Flying Saucer Song", which may be the only song ever recorded about two drunks singing and talking about a UFO sighting. The best part about this track is that it gets better every time you listen to it. The same can be said for "How To Write A Song", in which Harry tells you how to do just what the title says. "If you write it on guitar then put the guitar on your knee. If you write it on piano, don't do that!" Maybe the best song on the album. Check for the rhyme for the word "talent". "Pretty Soon There'll Be Nothing Left For Everybody" is Harry singing about overpopulation, ecology, etc. Pretty forgettable. "Will She Miss Me" is the album closer. I have never really warmed to this song.

There are probably five tracks on this album that are keepers. Most people did not think so, and Sandman did not sell. I see sealed copied of the cart often, and based on the sealed copies of the LP that appear on eBay, there was a whole lotta stock left over.

And now the quadraphonic part. RCA spared no expense on their quad releases. Sandman has fantastic separation. And the cool part is that if played on a stereo deck, you can isolate Nilsson's backing vocals on certain tracks. Definitely a quad worth getting.

Keeper? Of course! It's Nilsson! Besides, I have two copies in quad, so let me know if you have a hankering for one. Make it worth my time though!
Number of ka-chunks: Three of four. It's Nilsson! Five out of nine ain't bad!

Updated List 1-31-07

2007-01-31T09:22:00.000-06:00

Just letting you know that we've just updated the list again! There were some good tapes on that last list and they went fast!!!!!!

There is some pretty good stuff on this list too!

Take a look at our list - www.katestrackshack.com and let us know if you see anything you want to buy. Also, if you want to be added to our "subscriber" list to be notified when the list is update, just send us an email with "subscribe" in the subject line.

It's sleeting and cold outside! I'm going to go start a fire and finish reading a good book before I start on the dreded homework!

Kathy

8-Track Review - "Spirit In The Sky" by Norman Greenbaum

2007-01-23T19:02:00.001-06:00

Program 1 - Jubilee, Tars Of India
Program 2 - Spirit In The Sky, Good Lookin' Woman
Program 3 - Alice Bodine, Milk Cow, Skyline (part 1)
Program 4 - Skyline (part 2), Marcy, Junior Cadillac

"When I die and I lay me to rest, gonna go to the place thats the best". Who has not heard that immortal lyric at least 100 times? It was with great excitement when I came across this admittedly ratty look cart.

Let me start by saying that this is a rare cart. I have seen literally tens of thousands of 8-tracks, and this is the first copy of this I have ever come across. Except for Sinatra and Martin, Reprise 8-tracks are not all that common in the first place, so that may play a part in the scarcity of this cart. Another player may be that it is not very good. Of course, the title track is a AM/FM classic, and it deserves to be. Nothing else on the cart comes even close to "SITS", either for musicanship, or songwriting. The low point is "Milk Cow". This album smells like it was thrown together around a hit single. The biggest bummer about this cart was that it was one that I had been looking for for some time. Oh well.

Norman Greenbaum has a website, and I emailed him to let him know that I had just finished listening to him on 8-track. His response was basically "I am on 8-track. Wow". I thought that was a cool response. Maybe some day I will be on 8-track too! Wow!

Keeper?: Nah. If you want it, trade me something cool for it.
Number of ka-chunks: Only one, and that is due to "SITS" itself.

8-Track Review - The Very Best Of Deep Purple

2007-01-17T11:15:00.000-06:00

This is Dan. This is the first in a series of reviews I plan on doing on different carts as I listen to them. Lets start off with "The Very Best Of Deep Purple"
Cart: GRT Module 8
Track List:
Program 1 - Hush, Hey Joe, We Can Work It Out
Program 2 - River Deep - Mountain High
Program 3 - April, Exposition
Track 4 - Kentucky Woman, Bird Has Flown, Lalena

I found myself enjoying only about half of the songs on this cart. "River Deep - Mountain High" and "Kentucky Woman" are the highlights. "Hush" and "hey Joe" are OK, but not in the same class. Overall the cart sounds great, and there is no track splitting.

Keeper?: - for now. I think there is a later Deep Purple greatest hits around here somewhere that includes their "Smoke On The Water" stuff. Still...I really like their version on a Neil Diamond song on this album.
Number of Ka-chunks?: Only two out of four.

Updated List 1-15-2007

2007-01-15T20:13:00.000-06:00

Hi!

Just letting you know that a new updated list has been put up at our website - www.katestrackshack.com. Check it out and let us know if you see anything you want to buy. Remember, we also do repair work and transfer 8-tracks to cd.

2007-01-15T19:16:00.000-06:00

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!!!

Hey everyone!

It's been so busy around here!!!

Sales of tapes have been really good and the repairs have been even better!

The list has just been updated! Check it out at www.katestrackshack.com

I just purchased 400+ tapes a few days ago from a nice gentlemen in Oklahoma. He has a bunch of 45's if anyone is intresested. Just let us know and we'll get you his contact info.

We'll also be going to Houston this weekend to pick up about 2500 more tapes and players!

I'll start my last semester tomorrow night! Wish it wasn't quite so late, but you gotta do what you gotta do! The worst thing about it starting tomorrow is that is our 20th Anniversary!

I'm going to try better at keeping this blog up-to-date!!

Hope to hear from you soon!

Kathy

Welcome

2005-03-30T10:53:00.000-06:00

Hi!

Welcome to our blog!

We'll try to make this a fun site for you to visit.

Since this site is mainly devoted to 8-tracks, let us hear from you about what you like or don't like in this media or if you have any questions about 8-tracks.

Dan/Kathy