I need some help from you guys! Im writing a paper for my psychology class about the connection between possessions and the memories that come from them! Of course i liaten to my dads stories about his old cars he had and it always sparks a good memory for him. I would love to know what your favorite memory is involving your favorite car! *please keep it clean lol* not sure my professor would want to know any uhem... details like that lol. Thanks so much!
Car Memories --As with many older guys, my most vivid and sweetest car memories are in the back seat of my first car. It was there I spent time getting to know my girlfriend and my first wife. In fact my first wife and I will be celebrating our 55<SUP>th</SUP>. wedding anniversary in a few weeks. Mom said it would never last ! --Yes, the details could be things to make a teacher blush. But all were things most of us learned while growing up and being entertained at the Drive Inn Movie Theater. There were other places we learned to know and love each other. Most kids had lovers lane and those special secret places in the woods or in a field. You may say this is dirty. Love and life are not dirty. Only those people who have dirty thoughts and do dirty deeds are dirty. --Some look at these teenaged games as nasty acts of sexual perversion. Some told us it would never last. But as we sit here together, we can remember details of that car, and others we rode in belonging to friends. Mine, a 1949 Dodge Coronet coupe, maroon with wide white wall tires and customized by me. My friends 1948 Chevy coupe, also maroon with wide white wall tires. Anothers green 1949 Oldsmobile 88 fastback. --Yes, there were other cars and other girlfriends. But my fondest memories are those with that gal who tricked me into marrying her at an age when I didnt know any better. By the way, just this summer, 2012, we rode in all of those cars with those same school kids, plus another good friends 1946 Ford convertible from our high school days. Who says we cant go home again? --More memories were working on my car hobby in the garage until wee hours of the night, my young wife bringing me meals and drinks to help keep up my strength for another rough day at the office. A few of her girlfriends asking her why she puts up with me out in the garage. Her answers were I know where he is. Where is your husband? Many of them were at bars or strip clubs, sometimes with wild women. --Days and evenings with friends working on their cars or in my garage playing with my toys. Sometimes drinking beer and sometimes bench racing of days gone by. I was there at the beginning of the hot rod craze. Saw racetracks and drag strips open and close. Always a spectator, never a racer. But old pictures like the thread about early trophy girls brings back many happy memories. Im trying to write a few words about my memories of the past. Yet I could write a book. And this is not even mentioning our motorcycle adventures, two million miles plus together. --Memories of my kids helping to work on cars and those long drives together to go on picnics, camping, and just site seeing together. The endless years of cruise-ins and car shows, swap meets, and crawling through real junk yards together, all happy memories. We actually scheduled summer RV vacations around car shows, swap meets, and license plate hunting in salvage yards. Not many wives will wander through the weeds among spiders and snakes, and junk yard dogs, helping to remove rusty, greasy, old parts. --Fast forward to the time we adopted our first grandbaby. And the first time my wife left me to take care of him while I was in the driveway working on my 1955 Chevy station wagon. Son Steven had already taken interest in my other old cars. My wifes fondest story is telling how, at not much over one year old, he walked between our 77 Vette and our 39 Ford in the garage carrying a very large screwdriver. Hed heard me say I needed a screwdriver to fix something while in the driveway. She was amazed how he carried it upward so as to not scratch either car which were very close together . My memories were of how I panicked later after she told me! --Getting back to that time my wife left me to baby sit our 1 ½ year old newly adopted grandson. There was no interior in the station wagon. I was busy with a project installing something under the dash to the firewall. Like the caring loving husband I was I agreed to watch the little rug rat. I tossed a couple of those old padded moving blankets on the bare floor, added some toys, and tossed little Steven inside to play. As I continued working installing some tiny nuts to some tiny bolts, running from under the dash to outside from the firewall, Steven reached up from under the dash and held those little nuts in place. At 1 1/2 years old, our fourth child helped me with his first car project. Now 23, he still stops by the house now and then to help on that same station wagon. Yes, its full of memories.
We still have the truck I fixed up in high school (late 70s) and my wife's first car she had when we met in college. So I get a lot of car-triggered memories every time I go into the garage. I still smile when I see the little sticker that our oldest son put on the rear view mirror in my truck when he was still in day care, over 20 years ago
I see an 67 Plymouth Barracuda at a car show and it brings back fond memories of my road rally days in the late 60's. 70 Plymouth Duster driving flat out up Highway 1 to Ely Minnesota and more Road rally days. Saab 95's brings back memories of my begins running Auto -Xs including rolling an one week old car at Donnybrooke in 1973. Bugeye sprites - vintage racing, Fox body Mustangs - SCCA road racing. Ford Moterhomes - the infamous Moterhome from HELL. and the list goes on with both good and bad memories. Being mid 60's in age I have lot of great auto memories but the best on is: in my senior I and a attractive female friend were watching the submarine races on the Mississippi from Cherokee heights. It was below 0 out and had to keep the Studebaker running. Well on Monday my Chemistry teacher gave a lecture on the dangers of frostbite and carbon monoxide. Sitting in the first seat in the center row I cant imagine how my left frostbite ear and a hickey on the right side of neck might have prompted his lecture.
Do a search with (stories) in the title and hundreds of threads come up, enough to keep you reading for days.
submarine races on the Mississippi I'm getting old! I had to give this some serious thought. I've been up and down the Mississippi and couldn't figure out how in the world anyone could see submarines racing! We had a 1960 Austin Healey Bug eyed Sprite. Ran great after I swapped the engine for a 327 SBC. And I also have motorhome stories about how I customized my 1977 Dodge Concord, adding duel Monti Carlo headlights and 75 Chevy truck parking lites. Drove that sucker to Wisc. and Minn many summers. .
After the movie PORKYS we were in Des Moines and went to a Porkys drive in for a large cruise nite. Still have the Porkys decal on the windshield of the 55 Chevy wagon. May be spelled Porkies???? Don't think it had anything to do with the movie.
Great story! My wife and myself spent some times in the back of my "51 Vicky and left early a few times from the drive in theater(not enough privacy) and that was almost 51 years ago. Of all our friends we are the only ones still married to each other. Raising kids I never much money but we always had "neat cars".Station wagons with mags and duels, custom vans, and as I made more money, two cars and one was usually a muscle car, '68 SS396 Chevelle, '64 Corvette etc. She was a carhop when I met her and still looks as "foxy" to me now as she did then! Thanks for the memories!
Interesting. George Lucas's American Graffiti was inspired by his sociology class about animal breeding rituals. That's why there are various scenes like when Debby has to pay for the booze: "Ah that's not fair! The guy's supposed to pay"
I guess the one car that stands out the most in my memory was Dad's 1960 Plymouth Belvedere. It was his third Plymouth; he'd bought a 1935 4-door sedan when he got back from the war (he drove Army trucks in Europe before he ever drove a car - he told them he could drive because he was an infantry rifleman and figured anything else was better), then a grey 1951 Concord 4-door after marrying Mom in 1950 (that was the car I came home in when I was born and the one they rushed me to the hospital in when I had to get my stomach pumped). But the 1960 was the first one I saw the day it was brand-new. Dad got home after dark, so we saw it by the light of the moon and the porch light. He had backed it into the driveway, so the fins gave me my first impression, and it was glorious. Gleaming black paint, chrome everywhere, fins as high as my head. It was another 4-door sedan, but with that shark-mouth grill and those FINS!!, a push-button transmission, and the weirdest speedometer I'd ever seen mounted in a horizontal space-age pod atop the dashboard, it didn't seem to matter that it had two doors too many to be truly cool. Dad ended up hating that car. What a lemon! It was the last Plymouth, in fact the last Chrysler product he ever bought. The engine, a slant-six, had to be replaced before he'd had the car a month. The windows kept falling out of their tracks when you rolled them down; the right rear door was particularly bad. Once when he took some friends and me out to a Boy Scout camp, the dash wiring caught on fire on him on his return trip alone out in the middle of nowhere. On cold nights in the winter, he had to go out and start it every couple of hours or it wouldn't start in the morning and he'd have to call the service station for a jump to get to work. But I kept my love of finned cars. He thought I was absolutely insane when I bought a 1960 Sport Fury many years later (wish I still had that one).
I keep coming back to this post to see what other interesting stories of our pasts are added. You and I may not be wealthy but we are among the few who are rich! Do to my own stupidity and this old car desease I have so many unfinished projects my kids will go wild junking my stuff. We had to keep up with those neighbors, the Jones'. Had RV's, boats, every old car that came along when I had an extra dollar. Working six or more days a week 12 hours many times, camping, boating, motorcycles, going to car and bike events, left little time for actual projects to get finished. But I don't regret one minute of it. Since I discovered this HAMB site, I relive many years messing with old cars and young women. That was my answering machine message while our youngest was in school after we retired to Florida. Teachers, friends, and the Avon lady loved it----------- " Out lookin at old cars and young women. Be right back. Wife won't let me have either !" We still go back home to visit our best man and woman at our wedding and theirs. Still see the guys who helped me on my old rods and I helped them on some of the same cars they have today. We all lived in the 50's and still do. Yes, many are dead or divorced. But those closest are still alive and kickin! Heaven don't want us and Hell is full! Many of us have actually seen the light. We know. Life is short. Make memories and enjoy the moment.
There are so very many favorite memories in my old cars, but one comes to the front of my mind instantly. My dad gave me his disassembled 1931 Dodge Brothers business coupe when I turned 15 years old. I worked long days and nights putting that puzzle together. There were no books available for such a different car, so a lot of the reassembly on my part was trial and error. When I turned 16, my parents got me a 6-volt battery for the car since I had just gotten my driver's license. I put that battery in the car and cranked it over. Immediately, the garage filled up with black smoke. My mom came running out of the house yelling, "Fire! Fire!" I burst out laughing not only because of what she thought had happened, but also because of the fact that my 1931 Dodge was running under it's own power. WOW!!! What a day. I still have that car. John
I'm kinda stealing this thread. Perhaps SJLippoldt, her professor, and the rest of the class can study me. It's true, once we stopped going to the drive-in movies in central Illinois we stopped having babies. In fact we had to adopt our fourth many years later. Occasionally there is a special movie near in central Florida. Guess we better not go!
Every time I see a 55 Chevy Nomad, I kick myself for selling mine (which was my first car) 30 years ago. I never should have sold it. I remember a time when a lot of baby boomers (the same guys that pay 60 thousand dollars for a classic car today) got rid of their Detroit Iron and bought Toyotas and Datsuns. Or how chrome reverse rims and metal flake steering wheels were passe. The old guys are trying to hold on to some of their younger days and for the young guys, it's a whole new ball game for them (playing the "Fonz"). Car guys will move on to something else and this lifestyle will fade away again.
Yea, but guys like you and me will go to our graves dreaming about that red 55 Chevy Nomad that got away! Or the yellow and black 56 Nomad i passed up because it looked like a bumblebee. And that red and white 57 Chevy 2-door HT with skirts and continental kit that the guy's wife sold after he put it in the garage and told me it was mine, I can pick it up after vacation.
This isn't the best but it is the oldest car related memory I have. When I was little we stopped someplace for a picnic and my father left his pipe on the running board of the car. When we got home, he was surprised to find it still on the running board. I must have been 3 or 4 years old which would place it in 1954 or 55.
Isn't it amazing how were remember small things of when we were little kids? I remember going from central Illinois to Portland, Oregon in our 1934 Chevy 4-door so dad could work in the shipyards as a carpenter during WWII. I remember sitting in large anthills with my little brother, I remember walking barefoot on sharp lava rocks, I remember lots of grape vineyards and much rain. I remmeber dad didn't drive and mom's left arm was very sunburned. I also remember rodeos and old western towns. I remember riding back home a year later in that same 1934 Chevy because the family hated it out there. I couldn't have been more than 2 or 3.
My best memory involving a car is when I got run over by a taxi and having the cute girls at school ask me if I was ok,when half of my face was gone...Ahhhh time does fly by.
i remember going to work every day eith my dad in the shop when i was like 7 rolling arpund the shop in an office chair listening to the beach boys! One of my fav memories
This is wierd. I just came in from the garage and found this thread. I'm 50 years old. My oldest brother was 20 years older than I.
Sorry, darn computers. I'm not sure what happened during my last post. Anyway, my oldest brother was 20 years older than I. I say "was" because he died about 3 years ago as have several of the guys his age that were my mentors. Today, I started a build I've been wanting to do for a long time. It's going to be a tribute to him and my mentors. While I was working, I kept thinking about how many things these guys taught me. I can sometimes hear him saying "You know better than that, do it right!" Seeing that this is for a pysc paper, I'll mention that I'm wiping tears as I type this. When I'm building a motor, I always think of my brother, Don. When I'm working on front suspension, like today, I think of Tony, the man that taught me how to replace ball joints, tie rods, pack bearings, etc. That's one reason I like to spend time alone in the garage, the memories. Hope this helps.
I have had many car memories over the years. The following was my most recent that I wrote about last week to some family and friend. Spent a good part of today cruising around one last time doing my shopping an errands with an old friend. Later in the day he hitched a ride to his new home in Pennsylvania. My friend has been with our family for a good 20 years. He was found in a barn in the Adirondacks, made his way to Rochester and over the years became a reality to ideas and a dream I had. He created excitement for my wife and kids. My grandchildren got to know him and affectionately called him "Mater" (must have been his color). He traveled with me to cruise nights and car shows. We made several trips to the Detroit Dream Cruise and he even got a cameo appearance on Goggle maps a few years ago. Wherever we went we had fun and he got me introduced to some great people. My friend was my 37 Chevy Custom built Kingcab pickup. His reincarnation started back in 1992 with some rough drawings and a re-work diecast model of what I had in mind. With the help and encouragement from family and friends we began a creative journey that lasted through family and work commitments, our children's college and several design changes. Even in the end to me he remained a work in progress. This past year after he gave up his plates to his sister a Chopped 37 Chevy Sedan who returned home after 11 years, he spent more time sitting in the garage and was only being driven when I would bring home the dealer plate. As much as I wanted to keep him I knew he needed to be on the road. Last week a gentleman from PA and I had a nice talk on the phone about "Mater" who I had listed on E-Bay. He must have liked what I said because with 6 seconds left in the auction he placed his only bid meeting my reserve and winning him the truck. When he came to pick up "Mater" he was extremely pleased with his purchase and is excited to provide "Mater" a new home. As hard as it was to finalize the deal, I really don't have regrets. "Mater" was a good friend. He helped me learn a lot, allowed me to be creative and when I was behind the wheel he provided me with years of enjoyment and pride.
LOL on the frost bite! I guess the reason that I chose cars as a possesion to study with people, is because of all of the memories that I have from my own childhood. I swear I still to this day LOVE the smell of a shop. My Dad gave me some of the greatest memories a child could ask for. I learned how to say my ABC's backwards in a shop, and I still remember them today! Cars become a part of most people that appreciate them. A classic car of personal choice will hit the spot and bring up so many memories that you wouldn't trade for the world. I love reading al the stuff on this message board, so I had to see if I could use a few stories from some great people, to bring more insight to my paper. If my Dad did not have the profession and the interests that he does, I do not think we would be as close as we are today. Something that we both love, me because of his influence, and him because of his dad. I can't wait to read more stories from this post! Thanks so much everyone!
Some people say I talk and write too much. It's true. But I have so many memories, good and bad, and so little time left to share. Most are car and motorcycle stories because we truly did ride and play with wheels, two and four, most of our lives. It's been my pleasure to add a few memories to perhaps help, or at least give you a few laughs or tears. If I stop talking and writing others may think I'm dead. I plan on going to my grave talking. Unlike politicians and lawyers, the things I say are the truth. Anyone who doesn't like what I write doesn't have to read it. Anyone who doesn't like what I have to say can walk away.
If I got upset easily I wouldn't ever comment or post anything. Sometimes I write things that annoy others and others do the same. I'm here to learn, share, and have a good time. I can't remember the last time I got upset or hated someone. I've outlived the few enemies I had.
Some good stories of car-related childhood memories. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=478891&highlight=fondest+memories Our memories are almost exclusively interwoven with people and things. Cars especially, are such a big part of our life, and are related so closely with going places and doing things...often as a group...that many of our memories are tied to them. Especially true in times past, when cars were more of a "new" thing...a novelty...and doing almost anything car-related was an event and an adventure. Today, it seems to be more or less taken for granted and commonplace. Many of us though, still have a great appreciation for how a particular kind of car can add excitement to our lives and those of our family and friends and folks we meet along the way. The object and our common interest in it brings us together. And even though I'd probably still wanna drive an old hot rod even if I was the last person on earth...the very best part in sharing the experience. Good luck with your assignment!
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