George Hafner:  

Hey Paladins! You may remember me as the tall, skinny guy in the corduroy pants. I liked to draw, play baseball, fish, waterski/hydro slide, shoot, video game junkie, computers, repair TV's, build models, lift weights and was taking electronics class all four years of HS. Senior year I drove that blue and white Ford Maverick 4 door POS to school. So just to catch up: After South Plantation I got an AA degree in Commercial Art from BCC. And, since I was about 16, I had been lifting weights to gain weight and 'muscle'. When I graduated HS I was 6'4" and about 170 lbs. Yeah, skinny. After HS I really started hitting the weights and nutrition, devoting more and more time and effort into it. Getting bigger and stronger, by '85 I had gotten to about 225lbs, and then I had gotten a job at the SFRJDC [Juvie] as a detention care worker in the transportation dept, thanks to Elizabeth Durrett's dad. Guess he thought I was big and scary. Anyhow that job allowed for an even more intense workout regimen. So for two more years I ate, slept and breathed body building and got up to 250 lbs of muscle. [no steroids, but that was my nickname at the DC.] I was working out a Masters Gym near 84 and University and sometimes, some of the Miami Dolphin players would come in for a workout, and I'd look at them and think 'eh, he's not so big IRL'. Yeah by then I could pick up a car by its bumper and could have given Arnold a run for it. Also around that time I bought my motorcycle, an 88 Yamaha FZR 1000. Damn I loved that bike. New in '88. Wrecked it 6 times, totaled it once and then rebuilt it with a custom paint job and tricked out the intake and exhaust, all done myself. Had it up to 185mph on I-75. Alas it was stolen in '94. In 1986 I had to get a real job so I started working for Aaron's Rent to Own and learned a lot about running a retail business. Going from delivery driver to Credit Manager to Sales Manager to General Manager. [All the while, slowly retiring from bodybuilding] In 1991 I bought a used '88 Monte Carlo SS, Damn I love that car. It was stolen once, [attempted theft and/or broken into a total of 4 times :( ] got it back and used the insurance money to restore it to better than new in 1996. I still have it. In 1993 I was offered a position at an Ad Agency/ Design Group as a graphic designer. This was right around the time that that industry was changing via 'Desktop Publishing' [computer] capability increases and cost reductions. So they paid for more schooling in the art of pre-press and computer programs who's names you may recognize like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Quark at the Palm Beach Photographic Workshops. I guess my background in computers, drawing and video gaming had prepped me because as Forest Gump said, I took to I like a duck to water. I worked there for abo...Expand for more