Join or don't join

 I never really understood why people would say the never will join ALPCA. I' not saying ALPCA members are better butr realize belonging to a club does have ups AND downs. I joined ALPCA in 1994 and nave a very modest collection I also have travelled around the country and made friends. ALPCA has also has a entire different side to it. I have made friends that go beyond license plates. My membership has given me the opportunity to expand my writing portfolio, no only with article in the magazine, but other publications.


Folks who have met me in person know I have a disability. I have struggled to travel to meets, even my own, but with the help of fellow members, I have attended 14 conventions, been to dozens of meets and even help co-found the ALPCA Garden State Region. I also have written a handful of articles Not bad for someone who doesn't drive, can't use pen and has a hard time speaking. I am not here to sway people into joining. ALPCA is NOT for everyone. However I am here to say ALPCA, and its members, have real meaning in my life..

Next month I will celebrate my 39th year as a member. At time I have had issues with the club. At times members have had issues with me. However I can tell you one thing, my life has definitely been for\ the better surrounding myself around such a n amazing group of people.
Justin Mattes, 6748 since 1994

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

One Contact - Five Lighthouses--W9C

Back in the summer I wrote an entry in here about my Lighthouse phone contact with Bill,N8ET , so now I had to top that with a five lighthouse PSK contact in Wisconsin! I was orginally going to wait until I got the card like my other contacts but I think at this stage of the game you can take my word for it. This contact was with a husband and wife team also known as "Team Cheese"--WI9TC (I love the callsign). Like the contact with Bill, they were in the line of sight of five lighthouses located on the Wisconsin shores of Lake Michigan. As soon as I saw them on the BeaconBot (the e-mail reflector used to notify people of lighthouse activations-) I knew I had to take my best shot. There were tons of stations dying to get a contact. Well after some monitoring of the waterfall and waiting for a break in the QSO's, I dropped my call. Unfortunately I was getting overpowered a lot so I actually wound up waiting for quite awhile. Although I have to admit it was also fun just ...
More Posts to Mattes's Madness

Bob Dylan blows into town

Image
       For a few months there has buzz around Cape May NJ that Bob Dylan was coming to America's Oldest Seaside Resort. No he wasn't playing a concert at Convention Hall. For most of this weeks parts of 2024 Cape May,NJ was transformed into 1965 Newport, RI. A Complete Unknown is a new film about Dylan's conversion from acoustic  to electric guitar starring Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan is in production and the location scouting team decided that  Cape May today looked like Newport back in '65. Bob Dylan debuted  his hit song Like a Rolling Stone   at t he Newport Folk Festival. They even transformed Perry Street  into Belevedere Avenue. Shops along the Washington Mall were temporarily renamed to match shops up in Newport.  The Victorian Motel was baptized then Viking Motel for the film  Days prior I started seeing filming equipment  being transported into town.       Like most o f the town I was hopi...
More Posts to Mattes's Madness

Remembering Grandma in Florida

My dad and I are in Florida for the month of March because the wnters in Cape May are horrible. I also can't stand dad complaining about the wind up there 24/7. So a few years ago my mom started looking at places to rent or even eventuall buy. We were down here during the very beginning of COVID so while we flew down, we drove back. Later it was  determined we would drive down, something my father always wanted to do. So this year my father was determined so with a lot of planning (not really) he mapped out a three  day road  trip fro, Cape May down to West Palm Beach. We took the ferry .over to Delaware and proceeded down to an overnight in North Carolina and another somewhere in Georgia. I managed to pick up seven new counties in Georgia and North Carolina. No bad if you ask me By now you're wondering what this has to do with my Grandma. Well when my grandparent got older they bought a house in Naples, Florida.   They beccame snow birds, just like most people ...
More Posts to Mattes's Madness