You guys could go on forever........I remember my fuel pump going out on my 64 chevy van in the middle of nowhere and I filled the windshield washer bag, yea bag! with gas and my buddy gravity fed the fuel in the carb for 10 miles to a napa store in lone pine. Ha....
I remember when you stepped on the gas when the red lights came on and the cops had to stop when they got to the edge of their jurisdiction. I remember the Oklahoma highway patrolman in Alva who drove a 57 Ford. His name was Bearschmidt but we called him something else. ;<)
Growing up in SoCal we'd go to "the dairy" - a drive thru - with a galvanized wire "carrier" and our empty milk bottles. You'd tell the kid what you wanted and he'd push a big button on the wall and a chute would open and the milk bottles would slide down the chute. We had the Helms trucks here too. Home delivery of bread, pies, cakes mostly. They drove light yellow Chevy panel trucks and had these looong oak drawers that would pull out with what seems like all the goodies in the world. Donuts, candies, cigarettes for the stay-at-home moms (EVERYbodys mom back then)
I'm only 38... but... I remember.. All the gas stations had repair shops. Lots of local places that fixed carburetors, radiators, small engines, driveshafts, etc.. Cars from the 60s on the road British sports cars on the road Japanese cars were basically tiny econoboxes only There were still drive in movie theaters On a saturday you'd drive around and people would be working on their cars in their driveways. REAL auto parts stores REAL hardware stores The #1 radio station in NYC was still on AM
In the mid '60s, when I was about 9 years old, my Uncle Craig had a cool old 3-wheeled Harley. It was red and had a kind of shallow box on the back. I was visiting my grandparent's at the lake for the weekend, (anybody know where Cranberry Lake is north of Rochester Michigan...south of Lakeville?) and Uncle Craig gave me a ride around the neighborhood. He put me in the box and had me hang onto the chrome bars along the sides. He said sternly, "Now hang on good!" "Ok...I will." Lol. It was winter time, and we were slippin' and slidin'. Woohooo! He'd look back at me and ask, "Ya ok?" "Yup!" What a blast. Speakin' of my uncle, it was around that time that he also had a bright red Plymouth Barracuda...no...Baccaruda...lol. I think it was a '63. No mufflers. You could hear that thing comin' for blocks...lol. He taught me a few things way back then. How to burn ants with a magnifying glass...I thought that was kinda gross...lol. And how to get night crawlers. Of course we needed night crawlers to go fishing early the next morning. He showed me how to spray the lawn with the water hose in the evening, then took me back out there after dark with a flashlight. Well I'll be darned...night crawlers all over the place. Just pick 'em up and put 'em in the little box of dirt. One other kind of cool thing. He made me a "nightlight" by catching a shit-load of fireflies and putting them in a jar to put on the windowsill by my bed. Truth is, my interest in old cars and old music was greatly influenced by what Uncle and all his teenaged friends were doing and the music they listened to at the time. It kind of stuck with me. Staying at Grandpa and Grandma's house was fun.
The older I get, the better I was! I'm 58 now so approaching perfection. If I live to 80 I'll not only walk on water, I may hover slightly over it!!
These... <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/rP6Z86iDFjU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/yrHWmUpZFyI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/z7Y72Fo6Eok" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> and
The actual intro... <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/eiwfFNxH-rQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> The song soundtrack... <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/TUrr6dv2fFg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
My absolute favorite....! Sunday... Sunday... Sunday... at US Smoken 30 Dragway...! <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/jDYzidMqq4o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> How about this..... Drag racing with Jungle Jim and A.M. Radio Broadcasts! <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/45ryUG12Eh8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Wish I saw this!!!! <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/DTNr9MHk7NE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I remember being awestruck, and scared silly, at the same time, when those long haired, bearded hot rodders, in the old shed behind my home, would fire up their V8s with uncapped headers. That feeling is only a memory now, as it dont scare me anymore. Nowdays, im still awestruck, but theres no fear. Lol.
Well, we still have two bona fide real old-fashioned hardware stores in Charlotte. If they don't have what you need (and they probably do), they know where to get it and will either have it in a few days or send you across town to a wholesaler and they have it. And, they are well-staffed with knowledgeable folks.
Yeah, we got one of those, also. Amazing what you'll find in there. Unfortunately, the real auto parts stores closed down, ya gotta drive 30 miles to find one of those!
We still have an old fashioned Auto parts store in Waukesha where most of the sales staff has worked there 30+ years and learned from the Old guys what parts can be interchanged without the books or a computer! Jungle Pam.... Linda.... Ahhhhhhh!
Potts hardware is one of those down on S. Tryon. OUr rod shop was across the parking lot. We would play "Stump the Hardware" with our bolts and such. We only managed to stmp them a handfull of times.
I remember being told the first thing you do after you take a brake drum off (doing a brake job) is to blow off the brake parts with compressed air!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sky King, Amos and Andy, and Andy's Gang. Quarter piece of pizza, dime coke, and I pumped gas in NM in the sixties for 27 cents a gallon!!
I grew up in CT, remember in the late 50s hearing a few cars with Bermuda Bells, though I never actually saw the bell itself. Wanted one ever since, but nobody here in OK even knows what they were. Finally a week ago, I paid way too much money for one on the Bay, just had to have it for my coupe. 55 year old memory is alive again for me, but the Okies around here will prolly think I'm crazy. Another late 50s memory- I had a morning paper route (remember those) delivering the Hartford Courant. I recall my customers really upset when the daily price went from 5 cents to 7.
Atlantic gas stations Esso Gulf No Nox Amoco.....I think they had the first no lead gas Flying A Cities Service Sohio Standard Chevron in Philly the original Bandstand tv show hosted by Bob Horne the Bandstand show after Bob got in trouble and was replaced by Dick Clarke American Bandstand, which is what the show became after it ceased production at The Arena at 44th and Market in Philly and moved to LA. Watching Chubby Checker do the twist.
East of the Mississippi. It was Enco to the West. (Standard Oil of NJ) now Exxon. Lord, I can hardly remember all the different oil companies. Union 76 and Atlantic-Richfield were West of the Mississippi only. Pure Oil was NASCAR, later sucked up by Union 76. Sinclair, sucked up by BP. Gulf, sucked up by Chevron, I think. Amoco (Standard Oil of IN) sucked up by Chevron (Standard Oil of CA). Mobil (Standard Oil of NY), sucked up by Exxon. Oh man, there used to be a boatload of oil companies.
Driving down the road with my dad in the mid 1970's and identifying all the classic cars we would see. We would race to see who could id it first. That's how I learned cars. As I got older we moved to engines, trim levels, etc. good times. I miss how many 50's and 60's cars were still on the road then.
When commercials were cool sequels! <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/fQfD169CNl0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Man, you brought back some memories! All that stuff. I remember the old man telling me to take the used oil after we changed it in one of the cars to go pour it on the ant hills in our side yard. The word Ethyl in a Friday night. 98-102 octane at the Shamrock station. Not Diamond Shamrock. When the words Shell, Texaco, and Chevron actually meant something. Going pump to pump on a Sunday at the closed stations and getting the leftover gas out of the hose at every pump we could find until we almost had a 1/4 tank. Drip gas, rock salt, and 12 gauge shotguns! Lol. The sound of my buddy George's dad's '55 Chevy with the destroked motor that wound up so high you just wanted out of the car as soon as possible! Never forgot the sound of that motor winding through second gear the split second before he would grab third and the car would get sideways at a high rate of speed. My uncle Jim's '55 Chevy, primer orange, peerless Mickey Thompsons all the way around with deep dish mags, monster motor with headers, drums in the backseat, buckets in the front with a wooden column sticking up between the seats with the push buttons out of a dodge set in the top of it to shift the automatic. It would get stuck in reverse sometimes and he would cuss those buttons. I was 9, and I loved it. Thanks for the stroll!
The Jalopy Journal
