Art & Inspiration your car-your town

In front of my childhood home that my dad built. Moved out of there over 40 years ago.

 

small show in town this evening.

 

^^ That car wud look good in any town, and it's a chick magnet, too!!

 

Early bird at the Downtown Fathers Day Car Show in Anderson a few years ago.

 

On a hill outside of town. If you look closely just over the hood you can see my hometown in the background.

 

Hello,

Our local area during our high school times were the same streets and places that my older brother cruised. But as the time period goes, the feeling was different when it was his turn to hang out and cruise with his friends versus a couple of years later when it was our turn.

As the cruising scene goes, the high school kids hang out at the drive in restaurants, the hot “view” fast food places, the window display restaurants with a view of the adjoining driveway, and even the local gas stations until we get run off by the manager. When that 3-4 year group graduates from high school and goes to the local junior college, it may still be in the blood to cruise around for a while longer.

The whole high school scene: Friday night football, basketball games, the dances, the hangout at the school “rec” center, cruise the drive ins, all played their part in growing up. Those were the times that most will remember as the teenage years with all its trials and tribulations. Dating, cruising, surfing, movies, mountain excursions, all defined how you grew up.

But as we all know, the military, college, families, jobs all await the graduating high school seniors. So, there is little time to hang around anymore. Time flies and so do the “fast times in Bixby Knolls.”

Jnaki

What was different about the cruising scene? All of the older guys and girls would somehow slowly disappear from the cruising places. Then they were replaced with the current crop of teenage angst. As the older guys and girls disappeared, this new crop brought their own cars, stories, bragging rights, and teenage history. Those Friday night football games at Veterans Stadium turned into Saturday afternoon Rugby games at Bancroft Junior HS.

The only time there was a cross over for me was when we (my brother and I) finished the 40 Willys with the 671 SBC. In 1960, (his cruising time period) we quit racing the 58 Impala and built our first gas coupe for the street and drags. We drove it around our own neighborhood for the initial runs, but we needed to see how far out the Moon Tank would hold out with those 6 Strombergs pumping into the 671.

The time we drove out to the local drive in restaurant parking lot, cruised through the back alley for the first time, (loud) and then into the actual parking lot for all to see. That was the only time I got to see his friends and fellow racers all looking like it was Godzilla that came chugging into the driveway. That was something. It set the historical timeline for cruising in 1960 as it was a first time event for me.


Our group's cruising/hang out time was several years down the road.

 

is that a dead cow near the fence?

 

Just taking a nap in the sun

 

Just a small horse taking in the sun. I saw him wag his tail as I drove up.
I was waiting for someone to point that out.

 

my 36 five window at the Vista Rod Run, Vista, CA



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Hello,
What is going on in our old portion of the big city, the local city fathers have started a nationwide trend to involve more families. It is their version of the Friday Night cruising scene from a long time ago.

The old statement/book, "You Can’t Go Home Again" by Thomas Wolfe has a great title that applies to almost everything. Those old cruising grounds from times past are still there, but it is not the same. In memories, yes, but in reality, no.

In the Bixby Knolls area, the merchants are the same ones that were happy our families supported them throughout the years. We supported the restaurants, drive-ins, hamburger joints, grocery stores, gas stations, and auto parts stores. But over the years and as time passes, your group moves on and the next one comes along.

You really can’t go home again. I drove through the old cruising grounds, the street drags area and the drive in areas, they had the memories, but the general feeling was not there. Even driving by my old Westside house brought back memories of driving a millions times on those streets, but, it, too, is gone…Time has passed and so have you.

The Bixby Knolls area has also gone through the car years with city councilwomen sponsored race car Cacklefests and car shows. Those were exciting times, but even those are gone.

Jnaki

So, the next generation (that have little connections to the past) still support the neighborhood and still try to get some memories into their modern memory banks with things like First Friday Nights. It is a neighborhood showcase that tries to rekindle the family spirit within the neighborhood.

 

Looking down from the balcony of the bar (Mimi's). Marigny district, New Orleans.

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Jnaki, I'm sure you remember Dooley's hardware store and Shady Acres miniature golf course in No. L.B.. Old man Hal

 

Hey OM,
How could anyone forget Shady Acres or even Dooley's? Shady Acres was the favorite Friday-Saturday night date place before the drive in restaurants. Dooley's played a larger part of of growing up as it was where we bought our first "click button" remote TV. We frequented that place as local hardware stores were pretty non existent. (or if they were, they did not carry as much stuff as Dooley's)


"Dooley's Hardware, 5075 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach: A fond memory for long time Long Beach residents, Dooley's was a three block long emporium that sold nearly everything, including hot dogs (which were 10 cents in 1972). Now an elementary school."
2007
By the time we moved on in our lives (into OC), other stores were closer to where we lived and Dooley's faded out of the picture. Now, it was the Nail Apron, DeNault's and Green Thumb.

Jnaki

 

The other side of the country club in our town.

 

Elks lodge Vista, CA


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Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

1958 Westside Long Beach

1953-98 era: 1957 Westside LB…51 Olds in garage
Hello,

In searching through my files, I came across this reflection of my brother backing up his new 58 black Chevy Impala down the narrow driveway at our house in Long Beach. The shiny black paint (thanks to me, In the beginning, if I wanted to ride in the Impala, I had to wax it…using Cadillac Blue Coral wax.) always reflected anything all of the time.

The reflections showed up whether it was dusty or clean. It was my job to keep it clean when my brother owned it (see above) and continued when it was my own car. That Blue Coral was hard to put on and take off, but made the black a very, deep shine.

This narrow driveway made us drive very slowly and in all of the years of owning the car, never hit either the concrete brick wall on the other side or the stucco house on the driver’s side. Ran over my mom's Dichondra Grass in the narrow driveway of our post war house, a million times, but never scratched the car in the narrow opening.

In keeping this car clean, we had to put it in the left side of our two car garage. My dad kept his huge Buick on the right side and we kept the Impala on the left. Getting in and out (without moving the Buick) with just the Impala was an exercise in expert driving.(no power steering)

big 57 Buick Roadmaster
Impala
Jnaki

In our portion of the town/city, it was a post war (ww2, 1946) housing tract, near the Los Angeles River. That is why we always called it 100% soil. It was all topsoil from the early years of coming down from LA/mountain areas. (alluvial plains, before the tall flood control channel) You stick any seed or plant and it grows 100%.
http://waterandpower.org/museum/Los_Angeles_River_The_Unpredictable!.html

But our “town/city” was the cruising area that spread all over So Cal, but starting in the Westside of Long Beach. Gas was cheap, friends were plentiful, the locales were top notch as were the “locals.” Besides daily grind to high school a few miles away, the area was Lakewood to the East, Laguna Beach to the South, Bixby Knolls to the North, the LA/South Bay to the West.
Willys garage
Here is a photo of the rear yard Rumpus Room before we cut out the opening double doors and took out a portion of my mom’s rose garden/fence. We also took out a row of opening windows for our 40 Willys workplace and garage door.

The 2x4 + plywood garage door we installed was pretty heavy. We took out several windows, an 8 ft. wood wall, and an opening door to make room for our garage door. This is where we built the motors and did other things to the 40 Willys coupe. When it rained, the garage door and a large canvas tarp stretched out did the job of providing extra space to work on our car.

It was a tight fit, but our Willys coupe could fit inside of the Rumpus Room conversion by angling into the space inside. We could actually drive the Willys, from the street, down the narrow driveway between the houses, and with some slow action, keep driving back around the main garage into the small area, way in the back of the long yard. Most of the work on the Willys took place on that concrete pad in front of the plywood garage door.

Our ever present inquisitive neighbor was always asking questions about what we were doing to that funny looking car. When she heard the 671 SBC motor start up for the first time, she ran all the way back to our mother, inside the main house. Our little neighbor did not like the “loud noise.” (neither did our mother)
reflections

teenagers backing up

 

Idaho State University 2017....

 

In front of my friend's garage.

 

At a recent local car show.

 

At the annual pie run, Thanksgiving morning in Deale, Maryland, home of the Brothers Osborne.

 

Sunday night get-together. (Picture was taken in 2010).

 

At Cars and Coffee in Portsmouth, NH Sunday October 1st.

 

This is more like my car my state. Had a nice 60° day here in New Hampshire so I left town and headed to the western part of the state. Most of the foliage is done but still found some nice places to get pics of the Chevy. Won't be too many days left like this before winter comes.

 

Jnaki....love those super 8 films...Dooley's is gone but not forgotten!

 

Hey LBCD,

Who could forget that big guy? We purchased our first black and white portable TV there. When color came out, Dooley's had our first color portable TV on a rolling chrome stand. The remotes, were those noisy "click" versions... Dooley's was the early version of the modern big box stores like Target, but very, low key other than that big statue.

That place had everything anyone could want in household goods and automotive supplies. The prices were pretty good for the times. I am sure in just about every city in So Cal, there was a big store like Dooley's. But, it was close to a lot of hot rod parts and tune up shops, so many times, it was a "two-fer" car trip.

Jnaki

Thanks for the nice comments on my films. I was fortunate to be able to shoot with my dad's old 16mm movie camera.(he paid for processing) About 15 years later, we had a Bauer super 8 movie camera, but the quality of those movies compared to the old 16mm movie camera was not even close. My son grew up with little to no family movies of his early childhood. (plus, they were very expensive to process...)

The film itself, 8mm was 1/2 the size of 16mm and that was about 1/2 the size of those old film 35mm cameras. So, if you look at the 8 vs 16 vs 35mm, those 2.25 x 2.25 twin lens or Hassleblad cameras were almost twice as big as the 35mm and the photo quality shows on development. The Hollywood movies are shot with much larger film than 16mm and it also shows.

 

parked next to town hall....

 

How many movies have been shot on Main Street? Bob

 

not sure Bob. but it is a good setting.