History Cars and high school,late 50s/early 60s,would you go back?

I had some of the best times i my life in high school, I had a part time job at Sear's working in shipping and receiving Monday through Thursday after school and played in a band Friday & Saturday nights, I had a 63 1/2 Falcon Sprint and the money I made from my job and gigs went to Gene Cromer to make that little Falcon go fast.

In the 60's was a great time to be a teenager, a little money in my pockets, a hot rod and a girlfriend that loved the cars as much as me.

I loved it but I'm sure time has embellished my fondness of that period of my life, but I have forgotten the bad parts, and no I don't want to go back.

BTW, the band broke up, Sears no longer exist, the Falcon is gone but I kept the girlfriend and we have been married 51 years. HRP

 

I don't really want to go back, but it wasn't such a bad time in my life. Drove this '53 Ford Jr. year and this '64 Galaxie senior yr. Worked all of the time it seemed. Had to pay for gas someway.

 

And, you're never gonna grow up, huh?

 

Class of '66 here. I hated pretty much everything about high school. Liked very few people there. Most of them were uppity and I was poor white trash. But after school was good. Our school had a lot of old fixed up cars and hot rods in the parking lot. But I only knew one or two of the guys who owned them. Would I like to go back? Oh hell no, but I would like to go back to that time frame and buy a lot of the old cars dirt cheap that I thought would always be available, but found out they are not. I can't believe what was in junk yards back then..

Ya know, looking back, those girls in the year book were a lot prettier than I remember. The problem must have been me..

 

Hmmm, maybe you are the only one left!

 

Um... maybe you're no longer considered a member of the "in" crowd.

 

Ha! Never was. I was one of those greasy hot rod hoodlums.

 

after experiencing the effects of Lady Gillette shavers since somewhere after high school, I could never go back......

 

Graduated in 1981 from a Vo-Tech high school and it was both a blur and a blast. We had auto shop for the second half of every day and the parking lot was filled with old muscle cars. (Of course, all of them off topic here). It was a magical time of engine swaps, N50's and L60's, hanging out at the Stewarts Root Beer drive in, girls, street racing, and every kind of car project somebody could dream up. And almost like somebody snapped their fingers, it was over. Graduation came and went, started to lose touch with some of the guys and gals, everybody seemed to get into more serious relationships and got real jobs, hot rods started getting sold off and then it was just over.
I'm still in contact with a few of the original guys but they are either piloting family sedans or late model muscle cars now but we still reminisce about those glory days now and them. With that said, I've had a pretty good life so far, so I don't think I'd give it all up to be back in high school.

 

Like you I graduated in '72. I read every book in our library related to cars, and felt like I had missed out on the car culture and hot rod scene of the late '50's and early 60's. I wanted to have the coolest car in the parking lot at school, but instead of a '40 Ford coupe or a Corvette, I ended up with a '41 Chrysler sedan! At least it wasn't my parents car, and I learned how to paint and do bodywork and basic mechanical stuff. It was a reliable, if somewhat unexciting old car, and it was different. I married my high school sweetheart, we're still together after 49 years of marriage and a LOT of pretty sketchy cars. She's a good sport about getting her hair messed up in the kind of cars I lusted for 50 years ago, so I think I'll keep her.

 

If I could go back but retain all that I now know I'd go back in a heartbeat. I would have three friends that I might have been able to warn about the accidents that killed them.

 

Class of '84 here, I was really into BMX racing during school but I also liked musclecars. There were a handful of car guys in my town, All musclecars around then and some really quick ones too. I had a 71 Chevelle and a couple of girls so. . . .
I did go to the 10th reunion but ahhhmmmm
Yeah I'm good

 

By the time I entered high school I was hooked on dirt track stock car racing. I was a motivated guy, my goal in life was to own, build, & drive race cars. The high school I attended had a very good power mechanics shop and teacher, but you couldn't start in the program until 10th grade. Here, 9th grade was considered Jr High, so we were not even in the high school building until we got into 10th grade. By then I had already had a lot of experience helping several local dirt track racers. At the start of the auto shop classes, I already knew the basics and could do them well. The shop teacher moved me along fast. While my shop classmates were learning the basics, I was already learning the advanced courses. That same effort was applied in everything at school.

While I was in the 10th grade, I started working at the gas station that was one of the best auto repair shops in town. Cars were my life. Elective school classes were chosen as preparation for improving what I thought I might need for my chosen carrier.

I took hard classes in school, worked in the auto shop class, and then worked at the gas station repair shop after school hours and one week ends. In my spare time, I helped a few local guys with their dirt track cars. Yep, I was that guy.

The graduating class I attended at my high school was the largest graduating class in the school's history at just over 650 kids in 1974. There may have been a class or two larger then ours a few years later, but were were very close to the biggest ever.
To put things into perspective, at the beginning of my senior year, I had enough credits to graduate school, but I needed to pass 12 grade English and 12 grade PE. If you attended PE, you passed. I wanted to take English and PE and auto shop, but they made me take several other classes as well. There was no such thing as early graduation back then.
All through my high school carrier, the only distractions I was involved with was Wrestling in 10th & 11 grade. The weight classes I was at, 145 then 155, were both occupied by guys that made the State Finals, and it wasn't me in either case. I didn't go out for Wrestling in my senior year, I worked at the gas station instead.

One would think I should have had a hot car in HS, but that was not the case. My parents didn't like my carrier choice, and wouldn't allow me to even have my own car until I turned 18. From 16 to 18, I drove their old car, a 4 door 64 Olds Dynamic 88 with a 394 4bbl. I dated a few girls during that time, but most didn't want to share my car dedication. There were 5 or 6 of us guys that mostly hung together and we were all into cars, but they were not as committed as I was. I did help them with their cars though.

Most of the fun times in my life happened after high school. I have no desire to go back to that time.

 

The only way I would go back,is if I I knew what I know now. High school was a good time for me,It was a big learning curve, but made a LOT of stupid mistakes I wouldn't do again.. I was driving a 60 Impala convertible with the first set of Crager S/S wheels in the county, and a 235 six in it.

 

Gene, I drove the exact make and model, with the red "Ultra High Compression" 394. I drove it from age 16 to 19, then bought a '73 Nova that I hot rodded.

 

I'm class of '81. HS was fine by me. First "car" at 16 was an Int'l pickup that I bought while I was working at my dad's HVAC company as an apprentice sheet metal worker. It was a shop truck that they were retiring. I also had a '36 Plymouth that I drove while I was in HS, and a '67 Ford F250 and '62 Jag Mk II. I could only find a pic of the Int'l right now. The ford pic wasn't my truck, but it looks just the same.

 

Class of 1973. Metal shop,and auto shop were the only reasons I showed up. Still use both those skills all the time. I went to a large school in Ca. and most kids over 16 drove to school. The parking lot looked like a Trifive used car lot. Row after row of 55-57 Chevy"s. You could get one for 200 bucks. One guy had a 409 in a 57.Someone clipped a tail fin badly so the engine got pulled,and the body went to the wreakers.One of the guys had a 6cyl 57 4 door which was a 100 buck car.He drained the oil out in the parking lot,and filled it with kids,and went for a ride to blow the engine. 5 miles later it was still running so they refilled the oil,and he kept coming to school with it. Those cars werent worth much then. My first was a sea mist green white roof 55 Delray with a 265. My second one was a black 2 door wagon. Currently Im rebuilding a yellow 55 Post car.This time I have the money for good parts. Im going to paint it sea mist when the time comes.

 

Sure!

 

Would I go back? --NO....way too stressed out, unsettled time back then ---parents splitting up, lots of turnoil
Would I go back knowing what I know now? 1979 -1980 TGOT11 would not have believed a word from Future TOGT11 ---(who is this creepy old geeze following me around in the hallways?) Go back in my own skin? To have a better outcome to 2023? maybe. Would have saved me some problems with the chix at the time. Knowing which were not worth spending time on, or would turn out to be whack jobs or 220lb + club...could not tell the time bombs back then LOL.
My school was 250 in a class there were jocks, nerds, grits, but mostly everyone got along, I tried to be nice to everyone I had friends described by all groups. Skinny 165 lbs, 6-02" football/lacrosse benchwarmer, engineering track SAT whiz , but lazy about HW, hated school.
The cars : 1979 odd-even gas rationing back in style, I used to switch tags with mom's car when I needed to get my 61 cents/gal for my OT Javelin ride.

No H.A.M.B friendly cars at all in my parking lot : for some reason the lower rent crowd drove new or newer OT Dodge lil'Express, TransAms, Camaros, a few OT dusters, M-stangs, nice road runners . Nothing older than 1965. No rods either.
chevelles.... my friends were in the semi affluent neighborhood, self made types, so grandma's OT Pinto, Dart or earn your own car money or no car, so mine was $450. My dad said :I want that kid to be able to take any car apart and put it back to together ...so I got a heap...what a great gift that was. 10 coats of DuPont lacquer and sewed terry towels and shag rug for seat covers and carpet. Light blue shag, ugh.

Dad was a famr boy and hated any so-called engineer who couldn't fix car, a washing machine or the toaster. Weekend scene was boriing rural area not much to do, so field parties and tons of beer, some drugs, never saw any cops on the rural roads after dark. So peg that speedo on Rt 32- a ritual mne did 109 mph tops.

 

This is notoriety in its most awful form. But, for the last two months of our graduating year, 1962, it gave me some satisfaction at what we accomplished in our time here. The school population knew the shiny black 1958 Impala sitting in the first two parking spots in front of the school almost daily was a real car for one of their high school friends.

Hello,

Notoriety in its awful form was written from a young, non hot rod/drag race informed high school student given an assignment to capture my car in its best form. He did not know a chrome “Johnson Rod” from a curved 4 speed stick shifter in a red Biscayne parked several cars back in the parking spaces.

The young guy was in over his head with the mis-information he wrote to finish off the article. It was going to be (and was) the last school newspaper for the current graduating year of school. When my friends and teachers read the article, it was a funny way to end the high school years… a big time laugh.

A 61 Pontiac muffler system? For better performance? No Sun tachometer, it was a custom small black, aircraft tachometer that fit under the lip of the dash board.
Almost half the size of a chrome Sun Tachometer...
The small black tach that fit nicely under the lip of the dash, over to the right side of the speedometer. It covered the 120 mph mark, but at the drags, the 120 needle was pegged at the start and was useless. On the street, no one goes that fast...
The Yellow arrow placement, was an out of normal driving, front road vision, location. Nicely tucked under the dashboard lip. No harmful additional holes were added for the installation. Lit up dial inside at night, made a nice glow.

A B&M hydro and magnesium wheels? Where did that come from in this non-knowing young writer? As listed, we were talking a couple of thousand dollars… what??? For a teenage kid?

Jnaki

When my friends all read the article, they were laughing at the published information. Or dis-information as it was… The best thing were the photos, as I pulled up next to the High School Auto Shop alley way between the classrooms and told him where to take the photos…
of course, he kept the negatives...
Actually, I should have told him where to stick the whole article!!! Ha, what a way to end my high school escapades and adventures. Notoriety comes in all forms… But, the question is… would I go back to those days again? Sure, who wouldn’t? (in memory only…) It was the most fun growing up as I did. The “Nak’s Excellent Adventures…” were all a step by step to learning how to get along in the world, as soon as the hectic years hit us several years later.

Learning to cope with disappointments, road blocks to friends of all kinds, including girls,and learning things in classes that actually mattered, many years later. But at the time, the classes seemed useless for a teenage kid, other than talking to my friends and the girls. Adapting to all kinds of stimulus in classes, school grounds, sports and of course hot rods/drag racing So Cal style… yes, it was fun and exciting for the learning aspects still used today.

But, I would not want to go back to the current state of play. No changes to what happened, no changes to friends and familiar relationships, none… For everyone who dreams, it was or could have been, but it was supposed to happen as it happened, even down to the last runaway spark plug gasket rolling on the garage floor, hiding forever! The results are what is your life today, as it should be and will be. You learned and applied what, to your ongoing life… no changes to the timeline…

Fun, but it happened once in a lifetime of memories as it should be… YRMV

Oh yeah! There was this series of adventures and experiences thrown in the mix, too… including starting a trend with beltloop less, no insignias, no cuffs, Levi Jeans with desert boots on cold days and "JC" sandals without socks on the other warm to hot days. (A pair of socks if needed for school rules... and those offended teachers/staff)

And, many days searching for the best waves on the Westcoast of So Cal and Baja, Mexico.

 

Jnaki,,,awesome
"Way Back Story time"
Thanks,enjoyed the storys a lot,good or a bit bad.
I had a great time in high school,in part do too,taking near a year off in 10th grade,going back with more maturity an wanted to be there.!
Notoriety,,ya,can be funny+. Our foot ball Jocks were the big deal,yet my Grease Ball buddys n I {6 other hotrod n customs},held our own, high school higher ark, kind of a bit ,who knew who.
I had two cars,my 28A hotrod powered by a Ford Thunderbird V8 <{ actually very near stock} an my Full custom "J"/ top cut off n made into a 2D roadster custom, powered by Olds Rocket 88 { also nearly stock,even the Hydro.} I really only had one auto tag,and used it on witch ever, I was driving = Tag was legal for my "J",not really for 28A,but Tag Slip did say custom body 2 door roadster*=So the only time a Cop ,looked, when in 28A, I got away with it. <I was swetting bullets between my ears,,, I drove my "J" most of the time,it had a 55 T-bird folding top,and clear plastic door windows I made,to fit with the Studebaker rear window I used for a front windshield. Only one OK in the rain ,and better for dates. Point is,the fun of some others,making up stuff,;; So I got a reputation of having one of the fastest cars in town " The J"< That was funny, as it was all others, acting like they knew more then they did..an talking too much. LOL. This came from a few guys seeing me show off,smoke the rear tires. That was super EZ,the big Olds 88 n auto tranny was a ton of lbs on the front wheels of the "J",an very little on the rear=So not much bite. Even at 50+ MPH,on the highway,jump on gas and the rear of "J" would wiggle an cover up the tires+most of rear of car with tiresmoke{ LOTS of it}. I did that a number of times,when some hotshot would pull up beside me in the "J", an ask to race? I say,"Hold on,let me clean my tires an we can go! " I'd do the smoke show, and they would just turn off or drop way back. LOL....Trick was, near actually race anyone. My "J" was not actually fast,but looked like it,and the know it all buddys bragging it up too much. I did nothing about telling any one why,it really smoked hell out of tires.
This pic was a car show in 1961,I lived close to Dinner Key/Coconut Grove. These shows were indoor. Had been big Aircraft Hanger for PanAm Seaplanes.

 

class of '78 here. there was a good $250,000 worth of muscle cars in our High School parking lot by today's prices. I drove a GTO Judge, a guy at another school had GT-500!! GTO's, SS Chevelle's, Olds 442 ... assorted Mopars.... just cheap used cars with poor gas mileage back then.... add another $50,000 for the VW's.

 

Nope, school sucked...except art class and auto shop.

Graduated in '70...drove a '53 Chevy Bel Air HT in the first half of 11th grade, until I finished my '48 Chevy in auto shop.
A $50 coupe body and a $125 '57 Chevy (4 door) donated it's 283, 3spd and rear end. Drove it all through my Senior year


With my high school girlfriend...she went off to college and dumped me

 

I can’t say that high school was great and I’d love to go back but it was ok and I had a few good friends. The threat of the draft hung over me so I just knocked around and didn’t get too excited about doing anything in particular except going to Lions with my ‘33. I didn’t get drafted so I tried studying law enforcement at JC but I decided that I didn’t want to babysit society and went to work. It would be fun to travel back and refresh my memory, see friends but I wouldn’t want to start over.
Me and my GF Nancy on vacation. I’m 19, she’s a HS senior. She didn’t get cars so it didn’t last.

 

Wow, I just realized that I still have that toolbox under my workbench with little-used old engine tools in it! My Dad gave it to me for Christmas with the basic 1/2 and 3/8 drive ratchet/socket sets, end wrenches and a set of Craftsman screwdrivers.

 

I'd go back... only if I could take my current wisdom with me! Tri-5 Chevys were the thing back then. I ran a '56 Bel Air with a 327 with fender-well headers, 4-speed and a 4.56 posi, Glass nose, Mustang buckets, Americans on the front, chromies with L-60s on the back. If I had the wisdom of today then, I'd still have it!

 

I shared the same time and school as Dana and believe it was great. High school car was 40 ford coupe with 331 cad. Those were good times.

 

I graduated from a Detroit area high school in 1964. The 60’s was a great time to be a teenager. The car culture in Detroit was fantastic with lots of old cars, hot rods the emerging muscle car scene, cruising the drive in restaurants, the music and none of the detractions of today. If you were looking for someone (no cell phones, texts, email) you cruised around until you found them. I started working at a corner gas station when I was 14 and stayed there until after graduation. I worked a lot of hours. I had early leave from school so most weekdays worked 2:00 to 8:00 PM and 8 to 10 hours on Saturday. I drove a 41 Ford sedan and before the start of senior year bought a 61 Ford Starliner, 390 cubic inches, manual.

I took all college prep classes and got good grades. I wasn’t in the “popular group” whatever that means but pretty much got along with everyone. I had a core group of buddies a couple 2 to 3 years older than me (how could anything go wrong) and we were always doing something and having fun. Upon graduation I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. In my area it was usually one of three things; go off to college, get a job with the Big Three (either Ford, GM or Chrysler) or enlist/get drafted into the military. I ended up doing all three, enlisted in the USMC Reserve (Aircraft Wing) served an 8000 hour skilled trade apprenticeship at Ford Motor Company and eventually went back to school and continued education.

Really didn’t like or dislike high school. Didn’t hang around with a lot of my class or get involved with school activities. Only went to one class reunion the ten year reunion mostly at the urging of my wife, buddies wife, all of us went to same school and my buddy were in same class. While at reunion my buddy and I switched name tags, and only a few really knew the difference. It was a bit interesting to see how some of the people changed but the reunion wasn’t fun enough for me to want to go to another. Seemed like a lot were reliving their glory years.

To the question would I want to “go back” the answer would be although I had a lot of fun and good experiences but no I wouldn’t want to go back. All life’s experiences the good, bad, indifferent, shaped who I am today and I wouldn’t want to change any of that.

 

my high school in the mid to late 50's was full of cool cars Ray Vega's tub, Grabowski's "T", Charlie Chassy's 34 coupe, Ronnie Dodds GMC powered 50 Chevy with 5 twos. and more.

 

Grade 9 was the worst 3 years of my life...