Where does your nostalgia lie?

[Harry P.]

I'm right there with ya Harry. Aside from that the only things I get nostalgic about is my teenage sons back when they were small, easy and said "Yes Daddy." The price of gasoline, and the days when I had a 32" waistline, and could do a 65 mile ride on my Trek touring bike and still party that night.

Man, I hear ya!

[Kaleb]

Born in the 80s. I love old cars but there was nothing really to look back on in the 80s or 90s lol. Other than the 85 fox body. Now what I really nostalgic for is people who respect other people and their belongings. People who can drive and don't sue for everything and you could trust people.....Period.

But for things I would like to see again

Gas to be under a buck

Muscle cars that do not look like they came from hollywood

That's pretty much it.

[Terry Sumner]

Like Harry and Sixties Sam, my nostalgia time was the late 60's when I was in High School. No bills to pay except for my car. And in 67 and 68, that was a 56 Chevy with a 327 in it and a three on the floor. Soon replaced in 69 by my beloved 66 Chevelle SS 396. Jacked up at all 4 corners...Gabriel Hi-Jackers on the rear and El Camino springs in front, a flat black hood with a 67 Corvette type fiberglass hood scoop molded on, cream color with the light tan vinyl top, Muncie 4 speed, Hurst competition plus shifter, Ansen Sprints all around with Goodyear Polyglas GT tires..."N's" in the rear... Hooker headers into 2 1/2" straight pipes and a pair of Corvair Turbo mufflers and 2 curved dumps right before the rear end. A pair of ladder bars at the rear end for traction. 4.10 Zoom gears. A Schiefer clutch and flywheel and a Lakewood blow shield. Engine modified the first time with an Edelbrock hi-rise and a Holley 780 carb and a Crane cam...Second engine was a built to the hilt 427 with ALL the goodies!! ..And for sound...a BOOMIN' system for the time...an Audiovox 8 track player radio with MAYBE 20 watts per channel RMS into 5" round speakers in the door panels and 2 6X9's in the rear deck! Hey...for the time that was one of the best available!

Goin to the beach and the high school football games with the prettiest girl in school (homecoming queen...later my first wife!) ...hanging out at Kelly's (a burger place)..the occasional race out on rte 52...going to the drags every sunday.... Loved the Beach Boys, Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix... Tennis court dances and the drive in movies! No drugs for me or my friends...just a few beers... Man those were the days!

[High octane]

My nostalgia time was in the mid 60's when I had my first car and a full time job. Still building models, going to the drag strips as both a participant and spectator. Driving Pontiacs, modified Corvair, '65 'Vette, and a Dodge Super Bee in '69. Smoked, drank Scotch, beer, chased girls, hung out at Skip's Fiesta Drive In, the drive in movies, did some weed occasionally also. Loved the music from the 50's and 60's. Also street racing as well and making appearances in court for traffic violations too. There were LOTS of jobs available and just about EVERYTHING was made in the USA. Those were great times and hopefully I'll never forget them.

[moparmagiclives]

I love Pearl Jam!

It's wired you guys say that, growing up in Washington, that stuff was and is everywhere here. It doesn't seem very nostalgic, but I guess it's been 20 years or so hadn't it. Man time flys !!!

[peter31a]

I remember seeing the Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird in my Dad's Popular Mechanics magazines and thinking they were the cars of the future. Didn't know they were regular cars with wings and pointy noses tacked on. So nostagia wise it would have to be the sixties and seventies for me. In the end though, model wise, I don't have many muscle cars in my collection but lean more towards 30's to 50's stock, hot rods and customs.

[Fat Brian]

Being born in 81 there wasn't a great deal to be nostalgic about for a long time but I still loved cars and mechanical things.

[aarondupont]

I was born in 1950. Started building model cars in 1958 or 59. At 15 I washed cars at Wyatt Mercury. I was able to get a 65 Comet wagon. I raced it in M/SA in NHRA and if I remember F/SA in AHRA. Raced Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Al my school buddys had street cars, tri-5 chevys, Chevelles and one buddy had Dodges. Our life revolved around those cars and girls. In 1970 while in Vietnam, I ordered a Hemi Challenger from Mr Norm through the Navy Exchange. Dirt cheap that way. But never took delivery because State Farm wanted $1000. every six months for liability only. Around Cleveland, OH we had Dragway 42 (first double dragstrip), Thompson and Norwalk. 42 was the big place to race! Norwalk was a dump. Now Norwalk, aka Summit, is a palace. 42 is coming back. Thompson is like a comfortable pair of shoes! Still nice, still racing and feels like the 60's when "SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY" was all over the AM dial! Thanks for jogging my memory! On June 1 and 2, Thompson is having a Nostalgia meet. 20 local racers and their cars will be in attendance, along with a large group of gassers, SS, rails and altereds. I'll be there grnning from ear to rar! Aaron Dupont

[camaroman]

Like Harry and Terry, I am a product of the days of jacked up days ... My uncle had a Dark Blue '69 SS Camaro that sported American racing 5 slots shod with G 60 15's on the front and N 50 15's on the rear ... Man I thought that cars was cool... cruising with ARS on the 8 Track.

I still have 2 of the wheels for old time's sake ....

Edited May 5, 2012 by camaroman

[Bugace]

My automotive history began just weeks after beeing born. My family tells me I've always been a gearhead.

My parents didn't get a car before '73, and I was almost 6 years old. A '65 Beetle. But for some reason nostalgia to me are those boxy cars from the '70s.

Use the ruler boys!

The first modded cars I saw was euros, with hopped up engines, and wider alloy wheels. Then I began to recognice the american irons, candys, pearls, chrome.

Casset tape stereos, with Doc Hook, BeeGees, Abba, Roger Whittaker, Dolly Parton, Cat Stevens, Simon & Garfunkel, Beatles, The Carpenters, Rod Stewart, Osmonds, John Denver, Temptations, Diana Ross, Earth Wind & Fire, Elton John, Cliff Richard, The Four Seasons, Rita Coolidge, Commodores, Barbara Streisand, and of course Village People. No doubt that the '70s rules.

[bbowser]

Born in the 50's, first car I remember was a '57 Plymouth. Then we had a '58 Impala convertible (that I spilled a McDonald's milkshake down the rear seat speaker, Dad was pleased). After that was a '64 Grand Prix (in which I learned to parallel park), a '66 Toronado, and Dad's '66 Corvette Stingray. He also had a '60 MGA and a '64 Triumph TR4, as well as a '48 Olds at various times. He was always a car guy and I guess that's where I got it. Taught me routine maintenance and explained how things worked. I remember making 8-track mix tapes (I had a recorder!), going to Frisch's drive-in, and stingray bikes. We went to the Indy 500 time trials every year, never the race. I don't much care for anything built after 1980, but that's just me.

[High octane]

I was born in 1950. Started building model cars in 1958 or 59. At 15 I washed cars at Wyatt Mercury. I was able to get a 65 Comet wagon. I raced it in M/SA in NHRA and if I remember F/SA in AHRA. Raced Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Al my school buddys had street cars, tri-5 chevys, Chevelles and one buddy had Dodges. Our life revolved around those cars and girls. In 1970 while in Vietnam, I ordered a Hemi Challenger from Mr Norm through the Navy Exchange. Dirt cheap that way. But never took delivery because State Farm wanted $1000. every six months for liability only. Around Cleveland, OH we had Dragway 42 (first double dragstrip), Thompson and Norwalk. 42 was the big place to race! Norwalk was a dump. Now Norwalk, aka Summit, is a palace. 42 is coming back. Thompson is like a comfortable pair of shoes! Still nice, still racing and feels like the 60's when "SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY" was all over the AM dial! Thanks for jogging my memory! On June 1 and 2, Thompson is having a Nostalgia meet. 20 local racers and their cars will be in attendance, along with a large group of gassers, SS, rails and altereds. I'll be there grnning from ear to rar! Aaron Dupont

I bought my Super Bee from Mr. Norm's Grand Spaulding Dodge and I've also been to Thompson in '03 which was a blast and I wish I were meeting you there next month so I can grin too.

[rctruk]

Lol... I'm nostalgic about my high school and college days. Had a 57 chev pu with a hot 327 and a 3sp. Had an 8track in it but couldn't hear it over the thrush mufflers...haha. Loved that era cruising fri and sat night with all the other guys in their homebrewed hot rods. We looked down on the new muscle cars...because only rich kids had them. Loved the mid 60's to mid 70's

[Guest]

If you're talking about cars, my "good old days" was when everyone jacked up their car in the back and had big tires that stuck out past the wheelwells. Air shocks, traction bars and fat rear tires, that was the look when I was a kid, and back then, I thought it was so cool.

What Harry said, except I was in my teens by the time that look was cool, mid 70's.

[Pete J.]

Man, nothing like the late '60s early '70s! Highschool, college and the Air Force. First muscle car I remember was a blue Chevelle SS 396 with white stripes. I thought that was just cool beyond belief. Then I went off to college and there was a plethera of great cars around. Mercury Cyclone that a Frat brother had, a white Super Bird just down the street, and then there was a GTO Judge. Old Fart professor driving an AMX. Thought it was a crime that a car like that didn't belong to a young stud. Shelby GT350 that was owned by one of the coeds and this was when a Couger wasn't a 30 year old house wife on the hunt. Went and saw Gran Prix and it changed my direction in cars. I suddenly saw the wisdom of light weight cars with small displacement engines. A friend was into 4 cam Porsches and another had a MGA. My first car was a '69 Mustang with a 6. Dad had more sense than I did. Traded that for the first of my sports cars. Wish I still had my 72 240Z. Went to pilot training and could afford(just barely) a new 74 Porsche 911. Got it at Blackstone Porsche in Frezno. Loved that car. All the car stuff and crazy running around ended in 77 with wife and family. Kids are gone and now my nostalga kicks in and I drive a '93 MR2 turbo. Has only gotten me in trouble once. 360 off an onramp to the freeway. Got on it over a little gravel and looped it. Thank god it was late at night and no one hit me. Stupid move. The old reactions are not what they once were.

Edited May 5, 2012 by Pete J.

[FASTBACK340]

My nostalgia is being a teenager in the 70's. First car in 76 was a 64 Polara 2dr. hardtop. Did it up with Hush-Thrust mufflers, chrome reverse w/ baby moons and N60's out back with the Gabriel Hi-Jackers pumped to the max.... and a Craig FM converter wired into the original thumb wheel AM radio. I was fortunate to catch the tail-end of the notorious street racing scene in the NYC area at the time. Fountain ave.... Cross Bay Blvd..... and of course, Connecting Highway.

Musically, my memories are of BTO, Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Foghat, Heart, and Fleetwood Mac. I had been playing bass in local bar bands for a few years and thought I was da man.....

And between owning a Street Machine and being in a band I had a few lady friends to while away many a late evening. And early morning......

Great post

[dragin70s]

Great topic. I was a child of the '70s, having been born in '64. Six through sixteen in the '70s, pretty much my whole childhood. Funny, all of the men in my family were car guys, but I was a ballplayer. I had sort of a secondary interest that grew over the years. My uncle had a '69 Chevelle SS, we knew guys with RoadRunners, and my other uncle raced a couple of early '70s Camaros. It was always around. When I think of the '70s, I think simple, colorful, the music (on 8-tracks of course), riding our bikes EVERYWHERE, baseball cards when they were still cardboard, models, man I could go on and on.

Nostalgia sets in deep.

[SuperStockAndy]

70s! I love listening to some good ole Rush and ZZ Top, but then I really only like 60s and early 70s cars

[von Zipper]

[Modelmartin]

I love Pearl Jam!

You probably liked Lovin Spoonful also!

[Nick Notarangelo]

My good old days were the late 80's as a teen in Newport RI were I was racing my 75 buick regal and hanging out on the ocean drive with a fishing pole and some cassettes of 80's hair bands,or going sailing throught block island sound to the vinyard's.

[Modelmartin]

English Nazi Moment here. Quit reading if you are sensitive about the subject.

I believe the word desired was "lay" not "lie". Nostalgia does lie. It makes us think things were better than they were. It lies that way. Nostalgia lays in fond memories, etc.

Just saying. As you all were......

[Harry P.]

You probably liked Lovin Spoonful also!

Not especially.

Where do you see a connection?

[trogdor]

Born in 57, so the late sixties and early seventies is what I remember. By the time I hit the road muscle cars from the 60's were everywhere. The cool kids with money from mom and dad always drove the camaros or mustangs. 3 speed shifters on the column was a pretty normal thing. Lots of street racing and FM radio for those late nights smoking and discussing how we'd change the world

[Mercman]

Way back when I could see a double feature movie for 25 cents, candy bar ,pop, and popcorn was another 25 cents. Also you got 2 cartoons with this. The cars back then ran the gamut of jacked up, to Daddy's car. Also there was street rods, rat rods (WIP's), and all of the others then also. I ran a 47 Ford pu truck, my friends had a Camaro RS jacked up, 57 Chevy stock, 51 Ford stock, 51 Chevy , 65 Dodge with a 383 under the hood( it was a sleeper). So pertty much lived through it all. Got to the point youi knew had the baddest car, and who you could race and win, and those that you didn't choose off against. Oh yeah I forgot we also had 3 MC clubs here in town.