Suggestion based on REAL effectiveness back in 1950-51 when I learned it!   
      
    DS>   A former ham (now a SK) told me his secret to learning CW was to "learn   
    DS> all the dirty words first". I laughed, and admitted "Well, you can't say   
    DS> it on the air, but if it helps, more power to you".   
      
   Learning it originally from the tthe 78RPM records my Uncle Bill Schuster of   
   Erie, Pennsylvania sent me, although he was not a Ham, on my own I figured   
   this one out. I'd bought my first car when I was 12 in 1971, a 1929 Model A   
   Ford Victoria with the trundle trunk in the rear.  I was mowing lawns for a $1   
   USD a lawn to help pay my way through middle school at A&M Consolidated here   
   in College Station.  Happened to see this Model A up on blocks in the garage   
   of a boyfriend's home I walked by to mow Col. Dunn's lawn, the Texas A&M   
   College football band leader.  The one who actually wrote the Texas Aggie "Saw   
   Varsity's Horns Off", Aggie War Hymn.  I asked my friend, "Why is it up on   
   blocks?"  He took me into the house where I got to meet his Grandpa who had   
   come to A&M from Vermont in it where he bought it for $927 to drive it to   
   Texas to get out of the Great Depression!  My friend and I were both railroad   
   fans.  His grandpa said, "Mike, sometimes you just wreck the train when you   
   drive things fast!"  He took me into the living room, fired up their 78RPM   
   record player and played me the, "Wreck Of The Southern 97" I had never heard   
   before!  Then in Railroad Morse he diddle mouthed me 'UJOINT BAD MIKE' and   
   told me I could have it for $60.  He couldn't pay to fix it!   
      
   I told my Dad I wanted it, asked him if he's loan me the $60 for it?  He told   
   me, "NO!"  I said if he did, I'd never ask him for another dime for auto   
   stuff.  He loaned me the money and he drove it home into our back yard where I   
   took the drive shaft apart and fixed the internal yoke at the back of the   
   transmission.  From parts at $1 a yard mowing.  Got my Texas Driver's License   
   at 14 years of age in it and learned something!   
      
   I noticed that as I drove past a street sign, I could practice my Morse Code   
   by mouthing the sound of it as I drove past a sign!  More important, the   
   faster I drove, the better I got at Morse Code as I upped the speed!  But the   
   first week or so after I got my Driver's License, I also got my first traffic   
   ticket from a Bryan, Texas, cop!  I was diddling with "29th Street" in the   
   twin city to College Station, Bryan, on a four lane road as I turned left to   
   "29th Street" from the curb side lane of "Texas Avenue" there!  Cop wrote me   
   up for "Illegal left turn without going 250 feet in left lane."  Taught me a   
   VERY important lesson.  You have to really be able to use Morse Code and still   
   pay attention to everything else in the noise game, 1952 ham by then too,   
   recall?  That's how you chase DX, Grin!   
      
   But it really helped me speed up my International Morse Code for ham use as   
   well!  Even then I was a Hot Rodder, chuckle.  I had torn the four cylinder   
   straight engine apart as well.  Polished the intake and exhaust ports plus   
   routed the intake air tube to the upward vertical carb so that the air from   
   the push from the front would raise the horsepower of it!  With the big 21   
   inch wheels that it had I had gotten it to even go 75MPH on the highway.   
      
   Which my Dad was HORRIFIED I was able to do, grin!   
      
   But even then at 75MPH on the highway I had gotten to where I could mouth   
   diddle both International and Railroad Morse Code perfectly for the signs I   
   was passing as I flew down the road.  And most importantly, that I was able to   
   SAFELY do this as I was also driving so that I could multitask while sending   
   and understanding Morse Code as I drove.  Which I didn't at all realize would   
   be a HUGE benefit to me when I got recruited to learn to first fly airplanes   
   in 1958 when I first went to A&M as a Aggie here as well.   
      
   And speed wise, there is a huge difference between air work with a 'zero' in   
   International Morse as ----- and Railroad Morse as _____, chortle! It was a   
   LONG time before I ever even flight instructed in an airplane that went faster   
   than my Austin Healey 100 that I had stuffed a Chevy fuel injection Corvette   
   engine into.  Which would float the valves at over 175MPH on the highway.  And   
   which I was still 'practicing', from time to time, diddle Morse, while I drove   
   it.  Grin.   
      
      
   Mike Luther N117C at 1:117/100   
      
   ---   
    * Origin: BV HUB CLL(979)696-3600 (1:117/100)