DID YOU GROW UP IN THE 50'S AND 60'S ???

[E St. Kruiser50]

Well I'll dive in to the chilly water of "I REMENBER WHEN" first

In 1950 I turned 7, still no T.V., but we had the Saturday morning Matinee's at the local theatre's, where we'd go watch a ton of Hoppalong Cassidy, RinTinTin,Tom Mix and a ton of cartoons. It was how the folks got rid of the kids all morning and stay home and ........Well, you know .

Anyway, I grew up in San Berardino, Calif.

The theatre I went to was a half block down the street from the famous California Hotel on "E Street".

Remember the 'EAGLES" and their song "Livin it the up in the Hotel Califronia - that's it, and also where Tricky Dicky" Nixon , ran an elevator while in college.

"E" Street was one of the biggest cruise sites in all of SoCal besides the "Sunset Strip" in L.A., and the "Big Boy" hamburger joint was the place to cruise, like the original McDonald's on "E Street" in San Berdoo, before Ray Kroc bought it from the McDonald Bros. in 1961 and turned it into a chain.

Fridays and Saturday nights were crazy. Were talkin EVERY weekend here.

Litterally thousands of cars and people would show up to "Cruise" - show off their cars and chase wemmen .

We're talking a 5 mile cruise each way, with 2 lanes each way, packed solid bumper to bumper, all night long, and no cops. THAT'S 20 MILES OF CARS PEOPLE. No one caused trouble back then.

NO KIDDING!!!!

From L.A. to Palm Springs, they came to cruise.

And sometimes we'd head off there to see some new cars and meet some new friends.

Spring break was - EEEEHAH. Race cars all week long at Longbeach, including some street fitted "Dragsters". No kidding - headlights and taillights, racing in town after the streets were blocked off. Just crazy. Couldn't do that now.

We all had cars and the girls liked 'um. Wonder if they ever really liked us ??? .

No drugs back then. Just a little alcohol, and back then we were careful. Our parents would kill us. Forget the cops, are parents were worse.

My first car was a'50 Merc that I put a Chrysler Hemi in with dual quads - A 'Vette eater.

The next car was a sleeper. A '63 Riviera lowered to the ground, painted candy apple red, with a humungously built dual quad beheemouth of an engine, that was a 'vette eater also.

The "Rivvy" had four seats and they were usually full with my buddies, and as we past the "Vette going stop light to stoplight, the electric windows would be flying up and down....just to impress them you understand .

Talk about memories.

Then there was the '60 Poncho factory superstock, with a 4-speed and so on. Then my brand new '67 Mustang 390 Hi Pro that I took position of on Dec. 16, 1966 - my Christmas present.

What a rocket when we got done with it.

Wayne Alexander had a fuel injected brand new '57 chevy. Later a new '63 post Plymouth Beleveder with a 2nd gen Hemi. John McKnown ran a 40 Willys with a '57 392 hemi built to the hilt. Did wheelstands - scarrry..He loved to race 'Vettes too. Maybe that's where I got it .

Well, I could add tons more, like Florida Boy or Art Anderson does- those guy's can REEEEALLY POST LOL , but I'll move over and give someone else a chance.

O.K guy's, let's hear your stories.

P.S

The first car that got me interested in cars I was about 8.

A '49 Caddy fastback. All white, sitting on the ground with purple flames all down the side and all over.

At that point, I was toast, in 1951 !!

Edited December 4, 2008 by Treehugger Dave

[Nick F40]

And sometimes we'd head off there to see some new cars and meet some new friends ( Wemmen - LOL)

Spring break was - EEEEHAH. More cars, parties and .......well, you guessed it...Wemmen

We all had cars and the girls liked 'um. Wonder if they ever really liked us ??? .

No drugs back then. Just a little alcohol, and back then we were careful. Our parents would kill us. Forget the cops, are parents were worse.

A lot of wemmen I always wonder that! Yeah I agree with you on the alcohol part and parents.

I love hearing these types of stories, I know call me weird, but those cars, I love Super Stock, those cares are the ones I like, the ones you described and you were lucky.

[Terry Sumner]

I guess I can chime in here as I've been lurking an awful lot..

Born in '52, so I'm a few years younger than you Dave! <G>

First car was a 1951 Ford Club Coupe 2 door that came with a smoking 6 cyl flathead. I was 15 at the time. I tried to put a 283 Chevy in it, but I didn't have the knowledge to see it through. So that car went bye-bye in favor of a 56 Chevy 2 dr Belair when I turned 16. Had some rust on it so I bondo'd the heck out of it and painted it with Metalflake in cans!! Remember that stuff? Didn't come out half bad actually. Then when I was 17 and a senior in high school I got my first good car. A local Chevy dealer had a 66 Chevelle SS 396 advetised for $1200. I was working and had a few bucks saved up so my Dad went there during the day and made the deal for me and when I came home from school, the SS was sitting there in the driveway for me. I drove that sweet car all through my senior year. All my friends had muscle cars too. Rick had a 67 GTO with the 389 single 4 barrel carb, Cliff had a 65 GTO with the 389 and tri-carb setup (which we put some Hooker headers on...THAT was fun!), Ray had a 67 Comet, Dave had a 68 Road Runner, Bots had a 67 Chevelle SS and Bobby had a 56 Chevy running a built 350, 4 speed. There was also a couple of other guys not in high school but who we ran with that had similar cars. I mean, I was in high school during the height of the muscle car era and it was great!

Almost all of our cars had bucket seats and a console. The console was your girlfriend's seat. They ALL rode right on the console. Gas was 29 cents a gallon for the good stuff. My Chevelle had 4:56 gears and it only got 4 mpg with that tunnel ram and twin Holley 600's. But who cared? At 30 cents a gallon you could ride around all day on 5 bucks! Tires were Goodyear N50's (remember them?) We all ran gabriel Hi-Jackers in the rear and heavier springs in the front to get our cars "jacked up". And we all had race cams so we could get that cool lopey idle. We'd all run up and down Main street of our small town real slow in 3rd gear so the car would be running real lumpy. Exhausts were Hooker headers into a straight length of 2 1/2" tubing (biggest we had back then) into Corvair Spyder mufflers just in front of the diff. Then 2 little downturned pieces of pipe. The cars sounded cool! We had this little bridge at the south end of town with concrete walls on both sides. We'd all drive out of town and we'd nail it then so the exhaust noise would echo throughout the town!

We had an old Police Chief in my town who had a bad stutter. One day I kinda burned out a bit excessively where he saw me. Later in the day he caught up to me and stuttered, "God ddddddddammit

SSSSSSSS-umner..I sssss-aw you PPPPPPPunch it. Next time you ppppppunch it you're ppppppinched! I said yessir and was on my way! LOL (many years later when I was a Trooper I ended up having to arrest that old guy on a court issued warrant for stealing town gas from the town pumps after he retired. The guy had kept a key to the pump!)

In eastern Connecticut, we didn't have the cruising streets like you California guys had. Our cruises literally took us from one town to another and we hung out at local hamburger joints. Kelly's was one. I recall the burgers were 15 cents!!! We'd all go there after the football games or whatever school function and on the weekends. Lot's of cool cars but all muscle car type. We really didn't have any cool hot rods.

The next summer after high school I landed a job as one of the three announcers at Connecticut Dragway. I worked there 2 sundays on, one off through 3 seasons. On the off weeks I would race my Chevelle, which by then had a transplanted built 427 in it. Best run ever was 11.22 @122 mph in modified production. I got to meet a lot of the famous drivers from that time period, especially the Pro Stock guys like Dick Landy, Ronnie Sox and more. Met Shirley Muldowney and remember being absolutely amazed at her language. Being a mere 19 years old, in that time period...girls just didn't swear like that!! LOL

This went on until 1974 when it all came to an abrupt halt. That's when I got accepted in the Connecticut State Police. They frowned on outside jobs and hot cars. Except of course when tha hot car was a cruiser. But that's another story!

Terry Sumner

Edited December 4, 2008 by Terry Sumner

[Bernard Kron]

Oh mygawd Dave, what have you started!

But it’s Great Stuff!

Here are two from my childhood.

Hot Rod memory:

Wingdale, N.Y., in Dutchess County, about 70 miles up the Hudson from N.Y.C., population 300, dairy country.

I went to an elementary school with one room and one teacher for each grade, K through 6th. If you didn’t do well you got left back, so there were several girls in the 6th grade who were easily 13-14 and didn’t look like the other girls (!). The older boys from the high school in nearby Dover Plains used to come down at the end of the day in their cars to pick them up. I specifically remember a ‘49/’50 Ford two door business coupe in black that was a real tail dragger. It had a loud exhaust note that rumbled. I remember asking them how they got the car to rake like that and they showed me the bricks in the trunk! I’d be willing to bet the exhaust note was achieved by punching a hole in pipe before the muffler. This was a real no-budget job. But at 8 years old I was really impressed. (I guess I was into cars big time even then...)

All the boys were “hoods†with elaborate pompadours and cuffed jeans and leather jackets. They played the radio real loud when they rolled up – it was the local station playing a sort of proto-rock ‘n’ roll, a mixture of country music and r&b. I distinctly remember hearing Hank Williams, Etta James’ “Roll With Me Henryâ€, and “Shake Rattle and Roll†(Bill Haley and the Comets), so it had to be’54 or ’55. (I have been a stone music freak since I was 4 years old and tend to remember this sort of stuff.) They were never in the school yard very long – just long enough to sweep up the girls and take them away in a cloud of rock ‘n’ roll and cigarette smoke.

Sports Car Memory:

1958, I was 10 years old. All the males in my family were car nuts and when I told my father that there was a sports car race in Montgomery, N.Y. about 100 miles north of N.Y.C. he talked my mother into a weekend junket up there. We took a room in the local hotel/tavern for the weekend. I remember there were bed bugs and my mother was less than pleased. We hardly slept, me because of my excitement, and my parents because they hung out in the bar until closing time (probably to avoid the bed bugs).

Montgomery was an old WWII air force base, the track a flat triangle with a couple of chicanes. The teams all had their cars in the local garages and drove them to and from the track, unmuffled and gloriously loud. We arrived late Saturday afternoon and the cars were coming back from the track. I new them all because I read all the car mags – hot rod, custom, sports car – I didn’t care. Everybody from the east coast scene seemed to be there, the Cunningham Listers (Jags if I remember right) with Walt Hansgen and Ed Crawford, Bill Sadler with his Chevy engined special, the usual C & D-Type Jag hand-me-downs, and a big black Lister Chevy. They all came through town and I was over the moon – except there was something critical missing, the team I had come to see, the Scarabs*.

It turns out they arrived later that evening so they were given a brief practice in the morning before the afternoon’s 100 miler. I remember wondering all night if I would actually get to see them.

Come Sunday and the three of us (my brother was away at college) were camped out on the chicane built at the corner of the triangle leading on to the main straight. This, my father assured me, would be where we would see the action. We were not disappointed. In those days we were behind some hay bales and a wire fence maybe 20 feet from the edge of the track. The cars drifted spectacularly through the chicane (thanks Dad!).

I don’t remember all the details of the race. It was fast, loud, action packed and you could almost touch the cars. I do remember Hansgen lead for much of the race but had to pit to change a tire (he flatted right in front of us) and chased Daigh to the end but failed to catch him. A Scarab victory (I was thrilled)!

But the best moment was a few laps into the race when Lance Reventlow in one of his Scarabs, running fourth or so, was in a dice with Sadler and another car and lost it in the chicane and slid straight into the hay bales right in front of us. He took out his left front corner and his day was done. I remember him getting out, throwing his helmet on the ground and swearing a blue streak. All three of us (even my mother) thought it was just grand!

After I wrote this I looked Montgomery up on the web and, amazingly, here’s a picture of Lance losing it. We would have been over to the right. It turns

out that’s Hansgen in the white Lister so Crawford must have led for a while. Their two cars were identical.

Here’s a link to some pages about this race meet: http://www.barcboys.com/Montgomery1958.htm

*For those of you who don’t know them, the Scarabs were Hilborn injected Chevy specials built in Venice, California for rich “playboy†(and darn fast driver) Lance Reventlow. The cars were the epitome of SoCal car culture, the chassis designed by sports car legend (even then) Ken Miles and built by Championship car veterans Troutman and Barnes, the motor by ex-hot rodders Travers and Coons, glorious aluminum bodywork fabricated by Emil Deidt, painted in a spectacular candy blue with white scallops and striped by Von Dutch. Lance’s co-driver was ex-Dry Lakes racer Chuck Daigh, hired on to do chassis development. Chuck won most of the time. Here’s a link: http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/3771/Sc...-Chevrolet.html

Edited December 4, 2008 by gbk1

[84vanagon]

Dadgumnit guys, I WAS born 10 years to late!

Dave, THANKS for starting this thread and do tell more! What a cool idea! .

Y'all keep the great stories coming in!

[The Creative Explorer]

I am an '81, but I wish I could've been a teen in the 50's/60's Sometimes I wonder if there is a themepark like the wild west towns, but everything is 50's/60's where the cars are right, the music and the clothes haha.

[RodBurNeR]

I deleted my last post, I think maybe it was too off topic from "remember when".

[Terry Sumner]

Forgot to add in the first time I felt the power of a muscle car and what got me started down the road of loving horsepower.

I believe I was 15...we had a local guy who was kind of the equivalent of John Milner. Warren Sipuleski was his name and he had this all black 61 Impala fastback with a reverse teardrop scoop on the hood. He had transplanted a 396 bbc into that car from a wrecked 66 Chevelle. Then he souped it up some with the basics. The car was pretty stout for a daily driver back then. My first ride in a high performance car was in this beast. He took me up to Route 201 and slammed the accelerator from a dead stop. I will never forget the feeling of being pressed back into the seat and the sound of that big block winding up in R's while the rear tires screamed for mercy! It was night time and the road behind us turned into nothing but a red glow from the tail lights reflecting off from all the smoke from those anemic bias ply tires that practically gave their lives in a matter of minutes as Warren ran the Muncie 4 speed through it's gears! Man he burned those tires in all 4 gears!

The sounds of the engine winding up through the gears, the scream of the burning tires, the smell of the exhaust and burning rubber and most of all, the feel of that acceleration hooked me on high performance forever!

Man those were the days!

Terry Sumner

[FloridaBoy]

I love reading and telling stories!!! Oh, God, guys you opened up a Pandora's Box or a can of worms. So stick with me guys.

I was born in Sharon, Penna just a couple of miles east of Youngstown, Ohio, and my family worked at either steel mills, auto dealerships, or on the railroad. My dad did work at a large Westinghouse facility in Sharon where he saw what he wanted to be for the rest of his life. Strangely enough, the highest paid blue collar guy was the plumber and he and my mom formed their own plumbing company. During the struggling years I was born in 1947, and we lived in Sharpsville, and my Grandma watched me with her youngest, my Uncle Bob just 5 years older.

Uncle Bob not only was the ultimate car guy, but my idol and we were buds for life. At my earliest recollection, he already amassed a large 1/25 scale model car collection of AMT dealer demo's. We were a large family and would often picnic at the Pymatuning Dam and see the hot rods, mostly 48 Fords, deuces, 49 and 50 Mercs, mostly painted black, with coon tails, skirts, blue dot taillights, and moon caps. Then they would have "peel out" contests in the picnic parking lot, and Bob and I were car guys for life. We went home and started modifying these acetate models with masking tape fender shirts, flame jobs using Grandma's fingernail polish, tape mudflaps, and large antennae from hatpins. We were hot. Then came out the Revell cars, Highway Pioneers, and then the cereal box cars the 53 and 54 Fords.

It certainly didn't hurt the family compound of a boarding house, stores, and a few houses and a large garage was right next to the Chevy dealer - Snyder and Freeman Chevrolet, which still exists in Sharpsville.

In 1955, my mom and dad decided to relocate to Florida, destination unknown. So this ambitious third grader moved back to the family compound from our recently sold home and I was a curious kid. Back then new model year cars were kept underwraps until the debut date, and hidden all over town. Grandma, being next door, got a 56 Cameo pickup loaded, and the City's first allocated Corvette. woweeee

I snuck into the garage and spent uncountable hours just looking at the cars with Uncle Bob, and so we hatched a plan. We would charge other kids in school to see the new cars first, and sneak them inside for a peek. I made a fortune, just charging a nickel a kid a peek. Then word got out, and grown ups were wanting a peek, and soon the two of us almost had a

Star Wars movie premier event outside this rickety old garage and cars lined in the alley. Of course the inevitable happened, I was the one who got busted. I almost ruined the event of fall, the debut of the new chevy line because almost everyone in town saw the featured cars. My parents were outraged but I fessed up but didn't turn Uncle Bob. But we were out of business. I got grounded and not spanked because I fessed up. My parents sat me down and told me that if I were to be forgiven, I would have to apologize with sincerity in my heart to Mr. Snyder who lived 2 doors from us. I somehow summoned up the courage and I thought my hands were going to fall off when knocking at his door. I was never a cryer, but I was bawling my eyes out when I did, and he put his arm around me, tuscled my hair, and said it was OK, because the "scandal" actually increased interest and sales. What a lesson I learned, eh?

Then we moved to Florida, ending up in Dania (next door to Ft. Lauderdale) and my dad started a business down here. A couple of years later we moved into our new house just as AMT brought out its 1958 line of 3in1 kits, and I was back in. At the same time, I took up tennis (for the ladies), and surfing but when I got home, I still built cars. I even built models in my dorm at University of Florida, and USF all up to 72, then got married, and had no room until 79. My style by then was so out of sync it was time to go on a hiatus, then in 85, I saw a bunch of ERTL/AMT Trophy Series and immediatly emptied Ben Franklin's shelves for about 2 weeks in a row, and set up shop. I converted my garage into a playroom, building a train layout and workshop, joined the IPMS and built like a banshee when I was home to relieve the stress I had at work.

I have been building since although taking a few hiatus for divorce, birth and upbringing of my kids, change of jobs etc etc, but always returned. Then joined Treasure Coast Scale Auto Society in West Palm Beach and among the "regulars" were Bob Kuronow (founder/owner of Model Car Garage) and the legenday Augie Hiscano. That inspired me, then the club heard the Cushenberry 40 Ford El Matador was purchased by a local West Palm body shop owner, but in bad shape so we all helped with its restoration. Ultimately the club disbanded over creative differences, and I joined Table Top Cruisers in 96 +/-.

You just don't know how overjoyed I was to see on cable - American Chopper, American Hot Rod, Rides, Overhaulin', and other shows about customs and rods, and now I am at 61 still building like a banshee, but retired completely from contests. I build for myself and not to please a judge or another friend, which has given me total freedom.

I have had some real great experiences and some negatives which make the hobby seem so vast. I am considered a pioneer down here, have a car in the National Car Museum, 3 Pactra Pegasus trophies, 2 IPMS trophies and a host of others. The hardware helps my memories of some of the great contests in which I participated, win or lose.

Now I am struggling with keeping up, such as engine detail, detail painting interiors and chassis, prefab parts, use of aftermarket etc etc. My body work and re-designs (I do a lot of chopping, channelling, sectioning, frenching headlights, molding in roll pans, new headlights taillights, pancake hoods and so on.

I will tell you that this hobby is certainly a great way to express yourself creatively. It has given me years and years of pleasure and fun.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

[Bernard Kron]

FloridaBoy: Awesome story!

[Peter Lombardo]

I have to tell you, the late 50’s and early 60’s were a great time to grow up in suburban America. Now, I am sure that many other generations would claim that their formative years were the “best time†and I can understand that, but my early years were a truly amazing time.

We were so innocent and unspoiled. We had time to be a kid. Today, 12 year old kids know everything and most likely have tried everything because they have seen it on the internet…there are no surprises left for them. We were allowed, actually encouraged to be kids until we were in our late teens.

We watched “Ozzie and Harrietâ€, “Father knows best†and “Leave it to Beaver†in black and white and it was the best, the best! We played Solitaire with a deck of actual playing cards. We, as a family would play “board games†like Monopoly and Parcheesi at night and actually talk to each other and enjoy each other’s company. Building model cars, even though I started building Army tanks and fighter aircraft first, was a great past time. We had no photo etched parts, no resin re pops, no detail wire so we used our mothers sewing thread to “wire†engines, and we thought we were “so cool†in doing that. Body putty (AMT Putty) was brand new and just unbelievable to us, I mean; we could actually change the contours of a model car…amazing! Then along came paint in a spray can, made just for model cars, and gone were the brush strokes just to be replaced by paint runs. AMT was producing 3 in 1 kits of the new cars, both hardtop and convertible versions every year (Ford and GM products) and Johan was doing most of the Chrysler products. AMT was making these kits with the custom front and tail sections that we could mold onto the stock car to change its looks which we (my building buddies and I) thought was just incredible.

It was such a different time. We would save a portion of our allowance each week so we could save up and buy a new kit, maybe once a month. We would begin building it as soon as we could get it home and we tended to work on one car at a time. Buy it, build it, buy another and repeat, repeat, repeat. I have such fond memories of listening to the new Beach Boys album on the “record playerâ€, or Cousin Brucie (WABC AM)on my new 6 transistor radio (it was orange with a brown leather case) that I got for Christmas 1959 while I worked on my latest masterpiece. I remember, loading up all of the parts of my current build in the box and heading to my friends house on a Saturday afternoon, either a 20 minute car ride, IF, I could bum a ride or if the weather was good, I would ride my bike while the kit box was strapped to the bike. If all else failed, I would “Hitch Hike†to his house. Hitch Hike!!!! Today, no one would do that, back then, it was a perfectly acceptable mode of transportation.

I remember when the 1957 Chevrolet and Ford Fairlane kits came out…gee, I loved those kits. I remember all of the great Revell Parts Packs and how we could change engines and taillights in our models…I remember the Revell Metal flake kits that were molded in translucent plastic with a deep heavy metal flake actually IN the plastic. Asw far as I am concerned, that was the Golden Age of modeling. I know many say that today is, but really, when you concider where modeling and kit production was before 1960, the advancements made and kits offered were such a giant steo forward, that in my mind, there is no question...that was THE GOLDEN ERA...Period. My favorite kit of that era was the 1962 Corvette convertible kit. It had a wild add on nose with a long extended forward grill opening and a fastback top unit with glass tee tops that pivoted open. I remember the frustrations I had with the AMT putty with that kit and the difficulty in painting it with red metallic AMT paint in the spray can. It took me to the edge, but in the end, I had it complete and looking pretty good to my youthful eye. GOD that was a great kit and so much fun to build. Too bad, it, and the rest of my early model collection along with my collection of baseball cards got trashed by my Mom while I was in the Navy…oh well!

I remember one time, my friend and his sister and I went to the South Orange Armory to see the Beach Boys live. I was a big beach Boy fan (I still love the old music they did, and listen to it all the time on my CD stereo and MP3 player ( think about that…back then all we had was a record player, and we considered ourselves lucky if it was a “Stereo†player)) I remember that concert very vividly because I remember that I did not hear a single note of the music…the kids were screaming so loudly and the sound system was so bad it was impossible to hear anything…but who cared?? It was a live concert (my first rock concert, no less) and these were the Beach Boys. As a kid growing up in north central New Jersey, the Beach Boys and that Southern California lifestyle with surfing and hot rods were all I could dream about. Why was I in NJ? I should be in So Cal. The warm weather, the hot cars, the speed shops and custom shops and the Pacific Ocean! I lived much of my fantasy out through my model cars. I couldn’t be there in real life, but I could be there in my “Model Car†life. Through the music and the cars, I had my escape and my “Happy Placeâ€â€¦you know, that place where I could go and leave the stress of puberty and coming adolescence behind…it may have been a cold winter day in NJ but I was warm and sunny in my bedroom listening to “Shut Downâ€, “409†or “Don’t worry baby†and building my California hot rod on my work bench. My model building helped me get through those times and to this day, provides me one of my “Releasesâ€â€¦one of the ways I tune out the problems of the world like the difficulties of running a small business today in a downright horrible economy. As bad as the day is, the time at my work bench at night always calms me down….but back to the joys of a simpler time and place.

The late 50’s were a great time in America, with the possible exception of the “Cold Warâ€, with its fear of the “Bomb†and racial intolerance that was coming to a head. We had won the Great War (WWII) , we were proud to be Americans and we had prosperity and hope for the future. Then I think, around the mid 1960’s you could see the changes coming. After the assassination of Kennedy and the beginning of the Vietnam War, things were not looking so bright anymore. Then came the “Summer of Loveâ€, 1967, the year I graduated High School, and the “awakening†of the free spirits, and free love movements. The racial riots, which I witnessed firsthand in Newark NJ, and the changes were coming and nothing was going to stop them. We lost our innocents. We were thrust headlong into a hot bubbling caldron of sexual awakening and racial demands for their undeniable equality. There was this revolution among the young, and I guess, I was swept up in it in a small way too, to rebel, not conform and undo the rigid structured lifestyle that we grow up in. Long hair, different style dress (remember those early pictures of Sonny and Cher?) acceptance of mind expanding drugs. Music changed too, physiodelic and heavy rock influenced our society. Sexual curiosity and promiscuity opened many to new feelings and ideas about relationships. Liberal thinking, a more European way of looking at things began to prevail and the past was lost for good. There was no going back, the Genie was out of the bottle for good, or worse, depending upon your view.

I look back to that time with nothing but fond memories. I am so grateful that I got to experience it first hand and even though today’s youth have so many advantages, that we did not have, I would not change a thing. The internet, computers, cable TV, computer games, IPods’, and all the rest, not withstanding, I would not trade one minute of the time between 1950 and 1965 for all of the conveniences of today. It was a great time to be a kid, we learned real family values and knew how to make “our own fun†out of nothing. I was happy with less because I had more. It is like they say, “it’s the little things that make it greatâ€â€¦ So true. I will be lying on my death bed someday, looking back at that time with a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye because I will know that I had a front row seat to the pinnacle of the modern society, I got to experience the best that ever was…and I will always know it was the BEST!!!

[Harry P.]

I look back to that time with nothing but fond memories. I am so grateful that I got to experience it first hand and even though today’s youth have so many advantages, that we did not have, I would not change a thing. The internet, computers, cable TV, computer games, IPods’, and all the rest, not withstanding, I would not trade one minute of the time between 1950 and 1965 for all of the conveniences of today. It was a great time to be a kid, we learned real family values and knew how to make “our own fun” out of nothing. I was happy with less because I had more.

Back then, our society truly was different. We had much more interpersonal interaction back then...kids played together as a group, people actually talked to each other face to face (what a concept!!!), and basically society functioned in a different way... a better way, IMO. Things have gotten much more technologically advanced for sure, and we are better off in many ways today than we were in the 50s, but we are sorely missing the "old way" of life. Our current society could benefit greatly if we could go back to the "old way" of living. We have lost a huge part of what makes us a society...we are now much more a group of unconnected individuals rather than the interacting society we were back then.

People sometimes think that memories of life in the 50s are distorted by "rose colored glasses", but in my opinion, as far as society goes, things really were better back then.

[george 53]

I guess I don't have alot to say, but I remember goin to the A&W with my Big Brudder when I was a little kid, like 6 or so. My ma made him take me EVERYWHERE, so I got to go to the "strip"(AKA Detroit Dragway)just about every weekend in the summer.He had a 56 Ford Crown Victoria, a weird light purple color, with that TOO COOL glass roof insert.He had a 312 T-Bird engine that he an his buddies dropped in it, one day, while my Pop was at work! He never knew they had done it, an that car ran like the dickens!I got to see the Original Ramcharger Candymatics(never quite understood why they called em that) they had that neet candycane stripped paint jobs. Then the old Roger Lindamood "Color me Gone" Super stocks, But I don't think they were called that at the time. I bought my models at Niesners and Woolworths 5&10(we called em Dimestores)and Kresge's(the forerunner of K-Mart)for .99. Testors paints in the little glass jars were 15 cents, an spray paint was .49cents.I built models ALL thru grade, Jr. AND Highschool.My first "Muscle Car" ride was in my sister Cilvia's best girlfreind Beatrice's 65 GTO 389 4spd Convertable. Bea was so cool caz she could drive the heck outa that 4spd, an she was a GIRL! Then one of her boyfreinds got a 66 Chevelle 396 SS 4spd that was the KILLER! Man, Nino was so cool. Then he left for Viet Nam and had to sell it. Boy was I sorry to see it ,and him go. Then there was Pic( my next sister Yolandas b-freind)who had a 66GTO 389 tri power Midnight blue 4spd.Then was Olga's B-freind Jesse who had a BRIGHT yellow(think screemin yellow Zonker)49 Ford coupe, with a lil Flattie and raidiused rear wheelwells an cheater slicks.By that time I was 16, workin 3 paperroutes, the Detroit Free Press, before school(it was a morning paper) The Detroit News after school(the evening paper) and the Mellus, a one day a week(wensday)paper. My dad gave me his work car, a lil 52 Chevy DeLuxe with a three onna tree an 6 cylinder.That was my 1st car and a real blast! I forgot to put anti freeze in it for the winter an ended up crackin the block! Pop was up set with me(and how!) but he got ahold of a 62 Impala with a 283 automatic, and me and Art(My big brudder) swapped it into the 52. He made the mounts for me at work, and when we were thru, that lil Chevy would fly! Dad liked it SO MUCH , he TOOK IT BACK! I pitched a hoot and my Mom made him take me out an get a new one for me. That's how I got my first REAL car, my Nova. By real, I mean I took a loan and had to make payments on. 48 bucks a month! By then I was 17, and had been workin at Kentucky Fried Chicken for a while makin like 35 bucks a week, which was GREAT money for a kid!My Buddy Jim Santoro had a 60 Ford Galaxie that came with a 352 FE block(a gift from his folks for His 16th) an we put 427 heads and 4 bbl intake on it. We called it "Stevie Wonder" caz it was Black, Cool, and sometimes the headlites would go out!( hope I din't offend anyone!) Then there was Steve Hernandez, no relation, who had a BIG ol 60 Merc Monterrey 4dr. The GREAT WHITE HOPE, caz you'd hafta hope it would start! Most of us ,no, sorry ALL of us came from blue collar families an only one freind had a NEW car. That was Rick Burris, who was an only child, and who's ma was our old crossing guard. we ALL knew her. She bought Ricky a BRAND NEW 70 Roadrunner 383 auto for his 16th b-day! what a LUCKY dog! Of course we all got to drive Rick's RR.Not too soon after Graduation I got my Draft notice, Enlisted in the Marines(I was 19) Got married, and left for VN.Thank God Almighty I came home, and went to work for G.M.There was alot of fun to have back then, without booze,(we drank, but not alot, caz if our folks found out, Hoo Weee!)or drugs, or doin REALLY stupid stuff.I guess I grew up kinda fast, but it was fun while it lasted. I still talk with Jimmy an Steve, Steve ended up workin for G.M. too, and we saw each other alot at work.Jim was a City Somethin or other in ST.Paul Minnesota, and we still exchange Christmas cards! Not real exciting reading, I know, But it was a chance to remember fondly, some of the best times of my youth.I've built models of ALL the cars of my youth, Except for Steve's, which I had to settle for a 2 dr. There's alot more to tell, but this ain't the place to go an get all reminicie about. But I'm glad it was brought up, caz it was fun!

[E St. Kruiser50]

Back then, our society truly was different. We had much more interpersonal interaction back then...kids played together as a group, people actually talked to each other face to face (what a concept!!!), and basically society functioned in a different way... a better way, IMO. Things have gotten much more technologically advanced for sure, and we are better off in many ways today than we were in the 50s, but we are sorely missing the "old way" of life. Our current society could benefit greatly if we could go back to the "old way" of living. We have lost a huge part of what makes us a society...we are now much more a group of unconnected individuals rather than the interacting society we were back then.

People sometimes think that memories of life in the 50s are distorted by "rose colored glasses", but in my opinion, as far as society goes, things really were better back then.

AMEN Harry

IMHO at least, things were not only better, but life was also, so much simplier then

Thanks Harry - dave

[OneTrickPony]

I'm from that era (born in'55) but I managed to get a head start from most of the guys my age when it comes to cars. My dad owned a wrecking yard and used car lot back then and I hung out there a bunch during the summers as far back as grade school. My first job was cleaning out the junkers as they came in. I would check all the ash trays and floor boards for change and got to keep whatever I found! Usually it wasn't much, less that a buck, but a few times I scored pretty good. Any soda bottles were mine, too, and I saved them up and returned them for the deposits. Most of this money ended up spent on (what else!) model cars. It's amazing how many cars had "racy" magazines hidden in the trunk or under the seats!

Dad was into antique cars but not hotrods. He had a Model T roadster pickup that was restored, a Chrysler Airflow that was 100% original and a daily driver, and another car that I would bet few hear have ever heard of. In the back of the shop in about a million pieces was a 1919 Velie touring car. He would work on it occationally and the chassis and engine were complete and running and it could even be driven. That thing was HUGE!

I got my first car when I was 15. It was a 1961 Thunderbird, pink with a black interior and black vinyl top. Dad told me if I could get it running I could have it. I worked on that thing for months and as my 16th birthday kept getting closer I figured out that if I wanted my own car I would have to do something else. One of his part time workers then was a college student who had two cars but wanted a bicycle. We worked out an even trade for my 3 speed English racer and his '56 Ford two door Ranch Wagon. I registered the car in my name (which was illegal but no body asked my age at the court house) and Dad was sure suprised when I drove it to work on my birthday.

I was one of the last guys in my class to get my license so by then I was already cruising with friends regularly. In my home town (Beaumont, TX) the drag then was 11th street. We would cruise from the traffic circle at 11th and College to the Gaylynn shopping center and back. Every group had it's favorite hangout along the way. We usually hung out somewhere on the Gateway parking lot but it varied a bunch. Sometimes it was across from Burger Chef at the boat dealership or farther down near McDonald's.

There were always lots of cops so if you wanted to street race you just headed on down 11th to where it merged onto Eastex freeway. The service road there was (and still is) a nice long straght concrete road from the end of 11th to Lucas. There weren't any businesses along there back then so an occational blast didn't draw a lot of attention.

Saturday night during the summer and Sunday afternoons during the winter we were usually out at the Golden Triangle dragstrip. There were a bunch of us that had cars we raced occasionally but usually we just went to watch. Wednesday night was grudge races at the track so that was also a good night to go for street action. Grudge night was "run what you brung" so the tech inspections weren't very strict. You would see lots of kids out there running their parents cars down the track just for grins. Watching some kid's first run was always a real hoot to us "oldtimers." We always convieniently forgot how bad we screwed up our first times out.

I eventually bought a '65 Mustang with a 289 and 3 speed. Lots of hop up parts later it would run in the low 12s which was pretty quick for a street car back then. Later after several engine swaps and putting a back half chassis under it I had it into the 10s but I had taken it off the street by then. After the car sat in my garage unraced a few years I finally converted it back toi a street car (just barely). It would still run in the low 11s but it wasn't much good for long trips with the 5:13 gears. I sold it in '93 after having it for 20 years.

There were lots of other street cars in my garage over those twenty years. I've owned a 55 Buick, '71 and '75 Cameros, a '78 El Camino, a '66 Chevy step side pickup (that one was lots of fun with a 283, 4-speed, bucket seats, and sun roof), 2 different '69 Mustang fastbacks, an '84 Mustang GT and several others include a Pinto I swapped a 302 into. With a 150HP shot of NOS, that little car would boogie!

I've kind of moved away from that scene as I have gotten a little older but I still go to as many drag races and car shows as I can. I keep threatening my wife that I have one more hotrod in me that's going to get built some day. I keep building models an collecting die casts to in part decide what that last hotrod is going to be.

[Nick F40]

Sports Car Memory:

1958, I was 10 years old. All the males in my family were car nuts and when I told my father that there was a sports car race in Montgomery, N.Y. about 100 miles north of N.Y.C. he talked my mother into a weekend junket up there. We took a room in the local hotel/tavern for the weekend. I remember there were bed bugs and my mother was less than pleased. We hardly slept, me because of my excitement, and my parents because they hung out in the bar until closing time (probably to avoid the bed bugs).

Montgomery was an old WWII air force base, the track a flat triangle with a couple of chicanes. The teams all had their cars in the local garages and drove them to and from the track, unmuffled and gloriously loud. We arrived late Saturday afternoon and the cars were coming back from the track. I new them all because I read all the car mags – hot rod, custom, sports car – I didn’t care. Everybody from the east coast scene seemed to be there, the Cunningham Listers (Jags if I remember right) with Walt Hansgen and Ed Crawford, Bill Sadler with his Chevy engined special, the usual C & D-Type Jag hand-me-downs, and a big black Lister Chevy. They all came through town and I was over the moon – except there was something critical missing, the team I had come to see, the Scarabs*.

It turns out they arrived later that evening so they were given a brief practice in the morning before the afternoon’s 100 miler. I remember wondering all night if I would actually get to see them.

Come Sunday and the three of us (my brother was away at college) were camped out on the chicane built at the corner of the triangle leading on to the main straight. This, my father assured me, would be where we would see the action. We were not disappointed. In those days we were behind some hay bales and a wire fence maybe 20 feet from the edge of the track. The cars drifted spectacularly through the chicane (thanks Dad!).

I don’t remember all the details of the race. It was fast, loud, action packed and you could almost touch the cars. I do remember Hansgen lead for much of the race but had to pit to change a tire (he flatted right in front of us) and chased Daigh to the end but failed to catch him. A Scarab victory (I was thrilled)!

But the best moment was a few laps into the race when Lance Reventlow in one of his Scarabs, running fourth or so, was in a dice with Sadler and another car and lost it in the chicane and slid straight into the hay bales right in front of us. He took out his left front corner and his day was done. I remember him getting out, throwing his helmet on the ground and swearing a blue streak. All three of us (even my mother) thought it was just grand!

After I wrote this I looked Montgomery up on the web and, amazingly, here’s a picture of Lance losing it. We would have been over to the right. It turns

out that’s Hansgen in the white Lister so Crawford must have led for a while. Their two cars were identical.

Here’s a link to some pages about this race meet: http://www.barcboys.com/Montgomery1958.htm

*For those of you who don’t know them, the Scarabs were Hilborn injected Chevy specials built in Venice, California for rich “playboy†(and darn fast driver) Lance Reventlow. The cars were the epitome of SoCal car culture, the chassis designed by sports car legend (even then) Ken Miles and built by Championship car veterans Troutman and Barnes, the motor by ex-hot rodders Travers and Coons, glorious aluminum bodywork fabricated by Emil Deidt, painted in a spectacular candy blue with white scallops and striped by Von Dutch. Lance’s co-driver was ex-Dry Lakes racer Chuck Daigh, hired on to do chassis development. Chuck won most of the time. Here’s a link: http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/3771/Sc...-Chevrolet.html

sweet I love it!

I am an '81, but I wish I could've been a teen in the 50's/60's Sometimes I wonder if there is a themepark like the wild west towns, but everything is 50's/60's where the cars are right, the music and the clothes haha.

yeah, i'm a '91 but yeah I was about 40 years late!

Peter and Harry, I agree with you, you don't realize!

[Harry P.]

Actually I'm too young to remember the 50s... I grew up in the late 60s-early 70s. My memories of of a slightly more... uh, "unsettled" society. I remember the assassinations of RFK and MLK, the riots and the burning of Chicago (and most other American cities) as a reaction, the hippies and "flower power", Woodstock, Altamont, the "Summer of Love" ( I was only 10 or 11 but I was a hippie "wanna-be"... I thought they were so cool! ), Haight-Ashbury, "acid rock", the '68 Democratic National Convention and watching the riots in Grant Park on TV, the first man on the moon, Watergate, etc.

Pretty crazy times!

My exposure to the 50s was primarily via old reruns of TV shows from that era. But as TV is a mirror of the times, it seems to me that growing up a car-crazy kid in the 50s must have been a real nice way to grow up.

[E St. Kruiser50]

Actually I'm too young to remember the 50s... I grew up in the late 60s-early 70s.

But as TV is a mirror of the times, it seems to me that growing up a car-crazy kid in the 50s must have been a real nice way to grow up.

It really was pretty amazing back then, especially compared to now .

As some other's have said here, it was the last years of innocence for our culture.

A stand alone time that so many would like to have experienced or would like to recreate.

Maybe a 50's theme park would be cool, with an A&W Rootbeer Stand, with the girls coming out to your car to wait on you, and the window tray's full of food, or how about the Big Boy hamburger stand on Sunset Boulavard in SoCal, with the girls on "Roller Skates, or the drive-in movie theatre's on a hot summer night, with the speakers dangling from a partly rolled up window.

When we were little kids in SoCal, nearly the whole block would show up at the neighborhood drive-in for a special Friday night feature, and there was always an empty spot close by, so the parents would bring blankets and spread them out, and let all us kids that knew each other, lay there and watch the movies and tons of cartoons together, and we'd all share our popcorn and soda with each other, takin' drinks from each other's cup. NO BIG DEAL . We were all sorta family.

As I got older my buddies and I would walk down there to the drive-in, just a few blocks away, and stop and get a pop at COFFEE's market next door, and then we'd sit back beyond the fence and watch the movies for "Free". We'd be gone till after midnight when we were 13 or 14 and our parents never worried, 'cause nothin' ever happened.

Shoot, when I was 8 'till I was twelve, my buddies and I would go "Trick Or Treatin" till 10:00 at night with no parents out anywhere. It was unheard of then. You were a sissy if you had your folks with ya, and that was out in the country where there was no street lights anywhere. Boy was it dark. Did have flashlights, and get the candy - man. Especially that nickle candy bar. We always hit them first, as those big 'ol candy bars went fast, 'cause all the neighbor kids knew there were only so many, and the folks down the street from them who gave out dimes instead of candy, Sunny and I litterally ran from place to place to get the goodies, laughin' as we ran to see who'd get there first. Can't ya just see it .

We used pillow cases and would fill them up over and over, running home all excited and showing mom and dad our score, and then off again all excited again, running down the street together again with my next door neighbor buddy, Sunny.

Boy did we always sleep good that night

And the folks never once ever checked our "Treats". Schucks, back then half the stuff was home-made anyway. Rice Crispy 'n Marshmellow squares, homemade fudge, pop corn balls, candy apples - our favorite - and so on.

That's just what we expected to get , and man was all of it good.

Edited December 5, 2008 by Treehugger Dave

[my66s55]

My first post on this board guy's. Hope everything goes right.

The fifties and early sixties. Where do I begin. First off, I was born in 1945 just north of Flint Michigan. From 1949 on, I lived and grew up in northwestern Detroit burbs. Cars were in our blood. In the early to mid fifties, many times our dads would take us to see the new models as they came out to the dealers.

Car models and promos? You bet. I got all I could handle at Christmas. Gowland and Gowland to Revell to AMT as the years progressed. A & W root beer, right accross the street from our local hobby shop and a mile from home by bike. As the early sixties and high school set in, it was all that anyone could ask for. Motown, cruisin Woodward Ave from the Totom Pole in Royal Oak to Ted's in Bloomfield Hills and back to the Big Boy in Birmingham. One night a week was reserved for your steady and the passion pit. Center concel? What was that? Bucket seats were refered to as birth-control seats. Those summers were filled with visits to thw Wald Lake Casino, a place were teens from all over the northwest burbs of the Detroit area could come and dance and see the popular rock groups of the time. I feel blessed to have grown up in such a time. It was truley wonderful.

Doug

[Corvette.Jeff]

man i read a few of yall's story's i lo0ve hearing stories like that. but the times havent changed that much, its still the same here wher i live(small town much?) i have afew good stories like that. in my town theres only one highway to cruise(highway 377) two lanes on either side and a turn lane half the length. a few years back (i was about 14 at the time) my cousin bought a 73' stingray! it wasnt the best looking of cars, me and him rebuilt the major components in his back yard, also transplanted a fresh bbc 400 with a supercharger into it :DD put a "new" posi rear end in her. added two buckets from a camaro gutted it and put widder tyres in the rear. we drove that thing hard and fast till the motor blew in it(had a bad bug with the rad. and fans.) im not saying we raced it but im not saying we didnt :] that car sadly ended after another engine transplant(sbc 305) by getting backed into by a truck at my cousins highschool. after that he got a 55' chevy pickup we sanded it down and primered it, jacked the rear up put a 350 in it with a th350(we learned our lesson about transmisions with the 'vette lol) with another posi rear end i didnt get to drive that one but it was a fun truck to ride in. but now that im old enought o have my oen hot rod im loving it atm i have a 80' el camino tht im hot rodding for when im 18. im putting a built 350 in it(maybe a charger) with headers and a th350(thanks to my uncle) its also getting buckets and a b&m floor shifter in it. its gonna be a snake eater(the cobra mustang GO CHEVY)

just thought id share.

[E St. Kruiser50]

My first post on this board guy's. Hope everything goes right.

The fifties and early sixties. Where do I begin. First off, I was born in 1945 just north of Flint Michigan. From 1949 on, I lived and grew up in northwestern Detroit burbs. Cars were in our blood. In the early to mid fifties, many times our dads would take us to see the new models as they came out to the dealers.

Car models and promos? You bet. I got all I could handle at Christmas. Gowland and Gowland to Revell to AMT as the years progressed. A & W root beer, right accross the street from our local hobby shop and a mile from home by bike. As the early sixties and high school set in, it was all that anyone could ask for. Motown, cruisin Woodward Ave from the Totom Pole in Royal Oak to Ted's in Bloomfield Hills and back to the Big Boy in Birmingham. One night a week was reserved for your steady and the passion pit. Center concel? What was that? Bucket seats were refered to as birth-control seats. Those summers were filled with visits to thw Wald Lake Casino, a place were teens from all over the northwest burbs of the Detroit area could come and dance and see the popular rock groups of the time. I feel blessed to have grown up in such a time. It was truley wonderful.

Doug

Hey Doug welcome

You did just fine here.

Great memories.

Are you still a builder or maybe just gettin' back into it.

It was great hearing from you.

If you have anything done or a project you want to share, there's some really cool guy's here that will enjoy welcoming you, and seeing your stuff.

Hope to hear from you again - dave

[Eshaver]

I really don't know where to begin. I could tell you lurid tales , or I could tell ya horror stories of the "OLE SOUTH" or tell ya hoe "Inventive " things were in telebishion , yes Dennis. First I was born here in Richmond Va. My folks were of modest means and I attended public schools . My father worked on televisions to supplant his meager income from I B M . He repaired clocks . yes I B M once made time clocks kids and Typewriters too, remember them ? We were one of the first families to even have a T V. Our attic was filled with neighbors televisions all the time too. meanwhile the old man drove Pontiacs! Yep, had a 51 Chieftain with a straight Eight ! My Godfather had a Pontiac Deluxe two door with an Eight . My next door neighbors had a Henry J! Meanwhile there was a guy who had a 1940 Ford Coupe that lived just down the street too. That Flat head would just purr too!

Even in the 1960's my father had a succession of nicer used cars . Cars like a Pontiac Safari Wagon, 59. 57 Cadillac Sedan De ville with Air conditioning !Also he had a 56 Buick Road master. I worked in a Lincoln Mercury body shop. I owned a 61 Bel-Aire a 61 Corvair and briefly a 59 Biscayne. Paid ten whole dollars for it too!

Then too , there was the "bad ole south" yep! I grew up seeing a Black child have to wet his pants as the Whites only bathroom was out of order in a G C Murphy downtown . I also saw "Negroes " as they were having to go out to the back of a Howard Johnson restaurant only to be served badly too. I didn't like it then , don't care for it now . I grew up in a kind of mixed race neighbor hood. And yes, I'm Jefferson Davis cousin too.

Richmond still holds onto it's past with an questionable grip. Why I continue to stay here is really anyone's guess. I still have elderly relatives that I help to take care of here . Still, I loathe and despise this god awful place .

Ed Shaver

[BigGary]

I once wrote all about my hot rod experiences from the early 60's. It was 22 typed pages. I still have it on my antique computer, 1999 model.

Here's the stand outs. My first ride in a '55 Nomad with a 2-4s equipped 409. I was hooked.

What first got my attention was a '49 Ford, lowered, spinner hubcaps, (not like spinners now), spotlights, and a nice rumble. I was 12.

I discovered a neighbor had a '35 Dodge p/u with a hot 318, 2-4s, and Chrysler wires. Over the years that followed that truck mopped up on 406 Fords, big block Chevys, and other hot rods in town. It had the first 10 inch wide tires I ever saw. The traction was awesome. They were road racing tires, definately not DOT. What surprised everybody the most was that it had a Ford Transmission. He had cut down the input shaft to fit the Plymouth. His wife raced it on the street too.

A friend of his had a '33 Plymouth coupe, channeled, minimal fenders, and a 241 Dodge Red Ram Hemi. It turned heads everywhere it went. If you're around Modesto, CA, find "Signs by Wild" and ask Glen about that car.

Later Glenn also had a '29 Ford Coupe with a 241 Hemi that he drag raced. It had Hilborn injection and was barely streetable. We were at Sacramento dragway one weekend and Glen, who was about 5'7", was resting on the running board on one side of the car. A couple of guys came up to the other side and looked where it said “241 C.I.â€. They looked at the Hemi and one said, “Can it really be only 241 cubes?†The other said, “You know those Mopar guys, they always lieâ€. Glen said he nearly rolled off the running board laughing. The car was called “Mini Hemiâ€. I’m planning to build a model of it.

My favorite was a '49 Chevy coupe belonging to Johnny. It had a Plymouth 318 with 3-2s. He left it stock outside, and one side of the exhaust was hooked up to the stock '49 Chev muffler. The other side of the dual exhaust went through a glass pack. It sounded like it had a hole in the muffler. One night he had it uptown cruising 10th and 11th. A new '63 Chevy Impala SS pulled up beside him and yelled, "Ha,ha! Momma's car!". Johnny pulled the Vette shifter down to 1st, jumped on the gas, and popped the clutch. That coupe quickly disappeared from sight in a cloud of tire smoke. When the Chev finally caught up, he said, "What the hell you got in that thing?". Johnny just laughed. Later the car got bright yellow paint and a straight axle. Kind of killed the sleeper aspect.

I grew up in the town where "American Graffiti" is based. Though I didn't know George Lucas, he grew up there too. Watching that movie was like going home for me. I can tell you that many of the scenes and events in the movie are based on fact, including the scene where the rear end gets pulled from under the '62 Ford cop car, in spite of what Myth Busters says. I read about it in the newspaper. A friend told me he knew one of the guys who did it. I knew where that car lot was on the North end of 10th street.

One of the notable characters of those days became a cop. His name was Gomez, and because of his lead foot and broken engines, he was nick-named "Blow-mez". He got an attack of maturity one weekend and traded the 348 in his '60 chevy for a 283. We swapped engines in and out of 3 cars in that weekend.

I left Modesto in January of 1972. That spring my mother sent me a newspaper clipping about a city cop and a county sheriff racing their patrol cars on the main cruising street of town. They both got days off w/o pay.

Those were the days!

Gary

Edited December 5, 2008 by BigGary

[Kodiak Island Modeler]

I was born late in 1952, and lived in Oskaloosa, Iowa. My first real recollections of cars were from about 1957. We had several neighbors with 49-51 Fords, and I learned how to tell them apart by the grills and tail lights. One of my uncles worked at gas stations, and owned a junk yard. Back around 1959 he had a 55 Buick Super 2 door hardtop. It was yellow with a green top. The left front fender, one could never be sure of. It seemed like he was always hitting something and having to change it. I still remember that when it finally was junked that the fender was white on top and blue on the bottom.

He also owned dirt track stock cars, and usually had some very good drivers. My Dad pitted for him for as long as I can remember. In the early sixties he raced at the Newton 1/4 mile track. His car was a 37 Chevy coupe which was pink and carried the number 409, and was driven by Ronnie Baker. That track was fun because the six cylinder engines outran the V8s. When Oskaloosa and Eldon got going he changed to them. That was about 1965 for Oskaloosa, but I'm not sure when he started racing at Eldon. His oldest son and I ran around together, and usually got in trouble together. In 1969 he got his first car which was a 1965 Chevy Impala 2 door hardtop. It was an exact match of the one on Monogram's first 65 Impala box, right down to the color.

My first car was a 48 Chevy coupe that was given to me by a neighbor, which was quickly traded for a 58 Olds 4 door hardtop. I had that for a few months before buying a new 69 Ford Galaxie XL GT 2 door hardtop with a 429 4 speed. It had, what I recently found out was a limited production 2-4 set up, that was Ford supplied, but dealer installed. It was a pain in the neck, and was constantly causing me problems. The biggest problem was that nobody could behave themselves with it. I came into my uncle's gas staion a little too fast one time and left a couple of skid marks. When I went inside my father was standing there, and got on my case about my driving. My uncle told him that he was a fine one to talk. It seems that good old Dad had been in several drag races with it. It wasn't long before I found out that my very prim and proper older sister had been seen driving around 90 mph down the main street of Oskaloosa at three in the morning. I still love the irony, that a teenage kid has to trade off his car to keep his father and older sister from killing themselves.

One thing that is strictly off of the record, happened in 1969. One morning I got a call from my cousin that his father had a live trap in the back of his truck. In this trap there was a skunk. Now being good 16 year old children, we wanted to make sure that this skunk was well provided for. I won't go into all of the details, but somehow, shortly before lunch was to be served, that skunk ended up in the high school cafeteria. Of course the first people to be blamed was my cousin and I (they always seemed to do that). The problem was that we'd got the truck back to the junk yard, and took my car and hightailed it up to the pool hall, which is where the truant officer found us. He followed us back to the school, which by now was in a real mess, and presented us to the principal. He was sure that we were the cause of all the fracas that was ensuing, but with a truant officer as an alibi, there wasn't much he could do. What was the most ironic, is that my cousin became a probation officer, and I became a school teacher.

Later on into the seventies, my uncle had a driver named Paul Lanphier that was just almost unbeatable. In 1976 he was involved in a really bad accident at the Oskaloosa race track, and my uncle got out of racing after that. I then drove for a friend of mine for the next two years. I ended up in an accident at the same track, that was almost identical to Paul's. I spent two years trying to recover from that, and still have problems to this day.

There are things that I miss about the 50s and 60s, such as new car introduction. I miss some of the play cars that I had, especially my convertibles. I had a 2 tone blue, inside and out, 57 Olds 98 with fender skirts, continental kit, and wire wheels, that was probably my favorite car. I had a 54 Cadillac 2 door hardtop that also had a continental kit (I love continental kits), and several Impalas from the sixties and seventies, as well as a couple of nice Olds 98s from the seventies. They were good times, but I have no desire to go back there, or to try to relive them in any way. I have a hard enough time trying to keep my children from doing the same types of things that I did. It seems like each generation has to top what the previous one did.

Edited December 6, 2008 by Kodiak Island Modeler

[E St. Kruiser50]

Hey all

Thanks for sharing your stories .

Got to hear a lota cool stuff here, and I laughed a lot.

They were great times back then, but still enjoyin' life now too, and still makin' more good memories - just a different kinda memories now - not so crazy

Edited December 8, 2008 by Treehugger Dave