Great thread, brings back a lot of good memories for me. I was 21 in 1961 also, and like you, got married to the love of my life in 1960. We've been married for 52 years and I'm hoping for many more. I too, give the Lord all the credit for all the blessings in my life. I grew up on the other side of our great country but still share many of the same memories. When the new cars hit the showrooms, it was like a great big family night out. We went to the various showrooms comparing models, features, prices, etc. Our house was bordered in back by the Santa Fe railroad and in front by Route 66. We saw lots of troop trains going by in the war years with our heroes hanging out of the windows shouting and waving to everyone as they headed for deployment. Freight trains with nothing but war equipment on them, tanks, trucks, jeeps, you name it. This pic is of our only transportation in 1961. Owned it for several years as I could not afford to replace it, just kept fixing it and driving it. I taught my 17 year old wife how to drive in it, stick shift and all - nearly ended the marriage right there before it really began!! The tracks I mentioned are visible in the picture if you look between the garage and the trees. I bought the house I grew up from my parents and we lived ther until 1965. It's so cool you have owned your car all those years.
Hank37,thanks for reply. Did Bob Horn build the car? Any details on it? Dying to know the story...whats the deal on it being impounded? Did the car you remember have a firewall made for about a 10% engine setback,with the distributor back under the cowl? I`m going to get my son or son-inlaw to help me with some pictures. Your `37 cpe is a tough looker, sure was sittin on a mean rake in that 1st picture. What mill and tranny are you running?
I think Bob bought the car , don't know to much on details. Was imponded because it was illegal to run without fenders and back then needed a special reconstructed title which he didn't have. State was stricter back in the day we were almost getting fined for loud or no mufflers. My 37 is running a bored and stroked 400" 53 Caddy with Muncie M-20 tranny and Olds. rear.
Another great testimony. Give God the glory. Married 52 years, that is wonderful and an example to others as well. Tell us more about life in 1961, if you care to.
Wally, cool 56, man that car was clean. I remember reading the the article about you in Rod n Custom. There was a old photo of you and your brother and a friend standing next to a Chevy, which I think was a Fleetline.Not sure but I do remember it was a Chevy from the 40s.
Wow, good memory jcmarz, it was a '48 Fleetline and that R&C picture was taken in just about the same spot as the pic of the '56, just looking the other direction. A few more memories from '61. We were living the American dream - 1 black and white TV, one car that ran good, one phone. We too had one son at that time. Gas was ridiculously priced at .35 cents a gallon (it was always in the low 20's back in the 50's) You could pull into any gas station and ask if they'd check your tranny and rear end and they would happily run it up on the rack for you, no charge. Of course full service came without asking, checking the oil, air in the tires, water, washing the windshield. Most of my boyhood buddies were married and had kids by the time they were in their early twenties. We'd get a caravan of cars and head for the drivein movies - $1 a car. You could do dinner for 2 and the moves for $10 and have a little left over. I worked for the telephone co. Things were pretty high-tech then, you could actually dial anyone in town without going through an operator. Long distance still required an operator in most places as direct distance dialing was just starting to come out. We didn't lock our car doors when we went to town and nobody locked their house doors either, as long as they were home. If you lost your wallet, you didn't panic, someone would find it and give you a call. It was a simpler and safer time.
Even in California: it was a great time, overall: I was born in '42, we had a telephone, I could use it when I was 5. When you picked up the receiver, the operator said, "Number, please?" I would answer, "Santa Clara, 9-3-oh-W." In '47, we got our new Dial Phone! (Axminster 6-2603) I remember. The first actual hot rod I ever saw was Al Marceline's '32 Highboy. It was black, and had some red flames painted on the hood sides...the top was chopped, (real low: the first time I saw it he was splashing past our house on Lincoln St., making huge rooster tails, and the windshield wiper was going so fast it looked comical. Wiper blade was all of 6 inches long! That was 1951, and Al hung out at Johnny Freitas' Standard Station...my Mom pulled in there for gas one night, all these older guys (in their 20s) were hanging around a few hopped up cars... I got out for a better look, the guys were real nice...they told me there were lots of rods that hung out at Mab's Drive In, up El Camino Real by the Foster Freeze. I begged Mom to just drive past, maybe there'd be some rods there... She said it was a hangout for hoods, we'd be going straight home. I got my first car at 13, a '36 3-window; one of the older guys taught me how to weld, and Grandma bought me an Aircraft Victor oxy-acetelyne torch. I chopped the '36 5+", after that built a roadster. Married in '60, in '61 had a nice '48 Merc ragtop for my daily. Also had a '56 Ford convert, worked on the 292 for weeks, then was running 92 MPH at Fremont digs, mid-14s. Chevy guys protested every week! There was a $50 teardown protest, and this went on 'til they damn near wore the head bolt holes out. If theyd had their Ford hats on, they would've realized the pistons had been turned around and the cam timing adjusted! The tech guy would hiss thru his teeth at me: "I know yer cheatin', Fords don't run like this." I'd always say, "It's just that one fast one that happens every 7 years..." 1962, I bought a nice '46 Coupe, from a friend, for $12. Long story short, I installed one of Joe Reath's old 331 Chryslers, got it and a 6-71 from Richard Hansen (Hansen's Supercharger Service) in Long Beach. Street driven, 1:1 ratio, triple Vee belts...Car was OMIGOD fast. Tall, Gasser style, when I drove thru the drive-in, it shook the ground and everybody on it. Gosh, I loved that car! My bud Al Mise bought the '51 Merc show car, "The Green Latrine". It had a chopped Carson, canted quads, small custom grille, Stude taillights, Buick 364 Nail with a '37 Roadmaster box. We'd hang out in Hayward, at the 10-mile-long cruise on E.14th. One night we headed home to San Jose, night was young, so we took the Dumbarton bridge... We cruised every drive-in on the way back down El Camino Real. There was a shooting in Los Altos, the police were trying to get upstairs where the shooter was... I turned into the Winchell's Donut House and parked, was getting out when I heard (and felt) a '38 slug go right thru the driver's door, just missing my leg! Cops said, "Leave the car! Get over here! Now!" I was protesting, "What if he shoots the top?" We got behind the police truck, and some more shots were fired...they went upstairs and threw this guy down the stairs, then kicked him into submission. (good ol' days) We were allowed to leave, finally...it was late when we got home, so we went inside Grandma's, Al took the couch, and I went to bed. A couple of hours later, my sister was wailing about something, I got up. She was crying. "Isn't it awful?" she managed to say..."They shot President Kennedy!" I was shocked, a chill went thru me. And we thought we had a tale to tell......
by the way Waldo, I dig your A.D. Truck. I have a 51 5-window myself. I hope to have it finished by next summer.
I remember all of this except the gas prices.I dont know if we were just lucky in Kansas or what but even in the late sixties gas was 19 cents per gallon and in the early seventies we were paying 25 cents per gallon.
I was born in '57...just a kid in early to mid '60s. But I remember some stuff. There was this service station commercial, where the young guy and his girlfriend pull in and he only has a quarter for gas. No problem...the uniformed attendant pumps the gas, and still checks the oil, cleans the windshield, checks tire pressure...everything. When he's all done, the driver has found another quarter on the floor of the car, and hands it to the pump jockey. He looks at the driver, and kind of hesitantly says, "Ummm, why sure, sir." Pumps the gas, and begins to go through the whole deal again...as the driver puts on this self-important smile for his girl...lol. Kinda silly, and not true to life...no need to re-check eveything, of course. But it was a tongue-in-cheek way of getting across that they gave excellent service with a smile. And that to me is one of the main differences between then and now...a willingness and even a sense of duty to do good work, with a good attitude. Also the idea that it really was important to be "good". No crap talk or blatant sexuality in public or in the media and certainly not around the kids. Mow the lawn every Saturday, go to church every Sunday...etc. Now the prevailing attitude seems to be more along the lines of, "Fugg that...I don't have to, I aint gonna, and you can't make me." That is, "unless there's somethin' in it for me." Don't get me wrong...still lots of good folks in the world...but the media definitely would have you believing that that's all passe now...and many buy into that kind of thinking. Too bad.
Bravo! Well said and it makes me sad to see how many people view bad as good and good as bad and how it destroys our U.S.A
Hank37: Sorry I hadn`t got back to you about a pic of my car. It just dawned on me, now that my daughter uploaded my avatar;you can check it out. Is this the "carrot" you remember as Bob Horn`s machine?
Bowie, sorry to get back to you so late. That's not the rod, the carrot was a 5 window coupe. But you got a great lookin' 3 window, hope to see you down the road, Hank 37
Hank37 : Oh well... Thanks for getting back to me. I have never found anyone who knew my rod prior to 1968. I`ve been asking around for 41 years now , maybe one of these days? I guess after all this time, my history with this car IS the history of her!
Just as a follow up to my futile 50 year search….this is how my ratty old buckboard looked ; back when I first knew her :
Newest update: to anyone who has read of my 50 year quest. @Hank37 just sent me a message, he said a Mr. Horn who once owned a ‘32 coupe known as the carrot is now saying it was a 3W not a 5W!!! So… just maybe all hope is not lost, for a little history lesson !!! Fingers crossed!
Hello, We must have lived in a different world during this time period. We were recovering from our 40 Willys Coupe accident and by 1961, rounding the corner to recovery and on to the next phase. Since we already had 3 straight years of weekends of drag racing and two hot rod builds, we were slowly thinking of our next adventures. Drag racing was not going to be a heavy part of our itinerary. But, there was a glimmer of hope. High school was prominent in my life with sports and now my brother had recovered enough to start venturing outside, again. In January, he actually wanted to go to the Winternationals in Pomona. So, despite the 4:56 Positraction gearing I had put back into my high school daily driver 58 Impala, we took off for Pomona. We were parked along the front row by the telephone poles separating the spectators from the action. But, he admitted, it was just not the same thing as we had experienced from 57 to 60. By June, he was already enrolled back in college and was ready to move to Los Angeles. The look...61-62 I was in the throes of getting my high school action together and enjoying some teenage life. The auto shop and the next door metal shop were the two favorite places on the high school campus, other than on the football/basketball playing areas. We both started back into surfing and when he could, we would both go to the surf spots together. Yes, for a while, it was a black 58 Impala with one/two 9-10 ft. longboards sticking out of the trunk and filling up the rear seat area. Jnaki It was during this time that the recovery was going well and being outdoors at the different beaches, riding waves to our hearts content was an excellent way to be teenagers. So Cal had plenty of waves at the multitude of surf spots and different coves. One thing that led to me buying my own car was the comments we got when we arrived at our favorite place at the time, Huntington Beach Pier. Back then, the impala was just fine for us. But, when we arrived, our friends laughed and made all sorts of comments and jokes about a couple of guys from inland driving a cruiser to the beach. This led me to get my own Flathead powered 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery for the continued surf trips all over So Cal coastlines. It was a fun thing to do with my friends and brother when he could take a break from his continuing college studies. During school vacations, we were constantly on the road, again. Our journeys in the Ford Sedan Delivery took us from Santa Barbara in the north to Baja, Mexico in the South, with all points along the So Cal coast line as our destinations. For us, those times were definitely “good vibrations” although the thought of our Willys incident and the almost two years of recovery still stayed in our collective thoughts. My brother was in college and the 58 impala was sitting in our small two car garage, (he walked to/from college) while I drove my sedan delivery to school and other teenage activities. My mom was bow the primary Impala driver, since we had installed, a C&O Stick Hydro to make driving easier for her daily/weekly drives to the grocery store and with friends, going shopping. For us, those times were definitely “good vibrations” although the thought of our Willys incident and the almost two years of recovery still stayed in our collective thoughts. The So Cal scene was moving forward and our teenage high school escapades/road trips still had a couple of years to go, before we had to get serious. YRMV
In 1961 I was 17 and in my 3yr of HS. I worked at the Big Donut, now known as Randy’s, in Inglewood. $1.10 per hr and took every hour I could. I drove a 49 Chevrolet pickup, split exhaust exiting in front of the rear tires, a Sharp rocker cover, and 2 single barrels. Used my moms black 56 Victoria as a date car. I had 1 Pendleton shirt which was a Christmas gift and prized possession. Life was pretty good for a teenager then. My dad had a machine shop and I spent every hour I could there. He was a pilot and we had old tail draggers and one with a radial engine. He taught me how to fly. I had an older brother whose task in life was to tease and piss me off every chance he got; he didn’t care about cars, flying or dads work. I was a fair student and was normally in a little trouble at school. I grew up real fast on November 22, 1963 when my father died while riding his motorcycle to work. I kept it and I still have it.
The Jalopy Journal
