Here's another: In-pack cigarette coupons in Old Gold and Raleigh cigarettes. The coupon schemes worked liked the trading stamps programs: save them up and you could redeem them for merchandise in catalogs issued by the cigarette company. The joke of the day was that if you smoked those brands long enough, your next-of-kin could redeem the coupons for a coffin when you died of lung cancer. I also remember F.W.Woolworth "dime" stores. Thom McAn Shoe stores and Robert Hall clothing stores were subsidiaries of Woolworth and were gone by the early 70's ... Woolworth closed their U.S. stores not long after.
The one I used to go to as a kid had grease 1/4" thick on the walls and orange and yellow "laundromat" type chairs to sit in while you waited. I'd kill for a bucket of that stuff right now.............. .
Throwing snowballs at cars and hiding in the hedges. Riding our new Huffy Stingrays in the snow in Seattle of all places, those "slicks" on the back didn't work too well. Slot cars, The new Sears Pool Table, Breaking my buddy's leg and watching him hobble around all summer in a body cast. Hot Wheels, Tootsietoys, Matchbox cars, Model cars and learning how to paint them. Helping Dad work on the car, or the neighbors lawn mower, or outboard. Fishing in Puget Sound in a 14' aluminum boat with the crazy neighbor guy Frank. Going to our Grandparents and chasing the barn cats, all the while doing what Grandpa told us not to do, even tho he knew we would do it anyway. Oh yea, good times.
Remember when movies on a Saturday afternoon usually consisted of "science fiction" or "horror" movies. I remember when we mistakenly ended up with some movie that was too mushy and every time there was a kissing scene I'd let out one of my patented huge belches. The audience was loving it, but not the big usher with the foot-long flashlight...who threw me and my buddies out. Anyways, enough about me and my talents... All the movies at the theater and the really old ones that ran on TV on "Chiller" and "Thriller" were scary stuff. BUT....not much gore, blood and all that 1980's slasher stuff. Just good old fashioned scary tension and all of waiting for something to leap into the scene and scare the crappola out of us...man, I still love all those great flicks....real fright is created by suspense... "The Thing From Outer Space"...thats James Arness, from "Gunsmoke"! this one still gives me the creeps!!!! Steve McQueen........... So bad, it's good........ That's Leslie Neilsen on the left "The Naked Gun" comedy
I don't relish the memory, but since you brought it up 61 chevy; being poor, doing the chores, slopping the hogs, milking cows late and early twice a day, and thinking bread and milk was a great supper.
Buying 3 gallons of gas and a pack of Luckys (Lucky Strike cigarettes for you young guys) for a buck!
Mom and her green stamps....bumper jacks and if you did it right they would ratchet all the way down on there own.......blowing up models you did not like anymore with blackjack firecrackers..........digging holes in the dirt garage floor and watching uncle Mick pull in and drop that 56 Chevy right front wheel in to the frame, run like hell and hide in the pigeon coupe..........riding for teaberry ice cream in my friends sisters 63 SS Impala, she was hot and could throw a mean gear in that 4-speed.......collecting soda bottles for refunds.......checking out the suicide knobs on the steering wheels of cars in the parking lots........riding to church in my older brothers 56 Chevy and he would take the collection money for gas and cruise around, then have me run in for a church paper to prove we went ......hot nights no A/C just a fan...... collecting lightning bugs......building 20" sting ray bikes......balloons or baseball cards on the spokes.......wheelstands from pole to pole.......iceskating on the river with coats open for sails and the ice moving up and down and cracking......bali-hai wine.....man this could go on and on
IT'S THE KID FROM "ROAD WARRIOR"! I remember going to the drive-in to watch "On Any Sunday" for a buck. And dad bitching about how prices had gone up since the last time he went... Dad showing me how to rebuild a 2hp Briggs and Stratton...and the first time I started one I had done myself. My uncle giving us a basket case Sunbeam Alpine and me sitting in it dreaming I was Maxwell Smart. (Missed it by that much...) Giving away my Mini-Trail 50 to make room for the XR-75... My first real "BMX" bike...that I picked out of the Sears Christmas Catalog. My dad cutting "swords" out of old steel plate for me and my friends! My first arc weld...and the green bakelite knob you used to adjust the "buzz box" amperage. Watching the last men landing on the moon. Waiting for one of those weird coastal storms to hit so I might get KSJO on the radio...and the one night KOME came in loud and clear! KOME bumper stickers. Driving on the beach in Capitola.
In the Detroit area...Bozo the Clown, Milky the Clown, Ricky the Clown, Jingles, Jerry Booth, Poopdeck Paul, Captain Jolly, Rita Bell, Bill Kennedy.
Johnny seven gun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPhZsauluXM johnny express truck http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEvOhnDdy64
...being sent to the store for a still warm loaf of sunday bread and not being able to resist eating the end crust on the way home.In trouble but worth it..I can still smell it....
the eight track skipping tracks in the middle of My Shirona, 100w booster eq-s, makin stingrays into bmx bikes.
filling apples with just the right length nails and then sitting them out in the street, and waiting. being sent to my room for a whole saturday and watching my friends playing in there yard from my window.
My Grandfather would make a huge pan of popcorn, put it in a brown paper sack, pour butter and salt on it, cinch the opening together and shake it up real good, throw it in his car and we were off to the drive-in!
1971 - Being taken to the girlfriend's house to meet her mother, whom I was told worked for Ralph Nader. When she heard that I drove a hot rodded VW, she got v. upset and insisted (as in under no uncertain terms) that I used her daughter's car for when the young lady and I went out... ...a brand new 1971 Pinto!
Yeah, if you got your ass kicked at school, you got your ass kicked at home later...Mom didn't sue the school or other parents.
Going to Robert Hall to buy a suit for a special family event... ...later, going to Zachary All for a cheap sport coat ($30 in 1975).
Some of this relates just to the Detroit / Dearborn crowd,.... Sky King Death Valley Days ( Brought to you by 20 mule team Borax) The Rifleman Wagon train Milky the clowns magic words,....... Twin Pines ! WKMH / WKNR "Keener 13" The BIG 8 CKLW ! (who can forget 20-20 News !) http://www.detroitradioflashbacks.n...o.80.Tommy.Shannon.Air.Check.C.K.L.W.1965.mp3 http://www.detroitradioflashbacks.net/flashbacks/radiostations/am800/Cklw_20_20_News.mp3 Saunders Confections,.. in Dearborn (loved those Hot Fudge Sundas) Hudson, Sears, & "Monkey" Wards Toy departments before Christmas. Ford Motor Co. "Family day" at the DPG and Design center in Dearborn for the Employees family's Soupy Sales,....... White Fang & Black Tooth.
The sound of my dad's 327 Chevy in his 33 Dodge when he passed someone.... The sound of the 4brl opening, I couldn't see over the dash, only the gauges. The sound, and the climbing speedometer, I was hooked!
Riding in my fathers Pontiac Safari wagon that he paid $50 for. It had no carpet and huge holes in the floor. 389 with no muffler and no heater or de-froster. I remember getting caught in a rain storm and I was holding my feet up to keep them from getting wet and my dad kept wiping the inside of the windshield with the back of his hand, still couldn't see the road. I miss the car and him even more. Times will never be the same. This thread makes me bummed.
The Jalopy Journal
