History Southern Culture Avoids The Skids

Very interesting. The Bible-belt had a lot of influence on the folks down south.
It’ll be interesting to hear some of the old time stories from the older guys in those areas.

 

Living in NC for most of my 57 years, my experience tells me that yes....the NHRA Safety Safari helped, but NASCAR grew to were "shadetree" guys couldn't go up against the factory. Drag racing hit a similar note in musclecar era, probably resulting in more unsanctioned" outlaw" strips profiting. The Billy Sunday/ Billy Graham reach definitely was/ is still palpable....and yea, shine cars or hopped up sleeper deputy cars were the norm for many years. My earliest memory, was a billboard on US 1 North, going to both the dragstrip AND speedway proclaiming, "This is the heart of Klan Country" or something similar. Nervous times, even for a white Yankee Catholic!!?

 

I glimpse of Birmingham Al in the late 50s
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...way-and-l***iter-mountain-drag-strip.1202881/
you’ll see some hot rods, customs and at least one west coast drag car
I live here. Not during that period but I knew a lot that did.
Culture? Well since hot rods are ***ociated with rock n roll I have no doubt that negatively influence the Bible Belt. Things move slow here. So I’m not surprised at the timeline proposed by the bossman.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/folk-art-jalopy-it’s-not-a-rat-rod.1242552/
this creation was stated by its owner to be a legit 40s build that was driven, raced and evolved by his relative.
Resembles the cut downs my relatives built for fun in the south.
Not much of a chance for this to end up in a magazine.
Shine cars? Yep. Ive seen ‘em.
Those weren’t flashy on the outside. Needed to blend in with the rest of the poor folks.
My area was poor. Mostly coal miners. The company owned everything. Not much cash to spend on “hot rods” other than an occasional jalopy. My uncles built “customs”. Modified trucks to haul logs and such or school bus “RVs”.
One had a hot 327/4 speed 55 Chevy. Another with a “vette” powered 64 impala.
Old cars here after serving time as someone’s “work car” (similar to a rust belt persons salt or winter car) usually became round track fodder.

 

It’s funny actually.
I understand the at***ude. It’s was fear that drove this idea.
Youth Rebellion was a fear even through the 60’s.
Now we could easily pick up a paper or article criticizing today mechanics who do not understand the basics.
If a computer doesn’t give them an answer they can’t fix it through common sense.

 

Some thoughts:
1) Since the end of the draft in 1973, southern states have a history of over-representation in the armed forces. Ref:
Understanding the South's unequal contribution of military recruits | Facing South
I can't cite a ref, but suspect it goes way back to post-civil war reconstruction era.
2) Generally speaking, this reflects a culture of duty and "service before self" and the Bible Belt influence reenforces that culture.
3) That directly conflicts with hot rodding's culture of individuality, expression of self, and rebellion.

BTW, I grew up in the upper Midwest so don't have a dog in this fight.

 

If the media has ever reported on something you are directly involved with, you have likely experienced that the story is more important than boring true reporting, which is generally dry and uninteresting. Also I expect the paid circulation of newspapers wasn’t a lot of teenagers- know your audience, and play to them. Hotrodding and Rock and Roll have survived- till now- not so sure going forward. Thanks for providing this food for thought.

 

1957. Lol.
I guess kids not digging cars is traditional as well as education being out of touch with reality. Kinda tosses a monkey wrench in the “back in my day” way of thinking.


I’ll add another factor. Isolation.
I wonder if the mining camp store sold hot rod magazines?
I don’t think rural areas had access to the influences young folks in cities had.

 

One point I've been reconsidering lately is why the aviation connection to hot rodding is so strongly connected to the west coast. Lots of aircraft were built outside CA, including St Louis and especially in the Detroit area. Also, it appears to me that the aviation links to rodding and racing are primarily for such things as light weight fasteners, casting and machining lighter metals, exotic metals, forming / monocoque construction, thermoplastics, AN fittings and lines, electronics and mil spec connectors, etc.. Many of those items were widely available cheaply as government surplus after WWII. Still, as a kid from the midwest I had never even seen a pop rivet or AN lines until I was hanging around race teams in the early 1970s.

 

The South lacked any open minded thinking until the 60's when the kids really started rebelling, in the rural area I was raised there were a few hot rodders, the police watched them like hawks.

The local leaders & the news paper only published articles that matched their narrow minded ideas and nothing else

Speeding, racing, loud mufflers , safety violations, etc. was the order of the day, hot rods were the devils work preached from the Southern Baptist pulpit.

Fortunately we had heros that hauled moonshine through the week and race some of the same cars on Saturday night, guys like Júnior Johnson. and many others.

It seems the police at that time were more concerned about teenage hot rodders than moonshiners, here is a interesting tidbit, My grandfather made untaxed liquor and my uncle still living with him was on the police force. my granddad never got arrested or lost a still.

Lack of any worthwhile coverage could be attributed to no publications dedicated to the hot rod & customs of that time in the South.

To think hot rods & customs didn't really exist in the South probably stems form lack of coverage, agreed it wasn't a hot bed but there were lone wolves & clubs. HRP


This hot rod club was established in the late 40's.

 

Yep. Editors can pick and choose. Still do.
I asked my grandpa how he survived the depression. He said if it wasn’t for Julie(grandma) knowing how to read we would never have known what a depression was. We was poor before, we was poor after.
Bonneville? I never heard of it growing up except for an occasional news report on national tv. My kinfolks could care less.
So there wasn’t much need for land speed info.
Coverage for NASCAR was different.

But I support the hypothesis you present with negative coverage in the south.
But hot rods and hoodlums go hand in hand.
Or at least for Hollywood it did. The area that birthed it also defined it. That negative stigma created by Hollywood fit the Bible Belt thinking well.

 

Ryan, it was a cultural thing. You can't underestimate the influences of the Churches and the general fear of change by the powers that be. As a temporary transplant into middle Tennessee in the mid '60s, I quickly found that anything out of California was suspect as well as 'northerners' from the east coast. Being from the 'other' Washington, I was an unknown and given the benefit of the doubt which I maintained by keeping my mouth shut mostly (Y'all sound just like the fellers on TV...). I sometimes felt like a zoo exhibit... LOL.

There were some hot cars though, but NASCAR and moonshiners (who very much still existed) were the influence and intertwined enough to garner official disapproval by the Churches but got a blind eye p*** as 'home-grown'. There were a ton of small bootleg tracks locally (some scary as hell!) but due to the poorer economic conditions few 'nice' cars and the old iron was mostly found on the dirt tracks (also common).

The whole experience was an eye-opener...

 

Although politics are not discussed here our perspective is much like a bias of view points, there are alway two or more ways of thinking and in my mind my bias is right, others may think I am full of,, well you know.

I love hot rods and customs and those *******s from yesterday that thought they had the public ear by publishing the news the way they wanted it interpreted left the world feeling kinda pompous.

But then again, I'm bias too! HRP

 

Your comment on Editors is spot on and funny. For part of a summer in 1990 I did the 6am to 1pm Sunday shift at our local AM radio station. My job included patching into the Catholic and Lutheran Church services, playing Gospel music in between and recording the news segments to run until the morning crew came in on Monday. I had the power of the dial. As for music, I found the most rockin gospel on vinyl I could in the Station OR I just played Jim Nabors. As for the news, I got it right off the wire! At least for a summer the news consisted of things I was into. Brainderd Drag results, circle track standings from the local Speedways and Tour de France results!

 

I’ve been aware of the over representation of the south in your armed forces. Your perspective is interesting as I thought it was merely the effect of a poorer area of your country opting for the military in order to improve their education, skill set, etc.

 

Thinking this or that=Your info at a given age n time,that's what makes up your point of view.
It took me some time to understand that,as I got older. [ now on my 81st trip around the sun]
I'd get a little piss as a teen in the 1950s*,seeing or reading about some ones idea"That hotrodding started here or there !" Tell you find out,that is really from the info they have!
The only thing that was to take note of,,there were more magazines being sold from were.{ do too distribution network they hooked up with} ,covering auto stuff in some places."< was also happening in others not in that mag.
So ya,I didn't think after looking things over more,,an still don't,that east cost or west cost were better.
One example,is how many now think about the salt flats speed timing,,but my self growing up in south Florida,that stuff was all about Daytona an Ormond Beach { Florida} speed runs=See I didn't think the saltflats was the center of speed,other then just another place. < Point of view an info,you get.
In my case,born in 1942,Dad was in US Navy,asigned to Bell,an worked on Top Secret Bell XP77. Yes,some of all of that rubbed off on me. I think its what happened with many! Yes,tech took a giant lemp do to WW2,an the kids in it,came home men an very keyed into tech. so too were there kids. =Much more engineering and less stick it together any way at all. The idea of look around for best way vs just make do.
This was not east or west,but every were.
"Point of view,comes from info n time"
If I made a point you had not thought of=GOOD.

By the end of WW2, as a kid, in Coconut Grove/Miami, I was into modal planes,n cars a lot, with lots of customs an hotrods in the streets too, on in to early 1950s.
Big indoor car shows started happening close by,at Dinner Key [ it had been PanAm Seaplane Bace; By then giant hanger turned into new auditorium for events of all types ] . All us kids would ride our bikes there an hang out,enjoy the shows/ some were 3 days+, fri/sat/ sunday.
The fact there were enough custom n hotrods,to have indoor shows,that early,says a lot about how big an how many of those cars were running around in streets of Florida.

 

This thread is quite an interesting read. That line, “California is where it’s at” really influenced a lot of people and it also morphed a bit in Canada as to , “British Columbia is where’s it at” as we are the west (wet) coast of Canada.

However, I think maybe the south was really where it was at as evidenced by the newspaper clipping say that hot rods led to gangs, drugs, ( NOT good) and orgies (VERY good)!

 

Interesting read and comments. I think we probably still have a few HAMBers who were in the thick of Southern hot rodding back in the day. My older sister is 86 YO, graduated high school in 1955, and remembers the hot rods/hoodlums who were around our little Tennessee town in the 50s. She thinks it's funny that I love this stuff today. Wonder what the circulation numbers were of Hot Rod, R&C, and all the east coast books in the South during that time? I remember the largest junk yard in the area had what they called the Chrome Room. As a little kid who started reading/buying car mags as a 9 year old, I remember going to that junkyard with my Dad as a little kid, and looking in that room. It was a gl*** enclosure inside their building, near where you paid for your parts.. I remember all kinds of chrome engine goodies, skirts all over the wall, and every Lee taillight lense available. Valve covers, intakes, everything I saw advertised in the magazines was there. I'm talking '61, '62, '63 anyway. That room made as big an impression on this little **** as the bare ***ties in National Geographic at our barber shop.
Hot rodders were here. Nobody from the California magazines or East Coast mags came here to shoot cars and features, why would they? It's too far away from their home base.
Not too sure about Ryan's comment that quality work on the East Coast lagged "decades" behind California. Waiting for more comments on that one.
The junkyard I mentioned was Big Foots, between Knoxville and Oak Ridge. The stories about that place are legendary! The yard, the people there, and the way they did business. I only know a little of it, but I suspect a book could be written about that place.
Ask the old guys how the South was. Might be surprised

 

From being around both black and white guys from the south in 1968 when I was in the Army in 1968 and in Vietnam at the time that may have more to do with local economics than a lot of other things. While there were low paying grunge jobs there weren't a lot of really good paying jobs for working cl*** folks in the south. Even in Texas in the early 70s when I was living in McGregor 14 miles sw of Waco the local "Waco old money" didn't let big companies that would offer far better pay to workers move in. Their recruitment for manufacturing companies was based on promoting the low wage scale in the area as a big draw for companies to move in. In the pre computer days everyone had Smead file folders around. The Company built a plant outside of McGregor where my wife, mother in law and then my Father in law worked. They started out paying half of what they were in Hastings Mn until the workers in McGregor protested and got honest wages.

As far as news papers and the hot rodders in the south or elsewhere . Just as now, he who owns the media source controls the the at***ude of the majority of the people who follow that source. If the editor of the paper said hot rodders were bad locals thought they were bad even though the local club may all be church members who had good jobs.

 

I also think the other part of things was the church rich culture below the bible belt. People could really influence folks with news and papers along with preachers preaching about it. Honestly they cast stones on alot of things regarding hotrods and the people to try to keep it out of their lives and areas.

 

So when you say "east coast" are you not including the east coast south of the Mason-Dixon line?

 

Hot rod gang?
Hollywood thought so

I’d be curious on who owned the papers. Wouldn’t it be fun if the same papers in the south were owned by the same folks printing positive hot rod stuff. Gotta sell those papers.
Stereotypes are hard to shake. The movie Tobacco Rd didn’t help us southerners any. Neither did Jerry Lee when he married his cousin.
I like when schools have decades days for homecoming.
1920s -flappers and gangsters.
1930s -Hobos and gangsters
1940s -jitter bug dance contestants
1950s- Hoodlums and poodle skirts. (Grease)
1960s- hippies and protesters
1970s- bell bottoms or disco
1980s - Madonna and 80s hair bands.
Hollywood has done a great job defining stereotypes. Far more defining than some southern papers. I’d say the southern papers were just pandering to the stereotypes understood by their readers that were created by movies and television.

 

Without getting into all of the socio-economic factors at play here, the bottom line is the existing power structure was determined to preserve the status quo, by whatever means necessary. Funny thing about new ideas, once you let a few in, it gets very hard to stop the flow, something they recognized instinctively. So they lied about those ideas...

Two final personal observations about my time down south. I should mention that we were in a very small town (one gas station, a post office/store and a laundromat. Five churches. And in a 'dry' county; if you wanted hard Liquor that wasn't 'shine, you had to drive to either Memphis or Nashville. No bars, only 'clubs'). The first was the advice my mother gave me when we first arrived. She told me to 'Keep it in your pants son. There will be some girls who will see you as a ticket out of here as your pregnant wife.' She proved to be prophetic on that... I was far more popular there than I was at home. I stayed single by the way... LOL.

Second was the local news. I've always been an avid reader of whatever I could get my hands on, and in reading the local once-a-week paper, I was bemused by the fact that virtually every week there would be a small news item about either a pastor that had disappeared in the night with all church funds, or a county sheriff busted for corruption. Read into that what you will...

I'll mildly disagree with you about the 'Rebellious' factor. I believe that the original motivation for hot rodding was individuality and creativity, but as with any new factor there's teething problems. Up until then, modified cars were relatively rare, generally confined to rich guys and the odd eccentrics. This was now filtering down to the 'common man' and with any new thing, some bad actors (or ones that didn't think about how their actions will be perceived) are inevitably attracted. They generated the bad press that tarred everyone, leaving rebellion as the only recourse for many individuals, with some reveling in that perception (helped by Hollywood, who had their own reasons for doing so). Wally Parks stepped up and brought maturity and acceptance to the hobby.