I remember when gas cost me 95 cents a gallon and a quart of beer was 99. When antifreeze was 3.00 a gallon .And could never pick which one was more important.
I must be a bit older, 'cause I can remember when gas cost 25-30 CENTS/Gal and how smug I felt when I could go a week in my Porsche-powered VW for $2 (including going to Grudge Night on Wednesdays at Lions' and cruising on Friday and Saturday nights, as well as to college and work) and my friends with V8s had to spend $5 and drove a lot less miles.
I don't know if you're talking about the same one, but I remember Smiley Burnette as Froggy on the old Gene Autry shows. He also played Charlie the Hooterville Cannonball's engineer on Petticoat Junction. He passed away quite awhile ago, I think from cancer. I remember Andy Devine as "Jingles" who was Wild Bill Hickocks Sidekick on a TV show in the 50s. (wasn't Guy Madison Wild Bill?) They were also on one of those sugary cereal boxes - maybe Sugar Pops?
Yeah, me too. I worked after school every day at a Shell gas station....Super Shell was 29.9 and regular was 26.9......
Four guys could chip in 2 bucks apiece, buy a case of beer and a tank of gas, and head out on a Saturday night looking for adventure and whatever came our way. Later, we'd cash in the empty shell for cigarette money and possibly a stop at the White Castle for a bag of gut bombs. This was in Minneapolis in the late 50's, so a couple of runs up and down Lake St. were usually on the agenda.
You could always tell the kid with no chain guard on his bike because he walked around with his right pant leg rolled up.
...staying up late to watch wrestling on WOR NY Ch 9....George the Animal Steele, Stan the Man Stasiak and his manager The Grand Wizard.."McMahon you pencil necked geek !" ..Lancelot Link - Secret Chimp ..Godzilla movies ...in the commercials for Prell or Breck shampoo, the girls in the shower were cut off just where it got interesting...thought if I got right next to the TV screen and looked down I might see something. .
Every summer, DC comics would come out with a special 75-cent issue in which Superman, Batman & Robin, Aquaman, etc. would join forces to combat crime and fight for truth, justice, and the American Way.
television intros for Superman Wild Bill Hickok ted Mack's original Amatuer Hour and others.................. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqyk1euTX94
...taking high school driver's training in a new '61 Chevy Biscayne 4 door (taxi cab special: the only option was the powerglide). A few years later my younger brother's HS driver's training car was a new, fully loaded Toronado. Where's the justice....?!
Getting a ride on my Uncle's crazy, purple, raked out, Harley chopper. Chickens roosting in a Rolls Royce that my grandfather got with a piece of property. One of the big ones from the '50s. Watching my uncles build and ride Harley hill climber bikes. Hearing stories of the time when my dad put a 409 into a '65 C-10 and raced it at Carlsbad. He got beat, and the headlights were busted out on the drag strip. He had to drive back to Lakeside without headlights in the dark and get the pickup fixed before my grandfather found out. - Joe
My buddy and I would spend alot of time building WWII bomber models. We would attach EYE hooks and fishing line and send them on their final mission from the top floor of the house, loaded with m80s! Caught hell from his old school grandmother who was to slow to catch us. HA. Now that was fun. Slim
Wow - I just read all 33 pages of this thread. Really brought back the memories. Please bear with me while I add my 2-cents worth. I remember: Getting my first Lionel train set. It was a pre-war hand-me-down. Probably worth a small fortune now. In the third grade, when we would actually steal cigarettes and smoke them while walking home from the store. 5-cent fountain sodas. When 50-cents would get a guy into the theater to see a feature movie, previews, a newsreel, and a serial. And leave you 25-cents to buy candy. Riding the Great Northern Empire Builder from Seattle to Chicago and back with my mom when I was about ten. Actually seeing Sputnik as it orbited around the world. When my old, hand-me-down bicycle got replaced with a new Schwinn Corvette. The Sears-Roebuck catalog, where you could buy anything - Cars, motorcycles, farm animals, kit houses, shotguns, rifles, anything. When my mom would get mad and whoop the hell out of me with whatever was handy. The day I asked my cousin, “Who is Elvis Presley?” and he patiently explained that Elvis was a new singer, but was going to be famous some day. When our party-line ring was two shorts and a long. Watching Red Skelton on our old B&W TV. Learning to drive in my step-dad’s ’54 Plymouth with a flathead six and three on the tree. When I got to drive a new ’61 T-Bird convert at age 15. When hunting season was a valid excuse to miss school. And nobody thought anything of it when you showed up at the high school with a rifle in the back window. When I got to ride in a friend’s brother’s Nail-valve powered roadster. There were no seats. I was sitting on a sheet of plywood, hanging on for dear life and grinning from ear to ear. 25-cent/gal gas. We got milk from a farmer for 50-cents a gallon. And after it sat overnight, there’d be about a quart of cream floating on top. Hitch hiking to the county fair, and if no one picked us up, we’d walk all the way. When I discovered that the crossover pipe on my mom’s ’57 Chevy could be pulled loose by hand, and would just lie on the crossmember while I rumbled around Whidbey Island, doing my best to wake the dead. When one of the really old, square, high school teachers raised the hood of his Plymouth hardtop, and I discovered that there was a dual-quad Hemi in it. Hyper-extending my knee when my XLCH backfired.
Paying 67 cents per gallon for Sunoco 260 Selling points, condensor, cap, rotor and plugs to the same guys every 6 months STP stickers High school "industrial arts" classes My $350 63 1/2 Galaxy, it was in good shape Parting out 65-65 Mustangs for more funds to buy 427 FE parts Rust free Pintos and V.... no, there were no rust free Vegas Respecting our teachers Young women with no ink Harley XLCHs being bad ass fast bikes $1.75 an hour knowing the older guys (20 somthings) that had polio Tom Daniels new designs Hot Rod Magazine's 25th anniversery issue ant thier Thrush Nova Meeting Don Garlits when he had no gray hair going to see Funnycar Summer on the big screen at the drive in drinking Faygo red pop in my sister's brand new 68 Toronado everyone used to know a 383 2V Satalite was not a muscle car My mom's tri-power 63 Pontiac wagon wasn't either, but it was still neato, not cool, though
Watching a movie called, "Death on the Highway" at driver's ed class. Tons of blood and gore, including James Dean's fatal Porsche Spyder wreck. Girls in the class couldn't watch, the guys loved it.
...or the National Drivers' Test that screened on TV at Prime Time. We got a repeat (in 16mm B&W) in my high school Drivers' Ed class...
Coming back from a day out near Palm Springs with my family around 1960 and seeing a customized '59 Caddy that the owner had a THIRD FIN, complete with working bullet taillights, grafted into the middle of the car's trunk! I've wondered ever since whatever happened to it...
The Monster Squad, Creature Feature, Star Wars at the Drive-in, 8 track player in my dad's 71 mustang, getting up to turn the channel on the tv, playing my dad's BTO and Steppenwolf records, the Fresh Freeze in Eureka, ca, Kaptain Kangaroo and Mr. Green Jeans, Starsky and Hutch, watching Disney on sunday nights, the little rascals, papa's Hooch....damn, that was a long time ago (for me anyways)
...ha...I remember using the cap on the end of a Bic pen to rewind the cassette to avoid that. how 'bout ..10c fountain cokes...except they were in a cone shaped paper cup in a plastic holder so you weren't getting as much as it looked like ...the machines that dispensed HOT peanuts and cashews into a little paper cup for a nickle ..giant bags of plastic army men or cowboys and indians for 99c ...setting these same plastic figures on fire with a match...I can still remember the smell...and man if that stuff dripped on you it hurt like hell ! ..those metal "siren" rings that you blew into ..those cheap water pistols that looked like a ray gun ...playing for hours with a Mattel Thingmaker and that Plasti-Goop stuff....3rd degree burns were part of the fun. .
The Jalopy Journal
