riding my bike around picking up coke bottles and taking them to Hartmans store to get candy and a yoo hoo. putting lighter fluid on my bike tire and lighting it to make more traction before a big bike race. stopping at a gas station and getting a book of matches to stick in your 8-track player because it was playing two songs at the same time.
Dad bought a 59 Impala to drive in the snow and salt to save our 66 Bonneville. Riding on the tailgate of dad,s old ford truck. Riding in our 49 Chevy 2 ton truck leaning on the door and it flying open. Being stuck in the snow in mom's 64 Falcon sprint. looking thru the green tinted roof panels in my uncles Vista Cruiser. .39 cent Gasoline 3 tv channels out houses
Has anyone mentioned the corner store? Every neighborhood had a corner store or two. Hooky bobbin when it snowed (grab the back bumper of a passing car and slide behind it) Skinny dippin in the spring.
All the popular fads in grade school. For a while it was marbles. Then paper airplanes. Then yoyos. Everybody had to have the latest thing. Marbles on the playground...cat eyes, puries, steelies...babies, jumbos, boulders. Yo-yos. Quite the popular fad in our school for a while. One kid had a 20' string on his...he'd give that baby a throw down the school hallway...glance off the floor and back like a shot. Lookout. ALL the kids sliding down the hill behind our school in the winter during recess. 10 to 20 separate slide paths all lined up across the hill. We'd slide on everything...cardboard, saucers, etc. Linoleum was super fast. Leggings, buckle boots, loooong colorful stocking caps. You could smell the cotton in the hallway where all the kids hung their wet winter clothes on hooks outside the classroom. Laura Murish running around the playground with some of the other girls, pretending to be horses. They'd snort and whinnie as they kicked up dust galloping around...lol. Had quite the crush on little Laura. I'd chase and try to kiss her, and she'd pinch the hell outa my cheeks to deter me...lol. The smell of "hot lunch" drifting down our grade school halls. 25 cent hot lunch. 3 cents for milk. Our kindergarden teacher Mrs. Smith reading all the Dr. Suess books to us. Cat in the Hat. Go dog Go. Murtle the Turtle. Etc. Finger painting. Drawing a turkey by tracing our hands, then gluing real feathers to it. Mighty Moe. Jimmy Jet. Slot cars. Models. Playing in my dad's non-running '57 Plymouth hardtop. I remember the cool two-toned steering wheel and the snub-nosed bullet-shaped dash knobs. Making jumps for our bikes. Pulling off the fenders, 'cause it looked cooler. Skateboards with slippery steel wheels. Waiting for the concord grapes to ripen on the huge vine behind our garage. Mmmmm. Looking in the bra section of my mom's Sears catalog. Seeing the very first episodes on tv of Batman, The Munsters, The Adam's Family. We knew Batman's name, but my little brother asked me, "What is the other guy's name?" "That's Bat Boy." "Then why does he have an R on his vest?" All the beautiful old '40s and '50s and very early '60s cars that would line up on the street in front of the church across the street. Everybody wore hats. Some of the women wore gloves. In the church, the smell of perfume and incence. Sneaking apples off our neighbor's tree. We lived on a lake for some years. Cranberry Lake north of Rochester Mi. Asked Mom if I could go swimming on an unseasonably warm 80 degree day in March. She laughed and said, "Sure, but the water is gonna be real cold." It was so cold, I froze my balls...it actually hurt...lol.
These are things i don't rememeber before: Portabello mushrooms,the word "logistics" i every truck!( we used "haul"),Tiramisu,Tilapia,Pantina( we called it "faded")Broccoli rabe. Thats just a few! Most of these are foods ! Not have anything to do with modern gadgets!lol JimV
Walking down the hill to the grocery store to buy canned pop for the parents and their brothers and shaking it all the way home. Running like hell whan they opened it. Doing burnouts across the "ding ding" bell at the gas station in Danny's 301-55 chevy and seeing the pieces fly up in the air. Spending all day at the swimming pool and riding there and back on your bike. Stopping half way there and hiding while smoking 2 of mom's stolen Raliegh cigarettes.
Rickybop, I remember all that. My dad was a heavy equiptment mech. he would get me lots of steelies, some 1 1/4" in diameter, I had all the trading leverage. We would go for the concords too as well as pears in all the orchards around the area. YoYo's I had several of them including the buterfly ones. Clackers, until they exploded, we also threw them like bolos. Trying to convince my mom I NEEDED another model as it was cold and wet outside and I had nothing else to do. I watched the Apollo splash down with the rest of the class sitting Indian style in the Nuns living quarters next to school. It seems everyone had a local hill whether it be a road or dirt that we all went down on skate boards, bikes, sleds, gocarts or anything else with wheels or a slick surface depending on the time of the year. Flying kites, my birthday is in March so I always got a new one, using a fishing pole with lots of line to get it way up there. Cup a piece of paper around the line and the wind would take it up the the kite, you would have to write a message on it first, sort of a spy type thing. Some times we would sharpen popsickle sticks and tape them to the kites and have dog fights, soon one of them would have too many tears and start loosing altitude, thus the loser.
I remember gas welding the rear quarter on a buddys car on the side of the road, in front of someones house that we did not know. The bad thing was we cought the car on fire and had to put it out with our beer. I just wonder what the neighbors thought? Also one time anothers buddys car broke down (no spark) and we were working on it on the side of the road. While trouble shooting it, it got kinda flooded and when I pulled the dissy out he left the key in the ON position...The LOUDEST BOOM I ever heard! it took about a week to grow the hair back on my face. The good old days!
Yup...fond memories, Harv. This thread certainly takes us back, huh? Stuff I haven't thought about in a long time...wow.
The 20,000 miles I put on my schwin stingray. Banana seat, sissy bar, ape hangers, and a red line slick. Big smile the whole time. Finding Dad's stash of Playboys and thinking I'd hit the mother lode. Trying to explain why the tires on the back of Mom's merc were bald. Sneaking out on Sat. night, running a mile through the fields to catch the main at Vallejo Speedway, only to have Dad ask who won the race at breakfast the next morning...and then inform me that ALL of the weeds needed pulled from the yard before I did ANYTHING fun (it was a BIG yard) Hitting my first home run in little league. Takeing apart an old stromberg that had been in the back of the garage for months to see how it worked, and only having a few extra parts left over... Dad tried to install it on his truck a couple of weeks later. I watched that pissed-off expression turn to a smile when I fessed up to what I'd done, He said " not bad for a 10 year old, you got the extra parts ? I'll show ya where they go" Sunday drives with the whole family. The endless possibilities reading the ads that were in the back of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines. At 11 I had it all figgered out, I was going to buy a $44 surplus jeep, build one of the $777 kit homes, have a body like Charles Atlas, and raise and sell Sea Monkies for a living. Just couldn't understand why EVERYONE didn't want to do this. One of my best memories is the ride home from seeing the planet of the apes at the drive in. My Mom used to pack the floor boards in the back seat with blankets so us kids could lay down. It was maybe a 15 mile drive home and I remember being half awake feeling safe and warm without a worry in the world. This was the first and last time I remember having that feeling. This thread has awakend a lot of old memories I didn't know were gone, at a time they are needed, I thank you all VERY much.
the older ya get the less good ya can smell things.....i remember how some stuff smelled tho'........play dough in grade school, came in big round cardboard cans....like oatmeal did....the smell,the colors....big deal at age 6......the way the neighborhood smelled at dinner time in the summer,when you were pedaling your ass off to get home in time for yours.......the lawn... at dusk,after ya mowed it.......rain on a hot highway......alky motor sprint cars.......drive in movie coffee........gymnasium floors on the first day back at school............
I just happened to think about the chemistry sets we had as kids that contained chemicals I am sure would never pass muster today. Can you imagine the warning labels and MSDS sheets that would come with a kit now? Who needs safety goggles?
Orange and walnut groves surrounding my house. Unlimited exploring for miles in almost any direction. Shooting BB guns without worrying about hitting anything. Watching the trees being mowed down for the new subdivision and the guy driving the D-8 Cat giving me a ride. Stealing lumber from the new construction to build a playhouse then having the foreman of the building crew show up praise us for our construction then make us take it all apart and return the lumber to the site. Collecting scraps of wire to sell for candy change. Riding in a barn find model A sedan with a horse blanket over the spring seat. My sister's 4-speed 55 Chevy with the hole in the floorboard so you could watch the street go by under you. Building "forts" in the tall grass on the hills around Brea. Damn, I had a pretty good childhood for a goofy fat kid.
Until you were old enough to drive or have your own car, having this sticker on your dresser, mirror or bike was a must!
Eating the paste in grade school. Getting paddled in school by the teachers. Having pen-pals from other countries. Riding backwards in the third row of a '68 Town & Country. Getting 35 cents allowance a week and putting 10 cents of that in the offering at church. Party line phones and having to wait for a neighbor to finish their call so I could make mine. Sneaking into the lumber supply yard at the end of the street and climbing around the lumber piles. Getting caught by the staff and told we would "go to jail" if they caught us in there again. Buying the Hot Wheels Snake and Mongoose drag set with my paper route money. Collecting all of the S&H Green Stamps from my mother's trips to the grocery store and poring over the catalog to see what I might want to save them for. All of the tunnels on the PA Turnpike on the annual trip from Ohio to New Jersey and New York. Most of them are gone now. Going to the office with my Dad and opening a hallway closet to discover the heart of a Muzak system. When my 7th grade Civics teacher in junior high bought a brand new 72 Riviera and we though it was so cool that it would burn (a little) rubber pulling away from the curb. Driving the car backwards most of the way home (on side streets) to cover up how many miles I had put on it.
Being able to tell the make and model of a car from a block away. Climbing the old mine dumps looking for fossils, then scrounging around in the town dump looking for toys and cool bottles. My grandad would get the old oil from the tavern, take it home and cook potato chips for us kids, as he used the potatoes to clean the oil. Having to walk the block and a half to the grocery store to get groceries for mom; in the summer, we could walk into the meat cooler where the milk was kept, to cool down (and look at all the meat hanging on the hooks). Having to put a matchbook behind the dial on the UHF converter to keep it tuned to the station (we also got three). I would go out at night behind my dad's '55 Chevy, and turn on the turn signal and watch the blue dot turn the lens purple. I've still got my first model car, actually a truck, that my mother helped me build. Also a tin toy truck. Lying out on the grass on a summer day and listen/watch the prop planes fly overhead, and seeming to not have any bugs in the yard back then.
Anybody else remember the Yo - Yo man coming to the candy store / grocery across from the school. Man, he was good..............
the battery was bad,and my brothers and I would have to push/pop the clutch in the winter in St. Paul. Laughed a lot to Amos and Andy.
Hey , it's too cold to work on the roadster and now this is 47 pages long so I won't anyway. I can add that I remember throwing away Mickey Mantle rookie cards from Topps bubble gum because I already had 2 or 3 and riding my bike with my cousin on the bar to caddy at Town and Country golf course.........98 cents for 9 holes, 1.80 for 18. We have great long term memory, but can't remember whar we had for lunch yesterday. Enyoy it all.
Getting the paddle (with "speed holes") when I acted a fool in elementary school. Or a ruler across the knuckles when the teacher grew tired of taking me out to the hall for a paddling. Getting the belt from mom or dad later that evening when they found out I was being an idiot in school. And I wasn't abused. Just a shithead kid up to no good most of the time. Deserved every beat down I got. And that's only for they stuff they found out about. Hahahaha Remember those water rockets that you pumped up the pressure and they shot way up in the air? I miss those.... Hot wheels dragster tire that you scraped your knuckles from trying to spin it fast to watch tire growth. And launched it at your younger sibling. Or family pet. Properly tucking your head between your knees during cold war drills in elementary school so you could kiss your ass goodbye when the shit hit the fan. Metal wheels on skateboard or roller skates. Riding in the bed of a pick up on the highway. I still don't see any problems with that. Rounding up cans and bottles to recycle for my daily regimen of junk food. Being the remote control for the TV when you walked by it. I swear they made up stuff just to get me to come out of my room when I was building models or playing with legos or lincoln logs to change the channel. Waiting for and writing letters to my old squeeze when we moved away. I still pay my bills via snail mail. Being pre-pubescent and sneaking off with the JCPenney catalogue to see the bra and panty section. Only to find out later dad had a secret stash of playboys hidden in the closet. Here mom, you can have your catalogues back. Remember how exciting it was to run to answer the phone just to see who it was? I really dig caller i.d., but man...simpler times.... Oh, and actually playing outside til I heard mom's 4 block-radius whistle, or til it was dark.
I remember getting the Noah's ark and the animals free with gas at the Arco station. The whole little league team riding in a pickup bed going for ice cream. And mostly getting thrown out of the house and told to find something to do, kids just played, now we need play dates with itinerary and glutton free snacks!!!! Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
sitting in the back seat as my dad told the guy " 5 dollars worth of ethyl" all the adult men i knew singing " baby's got her blue jeans on" listening to the radio for hours waiting for a certain song to come on, then it did. the first time i heard "come on, feal the noise" heading for a new ramp i built not knowing what was going to happen. when the "barris" kustom series of model cars came out. the day elvis died wall posters
I'm 26 an I want you older guys to know how lucky you are to have been young back then. I know it wasn't perfect, but it's a lot better than now... Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
I grew up in the boot-hills of the Ozark mountains in Arkansas in the late 70's and early 80's. I remember: Watching the countryside go by while laying in the top bunk of an International Harvester school bus my dad had converted into a camper. Later, living in that same school bus until graduating high school. We built a little room on the side of it. It was heated with a wood stove. A window fan blew the heat from the room into the bus through the bus windows. There was no locks or even a door knob on the door, just a wooden handle. There was, however, "Wag" - a very effective guard dog. He would do anything to fetch - including climbing trees and swimming under water. Crashing my Matchbox cars together. Building cities in the clay beside the creek. I had buildings, roads, a water tower (5 gallon bucket) and a river through town (hole in the bucket). Doing a wheelie with the tractor when dad wasn't around to see it. Seeing how fast it could go in high gear. Seeing how fast my horse could go, turn and stop. Riding steers in the corral when dad wasn't around. Our big black Angus bull would lay his 250 pound neck and head in my lap and want me to scratch him. Another cow named, "Stinky" would butt heads with us when she was a baby calf. That's how she played. Later, when she grew into a huge cow, she still wanted to play. You had to keep an eye on her or she'd send you flying and you'd end up on the ground with the wind knocked out of you. Sometimes, we'd go for rides through the air by putting our foot on the bump between her ears. She seemed to enjoy it as much as we did. Probably because she got a treat. Climbing young hickory trees about two stories high and bending them down to the ground using my body weight so I would "fall" slowly. Or, bending them over to the next tree and transferring from tree to tree. Damming the creek up to make a swimming hole. Swinging out over the creek and letting go of the rope or wild grape vine while letting out a Tarzan yell. Catching snakes, turtles, crawdads, frogs, tadpoles, salamanders and fish with nothing but my hands. Letting the river's vortex carry me to the bottom. Grabbing a large stone under the clear water and walking around with my eyes open, looking at stuff for 3 minutes at a time. Freaking people out that I could stay under so long: I'd swim somewhere out of sight, pop quietly above the water, and then watch them. When they started to get nervous, I'd dunk back under again and swim back to the spot where they first saw me go under. Jumping out of tall trees into the river. Walking back home from the river, barefoot, for about 2 miles on hot pavement, then about 2 1/2 miles more on gravel roads. Man, were our feet tough! We could run on the gravel roads after the first few weeks of summer. Walking across the frozen creek in the winter and watching the fish swim underneath. Sledding down the HUGE hill using bent up pieces of tin roofing. Jumping ever higher and more elaborate ramps with my bike. Buying a new speedometer and seeing how fast I could take a particular curve. I have a pretty good scar on my arm from that one. Welding a frame together to make a three wheeled bike to lay in while going down the HUGE hill near our house. (less wind resistance) Separating the oxygen from the hydrogen in water by putting an extension cord in a jar of water and baking soda, then plugging it in. Blub, blub, blub, blub, POP! Hoeing our 1.5 acre garden every day. Butchering chickens, ducks, turkeys, and a cow every year. Walking to the out house in a thunderstorm with an umbrella and accidentally hitting the electric fence with the metal handle while standing in water. Ouch! I thought peeing on an electric fence would just be really stupid. I couldn't imagine why anyone would want to try that. Being excited to visit our unreasonably mean neighbor so we could watch his TV. Later, we got our own TV but it only got ABC. Once in a while PBS would come in clear enough to watch Monty Python's Flying Circus but it was a rare treat. Pong. TRS-80 Color computer. It used a cassette player to store programs and data. My first job - working for a farmer at age 13. My first real job - summer maintenance for the school at age 14 -which lead to my first $100.00 bill that I had earned. It was all mine to do what ever I wanted with! I got a "boom box." I took it apart and managed to get it back together again a few times. Age 17: Cutting truckloads of fire wood to sell in town to pay for my first car. Using 5 gallons of used oil from a road-grader to get the car home from the auction so I could put a new rear seal in it. Leaving a trail of oil all the way home. Stopping along the way to see if the tired slant six in the Duster could do a burn out. Pulling into a gravel road to see if it could at least do one there. Backing up to look at the puddle, which was more impressive than the skid mark. (After getting it running right, it finally did do a modest burnout. Wohoo! I was king of the world!) Age 18: Learning how to control a four wheel drift on gravel roads using the gas and/or the brakes. Using both lanes to straighten out hard curves and maintaining a, "racer's line." Age 19: Taking out a mail box. Later, almost hitting another car. Ending up in the shallow ditches beside the roads so many times that I stopped caring if the lower 1/3 of my car got any more dents or scratches. After getting 5 tickets in 6 months and having to pay huge insurance premiums, I decided to calm down. Besides, I felt bad about the mail box and almost hitting the other car. I figured it was just a matter of time before something really bad happened. I'm not sure if it was just dumb luck or the grace of God, but I'm glad I never hurt anyone. I've always loved that adrenaline rush that comes from falling or going fast. I like learning how machines work, too. I guess that's why hot rods seem fun to me. They're also kind of cool and you get to meet some interesting people, too.
The Jalopy Journal
