Dad beating his buddies hopped up 50 Olds in a drag race with out new 55 Buick Trading in our 51 buick for that two tone blue 55 (I was 4) Going with my cousin to pick up his new 56 Ford Victoria Hearing the dual pacemakers on that 56 Ford the next day Customizing my pedal car with poster paint My Roy Rodgers lunch box Playing marbles at school "for keeps" Getting my ass beat at school when I screwed up Getting my ass beat at home when they found out I got it at school My first model car, an AMT 58 Buick Talking Dad into glasspacks on our 58 Buick when the stock ones rusted out" they are cheaper Dad" a quarter a week chore money, saved it to buy model cars and .10 cent paint .12 cent White Castle burgers Converse tennis shoes Doing my best to look cool at school dances The rubber you carried in your billfold-FOREVER Finally finding a girl that let you feel her up Getting caught with smokes or beer and telling your mom it belonged to my friends Flipper hubcaps blue dots 3/4 race cams cruiser skirts cont.kits baby moons cragar SS wheels All these memories are making my mind fuzzy, got to get a beer! air shocks wide ovals
Penny Bazooka 5 cent Cracker Jacks Candy cigarettes Purchasing 2 model kits for a buck 98 15 cent Testors paint Riding on my Dad's lap..thinkin' I was driving ...between Milwaukee and Madison...on two lane 94...
Testor is still around but I remember when I started building car models in the early 70s, I used to buy Pactra. The paint bottles had a paint drop molded into the bottle and the spray cans had a small metal cap on them.
Used to be a small hobby shop (along with many other small stores) on W. Warren in Detroit where I grew up. Carried just about every kind of hobby you might want. Once a week he would hold a drawing and you could win a small amount of money. Actually won one time. Don't remember what I bought but I'm sure it was cool. Speaking of small stores, within the 15 blocks of my small world there was just about any kind of store you might need. 2 hardware stores, 4 drug stores, 3 gas stations (where you might find a job), a couple small burger/hang out joints and many adult beverage places (some were right next to each other) where you would see the neighbors cars or your old mans car.
Pride in America, saying the pledge in school, Pride in the flag, and taking care to treat it right. Everything designed and built here, No E.p.a running the jobs, and fun out.Cars,you could recognize a mile away, in different colors. Horse power , rear wheel drive,tailfins, chrome. People taking pride in how they dressed, spoke, and acted. P.c. not getting in the way of speaking the truth. Common sense ,Family, patriotism,pride,god, AMERICA.
I don't think I posted here so here is some for early 50's...Milk man, Bread man, Mail woman, Clothes Laundry man, Hardware man, Ice cream man, House Hold Goods man. All picked up and delivered in center of CT, I thought I was in the middle of no where but imagine a mid west state....Was lots of farms and cows and tractors...Now there is plenty of houses, cars, Town Houses, Apartments, stop signs, stop lights , bling wheels; and traffic is every day of the week instead of just on the summer week ends..Back then people dropped dead with out being shot...And I'm still here...
How about T.V.shows and movies, that were intertaning or funny,without having nudity, or being vile , gory,or using toilet humer????
Racing the milkman at 4:30 a.m. with my bicycle while delivering newspapers! Delivering the paper to the last customer... the Bakery and the milkman hand me a milk to enjoy with my fresh doughnut!
When I wasn't afraid of the cops, I was afraid they'd take me home to my dad......when my dad was god in the neighbourhood, our kitchen full of dirty guys fresh off work playing cards, being in awe of tough sons of bitches who took no crap. The phone hung on the kitchen wall, NOBODY called during dinner or after ten, unless it was an emergency. When talking to your buds on the phone had a strict time limit, when your date's dad insisted on meeting and scaring the living shit out of you, drinking and driving, smoking in public, calling elders Mr (last name).
I remember being my dad's remote control for the television,change the dial son! Thank goodness we only had 3 channels to chose from back then. HRP
Air raid drills in school! Never mind the sound of B47's taking off over your house in the middle of the night.
Towing a 57 Chev Belair no motor or trans paid 150.00 out the door.. Pop Said not another one!! 2door living the dream!! Wish I still had that ride!!
hhhhhmmm I don't want younger people ( I'm 61 ), thinking that everything was perfect in "the good old days", far from it. I have mostly GREAT memories, that's because I was a kid growing up, most people tend to idealize their childhoods, but there were many not so hot things about the 40's, 50's, and 60's as well!
1.29 model cars cartoons on Saturday & Ma and Pa Kettle on Sunday one tv and no ac the custom car show at the Baltimore Civic center three box tops and .50 for a Capt. Crunch ship model my first ride in a fast car. an Army green '69 Torino 428 CJ the first time .50 didn't get a gallon of gas for the lawnmower Mom's fried chicken on Sunday a new pair of Jack's for the summer my dad having the first tv remote. boy go turn that down
The B-52's taking off and landing from Westover Air Force base in mass. flying over our house during the "Cuban crisis". First time ever felling that my "forever invincible father" was actually afraid of THE BOMB. Stocking the basement with canned food, and water and bomb drills in our HOME. Not everything was all that great.
driving my grandfathers 65 ford pick up through the field at age 12. We spent all summer helping him bolt together this flat black, louvered hood, 390 4 speed truck. It had chrome smoothies, wide tires all the way around, and amazing black, red and chrome interior... I was not old enough to drive so he would let us do laps around the back 40 so we could get to drive the truck... with a poorly adjusted hurst shifter and a clutch pedal that was way to springy, i remember seeing that smelly white cloud come from under the truck several times gotta learn somehow! that truck was sold off, but ill never forget bouncing through the field in that old 65 ford.
I'm 66 and you are right...I have some good memory's too but I leave them there...I get a kick out of the cars labeled "lost in the fiftys"..I worked some [about 14 years old] for the Farmer up the street with a bunch of other out of town kids [tough guys they thought]; rough day [and almost any day] when you ducked because you spotted the shadow of a bird flying by which closely resembled the shadow of a tomato aiming for your head!!..Perfecting the art of rolling a tomato under one of the tough guys butt just as he sat down on the tail gate, priceless!! Messy too, best if he couldn't finger out the guy that did it....Since my father had been a Farmer and I started driving stuff when I was 6 the Farmer used to let me drive stuff, now who's the tough guy; me in a cool way.
I remember taking the long way home from town so that I could go down the railroad track and look through the old junk yard that was closed on Saturday and seeing a Model A coupe and other hot rod material just sitting there calling my name. Parts were sold by the pound but I was a broke kid. I remember moving into a new (to us) house in 1959 and looking across the street to see a cool hot rod sitting there. It was a 32 Ford red highboy roadster and it had a Mercury Y block engine in it. But I can't recall how I knew that. I guess I was reading hot rod magazines earlier than I thought. I remember staying out on the front porch late at night in the summer because Alabama gets hot and stays hot in the summer before the days of air conditioning. I remember walking everywhere. Very few buses and they cost I think a quarter to ride so I saved the money for the ten cent movies. I remember it rained frogs once. Little tiny frogs, millions of them in my back yard after a summer thunderstorm.
As kids we hopped the trains (speed limit through town was 10mph) from one end of town to the other but there was only one safe spot to jump off and if the train sped up you knew it was going to hurt or your folks would get a phone call from the Chicago switchyards (100 Miles away)! After that happens once or twice you mysteriously get a new bicycle! I've heard of it raining frogs... convection so great with tornado conditions skim the top feeding little frogs from their ponds!
Going ice fishing with my Dad and letting me drive the brand new 64 Galaxy wagon on the lake until I buried it into a snow drift! He wouldn't allow my Mom to drive that car!
Trying to work up the courage to jump on the slow moving train coming through town and getting off at the next town. Too many scary tales about the railroad police I guess.
When there wasn't a train... the tracks provided the perfect short cut through town. Kind of scary feeling when you're walking across a rail bridge and you discover a train coming at you! Yes my little brother froze in the middle of the bridge and I had to grab him and we jumped! Better hurt than dead.
Well you brought back a memory to me. I did that when I was a kid too. The railroad bridge over the river. Thank God it had a catwalk under it. I think I stopped doing that after that instance and used the car bridge a block away from then on. Should have paid attention to the train schedules..
The Jalopy Journal
