Was Anyone Here Actually There?

Yep..I was there. My first car was a 40 coupe that was only 15 years old when I got it. Put a dropped axle,Sharp heads and 2 jug manifold with headers on it. The heads and headers made a heck of a diference on the street. The 2 jugger not so much. Next came a 32 5 window that was only 24 years old when I got it. Ran 8.20x15 white walls on the rear with 5.50x15 whitewalls from a VW on the front. We usually had to buy the 8.20's but nobody locked their VW's . Poular R&B songs were "work with me Annie","Blueberry Hill" and "That'll be the Day". Wore Levi's, t shirts and engineer boots. Always wore "whites" to the pits. Friday nights were with the guys and Sat. nights were with the gals, drive-in movie then Zombie coke's at the drive-in. Still date my girlfriend who rode with me in the 40 and the 32! Long story. Wouldn't trade the memories for Doane's 32.

 

Yea Roger.... I ran 15th & 16th, cruised up and down starting about 7 in the evening. chasing the skirts, maybe a quick drag race across the 15th street viaduct. then up to the scotchman If we didn't scare up any skirts about 11:00 we would bail out and cruise colfax out east to the a@w resteraunt then out to 39th & peoria to the warehouse district. To set up the late night drag racing that would go on until 2:00 or 3:00. Or when the cops would run us out. Most the time all the headers would get uncapped then that would allert the civilians that we were there. and that would start the complaints. One night they had all the roads blocked, tow trucks, and police cruisers. Hell they were even coming in from off the highway and as they say a bird in the air was also there. the loud speaker message was if you could fire it up without making noise you could leave let's just say everyone was diving under there cars to pipe up. The night this happened we had enough cars there to park up and down a good portion of the track for lighting. we even had a timing tree set up. It was getting out of hand and they must of felt they had to put there foot down hard. But we was just having FUN. FUN. FUN. HELL I WOULD DO IT AGAIN IF I COULD ROLL THE TIMING LIGHTS BACK. (YOU WOULD TOO) THIS WAS MY AMERICAN GRAFFITI ...GHOST

 

Oh Yah! I was born in 1941 and had a BLAST! I had 5 different '40 deluxe coupes before joining the Navy, I saw a concert in late January 1959 with Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Big Bopper and Dion & the Belmonts just a few days before the fatal plane crash. I traveled all over Japan, Hawaii, Hong Kong, Philippines. Australia and Vietnam while in the Navy. The day after I got out I got hired at Bell Auto Parts where I worked for few years beffore going to Mickey Thompson Speed Shop. Sometimes I feel that I could actually write a book on my life but I'm already starting to forget half of the stuff I did and the people I've known!!! I guess that comes with age and alcohol!!!! Oh Ya, I almost forgot, my first job was at a market as a bag boy for 35 cents an hour but I could keep my first '40coupe running for that! During the "gas wars" ethyl was only 18 cents a gallon! WONDERFUL TIMES!!!

Wolfie

 

born in 46 got this 57 conv. in 62 and made it into a custom with help from my buddy,s had a custom, rod, or bike since

 

I just got in on the tail end of it. Messing around with flatheads, Y-blocks and wishing I could afford a FE motor. Couple of 40 Fords (still have the sedan) a '35 Chevy, several 57 Fords and even more '59's. And a bunch of others...

 

My first trip to a junkyard was about 1954... I was 6. Went with my brother and his hoodlum buddies in a yellow '50 Chevy ragtop.

While they were pulling parts, I was busy unscrewing shift knobs off of old cars with floor shifts... ran outta pocket room at about 20. When we went to the office the counter guy noticed my bulging pockets filled with his inventory. After getting dressed down by him, he forced me to go back in the yard and replace every knob on every shifter.

Never stole another thing from a junkyard.

The first Deuce's I remember were in Shawano, WI. Two guys had coupes and they'd stop by my aunt's diner after the jalopy races at the fairgrounds speedway. They both had cartoon characters painted on the doors... One was "Winthrop".... a little kid with a ballcap that always looked like it was falling off the back of his head. Don't remember the other one but both cars had flatties that I do remember.

That started it all....

 

Graduated HS in 60. Bought my first car at 15, a 48 Ford Coupe. Six months later on the way home from the upolstry shop rolled it. Took the flathead and put it in a 35 two-door flatback. Drove a 51 shoebox, dual carbed, bronze paint as a senior. Friday and Sat nights at Busch's drive in in Tacoma, WA. Racing on Pacific Ave. Just like American Graffiti.

Most guys I ran with worked in gas stations, where you learned from the older guys ahead of you. You started out pumping gas, then to oil changes, then maybe to tuneups and exhaust repair and when the owner got to trusting you, engine rebuilds. After hours, they would let you bring in your own car and work on it.

Very little in the way of after market parts. Adapting from the junk yard was the main thing. Racing at the drag strips was heads up, NOT dial in. Guys won because they built a better car or were a better driver and they did it themselves.

Drinking beer was about the worst thing you could get into. The best thing you could get into was hopefully in the back seat of your car. Drive in movies, crusin every night. Bob Seger nailed it in "Night Moves".

Was it a better time? Yes, because it was so much simpler. Viet Nam changed that. The 60's altered our innocence. There was no way to turn back.

Do I mind growing old. No, because I have memories and friendships forged in the 50's and 60's that will always be there. I do worry about the world my grandkids are growing up in. The expectations are so much higher and the basic trust in people is so much lower. And on a much smaller plain, I wonder what will happen to the basic culture of hotrodding as we pass on. It is more than the cars, its the people. As we know the cars can always be reproduced, by throwing money at the build, but this strikes me as missing the whole point.

 

Born in 45 , lived in Southern Ontario.. got my licence in 62, Grafitti written all over me! Fri nites crusing the main drag with the boys, Sat nites with the girl friend and ice skating, crusin the A&W , necking at the beach, hangin out with the older guys who had drag cars...55chev/B/G was popular, altered wheel base cars were just getting started, one local guy cut a 58 chev 4 door down to a tudor, yes it was short but with concrete in the boot it did great wheelies at the lights..hydro Olds V8s were the cats ass! My first car was a 312 56 Ford tudor post ex police special.. greased lightinin...my gas bill was 3.50 a week. I made 14.00 a week at the local A&P after school . When I go to shows today I see things that take me back to my old days but unless you was there.......
looks like , smells like, tastes like but ....!! It was the best of times, the like of which we will never see again.

I wrote the above optomisticly...now im all mistyopticly!! .....


DADSEH.

 

My hero, my Dad, was a mechnic motorhead!! I didn't have a chance, He helped me build a 33 chevy 2-door in 1956 when I was 13, white/red flames,striped canvas top and spare tire cover, perfect interior dyed red, home made 3-1's intake and dual exhaust, lottsa other cool stuff. I drove it to high school, no drivers license in small towns, this was common. Then a 38 standard Ford tu-dr sedan with a 48 merc flattie, next a 42 Ford U.S Army tu-dr car,then! yes, a Olds!! a 49 bubbletop coupe which I drove to auto body school the first year! Then a 57 BelAir tu-dr that we built a 270 motor for. 36 57 chevys later and a bunch of other stuff I am still putting along in my 56 Plymouth 2-dr Suburban and loving the scene. Saw the original Hot Rod caravan at our local drag strip with Wally Parks, visited Calif. a few times and saw legends Micky Thompson, Tommy Ivo, Don Garlits, Bean Bandits, Prudhomme, Don Nicholson, Big Daddy and Von Dutch air brushing shirts, George Montgomery, could list for days. I feel very lucky to have been there. But really feel lucky to still be able to enjoy todays new growing hot rod world!! Viva La Hot Rod World!!--growing by leaps and bounds with the help of The Jalopy Journal!!~Sololobo~

 

Yes, definitely a different time, in a good way. I was lucky. Had an older sis and brother that took me with them to many places in the late 50s/60s. We lived just up the road from the Milford Michigan GM proving grounds so had front row seats of the new cars every summer taht the GM techs drove to/from work. One place where we could climb up on the roof of an old garage and watch at the proving grounds. Still remember seeing 3 or 4 pickups - Chevies, Dodges and Fords - running full speed across some rugged terrain - must've been trying to see which was toughest! Back to topic, yeah definitely a good time to be around cars. Drive-ins, (movies and restaurants), cheap used cars and my brother worked at a repair shop/junkyard & was always driving or dragging something home to "fix up" - a '39 ford coupe, missing front sheet metal and seats, a '51 shoebox convertible, and I don't know how many '49 thru '54 Chevies he had! We had a small farm with lots of room and a growing number of cars over teh years until '64 when big brother left. Yup, I was there, too young to drive but as a spectator it was still something. Wish I could borrow Mr Peadody's "way-back machine" so we could go back if just for a little while...

 

I was born in '46 and my dad passed away when I was 13, in '59. I used to get home from school and hop the Blue Bus (used to be a competitor of Greyhounds) from Buffalo to Rochester to go to my job working for a stationary company in Rochester at, as I recall, 65¢ / hour. I'd work from 4pm tp 9pm, then catch another bus back home, do my homework and help my mother with the housework. Most mothers didn't work outside the home back then, but with my dad gone, she had to find a job working as a receptionist.

When I was 15, my mother had a stroke and was paralyzed on her right side. I took care of her as best I could for a year or so, then she went to live with my sister in California. I stayed back east to finish school and I've been pretty much on my own since I was 16.

My first car, a '55 Chevy 6 cyl sedan, cost me $15 + a set of used tires for another $20. Needless to say, I didn't have any high-dollar, cool ride for several years, but it was still a good time to be alive. One good thing about being young, you always figured things would get better......and they did!

 

Thought I was old before but my semi-annual h..d-on has now turned into my annual semi h..d-on!!!! Still got the car and tools in the garage so it's OK.

 

I graduated from high school in 1961, in a midwestern town of 5,000 population....a
good place to have grown up. I didn't have a cool car or even work on one back
then, but I knew most of the older guys who did. I thought it was really great when
I could catch a ride downtown after school with the guy who drove a 40 Ford coupe.
Nothing very exotic in our town.....nice 39 Chevy 2-door customized; a pink/white
55 Crown Vic; 49 Chevy coupe with nice dual glasspacks; shoebox Ford tudor....things
like that. One guy in the early 60s bought a full custom 56 Chevy convertible that
was candy apple with a white interior and pontiac side trim....the coolest car in town.

My first car was in about 1960.....a 47 Chevy Fleetline two door fastback,
purchased from the group of "back row beauties" at the local Mercury
dealership....for $115. (Only Merc.....no lIncolns sold by that place.)

My grandfather paid for it - said he bought my Dad's first car for him, so
he was buying my first car for me. Now, that was neat. Run down and
totally stock, including the dreaded vacuum shits, er, I mean, shift. I
never did win any of those drag races out by the cemetary cause I
couldn't shift quickly enough.

Dragging Main Street, cruising and hanging out at Vern's Burger Bar, doing
the things kids did back then. We all seemed to have a good time....no one
showed up at school with a gun or any of that stuff we see today.

Practiced driving before becoming 16 by going back and forth down the
alley in this ol Chevy....Dad's fishing car. Cost him $75 at the Olds dealer
who said that was what the new set of tires was worth.

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Yep, it was good times......glad I was there!!

 

Yup, I'm one of them older guys too. I'll be 66 in March, so I did my teen years in the late 50's and early 60's. I lived in so.Cal in my younger days. Grew up around the Van Nuys area. Went to school at Birmingham and Van Nuys, then moved out and lived in Alhambra, El Monte and then Burbank. Did the usual cars/hotrod stuff and get the girls thing. Started collecting ticket for racing or speed contests, as they called it. I kept wanting to go faster and was getting into a lot of trouble for it.

So I then took my racing to the strips. Got hooked on drag racing and did it for about about 12 years. Built/raced each car, going a bit faster with each one. I raced at many of the old strips, that are now gone. Some of the old great ones, like Lions, Irwindale, OCIR, Ontario and Fremont, along with Pomona, Fontana and the March Meet at the Patch. Probably forgetting some, but you get the idea.

Did my racing from around 1967 to 1978 and sold everything in 78 and moved to Reno. Things were a lot cheaper here and I was able to get into business and make a decent living too.

So. Cal in the 50's, 60's and early 70's were great times, with lots of racing and cars stuff to do, but between the smog and traffic, along with high home prices, it was time to go. Got more house and a better chance at having my own business up here too.

I miss the old days down there and many of the friends I made, but it was a good move for us. Things just aren't the same there now. Not knocking it, just different now. Of course, I'm not 35 any more either.

I consider myself lucky to have lived there, during those great years/times. This and other threads on here, sure stir up some great memories too.

 

[/quote]Yes, near Wilkes-Barre for video see www.beeonvideo.com

 

I was there........................when you built your own headers from exhaust and tailpipes from the parts store or junk yard.
.

 

Let's see...ah, yep I was there alright. But in early 1960's rural Maine there were no beach bunnies, cruise strips or hot rods and custom cars like in the magazines. We did our best to make ours like the ones we read about, but usually turned out to be pretty p***-poor renditions.

There were a few nice cars, of course, but the vast majority were rusty 10-year-old hand-me-down cars slicked up with fender skirts, stolen hubcaps and vacuum cleaner paint jobs...if they were painted at all. The year-round mostly crappy weather, road salt and a struggling economy did not lend itself to a healthy atmostphere for youthful automotive endeavor.

Do I feel deprived? Well...honestly, yes. I slid through those prime years with only memories of what I WANTED to do, not what I actually did.

I did manage to find a great candidate, a '48 Mercury coupe, that was relatively rust-free...but it was also engine, transmission and interior-free as well. I strugged to get it road-worthy before going off to college, but I never did. Found the car 10 years later as a rusted-out hulk in a wrecking yard in a neighboring town.

So, now that I'm "mature" at 62, I'm still struggling to build the cars I wanted to build back then, and thank God I'm having a little more success!

 

Not me. I was born in 1963. I dont have the 'do, clothes or the attitude either...lol
just love the rides.

 

YES.....I WAS THERE....right in the middle of Mopar Drag Racing from 1963 to 1968...Raced every single weekend...I wasn't a famous drag racer but I did the same thing as the famous guys did....

 

I graduated from Bryan Adams high school in Dallas in '66. My first pack of cigerettes was a quarter, and my last pack was a dollar.
My first car was a '51 Studebaker Commander Starlight Coupe V8. It was ten years old when I got it. Mike Motley had one of the sweetest T-buckets I've ever seen, and Charco's and the Prince on Garland road was THE place. Mike Norris was playing around with a junior fuel car. I bought a '32 3 window body from a guy in Garland for $15 !!!!
Gas was maybe 35 cents, and there was maybe half the traffic we have now.
Diggers had their engines in the front, jap cars were unheard of, and you could still find an early Ford to hot rod if you looked hard enough. Viet Nam was a far away place. It was golden Thanks, Mike

 

Fantastic!

 

I'm old enough now to remember the excitement of seeing the 1st 55,56, & 57 Chevys. I also recall getting caught drawing hot rod pictures in grade school & having to serve detentions! Most of my earliest influences were from the real thing rolling down the streets & blacktop roads of the area I grew up in. I also recall many "little" hot rod magazines of that era as well. My 1st car was a flathead V8, 3 speed 49 Ford coupe. Not much to look at, but ran great, and was a hell of a lot of fun! Oh yeah, it had wide white porta-wall 16 inch tires on it too! I knew of all the fastest & coolest area cars of that time. It amazes me that I'm lucky enough to be able to talk with some of these guys today. They're all in their 70's & 80's! and LOVE to reminesce The past over coffee! It was a truly GREAT era to have grown up in!

 

I was born in 1950 and I grew up just outside of Detroit. I have been crazy about cars since I was born. My Dad had some cool cars, but my older sister who is 14 yrs older worked for Ford as a secretary for some of the big wigs. The first car she owned was a 1956 Ford Victoria that was red over black with a 292 Thunderbird engine. It was wrecked by another 1956 Ford that was driven by a woman that rear ended her. It was a white over blue and the guy that had them in his junk yard cut them in two and put them together and drove it for years like that. The next car she had was a 1960 Thunderbird with a 406 cu.in. It was dark blue and when she got it from the Ford lot the driver's seat had a rip in it. She had a custom interior put in it that was baby blue on the inserts of the seats and doors and Royal Blue on the edges. My Dad got pulled over in Ohio doing 95mph, but he though he was only doing 65mph. She always had good looking cars until she got married.
My one uncle worked for Chrysler and put together one of the first hemis in the early 50's. He also set up the engines for the Miss Chrysler Hemi Hydroplane. When he retired from Chrysler the guys that worked for him made a 440-6pak aircleaner into a clock.
My other uncle worked for Ford, first in heating and A/C, then he got transferred to the wind tunnel and ran the wind tunnel when Connie Kalitia had his T/F in the tunnel testing the aero on it. He also did the commercial with Bill Cosby on the swing in the wind tunnel.
George

 

Chicago..I was about 6 or 7..in 1955. My family used to pay me (a nickel) not to name every brand and model of car when we were driving..so naturally I did it more..
Started reading reading Hot Rod..instead of comics..and Sports Car Graphic..
I was adicted to sports cars and Hot Rods.

A friend and I built (cobbled) a T Bucket together that actually ran when we turned 16 and could drive it. Then a 34..that we sold for what we thought was a good deal..$500 and a basket Indian.
By '66 I bought a '57 Vette..gradually cut it..became my drag car..beamed..then BBC..
Miss that old Vette..very nasty..
55 Chev..three..a 57 2dr...A 66 GTO..67 Vette..64 XKE...10 bikes or so..

Started crewing on an SCCA team (E prod).. During a test/tune session I got told I was cutting times a few seconds faster than the owner/driver.. I thought I was going to get fired..I got race school and a license. Still racing the Vette at the strip..running SCCA..
Shoe'd wahtever I could..up to C and B Prod..Tigers and Vettes
it was all about cars...chicks..rock n roll (guitar)..and some VERY GOOD TIMES..

Moved down here in 73.. NO RUST !!!!
Did restos in the 70s-80s on a few XK120s..150s...sold 'em for my land..and house build.

Had the bike addiction too..still riding..driving my old retired racer (53 JAG Xk120 C/Modified ...SBC engined since 1957 I saved in 1974)

Some time off..as Kids eat money and time..

Helped freinds build thier cars..
Spend most of my time in my apartment..as the family calls my shop/garage. Only my old cars..and my bikes in..all the newer stuff can sit outside..!

..Live every day..it all goes away too quick...

 

Yep, I was there. Graduated in '59. Geeze, 50 year reunion comin' up. I thought I'd never get old enough to drive (legally). I was lucky. The driver license guy only came to my town on Wednesdays and as luck would have it I turned 16 on Wednesday so I didn't have to wait for Wednesday to come. I had a 1946 Dodge 4 door already. I ran around in it for awhile and got a '56 Studebaker Golden Hawk. I tore up Ultramatic transmissions like they were made out of plastic so I traded it for a '55 Chevy. I tore up transmissions and motors in it like they were plastic too but I could fix them. The closest big town was Springfield MO and that's where we went on Friday and/or Saturday night. That's where the action was and the cops didn't care if we had our "hackers" open. Yep, those were the days .. My son wishes so bad that he could have been there. I remember I thought the Platters were white .. I remember we thought Conway Twitty was Elvis in disguise. What a time .. What a time ...

 

Wow, very similar for me! I was born in '51 in Pontiac MI, and grew up mostly in SE Michigan, except for time in the military and a few years in northern MI. I think in those days everyone in this area worked or knew someone who did, at one of the many Big 3 plants between Detroit, Pontiac, Flint, Lansing and other local towns. My wife's grandfather was at the Chrysler Jefferson Main Assembly plant from the late 20s until he retired in '54 as VP. He had stories to tell! He was there during the union riots - showed the "pieces" he used to wear for protection, and told about how "...you had to be a man to work there then...". We have stacks of old papers and news articles we haven't looked at yet, from his days at Chrysler. In later years he still drove some fine MOPARs, wifey tells of his '64 Fury convertible, she didn't know details only that it was FAST. And he had a big Chris Craft cabin cruiser that he had custom made about the time he retired, I saw it only briefly before he passed in '79 and it was sold. I remember looking at the twin "Firedome" engines it had. An aunt worked at one of Ford's original satellite plants building carbs in Milford, then they moved to Rawsonville in the late 50s when Kelsy Hayes moved into the Milford plant. One car I really remember is her '57 or '58 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser, bright orange and white. Brother in-law and one of my neighbors worked at the GM Truck & Bus plant in Pontiac, and another one worked at the Pontiac plant in - duh! - Pontiac. Another neighbor worked up at the Buick plant in Flint.

 

i was there too;32 5 window(1954-1960)

 

Born in 1946....Been Twisted since 1956.........Centurion9

 

born 1940 raced this one 1967 Z28

 

Was there,been there,still there............