This page is dedicated to Girvan R. Temme, a.k.a. "Green Dragon", (KBZ-8589), a stogy old curmudgeon, who refused to go with the flow or even acknowledge the "new wave" of hobby CB'ers.

Girv was a CB old timer, a holdover from days long gone. A period in time when, despite the political fervor over the Vietnam war, hippies doing dope, and women burning their bras, almost everyone on CB radio in our area used their call signs, operated on specified use channels, and engaged in bland and short (legal) conversations.  Girv most likely got his start in CB sometime back in the mid - late 1960's, judging by his call sign. We first came across Girv while operating on Channel 13 in the late 70's.  Channel 13 must have been Girv's old home channel, and I guess he wasn't quite ready to abandon (or share) it just yet, even though virtually none of his old cronies were active anymore.  He was often heard calling for "KLZ-2792" (Frank), one of his old radio friends, many times a day without a response.  This, in and of itself, wouldn't have been such a bad thing except for the fact that he would usually make his calls right over top of conversations already in progress, and without having the courtesy of asking for a break first.  Naturally, this didn't go over too well with the members of our group.  Since he was less than 1/2 mile away from me, I doubt if he could've made a legitimate claim that he just couldn't hear us.  Since we never heard Frank return Girv's call, for the longest while we thought that Frank was either dead, or had sold out of CB.  At this point, we concluded that Girv was simply "ghost talking" just as an excuse to interfere with us.  We were really floored one day when we actually saw Frank in his mobile (He had his call letters stuck to his trunk), and he actually came back when we called him.  He was surprised that this bunch of strange youngsters knew who he was.  When we mentioned that Girv had been relentlessly calling for him, Frank then asked us to pass along his regards to him. 

When any of us attempted to take Girv to task for his blatant rudeness for calling on top of other people, his usual response was to lock his mic on SSB, and play his police scanner for several minutes (So much for advocating legal operation).  His constant belligerence caused him more trouble than he hoped to solve, as many people close by took special pride in agitating him.  Girv wasn't hard to track down, and once he was located, we used to poke fun at the pinkish color of his house (To which he would reply "It's not pink,  need your eyes examined"), and of his 25' cabin boat, curiously named "Sweet and Low", parked on the side of his house.   Prank phone calls, bottle rockets, and many packs of firecrackers were dispatched to his house over the next few years. Girv was quite a character, who's wonderfully "congenial" on-air charm managed to gather quite a following of detractors along the way.  He also was responsible for a whole new vocabulary of CB terms, also known as "Girvspeak". Some of these terms were:

"Clicker" - An electronic noisemaker, commonly referred to (by anyone other than Girv), as a "birdie".

"Blockin' Music" - Jamming. To which Girv proclaimed that the only cure was to; "Turn down the ol' volume".

"Hockey Puck" - Someone who gave Girv a hard time.  Sometimes interchanged with "Smartazz".

"912" - Evidently a code for a particular vulgarity, the exact definition of which we never found out.

"On the bye" - Listening.

After enduring his well earned agitation, and out of sheer frustration, Girv eventually proclaimed that he was; "Movin' to Clearwater to get away from you hockey pucks".  The story ends when, as predicted, he finally did move, although I heard through the grapevine that he passed away not long afterward. The new owners of his house must not have liked the "pink" color either, as it promptly changed not long after they moved in.

Here are some short surviving audio clips of interactions with Girv:

His famous call  - This clip is a brief shot of Girv calling Frank.

"912" -  A frustrated Girv makes a racially insensitive comment, and then tells him to "912".

"Knock the Shit off" - More frustration from Girv.

"Smartazz" - Girv's still fending off attacks.

"Stop Playing" - Girv now can't differentiate between radio fun and masturbation.

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