History Cars and high school,late 50s/early 60s,would you go back?

How was your high school years,things good an bad,what could of been better.
I was in a big school, Miami Sr High,,,Our class in 12th grade was 1000 kids. Did size matter?? I'm sad to see some ,seemed too of had a bad time,from reading a few others notes on high school. Wish better for each...........Fore me,yes,I had a great time. Having youth n heath again would be cool,but with that, some of what I know now' maybe awesome!!
Worked my ass off to do it though.Except, first 2 months start of 10th 1960,got all bad glass's,only one good "Math",,others so bad,I dropped out,took near a year off school,worked Gas Station n a Body Shop,plus sold some of my art. Saved some $,and finshed up both junk cars,in to drivers, I had been working on. Ya, I had two old cars, fixed up by then. Dad let me keep in the weeds out back in Jr High,one I got free [ no motor ,lot of other missing stuff,but 28A Ford to try an build a hotrod*got running in 59 ] The other a $50 Henry J ,with broken tranny [that cost another $25 to get at first,,became Full Custom by 60, with all my own work in both. Went back too school next year 1961,with far better attitude,***** had a ball ,next 3 years,school was then fun,vs hard,like Jr high had been> Our Sr High School Football team never lost a game all year in 60,an Florida State Champs all 3 years. I put myself through Miami Dade Jr Collage on my own Dime. Enjoyed most of it! It's too EZ,just to say;"Things are what you make them,if you can!" Yet there is some truth in it! Having what I thought was cool car,was a boost I think.
I was one of 3,pinstripers in high school, the only one that also did airbrush Wild Car T-shrits,an put car names on,,cars in the parking lot,,,art name " The Bat",the other 2 were very good stripers also. A littled extra $ for dates.

 

Cool story, Dana!

 

Good friends, fun times, wild women, plenty of smokes, beer and working part time at a service station to keep me mobile. Go back? Nope
Good memories. yep!

 

Graduated in 1959 from Hoover High in San Diego. There has been a great effort by a couple of alumni to keep the class informed and setting up luncheons a couple of times a year. Covid undid all that effort. It's a lot more fun to lie about the things we did 65 years ago than to relive the experiences! We must have done something right as our schools were number one in the nation back then. Now, California schools are ranked 48th.

 

High school sucked...Glad when I graduated in 1966 and would never want to go back....Had 37 Chevy coupe,,,Do wish I still had it....

 

{HEMIHOTROD66} Your coupe looks a lot like my frist Hot Rod too. I had a 38 Chevy coupe. How about the 70's ? I was from the Class of 72 . Yeah, my high school days were a lot of fun. I dated a cute little cheerleader. { Go Rams } lol I drove a Cool 68 Vette, and had the 38 Chevy coupe. I worked for my Dad in his H.V.A.C. company. He helped me finance, and insure, the Vette. I told him that if he helped me. That I would work for him free, for life. lol I did work in his business until I retired. But not for free. lol I did a lot of street, and strip Drag raceing. Made lots of great memories. After high school I met the cutest 16 year old girl ever! We were married in 1975. We have two girls, and 4 grand kids. Would I go back? { No } The best time of life is now. I still have the same girl, and even the Vette too. Plus the Grandkids are SOO much Fun.

 

I’m a little younger, I graduated in 1977. Had a 67 Ford pony car, hopped up a little, loved school so much I got into a trade and industrial program that let me get out at 11:00 everyday and go to work. In truth, I hated school. It was boring. Friends? Didn’t have but a couple. There were 22 people in our graduating class that year, only two or three I considered friends. The rest were jocks or snobbish. I didn’t do sports, cared less about it. I didn’t hang out with many of them. The girl I married I met working in the same grocery store as me, and she lived in another county from where I went to school. I wasn’t a nerd or anything, more a loner, and the girls I went to school wouldn’t have anything to do with me.

We had a 5 year class reunion, it went so bad there has never been another. In the 41 years since then, I’ve ran into maybe 3-4 of them, some of the rest of them I haven’t seen since 1977. Would I go back? No. My life has been fine without them.

 

Graduated in '69. Had a '65 Falcon 2 dr. wagon. Was a smart assed kid who thought he was a great mechanic. NOT! Worked as a bus boy/waiter so I always had spending money. Tried college to be an engineer. Calculus kicked my butt. Dropped out, got drafted. Worked my way through college after I got out with the help of the GI bill. There were some good times (even in the Army) but no, I wouldn't go back. And it would have been a cold day in Hell if I ever even considered re enlisting.

 

Driver's licences only at 18 here, so there was no high school automotive culture to speak of — beyond legal-at-16 50cc motorcycles. Add to that that I graduated in 1980, in the depths of apartheid, and my neural heterodoxy and pervasive weirdness, and it should be no surprise that high school was a dark time for me.

No good times, even; at least none which pertained to high school.

Would I go back? Only if I could bring a substantial amount of explosives. Otherwise, no way.

 

Sure, I'd go back.....for a visit. Drove a 66 Chevelle Super Sport and sacked groceries. Biggest worry was staying in beer and gas money. A six pack of Old Mil could be had for $1.25 and gas was 30 cents....during gas wars (remember those?) 15 cents. Chasin' women and good friends......the simpler times of youth.

 

i just got out of there, why would i go back

 

Some of my best years were the 6 years I spent in high school....good times...

 

If I knew then what I know now, I would have found my way out of that smallminded town and school even faster than I did. No matter how well I did in school, because my grandparents didn't come across the prairie in a covered wagon and settle in that town, I wasn't worth knowing. I was into cars and motorcycles and there wasn't a parent in that town would let me date their daughter.

 

I was a late bloomer so High School was hell on earth for me. We had a 'weigh-in' at mid-year for the wrestling segment of gym class each year. '58, Freshman year I was 81 pounds, '59; Sophomore year I was 88 pounds; '60, Junior year I shot up to 101; '61 Senior year I started growing up, but not out, to a tallish 132 pounds. For wrestling, I always had to 'challenge' bigger guys to get a grade because there wasn't anyone in my weight class. Even the girls were much bigger than me. I finally peaked at 6' 2" in my mid-twenties and a pound or two a year to 200 lbs by my forties. My young looks eventually became less of a curse and more of a blessing because I had to date younger, prettier women.
Guys with cars in High School were rare so my lack of one wasn't a big deal. We were a 2 beater family and I had occasional access to one or the other during pre-curfew hours. My dad wasn't a "car guy" but I learned a few things due to shit breaking down all the time. The day I turned 21 I marched my happyass down to the car dealer and bought the first new M*s*a*g ('64) in town. It got the 289, Holley 4-barrel with a little cam (not the HiPo), and 4-speed but I was too dumb to get any other performance options.
My "good years" with learning, wrenching, drag racing were my mid-twenties. That's where I'd love to go back. But High School?....... No, nope, nada, never, fageddabotit.

 

Graduated in 1962 a great time to be growing up. I enjoyed it a lot, a local parochial HS that no longer exists. A class of 127 at the end and a total of just over 500 total. It was located in SW Los Angeles. Not many car guys but a few of us in each class. Most were headed to college but a few of us went into the work-a-day world plus some JC. I used my moms black 56 For Victoria for dates and it was tough for me to sneak home late as I had split the manifold on my 49 Chevrolet pickup.

 

I never got past the tenth grade in high school but I would have graduated in 59 if I had stayed. I did get into college some years later and ended up with a professional degree. In the late fifties and early sixties all I wanted to do was rodeo and fool with cars. My goal was to work in a gas station and maybe own one someday. Those were the greatest years of my life and I would go back there in a heartbeat. I think I have lived in the best of times and have now passed my "best if used by" date.

 

Never, them good old days weren't that great for me. I'm having more fun now at 77.

 

All through school I had a hard time with others,
But High School was big enough to house a few other dirt bags like me.
Cars, I had too many. 8 at one point and not a parking spot of my own.
Pops put me to work @14, lasted 7 years. ( hustling newsprint thru apartment bldgs )
My Uncle gave me a 5 year apprenticeship at his Gulf station @16.
( He says to me ) "Everday before you leave stick the hose in your car, fill it and put a slip, how much, in the safe. One day we'll settle up."
School was just in the way. My appearance reflected the 72 hours of newsprint and Gulf Oil
I had a secret way to come and go with no problem.
( simply and casually drag my ugly knuckles in and out the front entrance )
I could not be that stupid twice
But Hey Hey Dana Thanks for asking

 

I had a ball in high school. Graduated in '96. My class was pretty unique in that it wasn't that cliqueish. 180 Kids from the same small corner of a largely agrarian Indiana county. Not a lot of car culture. I had my Rambler and C-10 pickup. Buddy had a' 55 Chevy. Just good times. We had a reunion a few years back and my friend brought his 2nd wife from out of town. She was amazed. She said, "I only knew like ten people in my whole class. You guys are all like a Goddamned family. I wish I would've went to school here" I guess that pretty much sums up my high school experience. Detassled corn in the summers and worked at McDonald's for money. Drove around to different parties out on tractor roads in cornfields on the weekends. I'd go back in a minute and talk to way more girls I thought were plain looking at the time. And buy a shit load of Amazon stock.

 

I enjoyed most of my highschool years. I bought my 51 Merc from the crafts shop teacher in 1963 and it was an old California car that while having all the trim on it was lowered, had headers and pretty nice pipes and was a pretty nifty cruiser. Blew a rod out though the side of the pan on it in 1964 and ended up with a Metropolitan convertible that got me in a few fights because some guys thought it was a toy. Found out years later that a guy I had gone to school with since the first grade put a stop to their nonsense.
I took three years of vocational auto mechanics and that took up most of my elective hours. Wish I had taken photograph as an elective but hindsight is better than foresight. Flunked one class in all my high school years, that was typing and that was probably as much to with Cynthia's short cheerleader skirts as my ability because damn she had nice legs and still does. She married the dude from the town across the river though.
The big stress then was worrying about getting drafted when we got out of school if we didn't get enrolled in college or trade school quick enough.
That was the best part, far less stress than what these kids have put on them now, If the other guys and especially the gals thought your car was cool and the gals thought you were cool life was good.
If I had do overs I would have bought that 55 Chevy two door post that was sitting next to the 55 Metropolitan that I bought that was going for the same money at the time. That would have been a bit cooler to drive during my Sr year.

 

Well to begin with I grew up during 60s and 70s Israel so it was a completely different world, 16 years old kids very rarely had their own cars, you were lucky if your parents allowed you to use the family car and in most cases it would have been something European/Japanese and boring. At my high school I remember only two guys with own cars, the first had a Subaru 360 which even back then was uncool, the second, a Rambler Classic 770 which was cool but remember we're talking Israel. School itself was not a pleasant place for me and was followed by 3 years of service with the Israeli navy which were mostly not fun either.

So would I go back then? Hell yea - but on the condition I'd have the body I had then with my current knowledge and life experience...

 

I had not considered those conditions.
I think that,,, that might just work. ( 8 cars all collectable )

 

Enjoyed reading all your stories! Thank you for kicking off the discussion!

We just had our 50 year high school reunion this past weekend. Had many good times in HS but no car. My dad was a point A to point B guy and a car was just a way to get there. There were some pretty nice cars in the HS parking lot for sure.

Friends had cars so getting around not a problem. Enjoyed a number of road trips and did some stupid stuff, but all turned out pretty well. Married a girl from town and live within eyesight of where I grew up. Kids are in the area and grandchild changes so much.

Would I go back in time? Maybe for a “visit”. Enjoy where I am in life—for quite some time.

Seems to me that the secret of a good life is enjoying today and the people you’re with. If you can do that regularly, life is wonderful.

 

I go to high school every day

 

I quit getting reunion invitations after 60 years. What's up wit dat?

 

I was small for my age, smarter than most, and kind of a nerd (which never really was a term in the fifties)..

I did however, have a '51 Ford and a girlfriend. IT WAS GREAT!!

 

While I don't want to go through all the stupid stuff I did and got in trouble for again, I would go back for two reasons. First and formost to thank the teachers I had at Peninsula High School between 1956 and 1960. I didn't listen to them as much as I should have but they did have our best interests at heart and as time went by I came to realize what a positive influence they had on my life. Second, I'd love to have the cars I owned in those four years: 48 Ford coupe; 35 Ford two door flatback; and a 51 Ford two door.

 

Had my 50th high school reunion a couple of years ago. Seems like most folks got older but hadn't changed all that much. The jerks were still jerks but with 50 years to refine their craft! Would I go back? No way! I drove my high school (OT '70 Vette) to the reunion. The "hot" girls in HS weren't so hot now, but my car still is!

 

I enjoyed high-school...I graduated in 1974... had a good group of friends... my dad was into cars a I had a bunch of them ... my favorite was a 1961 Ford short bed unibody with a 302 and a 4 speed transmission.. a good friend used to run around with me in it... I still have another unibody pickup and still run around with the same buddy ... I keep in contact with a few other people from school... I'd go back and do it all again... wouldn't change a thing...except buy Amazon stock and bitcoin....lol

 

Go back? No F'in way. High school sucked. Worst 7 years of my life.......