I'm old and I don't know. Growing up in the 50s it was considered hokey in my area. I'm thinking it was a 40s thing. Mud flaps with reflectors, ground straps with reflectors, door handle guards, gas tank flap guards and a whole lot of add on "doodads" were seem from time to time but considered p***e when I was young. Yeah.. I really was young once! Today when we see a car with all the J C Whitney accessories plastered on it, we say it's too "doodaddie" for me. We always say, remember them?, when we see them but I still can't bring myself to actually put them on a car.
It was just a decoration. no real significance. Rememner the taxi cab cartoon. He had a kid taxi that tuned himself into a hot rod. He was sportin a **** tail.here is a link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rnjXdj9-LI
we still have our share of archie and jugheads down here doin the ****tail thang! i remember seein it a lot as a kid , i never really understood it either ..
We have enough dead ****s in our area you can pick up a new one all the time! I nearly stopped and got a fox tail last week but it had been dead for a while. I just want to understand how to 'taxidermitize' the thing so they don't rot and fall apart! I'm a hick and I think they are cool. Ran one on my Jeep in high school.
When I was quite young in the late 50's, I asked my dad about this (he had one on his roadster) He said the story was some guy had turned a rac**** into road kill and it made a bit of a mess of his car so he hung the tail to tell the story. Other cats saw it and thought it just looked cool and the trend started. Have seen them in movies that were of the late 30's era on college campus' and it certainly entered pop culture and became very popular when Archie of comics fame ran one. Used to see a lot of them in the 60's. Didn't the RPU in Happy Days feature one? Some how they just seemed cool then, but kind of like fuzzy dice became a little cliché, especially with those that didn't understand the origins (fuzzy dice were originally made by your best girl for your car)
Actually the coats worn while **** tails were the hot set up were beaver. I have an old t-shirt from one of the Tom's Fun Runs with Weezner's art on it. It's a guy in a Model A tub with a **** tail, beaver coat and doofus felt hat. Neat art work. Boo-la backatcha!
hey phil...you ain't old enough to remember the '20's....are you? if you need a jog of the memory,we met at viva(the tiki bar)and tiki invasion
Nah, I don't even remember MY 20s. Yup, I remember ya. ha ha ha, ya owe me a beer or two... Talking about th Old Days, here's an illustrative little story: STUD ROOSTER A farmer went out one day and bought a brand new stud rooster for his chicken coop. The new rooster struts over to the old rooster and says, 'OK old man, time for you to retire.' The old rooster replies, 'Come on, surely you cannot handle ALL of these chickens. Look what it has done to me. Can't you just let me have the two old hens over in the corner?' The young rooster says 'Beat it: You are washed up and I am taking over.' The old rooster says, 'I tell you what, young stud. I will race you around the farmhouse. Whoever wins gets the exclusive domain over the entire chicken coop.' The young rooster laughs. 'You know you don't stand a chance, old man. So, just to be fair, I will give you a head start.' The old rooster takes off running. About 15 seconds later the young rooster takes off running after him. They round the front porch of the farmhouse and the young rooster has closed the gap. He is only about 5 feet behind the old rooster and gaining fast. The farmer, meanwhile, is sitting in his usual spot on the front porch when he sees the roosters running by. The Old Rooster is squawking and running as hard as he can. The Farmer grabs his shotgun and - BOOM - he blows the young rooster to bits. The farmer sadly shakes his head and says, 'third gay rooster I bought this month.' Moral of this story? Don't mess with the OLDER GENERATION, age, skill, wisdom, and a little treachery always overcome youth and arrogance!
It's the West Coast version... Tobacco spittin' contest,Bobbing for dentures in Creamed corn and a Pickled Egg eating contest.
Didn't the character Tommy Ivo played have one on the speedster he drove in that TV sit-com about the Roaring 20's?
When i was a kid {late 50's- early 60's} what i remember is the black guys having all that extra **** such as tails, fender skirts, reflectors and dual gl***packs exiting under the rear bumpers, nothing to make them faster but they sure sounded good....Usually they drove Caddy's, Olds and Pontiacs.....White guys had Chevy's, Fords or mopars, usually with plain steel or chromed wheels and exhaust cutouts {we used to call them "dumpers"} that usually was a piece of galvanized pipe welded in and a screw-on cap, just behind the front tires
You know, my son likes to keep the squirrel tales when he shoots a squirrel. Thumb tacks them to the wall as a sort of trophy. There was a time, about the 1920s and 1930s, when a lot of kids trapped rac****s and sold the pelts. Maybe it's nothing more than hunting kids hanging the tail on their antenna. I know my kid would do it. -Brad
My guess would be that it came from the "Roaring 20's" - from the kids all driving around junker T's with slogans painted on them. Then came a revival in the 50's when Disney came out with all the Davy Crocket movies and toys. My Crocket "****skin" hat was made of rabbit fur I think. But I only wore it when playing "Alamo" in the back yard! Gary
My roadster coat is German Fox ..... Phil and not Ursala Andrews I have a lap robe of BEAR People wore fur a lot before all this huggin' ****.
So there is no real meaning behind it... Just something that came up in conversation the other day and thought that the H.A.M.B. might have the answer... Thanks for all the replys.... -COS
All that jibber-jabber and no pictures? Here's the tail on my car. Everyone seems to dig it. I have people point to it on the road and give thumbs up all the time... maybe THAT is what it was about back then too.
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