History Seeing Green

[Ryan]

You've heard it said before. One of the main drivers behind the popularity of hot rodding just after WWII was the mental state of the young military men coming back from war. They had grown accustomed to a life of risk and chance and found the safe c...

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[oddrodgarage]

These guys came back home with a whole new set of skills and were looking for a whole new set of thrills. Heroes one and all we owe them alot and everybody before or since who has worn a uniform in service to our country.
We are at a time when we are losing more and more of them so when we see them we need to pay them our respects and pick their brains as there is alot they can still teach us.

[5window]

I guess it was just a different time and those men would have been used to following orders. Still it seems really, really lame-but not unlike the VD movies they used to make us watch in health Class-WWII vintage and it was the 60's!

Cool cars, though. All that hot rod iron being daily drives. Thanks for posting it.

[hotrd32]

Yeah, it was such a different world then that I don't think most people today could relate to it. Hell, I remember my neighborhood had a "Party Line", every house was on the same line ,each with a different ring. "Authority" was thought about differently then. There were a few though, that must have thought it was bunk, because that's why they made "Hot Rod" movies. They needed to show us all the dangers of "Hot Rod" punks and their "Go Jobs"....

[big bad john]

......RYAN.....cool thread....liked all the old cars ........sure lots of future hotrods......old stoplights were cool too....

[themoose]

Held my interest in the beginning but my mind started to wander by the middle and I wanted to throw a rock through the monitor by the end. Must have driven those guys crazy after what they had gone through to have to sit for almost 10 minuets watching a movie about how traffic lights function. I'm sure they figured out other uses for them once they got in their hot rods.

[Zombie Hot Rod]

The end of that with those little cars was amazing, that's all I have to say.

[DRUGASM]

I am a little bit of a dork. I thought it was actually a pretty interesting film. The street light system then seems pretty primitive to the new "weight activated" systems used in most cities. Timed lights are pretty much a thing of the past with sensors under the asphalt to determine the traffic flow and make up to the second adjustments.

I guess part of what was interesting about that video was the history behind traffic controls. It used to take a human being monitoring traffic flow to determine the timing on lights. It made me realize that as we progress through technology the "human" element continues to shrink away. We seem to have less and less contact with actual people and rely more on inpersonal electronics and computers.

From a traffic cop waving you through and intersection to multi-lane, multi-color flashing lights.... time marches on.




And yeah, I bet that video was just as boring 80years ago as it was today.

[Krash]

Very cool video. Those boys coming back from the war had to think it was lame as hell. There were some very neat old stop lights shown in there. I also liked when it showed how the lights work with the cams. So simple.

[Pharouh]

I'm a dork too I guess. I thought it was kinda interesting. I liked the vintage tin,too.
I used to have some of those little cars. They were made of pot metal with rolling metal wheels. They were about an inch or so long and came on a cabover transporter.
I've seen them on Ebay,can't remember who made them.

[choprodinc]

being ex-military and former member of a RECON support squadron(aircraft mechanic), it's nice to hear you guys recognize the men and women behind the scenes. Just cuz ur not the pitcher, doesn't mean ur not in the game. My experience in the military showed me that most of the guys I was in with were like me, grew up in less than ideal economical situations and a car meant freedom. To hotrod a car meant throwing "the finger" at ur situations and authority in general. i'm sure it's been the same since the beginning and is still true! i'm in much better shape now economically, still... I'll be "throwing the finger" till I die!

[Engine-Ear]

Man, I just LOVE that old transportation history!!

Are there any places to buy old traffic lights?

[lowsquire]

That guys voice was fucking annoying.Can you imagine having a conversation with someone who actually talked like that?!

[dragsterboy]

That would be me in the white car.Except with more smoke off the back tires.

[llonning]

Typical monotone narrator. Had to listen to probably that same guy in high school too many times. I would really like to have some of the oddball lights that they showed.

[BrerHair]

Afraid I couldn't make it all the way through either.
But seeing all the rolling stock was pretty cool!
Love the photos and movies from back in the day. Thanks Ryan.

[jms]

Don't underestimate that generation. I think that one of the main reasons that the wartime generation was so successful in the post-war period was the tremendous amount of discipline imposed on them in the armed forces. You had basic training, then specialized training. You had to learn to tear down and rebuild your weapon, or service a plane, or man a radio watch. You had to learn how to pay attention and focus, because fucking up or fucking off could get someone or everyone around you killed, yourself included, and there were plenty of pointed object lessons. After the war, good soldiers made good citizens. I suspect that the audience for those movies were paying close attention and quickly picked out the important information. Stop on red, go on green, and follow the flow of the lights. Easy as pie.

[33-Chevy]

I liked it. I had a driver's license when I was 16 and am a Korean War Veteran so I didn't have to watch something like that when I was 26. But I liked the video, and think of the chaos if everybody ignored the traffic lights. So what if the guy had a boring voice.

[39cent]

as a kid I recall many hot rods in LA, during WW2. When I got my license they still had the timed lights and the system worked pretty good. and I really liked them semaphor signals, just stop an go, you did see them switch but there were some skidding stops if you pushed it. You just got up to 35 or whatever the speed limit was and then just hold that speed and as long as you kept your speed you didnt need to stop an start. It was a good system as I recall, you made good time at reasonable speed. There was a lot of cars in LA back then but not as crazy as it is today.

[grego31]

Damn, I only made to 2:11 before I had to shut it off! Give my red asphalt or blood on the highway any day before that video!