I remember in '63 I was at an office that housed our Selective Service for the area. An old friend reported in having been discharged. The first thing he said was "Marty---where are all the customs?" This was around June or July of '63. You COULD buy a factory hotrod and our town of 16000 was full of them--and 270 HP '57s and 335 HP 59's. Seems like it happened overnight. HRP said in a previous post it was a dangerous time for our hobby (obsession) and he is right.
Old hotrods will never die............. Too bad I can't say the same for old hotrodders. After all this thread was started because of the loss of a great hotrodder, Tex Smith.
YEP!---Lance & I email each other every day, when he was here in Bend,Or. I had him sign his name to Don Spechts pix in Jack Stewarts book "L.A.Roadsters in retrospect" telling about the big "TOW JOB", Lance wrote "TOWEE".---Haa!
Thanks for posting this , Danny. It serves as a reminder that we're not getting any younger and that time is a relentless mutha. Tex Smith, Tom Medley and many of the other guys who used to write for the early Hot Rod, R&C, and Car Craft mags were knowledgable, but just as important, they were first class writers who know how to string together sentences and paragraphs so that they made sense and held the readers attention. Gray Baskerville was another master at this, although less "formal" in style. When reading them, more often than not between the pages of a text book in high school, I always felt they were speaking my language on my wavelength. They had a way of making whatever they were writing about interesting (with much less overt shilling of advertisers.) I miss those days...
I liked Tex's writing style so much & found it so easy on the eyes, that I copied it for years, although having somewhat forgotten it, I still use it when I remember. Speaking of which, iirc didn't Tex donate a Ford T 'C' cab to the MSRA to build as the 1st Nats giveaway. I seem to remember that being an interesting story on how it all transcribed from Tex's find in Montana -> MSRA's final giveaway @ Detroit. Traditional or not, because of Tex, I like those, + the late 60's-mid 70's styling cues(although, granted, there's a whole lot of 60's/70's styling cues/practices that, if I never see again, it wouldn't hurt my feeling... ), esp the t-buckets. That channeled green T-bucket is one I'd like to find, or at least get more info on. Anybody...? Andy's ribbon-painted Instant-T is another(lots of info there from features), so is Itty-Bits from Jim Bab. Only things I didn't/don't like are the headlight & placement, + the vertical steering column. Would like more info on that one, too, besides the short 1/2 page feature R&C did on it mid-build. Very different . Like it. Damn, I'm really missing him, & going through serious 'Tex withdrawal... . Marcus...
Wow, what a great trip down memory lane. It all had to start somewhere and now I know. Thanks for the history lesson, very appreciative.
This is the last of the photo's and this Model A looks like it could have built here on the Hamb recently instead of 45 years ago. HRP
Danny: Did you take all these pics? What a trip back!! I just went through the whole thread and didn't see the current pic of Don Ward"s yellow highboy...guess I forgot to load it up. I'll take care of that. Most of my pics are in albums so I am going to get my stash of negatives out and see if I can find them and have pics printed on a chip or disk then load up here. Tim
Thanks again. It's great to see cars in a setting I recognize rather than a far off country on the far west coast. Should I comment about the grey hair? Not only no grey hair but no tattoos or obese people on scooters with fast food in their hands and paper cups and wrappers all over the ground. Sadly I don't recognize anyone and most have gone to that rod show in the sky by now.
No Tim,I wasn't there,I had saved these photo's and John let me copy some that he took when he was a participant. HRP
Also notice what new campers were used for back in 1970. Did ya notice the new Winnebago motorhome in another photo ?
Yeah,many people camped back in the day,more tents than campers but most of us built cars on a shoestring and motels were considered a added expense that could be side stepped, being young and sleeping on the ground wasn't that big a deal. HRP
Oh, to be young again and be able to do those things without laying one up for a week or two. The part I may miss the most though is being able to work 16-18 hour days and get a little sleep and repeat the next day.
Great pictures! Post #44, the orange Deuce Tudor is my Dad's. That is him standing by the windshield and my Mom over the hood. It was called Little Orange. I wish I could have been around for those years, like mentioned before Frog Follies comes the closest to how I remember Rod Runs being.
HRP, thank you for starting this thread and especially for posting the last batch of pics. I spied some Minnesota cars in there too which was cool. When photos like these come from private albums, we get views we've likely never seen before, and they have a rodder's personal stamp on them. It's real history and it makes me wish I could have experienced it in person.
Remember Terry, back during the film camera and Polariod days not near as many of us took photos. And then not many pictures at any one show. Today with digital cameras and video cameras, plus a never ending supply of cell phone cameras, thousands of photos are taken at most shows. Tomorrow there will be even more photos of "Days gone By" and others. Sadly it was the loss of a great car guy that started this thread. Again thanks HRP for this topic.
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