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Last year on the social media channels, I ran HazzardNet Hysteria (the Dukes version of March Madness). It didn't even occur to me to post about it on the forums. I will be posting polls here for y'all to vote too. Last year it was characters and Uncle Jesse won. This year, it's Battle of the Episodes. And since y'all are the most avid supporters of HazzardNet, you get first crack at the polls! I'll post them here first.

I hope everyone in the US is safe and well. In Ireland, March 17 can only mean St Patrick's Day. This year I had to help out a bit with the organizing, but still got to see the parade and other attractions. Despite not being Irish, I still dressed head to foot in green! Roger, you'd probably have enjoyed seeing the Museum of the Moon, an art installation which features a 7m diameter, 1:500,000 model of the moon. A temporary Ferris wheel gave us great views despite cloudy conditions. Finally, we got some great live Irish music from Kíla. The uilleann pipes and bodhrán mixed with flutes, drums, guitar and bass were played with such energy - it was amazing.

I hope you get to feeling better bud!

Wow, not bad HossC, not bad.

I appreciate that HossC! So glad she didn't set off the smoke detector or something. She was always cooking & baking. Please don't get the wrong idea, she was an awesome cook. She never triggered the smoke detector, but if she was ever going to, it would be while I was recording. You know how it goes.

Thanks RogerDuke, I enjoy being here. I do still have that cassette! I'm anxious to dig that out, both of my parents have passed and they may have been captured talking in the backgroind. I desperately want to hear their voices again. First I need to find a tape deck that I can trust to not eat that tape.

Likewise. From the setup, I felt sure your mom had the wrong day or your visitors would stay too late. I'm glad it worked out for you.

Great story! You are a very talented writer and a fantastic addition to the HazzardNet. We are lucky to have you. I kept waiting for something bad to happen in your story but thankfully that never happened. Do you still have the cassette tape as a momento to those good times?

I finally had a chance to do some exploring on this site and came across this thread. I started reading page 1, then had to skip to the last page to leave a comment. I will go back and read the rest later. This is definitely my all time favorite movie! And I have to share this memory with you guys: Back when I was around 9 years old, this had to be about 1980 or '81, somewhere in there. I remember it was my birthday, and my mom told me that the TV Guide showed that Smokey and the Bandit was going to be on at 7pm that night. Man, I was so excited, I couldn't wait until it came on! Now for all you young sheep out there, if you wanted to watch a favorite TV show or movie back then, you had to be up to date on your TV schedule and be in front of your TV at the right time if you wanted to see it. There was no renting it, streaming it, or buying it, back then. And you would hope the weather was good so it would come in clear! How many of you seasoned gents remember the frustration of a snowy picture?? Then around lunch time, my dad came home and he brought me a birthday gift. I got to open it right away, and found myself the proud owner of a brand new Panasonic cassette recorder and a 3 pack of blamk 90 minute tapes! Woohoo! I played with that thing all day, secretly recording peoples conversations, then playing them back for them. We had a lot of fun that day. Today, you'd probably go to jail for that. Then, after all visitors were gone and the house was quiet, I kept watching the clock, every minute seemed like 10. Smokey and the Bandit is coming on at 7 and it's been on my mind all day, and it's taking for ever for it to get here. I was tinkering with my new tape recorder, watching the time, then suddenly I had a monumental idea. I can record Smokey and the Bandit!!!!! I put fresh batteries in the recorder, installed a 90 minute tabe and made sure it was rewound to the begining, and had a 2nd tape ready for a back up just in case. When the clock hit 7:00 (finally!) I was ready! I was laying on the floor in front of our console TV, with my new tape recorder strategically positioned in front of one of the speakers, my finger hovering over the record button, and my heart racing in anticipation, waiting for the clock to strike 7. I had already managed to do a couple of quick trial runs with some commercials, and they worked perfectly, but I was still worried that something could go wrong. I had one shot to get this right. There will not be a "do-over" opportunity. This is it. Who knows if it well ever be on TV again, or when. Even at such a young age, I had enough sense to plan all this ahead, in a short amount of time, in the final minutes before show time. Including calculating the movie length vs the tape length, hoping I could fit a 2 hour movie on a 90 minute tape if I cut all the commercials. 7:00 came, I hit record, cut the commercials, and successfully captured Smokey and the Bandit on cassette tape! Long before anyone ever dreamed of having a VCR in their homes. Long before you could ever know if you would ever see your favorite movie again. I had it! It was mine to enjoy whenever I wanted to! All those great songs, all that genius dialogue, all the engines roaring and tire squealing, all the crashes! Man, that was a great day! For many nights I would take that recorder to bed with me and fall asleep to Smokey chasing the Bandit and Snowman across theis great country. My best friend would sleep over a lot and we would listen to that movie while we played with my slot car tracks. I had two TCR slotless tracks with semi's and cars, and I had tthree slot car tracks, one with 1978 Trans Ams (one black, one chrome). Man, those were some good times! Thank you HazzardNet community, for jogging some great memories!

I once had the opposite happen. I bid on a CD boxset and I don't remember there being any more listed by the seller. When the auction finished, I'd been outbid, but then the seller messaged me to say he had another copy and would I be interested in buying it at my highest bid. Of course, I said yes, and ended up paying less than the person who won the auction.