WES, Fook the young uns and keep on writing about them good old days, It's good to recall the principal players and those long gone places we used to hang out in.
I've known or have met or have worked with just about 90% of the good folks mentioned above plus many, many more ..... including Zeller who was mainly responsible for the initial success of Steve Reeves.
I can recall talking with Joe Gold while he was welding equipment out in the back of his original location where a year's membership was something like $24.
I can recall the first time I met Joe and Ben when they argued for the rights to be "associated with" the newly formed NPC and the heated objections of the guys from York as well as the argument from Dan Louri himself amid the accusations from many that the IFBB was a worldwide scam consisting of only PO boxes in the worldwide major cities.
I spent time with Reeves, LaLanne, Scott, Arnold, Frank and Christine, Jeff and Cory, Peter G. and each of the Gold Gym partners, Grant, and his family and bodybuilding buds, Platz, Mike and Ray, Teufel, Pearl, and even a pre-Hulked Lou when his photos didn't cost a dime, etc., etc.
And each of those meetings or get-togethers ended with great stories to tell, but sometimes can't be repeated.
So Im grateful to you guys who are posting these long ago gym-rat tales.
Bodybuilding is a history of colorful characters which should be recorded before its founders pass on to bigger weight rooms up there someplace.
If the young'un don't like it, they can simply refuse to read it and continue to make obnoxious commentaries about something they know nothing about.\\
To the rest of ya, I say, "Thanks for the history lessons, guys!"
