I didn't like either but my dad always put Butch Wax on my flatop. I never understood why, my hair has always stuck up even when it was long in the '60s n '70s. Our first TV was a big wood box with knobs on the side. We got 3 stations until my dad rigged up a UHF antenna. A kid in my "Kiddy Garden" cl*** looked like Howdy Doody. I got in trouble for bringing my mom's ink pen to school and drawing lines on his chin. He flunked "Kiddy Garden". I loved Roller Derby, Dad used to take my braces off and put me on the tank of the Henderson to ride into "The City" when the Bombers were skateing. I don't have a clue as to the culture. I still don't care about it either you like me or you don't. edit: Oh yea I forgot something, you could buy bluejeans with a little belt on the back. My big sister used to poke an extra hole in the little belt so she could cinch it up to keep my pants from falling down. It seems like it was always her job to keep my pants pulled up. And putting an asprin in your coke was a big deal, it was supposed to make you high or something.
It way too easy with Google. I remembered "Have gun..will travel" but forgot the actors real name and the one word name of the star character. Is that first guy really Jay Silverheels? I remembered his name... kimosabe (I don't know if that's the true spelling...I saw it painted on a hot rod that way) If you think the 50's were like Marlon Brando movies and the cars were all like the ones in the "little pages"...it wasn't that cool. It was cool but not that cool. The James Dean's and Marlon brando's were idols because their stories were soooo much cooler than our mundane existence. It was like military duty you hated it until it was over and then you look back and smile. It's fun to look back.
Trick question! There's nobody on YOUR right side. Unless it's the Invisible Man, and he was played by Claude Raines. Or, unless you are the old guy in the red sweater, then the guy on your right is Jack Baymoore. But if you are the old guy in the red sweater, I think you're Dirk London.
The flat top wax that I used came in a round push up plastic tube like a modern deodorant. You didn't have vanitys in the 50's. You had a sink, a toilet and a bath tub. I flushed the toilet one day and knocked it off the toilet tank into the bowl. Yup it got stuck in the trap. My dad had to remove the bowl from the floor breaking the porcelain in the process necessetating a complete replacement. He was not pleased. Oh and Maverick was the coolest SOB in the TV westerns. IMHO
I feel like such a youngin' I am only 28 but did a lot of the stuff you guys who remember the 50's did as a kid in Windsor, Ontario, Canada - 1.5miles south of Detroit. We lived in a bungalow in an old subdivision, complete with huge maple trees everywhere, and a boulevard. Most of the houses were built for returning war vet's but there was a few much older houses on the stree build 25 years before that - like ours. My dad was a policeman and the sole breadwinner for the family until I was in Junoir high when my Mom became a school teacher. My mom took care of us. We had dinner as a family every night with my sister and parents. We would go see the grandparents on special occasions and sundays for dinner. I would do my chores, then dissappear everyday just after lunch to play street hockey until called for dinner. Or go to the tranby bush and make a fort, or catch frogs and crayfish, or play hide and go seek with the 10 other kids that lived on my block. We always had old cars because that was what my dad liked. He did all his own maintainance in our little block garage and gravel driveway. We had 1 tv and it was only watched in the evenings. I had a .22 (still do) and dad would take me out shooting every couple of weeks. We set up a BB gun range in the ba*****t. I bought my first car when I was 16 in 1992. I paid for it with my own money I saved up working at the local Canadian tire in the shop. It was a 1969 Dart 2 dr hardtop with a 273 in it. Only a few people in highschool had a car - and unless you were rich, it was at least 10 years old. You could go out and razz another highschool and not get anything other than yelled at how thier football team was going to kick our football teams ***! There was a hell of a lot of streetracing. A swapped in built 340 with a solid cam, 3400 stall converter, 4.30 gear, and Mickey Thompson SS tires made the little old Dart the fastest highschool ride around. Only the older guys with lots of money were faster... NOS was for people who couldn't build an engine. If you did anything bad, any other parent on the street could disapline you...then you had to go home and get it again. ....seems to me that the 80s and early 90's are not that far removed from the 50's in my old neighborhood in windsor.
Ha ha...well...I saw that I wrote it wrong, but... But you're spot on ! Dirk was Morgan Earp. I never thought anyone could guess that quick. Now I need to give you a prize in some way. How do I get it to Illinois ? Dirk is actually married to actress Jan Shephard, who played Elvis sister in the movie King Creole.
Damn, you caught me ! And the BIG problem is, I didn't even think it was wrong until you pointed it out to me !!! Too many beers now, I go to bed... (Better change that first post...)
I just killed about an hour at work reading all the post's. Thanks guys. Very cool to read some of your own personal memories.
I remember going to kindergarten in the late 50's. And all of the above things said were true. Got a whippin for sayin dammit at a neighbor's house. Then got another one when I got home. Used to leave the windows down on the car in the summer time and nobody ever bothered them. Mine or Dad's. The TV tuner was either me or my brother changing channels or turning it up or down. My dad was a produce manage for Kroger and was always winning contests for his displays. Hell, we never bought a TV or a Stereo until I got married; he was always winning one. I was too slick in high school as I had my own color TV in my room. Worked for Vickers gas in KCMO for $1.60 an hour, and you better not be screwing off either. First job was a soda jerk at the Brighton pharmacy at 9th and Brighton on the North east side for 50 cents an hour. Got a car and needed more dough. Gas was 23 cents a gallon. Gas wars brought it down to 18 or 19 for regular and 20 or 21 for Ethyl. Remember that? Cars were in magazines. We drove what we could get. Cept Joe Reyes had a bad *** g***er styled 57 chev. Mine was a lowered with lace paint and chrome reverse and baby moons on a 62 Chrysler 4 door. Hell it was cool cause you could get like 20 people in the damn thing. Sydneys and New Way drive ins were great cept you had to spend 50 cents if you were gonna park. When little girls always wore dressed cept when we had "phys ed" then they would put slacks or shorts on under the dresses. When I was a senior in High School the girls could wear slacks, but when Pam Watts showed up in Hot Pants, that got the whole school talking. Her legs stopped just below her ****s. Damn. She always wore short skirts and sitting next to me with her legs on the trans hump gave me a woody that wouldn't wear off till about 3rd hour. Things were slower. People cared. You knew everybody. Tough to recall everything, but neat to remember. Oh yeah we too had BB guns and 22's and nobody thought anything about them. We had a range in the ba*****t. The ba*****t to the house had been dug after the house was built. That was weird, but it left a dirt wall at the rear of the house. When Mom was away at work or shopping we would be allowed to shoot things that banged. Hell the local cops would stop by sometimes and show us their 357's and how loud they were shot into the bank under the house. I remember we painted Mom's 50 Studie with the va*** cleaner. Try that one on today. We flocked the Christmas tree with the same deal. Anybody remember that? Nuff for now. Later VonDad
Cool thread..... Most of what I read is true.....even in the Southland...... Dad worked, Mom stayed home. We had our own home.........us and the bank I remember Dad buying our first TV....in 1952 or 1953....nobody else on our middle cl*** street had one ....and there was only 1 TV station in Greenville SC.......WFBC ...a NBC station. My aunts and uncles would come over to our house and watch TV ...cause they did not have one either. My Dad bought a NEW 1955 Chevrolet for my Mom to drive......and it was a BIG deal. I thought we were rich........we had a new car and my Dad had a 40 Ford pickup....quite a few in our neighbor had NO car and rode the bus. Nobody I knew ( in school or otherwise ) lived with a divorced family.......and only 1 kid did not have a father ...he had died in Korea. Everyone went to Church on Sunday. SC had "the Blue Laws" which meant NO movies were open on Sunday. Most stores were required to be closed. Only drug stores and gas stations were open on Sunday. My uncle ran Moonshine ( ex fighter pilot from WWII ) and was considered the " black sheep " of my mother's family. He drank, smoked and chased wild women. He hung around the 'rough side of town' .........so he was my Hero....sadly his life style killed him at a early age ( 44 )..........but I bet he had a GOOD time. I remember watching Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show.......I saw them parts of the film " Thunder Road " and my uncle knew some of the folks the movie guys used for the stunt stuff... I remember riding in my neighbors 32 Ford hiboy coupe...when it was cold....he would sometimes stop at the bus stop and give me a ride...PRICELESS MEMORY .. You could go to the movies on Saturday morning....and the price of admission was 10 Coke bottle caps....and 25 cents would get you a drink, popcorn and have a little money left...... There was no drugs......no Hip Hop.....no gangsta trash.....and a girl being pregnant out of wedlock was the biggest shame you could bring on your family. I sure do miss the 50's ...
I do realize this thread is 20 years old but I hope you guys enjoy it, some of these members are no longer with us. I do miss Randy's post, he was a true Southern gentleman and loved hot rods, especially Deuces, HRP
Nixon had his problems, but it was Johnson who escalated the war in Vietnam. Nixon eventually brought them home.
Dang HRP we gotta find some flowers for you to deliver or someone's oil to change, you have too much time on your hands to dig up The longest standing untouched dead thread. I won't get folks undies in a knot over politics but back then we watched the campaigns on TV with honest reporters who just reported news and didn't operate propaganda networks, (Russia did that) . Nixon had bad advise from his advisors while McGovern was out running a railroad whistle stop campaign in TV shows it live times. He was at a campaign stop in Dallas one night telling folks what he thought they wanted to hear and the next day he was 3 blocks from where I worked in in the Firestone store in Waco running a big rally on Asotin Ave 3 blocks away telling everyone there the exact opposite of what he had said on TV the night before. You might get away with that in the 20's but not in the 70's. His campaign sunk it's self. Getting back to the 50's I was 10 years in 1956 so I am no expert but the local hot rodders and Custom car guys didn't live a "culture" as might have happened in California where everything seems to have to have a culture to it. The "hoods" wore T shirts, Jeans with the cuffs rolled up to an exact height and loafers or engineer boots. In my town they hung out at Rowberry's pool hall that also served as a lunch counter and fishing gear/sporting goods store where you could buy your hunting or fishing license but I never made it in there until I shot pool there when I was about 15. When my uncle Vernon went to Korea during the Korean war he left his 49/51 Merc at my parents house where it was safe and my grandfather wouldn't be hot wiring it and driving it to town. He jumped in my dad's car and drove off with it when it was parked in front of the Liberty theater one night when Dad was inside with a date. That was when he lost his key to Dad's car. When Vernon got back from Korea he came out and got his car and I got to ride to town with him in it at about 6 years old and remember that he stopped at the skating rink to talk to some friends and the car wouldn't start and his friends had to push it to start it and they looked like the hoods straight out of a 50's movie. He never had any kids an he was always the cool uncle for me, the "tall Stahl" kids from Chula Vista and our Russel cousins.
The Jalopy Journal
