I received a few messages on my Etsy store about the t-shirt with the propeller and VFR@pou lettering. Here is the genesis of that shirt.

I was out for my morning walk when GG popped up in my head. Gary was a Mac client of mine for over 22 years. He died in August of 2023 at age 88 with very little note of his passing. Gary was a unique and fascinating person.

We shared the same sense of humor, very dark of course, and talked endlessly about Curb Your Enthusiasm and old comedians like Buddy Hackett, Jonathan Winters, Joan Rivers, Don Rickles and Rodney Dangerfield to name a few. Whenever Gary had a computer problem I would wait a day before calling him back. I did that because I knew he would figure out the issue and resolve it. As he aged his calls came more and more as he could no longer remember how the machine worked. In fairness, when Gary started working with Macs the OS was at System 7 and a different animal entirely than the current Mac Sonoma operating system of today. He also had a desktop machine, laptop, iPod touch and iPhone all of which needed to be in sync just in case he needed the one closest to him to retrieve some valuable info.

He was an airplane pilot, writer and photographer. He turned corporate photography into beautiful photographs whether on location or portraits. Two of my favorite photo books he wrote about his travels across the US photographing and interviewing people in the small towns of America. Here are the links to those books.

Passing Gas and other Towns along the American Highway and Reaching Climax and More Towns Along the American Highway

He asked me once if I knew what VFR@pou meant, I did not. Gary explained that VFR stood for visual flight rules and @pou stood for the Hudson Valley Regional Airport that he used to fly into and out of. Life is a great trip when those you come in contact with leave a lasting impression that you carry on as part of you.