Playing cards and clothespins in an effort to make the bicycle the "hottest" sounding one. Later, picking up playing cards and clothespins from all over the street. Dad, who had a used car lot coming home with car surprises- the 56 Chevy convertible with 3x2 carbs, the 57 dual carb fury, the 59 corvette, the coral 59 tbird convertible for mom. Wish we still had them all, including mom and dad. Dad complaining every time he bought a Ford with the interceptor engine. Going wholesale car shopping on Saturday mornings and to the weeknight auctions with dad. The Veterans Auto Parts wrecking yard calendar behind the desk at Lee's Auto Exchange.
I remember in High School when we were driving playing FREEZE OUT in the winter. I had a convertible so I could win that.
Setting the points with the same match book you used to stop the vent windows from whistling..Gas wars ending at 19.9 a gallon and Heet in a can to stop gasline freeze in the winter..A burn out with studded snow tires and the sound of the studs hitting the inner wheel wells when they came out!!
walking to the country store with a quarter --getting a coke & a bag of chips & getting another coke for the walk home
Never knew about that one. Knew a guy that could put a dime in the coin slot & hit the coin return while it was dropping, get a dial tone & make a free call that way.
Well resurrected there 57Custom300. Growing up in Melbourne, Victoria, so I don't expect too many people outside of Melb to get all the trivial nostalgia (but who cares, it what I remember) - I remember coming home after school and switching on the tube to watch Zig and Zag in the 60's("There'll be noooooooooo trouble!!" (but there always was - haha)). Hey Hey It's Saturday on a Saturday morning. Going to the footy as a young'un with my Mum (my dad died when I was 6). Deciding to go to the Grand Final on the day it was being played - along with 120,000 other people. Moomba was a big deal, and the Royal Show - on Show Day. You tried to get as many showbags as possible, and they had heaps of great stuff in them too! Riding my pushbike everywhere (it beat walking and there was no alternative) The Boxing Day Test, followed by the Australian Open (at Kooyong) Mum finally getting her first car for the family when you're 15, and all you've wanted for as long as you can remember is to have a car (for the family). She got a HD Holden Special sedan - 179 with the Powerglide (not quite a big-block). She had it for around 15 years. I learned to drive in it - from around 15 (which was years too young) Always feeling safe no matter where you went - always leaving the back door unlocked at home (even when everyone went out) and no one ever broke in to steal anything. No internet, no terrorists, no stupid politicians or shock-jocks always being negative. The world seemed more innocent and happier. (Of course, I could be wrong about that though). Good thread. Cheers.
I’m far from a prude . I knew a ton of girls back in HS back in the 70’s who looked like the first pic, the wholesome-”girl next door look” ..really miss this in women today.. ..and not like duck lipped sloots like today..
Does anyone else remember IBM punch cards? Cards with little rectangular holes all over them. Gas and electric bills came in this form. I also remember something to do with school. They were a fairly common thing then they disappeared all of a sudden.
Hotrodders had to keep quiet to the restorers so you could get parts and cars to build hotrods cause the restorers wanted everything kept the way they were. Now the new hotrodders (traditional) have become the restorers who dont want hotrodders doing anything new or different than the way it was before. Ironic
I remember those. My brother used to bring a box of those home from his work. We've come a long way, computer wise.
Oh yea, in a relatively short time. I remember registering for classes at Georgia State U. in early '70's without any computers. Stood in lines at the various tables with their signs ("Physics", "English", "Psychology" etc) on the floor of the old Atlanta Municipal Auditorium, and when you got to the head of the line they dug through boxes of index cards. Each card represented a spot in a particular class. "Oh sorry, that class is full, no more cards." First computer I ever saw was a Sperry Univac mainframe at Ga. State using punch cards, mid-70's. Computer took up an entire large room.
street hockey after dark by streetlight,buying icecream for family for 10 cent a icecream cone, getting a quarter to go to the public pool ,spending it ,an swimming in the river. the car hops at the tasty freeze in Princeton. the whole school heading to the gym to see Apollo 12 land on the moon.the old pool hall with the sware jar.
They could paddle you in school.First class in school was opened with a prayer and you said alliagance to the flag.Riding stick horses.Toy balsa airplanes you swung around on a string.TV stations signing off at night with the National Anthem.Black & White TV's with fine tuning, rotary channel selectors, and vertical & horizontal hold controls. Dusting chalk erasers. Taffy and jaw breakers.Guys that would adjust the idle screws on their cars to make them run rough & lie about it being a hot cam.Auto parts counter guys that really knew anything about cars. Service station attendants that wore bow ties, hats & checked your water, oil & tires, and cleaned your windshield. Putting a penny on your record player needle to keep it from skipping, and last but not least, going all the way, and scoring meant getting to the 100 yard line on the field. --- Steve ---
Respecting and fearing the police and adults. If they caught you doing something wrong they took you home to your dad. All the kids in the neighborhood would then follow and watch your dad smack the shit out of you. This is the best forum thread I have seen in a long, long while!
Toys in cereal boxes. Summers that WERE summers. Respect for the Law. Sunday morning the whole street would be out fixing their cars. It was a long drive to the nearest McDonalds. Coffee was cofee - no stupid names and having to speak French to get the size you wanted. Velcro was amazing. Pushbutton phones - will never catch on! Rented TV.s that were HUGE.and had a slot mechanism on back. Police drove Morris Minors. Brown and orange was acceptable. Peope did not photograph their dinners in restaurants. A camera was a camera
Good memories as I grew up down in Port Melbourne myself, and when you told people you came from "port" they thought you were trouble and would probably check to see if their wallet was missing! Life was good in the 70's and 80's when I was growing up, Buying firecrackers from the local milk bar for the Queen's birthday Mum sending me to the shops to buy her smokes and I would get to spend 20c of the change on lollies. Going to the drive-in in Dad's EK Holden wagon and being told to sit low in the seat so he could get me in for free, as kids 8 and under were free. Our first home computer, a Commodore VIC-20 that had a whole 8 colours and games on cartridges but my friends and I still preferred riding our bikes and shooting our air rifles. The smell of leaded petrol at the garage and the bottles of oil etc that are no longer around. Dad always complaining whenever he saw a hot rod, it would always be "look they've ruined that car..damn V8s", now Dad loves hot rods and loves having a drive of my cussy. Shows on TV that were actually worth watching, no reality crap, no make overs or renovations etc. Loving this thread, we don't realize how better we had it when were younger.
Getting stamps with gas at the Wareco station and licking and sticking in the folder that, when full, was worth $2.50 in gas and cashing it in 1/2 full for $1.25 and driving around all week with it. Never did fill one up. Blast Jackets, having a buddy drive your car and riding the trunk see if the newly installed "duals" sounded right, using the outside hoist at Wareco to install those duals, adding bulk oil to your flat head, ducktails, Burmuda shorts, flatties vapor locking, having your ex girlfriend sic her new boyfriend and three of buddies on ya for breaking up with her because she was "too flat" and telling her that, Hitting Amvets meeting hall dances on saturday nights to pick up "wayward" young girls wearing way too much make up for an easy hit. Ah, those were the days!
now that's funny, its too bad American people today don't see that their freedoms are flying out the window everyday. there is no way this would be possible today with all the new gun laws and gun bashers......I remember going to the local hardware store (coast-to-coast store) with dad to get moms Christmas gift, a brand new 4-10.....no questions asked.
Going on long trips with my parents in our 1950 Cadillac, I still remember the interior smell of that car and the whine of Hydramatic. After awhile the sound would lull me to sleep on the back seat. I also loved the smell of gas when we would go to the gas station. My Dad would pull into the station and say "fill 'er up with Ethyl". They'd pop the hood and check the oil and water and wash your windshield. I would love to have a chance to smell that old gas again, but alas, it doesn't exist. I also remember my old man buying a used '62 Dodge. Referring to the pushbutton trans, he said "I guess you have to know how to type to drive this thing!"
...Remembering Grandad towing a one wheeled trailer behind his Rambler American. Also the time while on vacation to Alaska Grandad getting a great deal on a six foot wooden ladder at a hardware store, then strapping it to the roof of the car for the duration of their 2500 mile road trip. Them were the days....
Playing "Smear the Queer" (totally un P.C. title nowadays,lol). A football tackling game where once the guy carrying the ball was gang tackled, he'd throw the ball up and the next brave guy would grab it and run with it until he was tackled. Pickup baseball games, playing "3 flies up" or "pickle". All the "dangerous" activities that kids don't seem to do today: Throwing buck knives and sheet metal stars at trees. Playing Army with bb guns, cap guns and walkie talkies. breaking flourescent light bulbs when they were discarded behind the Safeway store. Filling model cars with lighter fluid and an M-80, lighting it, then rolling it down the street. "Clackers" (resin balls on a string) Tennis ball cannons Jumping off 2nd story roof into a swimming pool What's a bike or motorcycle helmet? Not wearing seat belts skateboarding empty swimming pools at vacant homes We lived on our bikes and would be gone all day. Parents would say don't forget to "check-in", which meant a quick call home from a pay phone. We found that we'd get our dime back if the call lasted less than about 5 seconds, so the call would be "we're okay". Mom would say "ok" and hang up. Limping home with a cracked gooseneck or half a handlebar ripped off from jumping (pre BMX days) on the Schwinn. Pedaling a paper route (365 days a year) and collecting the monthly bill at 13 all by myself late at night. Mowing lawns with a push mower for extra $$$. Saved enough to buy my first car at 15. Riding my bike home from elementary school in 4th grade to have lunch at home. Jambing gum, toothpicks, etc. into our school room's door lock cylinder before school so there would be a delay in starting class. We'd get to stay out in the playground while the custodiam fiddled with it. Crank calling people at all hours (pre caller i.d.) including a pay phone we could see at the strip mall from my friends 2nd story bedroom across the street. As pedestrians approached, we'd ring. They'd usually stop and answer and we'd convince them to go inside the Dry Cleaners to bring the proprieter out to take a call. He was a Chinese guy and would get REALLY irate that we pulled him away from his work for the gag. Then we'd phone the Dry Cleaners line once he got back to his steam press a couple of minutes later and continue in with him, lol... The gas co. meter man monthly knocking on the door and yelling "Gas man". We'd just yell "come on in" and he'd head down to the basement to read the meter. Milkman Ice Cream truck Produce truck Fuller brush man Sharpening man who walked the street with a cart that had a foot pedaled sharpening stone. Ladies would bring out their knives and scissors. Hitchikers with cardboard signs rather than "homeless" beggars (that all seem to be wearing $90 Nikes and look to be in better phsical shape and eating better than me). Glassed in smoking area and crying section in the movie theatre. In pre VCR days if you missed the yearly broadcast of The Wizard of Oz, you were SOL for another year 16mm films, "film strips" shows in school where a bell ring pompted the operator to forward to the next slide. Taking TV tubes with Dad to Thrifty drug, testing them and getting a replacement so we could fix the TV. Got nickel a scoop ice cream cone while we were there. The dept. store paging system that was usually a series of 4 tones of bell rings Parents car was a 3 on the tree, vinyl seats, AM radio and no A/C.
I don't know if this is a regional thing or what, but when I was little I remember the car lots sweeping the sky with search lights to call attention to their lots. Surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet. Blue
The Jalopy Journal
