Another talk to the old timers posts........

Shortbull knows the guy. Gent with a walker came into the shop today. !st thing I noticed was his cap, it had a combat infantryman badge and said PARATROOPER. We talked 56 Chevies for a bit, he has been a hotrodder all of his 80?+ years. We had a break in the car talk so I asked him what unit he served in............................"82nd airborne" he said. I asked if he was in Europe. What went on was 15 minute about how he jumped into Normandy, was at the Battle of the Bulge and made the Jump into the Rhine..................after all was said, I mentioned Zeke going to Irag with the 101st. Drug up bad memories! Apparently some of the vets have always had a beef about the 101st getting the glory! He had a sense of humor about it.

We went back to talking about his Tri 5s and his 36 Ford Coupe he has owned since about 1960.

At this point, my boss walked in, it seems Gene (my boss) recognized him since the ol boy was a BIG customer when gene owned a chrome shop 20 years ago!

I ramble, point is, talk to the ol timers. They are old for a reason, they have survived and lived!

 

cool deal man

i dont know if its me, or car guys in general but it seems most of us share an interest in not only the cars that have been there, but the guys who drove em back in the day. when i was a kid, i always hung around the "old guys" (35 years and up... now i guess that makes me an "old guy" ) listening to what they had to say, hear thier stories, watch how they did things...

there is more information, history, and knowledge out there stored in the old timers heads than can EVER be written down... only way to keep that knowledge and experiance alive is to listen to it, and remember it, then pass it along to the next generation of young guns out there that are now as we speak peddling BMX bikes and pushing skateboards in a halfpipe...

never forget that it isnt all just about the cars, we got more than old tin to keep around.

great post Tman

 

You can only learn so much from old magazines and the hamb. Talk to the guys who lived it. It makes them feel good to pass the info on. Most of them think no one cares about what they remember. Listen and learn, its fun as hell. Best stories I ever heard are from guys over 60. When their dead, most of the stories die with them. Don't let that happen!!

 

that's cool....great to talk to them.....I really enjoy talking to the REAL hot rodders....they live it.......we dream about it..

 

The California Hot Rod Reunion is in two weeks. They have the Hall of Fame induction in the Red Lion. Go and be a fly on the wall and listen to the originators of drag racing swap stories in the bar afterwards. Alcohol lubricates their tongues and the tales just flow. The Vipers are trying to get good ol' Henry Harrison out from Arkansas, if we do he'll be in the Viper's pit. HAMBers are welcome to come hang out. Henry drove for nearly everybody and the road stories would make Keef Richards blush.

I'm gettin old and recommend that you buy the old farts drinks. ha ha ha

 

Old guy?
What I can't understand is how so many guys I ''grew up'' with now sit on the toilet to piss.........

When did 60 become 'Middle-age'?

 

We wouldnt be where we are today if it wasnt for the ol' timers!

Think about it for a minute....Some truly amazing stuff...I love talking to them...You are always bound to learn something...

 

my aim is bad so my wife makes me do that now

 

I am a firm believer in learning from old timers. It is fun to sit around and listen to a bunch of grandads talk about their war stories and battle wounds. I wish I could hear my grandfather tell the story about his fifty something ford with the special "T-bird" engine in it, and how he couldn't keep rubber on the rear one more time. Oh yeah, and glue on wide whites rolling past the truck going down the road. Old timers are awesome.

 

there's a pretty old guy who walks nearly everday around the neighborhood. He's slow, takes short steps and always bundled up if it's below 70 degrees. He's sharp as a freakin tack and can go on for hours and hours about any kind of story you could imagine. He said they would have jeep races and a bunch of the soldiers would hop em up with little tricks here & there and a few would go faster than stink!

 

When I became 67

BB

 

BB you're not old, you are WIZE

And you can tell me storys anyday

 

i'd settle for 60 bein middle age... that'd give me another 84 years to be a PITA for my wife

and Rudy kin tell me bedtime storys any time

 

I really respect Mr. Zephier, in an other post I explained how vehicles get frequently defaced in and about the reservation. Mr. Zephier lives right in a prime location, however he leaves cars out in the open and they been left unscathed. No key nor baseball has ever even touched his cars, be damned if they ever did.

 

Your old friend seems like an impressive fellow, Jesse. Not to change the subject of the thread but I read with interest Tman's recounting of his exploits in the Airborne in WW ll, same outfit and drops that my uncle made. Next time you see Mr. Zephier ask him about Angelo 'Andy' Peluso.

 

Dude, i know there are all kinds of old guys around here with stories. It's just a matter of finding them. I think cheyenne used to be a good place for hot rods, but i also think most of the guys are gone, or too old. who knows.

trey

 

I don't really think there wll be any more 'old guys' to replace the ones we have left now. Cars have become too 'easy' and most modern youngsters treat them as a simple tool to take them from A to B. There's no real car culture, no work needed on any sort of regular basis to make a modern young kid get involved with his automobile anymore.

 

HEY! 60 is the new 40.

 

It's all about respect. If you can't show it to your fathers, you can't teach it to your kids. I am only 30 but I have lived long enough to know that there is no substitute for experience, and many of the "old men" of this generation have lived lives that will never be duplicated.

 

that is the reason I piss in the yard.The neighbors just say "its just that crazy old man".

 

I dunno, but at 54 I'm sneaking up on it.... I enjoy hanging out with the older bunch too. Went to a car show last night with a buddy who is 68 and had a great time BSing with him and his friends. My bud can tell some great stories about his drag racing adventures with his '40 Willys Gasser at Quaker City here in Ohio back in the '60s and a lot more. After spending the evening with him and his crowd, I came to the conclusion that these 'mature' guys and gals might have snow on the roof, but they're all 18 at heart...

I'll pass on the pissing comment 'cause I've always sat down anyway..

Jan

 

Hell's Bell's, I'm older than quite a few of you guys, and my ol' lady ain't made me do that yet. Course, she knows I'd just tell her to kiss my ass.
DW

 

hey, im only 36, and i agree with your comment 110%. sounds like you and i grew up with the same kinda values and whatnot at home.

here is one more thing that might or might not be pertinant to this... it seems to me that the majority of guys who love and respect old cars and ways to build em, and take the time to listen to the old timers and gain some small amount of thier wisdom, are the VERY SAME people who have the best work ethic these days, and are also people of high character. i mean, really, take a look around the HAMB, and for the most part, any one of us'll go out of his way to help another HAMBer when in need. parts, answers, help pullin a body off a frame,,, hell money and offers of free room and board to HAMBers hit by Katrina... Integrity gents... might go a long way explaining WHY most of us take that extra time to talk with an older rodder.

about 10 months ago, my wife and i were shopping at a fabric outlet store (mama is big into quilting) the place sells 1/2 and full taned cowhides. i see a hide in a real cool silvery color that i thought would look bitchin as part of the interior in my '54, so i asked the guy to get it down for me. he's about 65ish, owns the place but its more of a "something to do" than an income... anyhow he asked what i was going to use it for and i told him... his eyes got distant and he told me how the car he and his wife drove from Minneapolis to Cali on thier honymoon was a '54 tudor hardtop and how he'd love to see it when i get it done... hell yea i'll take a trip back up here and show it to ya!

 

good post Tman, yesterday I was talking to an older guy, who was wearing a USS Tilman cap. I asked if he was a WW2 vet, and he told me that he'd seen a lot of action off Okinawa, and was off shore during Iwo Jima providing support. I'd like to see The Rodders Journal do a article on how the guys on the Pacific front used their hot rodding experiance to win the war , improvising when necessary with Planes, tanks , and machinery in general. Old guys rule.

 

Just got back from the Reno Air Races and when I was in the pits a friend asked a pilot if he knew what the SNJ designation stood for??? and he told him that he didn't..., but that Neil would know..., so he promptly asks Neil the question..., and that "OLD Guy" gave him details of every aspect of Navel aviation that he'd ever want to know.

A few minutes later my friend asked the pilot what Neil's last name was and he said "Armstrong"...!!!! "No Shit...!"

Met many Celebrities at the race but the vets are the valuable intelectual resources there this weekend.

 

now THAT is cool. talk about a guy who's "been there and got the t-shirt"

 

I find that my socks no longer get wet and that I'm not as apt to wonder off before I'm done pissing, which is how the socks got wet.

 

a couple years back ....i had a old guy stop in at the shop......said he was looking for some 97's......my father in law just looked at him .....i told him ....97's....those are for the rich guys.....i think i had some 94's or something.....i told him to come back in the morning and i would get them dug out......he shows up the next morning ....we start talking.....he starts mentioning building speedster style race cars.....sorta threw me off ....i mean he was probably 80 or so then ......he walks out and gets his picture book .....i'll be damn....he's building old race cars....he was originally from the area....but now lives in sacramento or san fransico....his name is vic salas.......he races at knoxville and a couple other nostalgia dirt races......he showed me pics of him building the body for the current car......neat stuff......running a / b/ c style bangers.....with the winfield parts etc.....really cool to see all of his old pics as well as his current stuff........he stopped by a couple weeks ago ....askin about those 97's.....of course he showed up while i was out......and was gone by the time i returned......really goofed up there....as i wanted to talk to him some more....a lot of neat history with this guy...........brandon

 

When I turned 40....

 

The old guys are cool, if you talk to them they'll do things like sell you a car cheap because you're into it. A lot of the young guys around here just turn up their noses at the old guys... I dig talking to them, finding out the history of the cars around here...