Penny candy. Building the models Red Baron and "Ohio" George Montgomery's '33 Willys Gasser. Mighty Moe, Jimmy Jet, G.I. Joe, slot-cars, Slinky. SuperCar, Super Man, SuperBall...from Wham O. Loud jacked-up cars with black-painted steel wheels, chrome lug-nuts, and bias-ply blackwalls. Yelling to the driver to "Lay a patch"...and they'd do it. No tattoos except on some old guys. AM radio...580..."THE BIG 8!" Grandpa and Grandma, my uncle and his friends and their sexy girlfriends. and their cool cars and music. "Caaaaaandy...Candy baby, Caaaaaandy...Candy.
Filling the living room with that orange track and watching those redline cars shoot out of one house only to be sped up even more from a two story house! Cracker Jacks with real toys. Rock fights. Saving Pepsi bottles to collect Wacky Packages, Odd Rod stickers on your notebooks. Those old crank pencil sharpeners in class. Percolator coffee pots. Full Service. Walkie Talkies that pissed off truckers when you stepped on their frequencies. Slingshots. Funny Sunday funnies. Uncensored Bugs Bunny toons. Sigh.
Going down the San Diego Freeway (405) in the San Fernando Valley with my cousin in his grandmother's one-owner '55 Chevy post 2 door, seeing how fast the old 235 Thriftmaster and IronGlide would go. At around 95 or so mph on the speedo I called out to him, "Danny watch out! A Highway Patrol car!" "Where?" he asks... "Over there," I replied, as I pointed out the windshield. "The one pulling away from us!"
The BIG 8 (CKLW) RULED back in the day... That was my favorite AM top 40 station back then. I sure miss some of the tunes they used to play....
i still have and use both of these every year, the tree came from sears (when it was still sears & robucks) i think my grandparents bought it around the early 60's
Signing up to sell door to door from the adverts on the back of Comics. Christmas cards in the fall, flower seeds in the spring, getting paid in camping gear! And no worries over being out of your neighborhood, or walking alone, while still in grade school. Riding a bicycle across town to the hills with a .22 across the handlebars and no one cared. Wearing Sears hiking boots to school to break them in. They had a pen light in one boot pocket and a pen knife in the other. No one worried about it. Playing "Mumbly Peg" during recess, no one got hurt, and no one cared. The original uncensored "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe........." And no one got hurt feelings or tried to sue the school. Sitting in my first car that I got when I was twelve to read, a 47 Chrysler New Yorker is more comfortable than any sofa I have ever owned. Driving a Cushman Mailster on two wheels for the entire block, and never tipping over. U-Control model aircraft, flown on the school grounds after class, and no one cared. Driving Go-Carts and Mini-Bikes on the street, and no one cared. Calling the draft board to ask what "1H" meant. Buying a 57 Chevy two door post with a 283 for $75 because you were pretty sure your gal would "Come Across" in it. Then selling it for $100 after it blew a head gasket on the way up a hill for that "Hot Date". Home made Skate Boards with steel wheels and a handle on the front. Balloon tire bicycles. "Kick Back" two-speed bicycles. Politely hearing out the W.W. I vet down the street as he complained that "you young folk don't understand how much freedom you are losing", in about 1964! Sadly coming to understand exactly what he meant, around 1974. Being certain he was right, by 1984. Being the only kid in school NOT impressed by the Beetles. Playing with the bones of an Indian your scoutmaster accidentally dug up while loading his truck with gravel from the foothills. And no one got excited about it. Looking for arrowheads, and not worrying about being arrested for taking them home. Politicians with listed phone numbers! Honest cops who were more interested in keeping us safe than finding an excuse to issue a ticket. Not needing any type of "License" to get a job. Measuring the length of the black stripes left at every intersection each morning. Yea, I could go on too.
I remember the Apollo Comand Module model kit in a box of Corn Flakes when I was living in Warrawong, N.S.W. Australia back in the late '60's... BP or Shell stations at the time were giving away cardboard cutouts of the Apollo Lunar Lander that you could assemble... Wow, that was a long time ago. Thanks for that memory!! Wish I had a time machine so I could go back to that time of my life............
I just turned 37 last week so some of these may seem a little "new" to some of you. Mom trading in her Blue Chip Stamps for a View Master set for me. The awesome Army/Navy surplus in Westminster my Dad and I used to go to all the time. Pup 'N' Taco. Polaroid Instant Cameras. The nearly brand new mini bike with the leopard print seat my Dad bought for me from a yard sale. Saturday morning cartoons.........Tom Slick, Wacky Racers, George of the Jungle, Speed Buggy and Super Chicken, you knew the job was dangerous when you took it. Walking to the Thriftys down the street and getting a double scoop cone for a quarter. The old A&W drive in in Westminster. Sneaking into the den to watch Johnny Carson three hours after I was put to bed. That jar of blue disinfectant with all the combs in it at the barber shop. The avacado tree in my Grandparents back yard I used to climb and the awesome guacamole Grandpa made for the yearly Thanksgiving & Christmas family get-togethers. Nik-L-Nips. Sixth grade camp...........we pulled up, the doors on the bus opened and it started snowing.........for a kid from So-Cal who had only seen snow once before it was awesome. Playing with cap guns that looked real and no one thought anything about it. My Grandparents house directly across the street from Bob Longpre Pontiac in Westminster, Ca.
and dont forget all of those cool tex avery cartoons[tom and jerry] i still watchem on utube.most of them got banned from tv too.
My favorite Tom and Jerry cartoon was and still is "Rock a bye baby" That one is a classic that still cracks me up!
Mazooma, those squirt guns just sent me back 40 years. When I was in Jr.High, had a math teacher who kept a squirt gun in the top drawer of his desk that he would nail kids with when they nodded off or were being a little smartassed. I still remember his name. He also played a little pro football with the Bears so nobody messed with him.
Growing up I remember... Being at an inside car show in Asbury Park, seeing my 1st set of "gas" flames on a candy apple paint job, and hearing "Stroke" by Billy Squire blasted on the overheads as I cut down the aisle! Oh yeah, I was on top of the world!
when you paid tax.....you got the tax coupons or stamps......S & H green stamps or T V stamps.....going to Micky D's getting a hamburger and fries and a coke for less than a buck........necker knob's.........
who knew at the time that this parking lot could be a popular car show today...just old "daily drivers"....our family's all had 'em.... "White Front"...for us Southern Californians when Sears was too "high brow"...
Not car related, but catching horned toads in the field across from Bells amusement park in Tulsa. And going to Bells was a big deal.
my moms Comet wagon (the "vomit")...painted at Earl Scheib for $14.99 on a one day special for Valentine's Day.....$14.99!!!!!!
good old earl, they had 6 or 7 places in the san fernando valley . still a couple around or maybe its just the signs are still up.
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Oh brother, back in the day I was a WWII soldier deep in enemy territory, or James Bond, or Napoleon Solo, or On dawn patrol with my ear shattering bazooka (all time favorite). And I did not collect baseball cards. Martian Attack or Dinosaur Attack were my favorites. I had all these. Little by little they would vanish as my Mom realized how twisted I was becoming. Slim
I remember when the sentence for DUI involved having to pour out your beer at the side of the road and a stern warning to drive straight home. If the officer was thirsty, the beer may be confiscated instead. This is going to be one of the all time greatest HAMB threads. I remember most everything posted. Thanks Larry!
Making my own toys. Bow and arrows, slingshots, 'frisbys out of can lids before the name was even coined, boomerangs that didn't come back, ...... Toys I made for myself that I still have.
The Jalopy Journal
