Late 60's early 70's ....saved my snow shoveling/lawn mowing money up for about 6 months..went downtown to Kolker's Toy Store and bought a COX Shrike , a streamliner powered by a gas engined rear prop. First run out I let it off the tether and it smashed head on into a curb shearing off the engine at the fuel tank. I washed the fuel off it, put it back in the box and nervously brought it back to Kolker's to try and tell them it "came that way". The man behind the hobby counter took one look at it and said "c'mon son, tell me the truth...you broke it didn't you" ...with a shameful nod of my head I stared down at my shoes....the guy went into the back room and brought out a brand new one in the box and said "take better care of it this time." I couldn't believe it- told him I was sorry for lying and thanked him about a million times. It was one of those life's lessons that you never forget. . .
I'm going to add a couple more to my list: Horse drawn hay rides, the sounds of the horses hooves as they pull the wagon and the smell of the hay. Small mom and pop stores where customer service and a hello and thank you come with every purchase. jim h
Going to where AE Nugent Chevrolet stored the new Chevy models before they were officially released. This was in the Gilmore complex in the Fairfax district of L.A. that included the Pan Pacific Auditorium, Farmers Market, Pan Pacific Drive-in, Pan Pacific Theater, a bowling alley, Gilmore gas station and CBS Television City (on the former site of Gilmore Stadium).
Hey, Kool Aid! Oh, Yeah! Wacky Packages, elvis cards, Kiss(the band) cards, Godzilla cards. Watching Batman after school. Skyjackers with the little lights on the rear end. Plastic bannanna board skateboards to bust your ass on. Muraled vans. I was a kid in the 70s. Cheap muscle cars in the 80s....that my dad wouldn't let me buy. Riding in the '79 olds Cutlass looking out the T tops. My step mom traded her '72 Cuda for it?????????? Listening to the Cuda warming up in the carport before school. Riding all the way from SC to Fla in the sleeper above the driver in my uncle's rv. Sliding back and forth across the vinyl seat riding through the mountains. Making faces at the cars behind my grandmother's station wagon while sitting in the reverse seat. Those annoying Strawberry Shortcake commercials that you would sing all day after hearing. We would sing it to each other just to get someone else singing it. Watching CHIPs.
when i was 14,my parents had a good friend that was a salesman at the local Ford dealer.He took me with him when he did a dealer transfer about 50 miles away.The car we brought back was a 66 shelby Gt 350.That was the first time I thought I had died and gone to heaven.1964 seing the nascar greats running Fonda speedway a 1/2 mile dirt track in upstate NY,Fireball roberts sideways all the way down the back striaght.Getting my draft notice in 1970,and failling the medical twice.Can't remember why.Didn't think much about it until 20 years later,Then I came to feel guilty about not going when so many of my generation went and didn't come home.Still can't watch films or read about Nam.
I meant this to be a quiz. Who can identify the firearms with the guys who carried them? Who carried these:
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Alternators with external voltage regulators. That the ignition key could be pulled out of the ignition of a Corvair with it running (might be true for other makes/models as well...just vividly remember that this could be done with a Corvair) Banana seats and monkey hanging handle bars where normal.
My first time behind the wheel--at 3 years old! Fishtailing the VW got me grounded from driving until 5 yrs old.
Greenie Stickum Caps..and firing those plastic bullets at your sister Reflectors on Christmas tree lights Snakes those little black capsules you would light and would explode into black wriggly things Chasing fireflies until street light rule went into to effect Lionel train ads...knowing full well I would never see one Bactine and Mecurichrome would heal anything Civil Defense symbol on your car radio Woolworth always had a promtion for banana splits..with amounts from .01 to .49 in ballons..picke the ballon get the price. Never did hit the .01 Trying to be slick and listen to World Series in school with transistor radio..back when they were afternoon games Going to World Fair in NY Buying war stamps in school Resposiblity...when I torn up my dads car being stupid I had to make good, cost me a favorite 16ga shoutgun
1. ? 2. Lone Ranger 3. Steve McQueen 4. Rifleman 5. I remember the Derby but can't think of ? 6. Paliden ?
The dogs are, Rin tin tin And Lasie Edit: the only other dog I remember was White Fang on Soopy Sales. Oh, and Peetee on Our Gang
I'm 33 and I remember -Party Line Phones ----Dialing four digits for the local and on a rare occasion dialing 7 for the neighboring town
Bubble-Up, we can still buy it Wink-that tangy grapefruity soda...I kinda liked it old Pepsi Cola logo, before the swirled bottles Nesbitts Orange, can still buy it here, but it's about a 10 mile drive, but worth it...real cane sugar...yum On the far right is the Coca-Cola Co. soda called Simba, very short-lived, kind of a Sprite like soda...
The guns: Wyatt Earp - Buntline Special Lone Ranger - silver bullets Steve McQueen - "Wanted Dead or Alive" - mare's leg Chuck Connors - "The Rifleman" - Believe it or not, Chuck also played for the Boston Celtics and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Bat Masterson - the cane was the giveway No one's got the double-barrelled sawed-off yet, keep guessing.
Mountain Bars...we could get 'em here when I was a kid, but now are only available in the Northwest...and by mail. I get a case of 24 every year or so. The nice folks at Brown-Haley Candy Co. knew of my nostalgic love for the candy bars, so they found and sent me this old advertising poster from the 60's....very nice of them.... You have to be a geezer or geezette to remember the push bars for the screen doors at the local stores, so you didn't stick your hand through the screen....cool old advertising piece... best ever bath tub toy....Ideal Seaplane...wind 'er up and hope it doesn't smack you in your crank... 50 Cal. dummys from a B-17 ride I went on big chunk of shrapnel that would constantly bounce off my Dad's Sherman Tank in WWII....my paperweight to remember him by the chimes from my grandfather's Seth-Thomas clock still sounds like pure gold... all that's left from my car show poster from my Model A days...the rest rotted away over the past 43 years... the old Rochester Co. Coca-Cola thermometer that was in Dad's garage over 50 years ago... this guy greets me everyday....nothing says "fun" like taking a jet dragster and torching an old truck!!!!!!!! Look at that smile!!!! crazy memories of this place...Oct., 1967 when I was 17... the stories of the guys of the "Early Times Car Club" and George "Bushmaster" Schrieber and Roth's "Yellow Fang"....(for some other thread) Dad and I built this together (I watched) in 1957... Sometimes when walking around your garage and taking photos, it dawns on you how cool all your old stuff is....
Many of us had paper routes...around here, kids don't throw the newspaper anymore. In the mid 60's I threw the daily "Pasadena Star News" which was, then, an afternoon paper, except for the Sunday edition, which was early morning...real early. I'd have to be on the road by at least 5:30 AM or poeple would lose their minds. This guy named "Bob" would dump my 80-90 papers off every day and I'd fold them and put rubber bands around them, divide them up so one side of my handle bars wouldn't be too much different than the other regarding weight on my Schwinn Sting Ray and off I'd go. I didn't have the route in my neighborhood, so I had to ride about a mile or so before I'd throw my first paper. All the apartments had to have their stairs climbed, some people demanded that their papers be "porched", etc., etc. Lots of doubling back with the dead ends. So, that was 7 days a week, rain or shine, of course and about 8 miles round trip. The crappy part was good old "Bob" would "sell" me the 80-90 daily papers and the stinking rubber bands and then I'd have to collect the money from all my "customers" each month the $2.25 owed to me. If some old coot refused to answer the door, or had a big-assed dog that wouldn't let me in, the I'd have to "eat" their subscription. I was in business for myself at 13 or so years old. If I collected all the payments that I could, I'd make about 40-50 cents a day for my efforts. If I could't collect from someone, that was "tough shit" as "Bob" would say. One lady gave me a dime as a "tip"...she held it out to me over my head for a moment like I was supposed to do a trick, roll-over and bark or something. I really couldn't stand it, but I'm glad that I did it for about two years. I learned a lot about how good most folks were and how crappy a handful of the others were. Too bad kids around here don't get to do it anymore....it was more important to me than the money when I look back on it now. I guess everything looks better now...you remember the good stuff and brushoff the crappy part.... You have to learn responsibility somewhere and that was a good time for me... Many of you guys have exactly the same stories...I'm sure....
Once upon a time, you could go to your dealer and order a car exactly as you wanted it. I recall reading some years ago that in the early 60's someone calculated the number of possible combinations offered by Chevrolet on the full size line (body style variations, driveline combinations, trim levels, all of the equipment options, interior and exterior color choices, etc., etc.) and the total number was in the thousands. Now your choice with a particular model is: Do you want the silver, white, black or red one? Oh, and can we upgrade the wheels and tires for you? The manufacturers realized that they could separate the customer from more of his money by only offering option "packages". If you want a particular feature on your car, you'll also have to buy a bunch of other options that you couldn't care less about. The dealers (at least for the less expensive lines) don't want to screw with special orders ... they just want to move the iron out of their floor plan.
The Jalopy Journal
