things have changed

how about the original superman, with louise lane and jimmy olson? great ceaser's ghost!

 

How about church keys? Can openers for those born after pull tab tops.

 

I had a friend of mine order a 1962, I think, Cvevy Biscayne 409 the 2 dr post body and ordered 6 cylinder badges be on the car. And that is what he got.

 

howdy doody?

 

It was pretty common in Texas up though the mid 60's at least. Those step bumpers that look or looked somewhat homemade were turned out by shops in different parts of the country and each shop turned out a bumper that was quite similar but not the same as those from other parts of the country.

Also Many new car dealers had those chrome name tags that they put on the trunk lids of new cars that they sold.
There are still hundreds of cars and trucks in Central Texas with "Gloff Motors, Clifton,Texas" on the trunk lid and you would think it was a huge operation while it was pretty much a three man operation with one sedan and one pickup on the lot at one time.

Some things we forget. That $100.00 for materials for a red paint job probably took more hours of work to pay for than a $500.00 for materials paint job does now.

A car in the 50's often needed a valve job about every 35 or 40 thousand miles an 100,000 miles on a car with the original engine was a major milestone that might even be noted in a small town paper. My wife's 85 Cad has 212,000+ mile on it and as far as I know has never had a head or pan off. She drives 30K a year just going to work and back.

Some things were just better or seemed a lot better. Going to the drug store with my grandmother or mom for a nickle coke on special occasions or Making that special shopping trip once a month to the same town and same distance that I now drive daily to work.

It may have been mentioned before but one of the thing I miss that we did every fall was slip down to the car dealers in town in the days before "NEW CAR DAY" and try to sneak a peak at those new models that we had seen come in covered up on the convoy truck. Now even a lot of special models just show up at the dealers whenever. The only time I have even stopped at a new car dealer to check out a car in the past three years was last summer when the local Cad dealer had a 2009 CTS V show up in a hot red color. 185+mph with 4 doors. In 1961 I knew what color every Pontiac Catalina Ventura coupe in King county wa was and how many had four speeds. Dad and I made the rounds of the Pontiac dealers every time I went for a weekend with dad either before or after going to the drags or a car show.

At 18 I worked as a box boy at the local Safeway for 1.25 an hour after a hell of a lot of hours I got a 10 cent raise. Out of that I paid Union dues to be able to hold my job. That hour of work bought a hamburger, coke and fries or a bit over three gallons of gas. Minimum wage here in town still buys a burger, fries and drink for about an hrs of work or three gallons of gas at todays price. Some things don't actually change, just the numbers are switched to reflect the times.

When I was in high school in the mid 60's there were about 15 full service gas stations in this town of 5000. Most of them were full service and sold tires and did work that went from flat repair and lube jobs to full engine overhauls. A lot of my friends pumped gas and changed tires for pay that ranged from .75 to 1.50 an hr with use of the hoist in slow periods thrown in as a fringe benefit. Now there are enough gas pumps in a half mile stretch to fuel 150 cars at the same time but not one full service station in town. Aslo then we had three Dealerships that sold a combination of Ford, Chev, Buick, Pontiac, Dodge and Chrysler. Now we have no new car dealers and no used car dealers that I personally would deal with.

We actually have more auto parts houses than we did in the 60's but one of those just sold and I am not sure what the buyers are doing with it.

Things I don't miss. 1000 mile oil changes, 10,000 mile tune ups on my work car. I'll do that on the hot rod but I like the work car to take me to work without trouble and not need work that keeps me from working on the hot rods.



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I bet you would love to hear this one open..it's never been opened

 

I liked that Superman, the crook would empty a six shooter into his chest and he would just stand there, but after the gun was empty and the crook threw it at his head he always ducked.

 

Yep and I was on the road for 15 years as a mfg rep for a independent shirt company.

 

Galvanized steel trash cans. Man how many have you seen rusted out?

 

And the lid always blew away, so you put a brick on it. Now my big plastic jobber falls over and trash goes everywhere.

 

Then you trip over the stupid thing.

 

And of course, from another thread, Nobody ever just cruises anymore. Least not around here.

 

and you knew the name of the cow your milk came from..and when you got a little bigger you got to carry the pail down to the milk room, and turn the crank on the separator.

 

I remember that place! grew up in santa rosa. i remember cloverdale too. man, that place sure has changed!

 

Glass milk bottles with the cardboard stopper.
polio shots
Keds and PF Flyers
Transistor radios with AM only.
3 channels of Black and white TV
The Micky Mouse Club.
77 Sunset Strip and Kookie and that car.

 

When you sang God bless America and it meant something.

 

Vacuum wipers - mash the gas and pull out to pass, quit just when you need 'em most. Good old days? I'll take the here and now.

 

so thats pre-light pollution and post-light pollution.

 

In '67, I purchased a new GTO and you would get a stuff Tiger the symbol of the GTO. The car is long gone still have a Tiger.

CRUISER

 

as stated eariler, car dealers used to have nice ( if you could call them that ) chrome name plates with the dealers logo that they put on the rear of all new cars. Now if you get anything it's a printed chrome sticker.

 

i like to think im one........i have never questioned my integrity
but if you work at a stealership like i do people think they are getting raped anyway

 

it was nicer before the aclu existed
a cross meant something and it wasnt offensive as with the american flag
just like the first desert storm with the yellow ribbons everywhere, you cant do that now someone would complain about it

 

Sure you can, this is America, act American, My truck has a " MY SON IS A US SOILDER" sticker in the back window, it's crazy how many people tell me to tell him thank you. The soilders today get treated better than they did in the 70's thats a change for the better!!

 

pagers. I used to have to pull over to a pay phone to give a call back. Then there was cell phones, but none of them had a camera in them. Dial up internet access. Then I got high-speed cable for the computer that was big enough to have it's own desk. Now I just cruise around the house with a wireless laptop and a cup of coffee. Don't read the paper anymore either. I get the AP news as soon as it happens. By the time the evening news comes on the T.V. there's not a single story I haven't already read somewhere on the net.

magazines. I used to anxiously wait for a new issue. I probably spent more a month on them than I do my current internet fees and I'd rather read the H.A.M.B. anyway! Things have changed a little in the past 10-12 years.

 

We used to get DAV key chains for our cars. The program ended in the 70's

 

vent windows(repeat-sorry), bench seats, manual trannies, hong kong fooey, captain caveman, grape ape.

 

To the origional poster,

You mean a bumper like this?

 

I wish I could find a pic on one but they show up on trucks from time to time on ebay and cl both. They were used up into the mid 80's iirc as I was working for a dealer and we had to take them off sometimes when a truck was dealer transferred in from another dealer with one already in place. I remember my dad also buying a late 70's Ford truck new that had one as well. Usually the letters were 1 1/2 to 2 inches tall and the name was engraved across the whole bumper.

 

Thats IT !!!!

 

get a piece of oak, make a paddle and drill it full of speed holes ! works well !