Hot Rods ,i remember the first, the very first time

I wrote this piece in the HAMB, maybe 16 years ago, it was a condensed version. I was going through my archives and found the original I wrote in an Illinois Hot Rod newsletter called ROLL (Rods of Lincoln Land). It was a well prepared, well excepted newsletter published for about 5 years. Any way, here's the article.

I remember the time, the very first time----Gee, I remember the occasion like it was yesterday. It was early fall of 1955 and I had just turned 15, such a young ripe age. Full of youthful energy, curiosity, virility---- School was a place to spend time, waste time, maybe study a little, while dreaming of the future, about girls, about cars. Ah yes, the sweet innocence of 15--- But back to my story.
This particular day I was exploring the neighborhood behind the handle bars of my trusty J C Higgins bicycle (even back then you had to be 16 to get a drivers license and I had yet to find a way to bypass my fathers objection to a whizzer or a (shudder0 Cushman Eagle). As I was pedaling down a side street a few blocks from home, I approached a small body shop. When I rode by something caught my eye, I turned look and there she was.
She was, with a doubt sharpest, neatest, prettiest car I had ever seen!! SHE was a powder blue 34 Ford Coupe! I was sure of what it was because it looked like the one in Hot Rod magazine only this one was real!! I did a u turn in the street and parked the bike right in front of the car and really began to look the car over. The coupe had no hood and no fenders, and it looked like the top was chopped, it was low in the front end and had small chrome head lights even the headlight stands where chrome! As I looked at the engine I was fascinated by all the chrome. It was everywhere, the generator, air cleaners even the coil. It had an oil filter and even that was chrome!! It was V-8 but I'd never seen any thing like it. It had 3 carburetors on a chrome manifold, the heads had OFFENHAUSER on them, so I assumed it was an Offenhauser engine, right of a race car!!
When I looked into the car, the first thing that really got attention was the gear shift lever. It was chrome, coming of the floor and on top was chrome SKULL. The seat and door panels were all red with pleats in them with white lines around the edges. All of the gauges were set in the middle of the dashboard in a really pretty, large gauge holder. The gauge holder looked like it came out of a Rolls or some big fancy car. But that big skull really stuck with me, I think it even had jewels for eyes!!
The car had big tires in back and small tires front, the wheels were bright red with small chrome Ford hub caps and with chrome rings around the outside of the wheels. The taillights were tear drop shaped and had little blue jewels in the middle!! I must have walked around that car 3 or 4 times, each time seeing something different. OH what beautiful Hot Rod!!!
After a few minutes two guys came of the body shop and approached the car. I don't remember to much about them except they were old guys, maybe 25 or 30. But, I'll never forget when they got in the car!! The doors opened from the front!! The two guys sort of backed into the car and when the doors closed, it was like the coupe swallowed them up! The two guys sat in car for few minutes until the driver hit the starter and after a couple of cranks and it fired right up. Boy, did it fire! The pipes seemed to crackle with a, sharp, rapping sound. By then I was sure that Offenhauser engine was right out of race car!! The driver put the car into gear and started to move into the street but his way was blocked by my bike!!
After a few seconds the driver leaned his head out of the window and said ''Hey, Kid you wanna move your bike outta the way?" WOW You talk about feeling like complete NERD!! I put my head down and scooted over to my bike and dragged it out of the way. With that the driver slipped the clutch and went slowly by, a few feet from where I stood. Thanks, one of them said. The powder blue 34 coupe was free of obsticals and traffic, it lurched momentarily as the driver clutched and revved up the motor. Then she was gone. No giant burn out, no explosion off the line, just a sharp rap, a nice squeal at second gear and she was gone. I was afraid right out life.
Yes, that was the first time, the very first time I ever fell in love with a Hot Rod and I had a big sticky spot in my jeans to prove it. The Vintage Teen

Well that's my story, from a long time ago. Bill Rinaldi​

 

Great story !!!

it wasn’t my first but a time that really sticks out is the first time I went out with my older brother and cousins to their friends house and the friends dad had an o/t muscle car dragster .

big ol fat slicks blower sticking out of the hood a bunch of esoteric gauges that made the dash look like it was out of a Boeing 747 . Slick metallic paint with racing stripes , 5 point harness the steering wheel was sitting on the floor !!!! Oh my the humanity .


Then he fired it off ……… the loud brap brap brap , supercharger whining away everything in the garage shaking and rattling
The noise that blessed noise was a symphony to me .
It felt like the car was stealing the air outta my lungs .
He hit the loud pedal a few times brap ! Brap brap and then killed it ………. It was utter silence afterwards nothing but silence after hearing that beast for a few minutes .


Yup , I was hooked . I’m in my 40’s now , probably 7-8 then .spent most of my money on cars and good times . The rest I’ve wasted

thanks for sharing .

you should edit the title as it’s blank .

 

Thanks for your stories, guys.

 

but

 

BTT

 

As if a hot rod spirit has settled into your soul

 

During the 50's we moved to the city. Mom was resigned to vist her country folks each Saturday.
Riding back and forth I became aware of the barns that held old rods.
First time I was up close, 1960 at uncle's Gulf station.
The butcher's son ( next door ) one night pulled up in front of the office, with his new ride.
A 3 yr old Chevy convert Tahitian Turquoise, white roof, a little bit low in the back.
The hood was louvered. The back window was diamond shaped with roof matching material.
It had full length lakes pipes, tubular grille, and a white interior.
Of course the standard of the time 3 spoke chrome 'spinner' wheelcovers.
I'll shall always remember my awe while inspecting that marvel, under the lights; and learning that his dad a skinny old Dutchman was pissed off at him for throwing away his money.

 

Hello,

We all have our first encounter with hot rods. Some have “googly eyes” with a loud race car that cruised the neighborhood. Others, at a gathering of other “older guys” and their hot rods. But, some have a simple story of a feeling of being satisfied with the ability to just walk around a sedan and feel right at home.

Having read a lot of car magazines when we were little started it all. It was a feeling of being able to go places and see things that were not in your own neighborhood. The car or hot rods in the photos showed it could be done. (even though many years later, those were all posed shots to make the hot rod attractive and noteworthy to the readers.) At the time, it was like a hot rod was the only way to see those cool beach shots, mountain lake areas and in cool tree lined streets in the heavily forested areas in our own So Cal location.

So, freedom to do what you wanted or wished for by using a car was the direction all of us were heading when we got old enough. For those that had older brothers, those times came earlier than our own age appropriate times for our own cars. The experience was starting at an earlier age than most.

Jnaki

We drove all over So Cal as a family to satisfy our dad’s need to see places he only read about in books and magazines. So, we followed his lead and got to experience different areas of California and Baja, Mexico at an early age. Many years later, we realized he always kept a small fishing pole and reel in his trunk. His fishing tackle box for traveling was always tucked away in the far reaches of the cavernous Buick trunk.

So, in thinking back to those trips along the coast, it was his way to go fishing from the rocks, jetties and beaches while we were playing around in the surrounding areas. What a concept and we thought it was a family vacation for all of us… ha! But, those trips opened our eyes as to what we could see in more detail when we were able to spend more time at one location or another with our own cars.

The original concept of introduction to hot rods? It was in my senior year of high school at the start of the football season. I had driven my Flathead powered 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery to school and we were all ready for the first game of the season in a visiting city, Compton, CA. I was the starting tight end and linebacker and my understudy was a kid who was like a shadow following me around the practice field and during game days. He was being groomed by the coaches to be the next starting tight end of the future.

In the last few minutes of the game, I got conked out after I made a smashing tackle of the star running back from the opposing team for a two yard loss. (A linebacker audible for me when I noticed a guard pulling out, for a down the line block.) The last thing I remember was a knee heading right for my helmet. The next thing was an in/out of consciousness on the bench with a lot of people tending to my situation. The game continued and we won, since I stopped the final quarter drive against the opposite team.

My friend finished the game in my position and was he starter for the next Friday night’s game. It was hard getting my starting lineup position back. But, I did and we had a great final season. The guy took over for the next two years after I had graduated and was an outstanding star for the team. A college scholarship was for the taking, from his two seasons of playing.

I had no idea of what was going on all the way back to Long Beach. Our coaches told me to go to the hospital and get checked out. Since I drove, they selected my understudy to drive to the hospital and take care of business, in my Flathead Sedan Delivery. So, the look in his eyes was all it took to realize the feeling of being introduced to a hot rod for the first time and the feeling one got when sitting behind the wheel. A WHAT???

After the hospital visit, well, I could not drive, so I gave him my sedan delivery for the weekend, no questions asked. He was to pick me up on Monday morning for school. I was zonked out for the whole weekend and when he came over on Monday morning in my sedan delivery, he was all smiles… That is what a hot rod does to anyone who has never been involved with cool cars and hot rod builds. He got to spend quality time with the Flathead powered Ford Sedan Delivery. I did not ask what he did or did not do over the weekend. His smile said it all !!! YRMV

 

Great stories. Thanks.

 

It was at Lebanon Valley Speedway, and it was a dirt car. This was when I was 6 years old, 1960. The car was this yellow thing with an X and a skunk on the doors. This was still the flathead era for the Valley. Doug Garrison driver. Martin Riiska's car.

And I was all in after that, hook, line and sinker... First car, 55 Ford Customline, 1 owner, drove it home myself on a repair plate. I was 14, mom was mad as hell at me. Not for the driving part, for the buying part without checking with her first.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

 

By the time I was 12 I was very interested in hotrods. I was reading hotrod magazines and learning. After school each day, I would cross Hudson street to walk home. The traffic was usually heavy near the school. One day as I paused at the curb, I saw a 55 chevy waiting to turn left onto Hudson street. Primer gray, no front bumper, sitting high in front. Gasser! The driver was a lot older, maybe 17-23, guessing by the 3 yr old child standing on the front seat. She saw a gap in traffic and knew she would have to be quick. As she let the clutch out, she could tell she would kill the engine so she shoved the clutch in, revved the engine and quickly let the clutch out. ... and there was a small 6" wheelie!! Right in front of me ! Awesome! I've never forgot and she probably didnt know it happened.

 

In about 1955-1958?? my mother was in the hospital in Des Moines, IA and her hospital room mate was Marie Brown. They got to be friends and occasionally we'd drive from SW Iowa to the big city, that's when I met her husband, Ralph B Brown (can't believe I can remember that), he had a mechanic shop on Army Post Road but behind his house was a white?? 33 or 34 Ford Coupe, I wasn't very old and it didn't run, but it was just cool.
I think that was the spark that lit the fire. I wish I had told Ralph...he's been gone for a number of years

 

I was just wandering around the California desert south of Inyokern (The site of the Inyokern drags) when I came across the Rinaldi Well near the "Golf Ball" on Laurel Mtn. Maybe a relation?