Art & Inspiration Are kids still dreaming on the sidewalks? (must read!)

I've found its one of the things doesnt get replaced by technology or more 'modern' times. I was definitely that kid, my stepson is that kid, my friend's kid is that kid, and I definitely see that kid in different parts I deliver parts for. What surprised me is I get that look delivering to the high school shop, too..
Whats funny is to see the art of subtlety not yet learned or mastered or some, just an obvious look and/or point.
And to still see that around is very reassuring.

 

Was gonna start a different post last night for this picture, but it kinda fits here, too- my stepson dreamin while playin around, when we were rolling projects around in the backyard, yesterday...

 

Back a number of years ago I was driving my '55 Victoria over Cuesta Grade out of San Luis Obispo, Ca. when a car passed me on the left and sitting in the back seat was a young boy about 6 or 7 years old. All I could see of him was his eyes peeking from the back and a thumbs up at me, let me tell you that made my day and it makes my day every time I think of it.

 

I can say yes about my daughter. She picks out cars that I cant even see or are a mile ahead. It amazes me. She knows what they are too. When I pick her up at school in the Lincoln the other kids are impressed but if I walke din with a playstaion they would go bananas. Its sad but true. My daughter has already (at 6) picked out what old car she wants when she gets 16 and is already saving money to get it. Pretty amazing for a 6 year old.

 

Its strange now a days. When I was a kid (I'm 34 now, mentally much younger) I would kill to get in someone's garage with a car or bike. I remember talking to anyone, more like annoying them, if they were out working on something. Now a days, I can have 5 or 6 bikes sitting in my driveway, my 52 Chevy sitting out there, guys stopping by on bikes, hotrods, even my buddy coming by in an outlaw car and the kids in the neighborhood have no interest in it.

I get the occasional waves and "cool car" shouted at me here and there but it doesnt seem to be as interesting as it was to me when I was younger.

 

get'm involved they'll spread the addiction.

 

I do my part to keep the dream alive by letting kids at carshows get in my car and check it out. And i always carry a supply of hotrod looking Hotwheels (nothing that looks newer than the 50's) to toss to kids that show an interest in my car as i go down the street, I've handed em out at gas stations as im fueling up. i've tossed em out like candy at a parade while on Hotrod Powertour as i drove thru the little towns. Kids get quite a kick outta em. I just bought a handlefull to replace the ones i gave gave away the other day. Go ahead and drop a few bucks, and make a lil kid dream...

 

Some kids still do, but maybe not about the same cars we did. Really, how often do you see an old "fixed up" car being driven around town? I was on vacation driving my '07 Mustang and when I parked it a 12 yr. old kid said. Mister I really like your car. I told him don't worry, there will be tons of these cars around when you get your first car! If a kid shows interest answer his questions nicely, give him a good memory.

 

Now that is an something every "big" kid can do!

 

Just yesterday I drove from Virginia to Brooklyn and back to pick up this old Rupp for my nephews. My four-year old nephew looked at it and ran away, but the two year old plopped down in the seat and started turning the wheel. We have a winner!

On the sidewalks dreaming? I will be aiding and abetting those dreams.

furyus

 

A while ago, I had a real nice '36 3-window, lowered, steelies, and a nice flathead. For the last 30 years, I've had a real nice '51 Ford black club coupe, stock. I drove them both quite bit over the years. I got a few "nice car" and "cool!" comments from the younger kids (8 to 15), but not nearly as many as when I drive my yellow stock '68 Corvette convertible (they don't even notice the '67 Goodwood Green coupe; go figure). Kids seem to go nuts over it (maybe the color?). The only thing they like better is the '48 Seagrave open cab pumper, but even I know that's cheating.

 

That's a great idea. That will make them take their eyes off their phones for at least a minute or two. Anything we can do for the next generations coming up to get them involved in the simpler times, simpler cars, etc...
And while there is no doubt the rice tuner youngins are pretty sharp with a laptop and F.I., the term "tuning" is lost. Remember using your ears and nose to set a carburetor?

 

I support this comment, but I just want to point out something. There are two kinds of people in the import car scene, you have your "tuners" and your basic "ricer". Ricer's are the shit heads with the folgers can mufflers and the four foot wings who will talk about how thier stock integra can stomp any v-8 once they crack v-tec. Tuners are, dare I say it, just a modern day hot rodder. They are more concerned about go thank show. I have a freind with a 2003ish subaru wrx thats pushing roughly 460 horsepower (yes, its been run on a dyno), and he just put a bigger turbo on it last week. If you didn't know him you wouldn't really be able to tell because he doesn't have the special fart can muffler upgrade which bumps you up 20+ horsepower. I just wanted to point that out.

It's true, I think alot of young kids 9-14 just don't really care anymore. I have to twist my nephews arm to get him of the computer to help me when i need a second hand. When I was his age if my dad, or brother, or anyone cracked a hood or crawled under a car I was right there next to them trying to learn.


But kids (sounds kind of ridiculous saying that because I am only 20), still dream about cars, seems to be more centered around the italian/super cars more than anything else though.

 

In a gesture to help the dreamers, and If the economy didn't suck so much, I would be into promoting some traditional Speed Shops and garage owners to get semi - involved and have a few nights of classes (for a fee) to the young men in their communities that no longer have Auto Shop available in High Schools across America. This way traditional Hot Rodding, at some small level, could make an impact on their lives...

Just one guys opinion..
Maybe it's happening already...

 

I hope it's just geography....I was in a discussion at a car show today and 5 of us said our sons don't have the passion or the interest in Hot Rods that we do..

 

Article in Haggerty winter issue on the same topic by the Historic Vehicle Association, most kids 69% 16-17yoa don't even bother getting a driver license. We used to be inspired by new cars but today everything looks the same. The internet & electroic gizmo's are more popular than cars today with young folks.

At the shop the owner has a grandson that goes gaga over cars, he is 3 and knows who owns what. Were scared because he even knows how to start them and have to hide the keys.

 

I think this is a big part of the reason why there isn't a whole lot of interest in cars amongst kids - not necessarily shop classes in schools but access to cars in general.

My dad told me a story of when he was a youngster in the late 50's going out into the garage one day while gramps was out and taking apart the carb on their old Merc. Nowadays how many kids have even seen a carbureted engine let alone had the chance to pull one apart? 30 years ago the average guy could go out into the garage and work on his new car and show his kid what he was doing - now the average guy can't do a whole lot to a new car without a degree in electronics and a bunch of sophisticated computer equipment.

 

The kids are watching. I have lived here for 18 years and see the elementary school buses go by.
There has been two occasions where 16 year old guys drove to my house because I used to park my 1930s Fords out where the kids could see them when they went by in the school buses and when they got their drivers license, they came to talk to me. The kids had been looking at my cars for 10 years

 

A lot of good points here, but what do we do to counter the why nots?

My dad did his own tuning and oil changes, but he never got a project car till I gave him his dream car when he retired, he now tinkers on it once in a while.(See "Father of Pensive Scribe" profile). Sometimes the sickness skips a generation.(see my grandfathers ride below).

As early as 12, for me, I noticed all sorts of unique autos to and from school. I talked to the owners of a couple when I saw them out working on them. None of them were HAMB friendly yet here I am.

I think the interest in cars doesn't come all at once. Its a series of steps. I did the hot wheels thing to a couple little boys behind me in the checkout line just before Christmas. Their reaction made my day(I checked with dad first), but that is no gaurantee that they will be car guys.

Don't lose heart, every positive re-enforcement will definately steer the cart. The way I see it is, every generation has its model T. Just last Monday I donated my time to drive four hours each way to pick up a dead but cheap, 1992 Nissan 300ZX for my friends son to fix up.

Its sometimes about getting behind the wheel the fastest, thus it usaully means the most affordable. My Generation had old muscle and the most popular and inexpensive import, the Volkswagen. It's the combination of many things that is going to gaurantee the survival of the hobby, but be aware that it may not be exactly like our hobby.

 

There are kid's out there dreaming. I'am one of them. I recently reconfirmed it after almost drifting into the other lane after seeing a 69 Roadrunner. my friends and me seem to be the minority though. In a town taken over by ricers we'd rather buy, and build Max Wedge Mopars, 392 Hemi powered Model A coupes, Yenko Camaro's, or anything light, fast, dangerous, and with no regard to fuel economy. We still like a properly built tuner. 500 horses out of 4 cylinders is no small feat. But still prefer old American iron.

 

I remember being three and four years old, and living next to a four-lane boulevard. I could sit in the yard and accurately name damn near anything that went by, by year, make, and model. In grade school, I would read about Richard Petty, Art Arfons, and Craig Breedlove. I had owned my first car at 12 years of age, and even drove it home! So, naturally, I figured my kids would have similar interests...well, not so much.

My kids do like my old cars, but are not that enthused by them. One has a '70s Chevy truck and the other a '65 Galaxie, but they see both as just something to drive. Go to their high school, and nearly everything in the parking lot is a two to ten year old used car. Maybe a couple of older pickups and a handful of '80s cars, but nothing old. Old to them IS the '80s, so we have to keep a proper frame of reference here.

Time marches on. We had what we have now. They have what they have.

 

I allways get a kick out of seeing a kids face when they see one of my cars. I allways lift raise and lower the car for um. I hope I warp a few minds along the way.

 

It's too bad we can't name them cars like we used to... Damn near all of the newer ones look the same now days....

 

I say we bring back all of the old engineers from the early '60's and have them put some heart and soul back into these "new" cars..
I know... Keep dreamin'

 

If most are not, then maybe the prices will finally come down.

 

I will say YES ! I have a 49 Ford tudor I had for sale or trade in my local C/L . A guy stopped over to look at it with his son . He is 14 years old . He knows more about old cars than most kids in their 20's do ! His dad is teaching him everything from welding patch panels , making your own floors and then using a bead roller to ad strength . They just got done chopping his Ford truck . It's a 1949 . He and his son is building it for him to drive to school . They are building a Fe 390 with big cam and all the goodies and a 4 speed trans on the floor ! Remember I said he is 14 years old ! He really likes the 49 Ford because he told me it's for him and he wants to stick a straight axel under the front ! It was a real treat for me to see this kid , all smiles as I showed him my 2 car garage shop that I am building my cars in . I just hope we can work something out . They boy really want the car .

They are still around and when I take my beater out on the street , all kids big and small all smile at my car . I really enjoy when people and younger kids with their tuner cars come up and start asking about how do you go about getting or finding an old car , where you get parts to fix them and so on . You can see it in their eyes as I talk with them that they would really like to get an older car to build a "Weekend Nightmare" to enjoy on the weekends , then drive their little gas savers during the week .

With the price of gas and shortage of jobs it's getting harder for a young one to build an old hotrod . The hardest part is they have no one to ask or look up to , to show them how to do it like many of us did . Heck they don't have car shop classes anymore in school and that's how many of us learned how to work on cars or from our Dad or Grand d Pop . Those days sure gone but as long as we keep having car shows where the younger kids love to come and see what Hot rodding was like , we still have that chance to keep our love of our hotrods going !

Just remember when some young kid come up looking at your car at a show , walk up and start talking to them . You will be surprised how long they will stand there asking questions about how hard is it to do and how to get started and how much will it cost to get one on the road to drive . To me that is more enjoyable sometimes then sitting there drinking a cold one and shooting the shit with our car buddies !
Just something to think about and consider at the next car show !

Retro Jim

 

im 18 and the only one out of all my friends into the old rods and customs. a few of my friends are car guys, but there into the new honda stuff. theres a local car meet in my town every friday night, and one of my friends said there were 2 " old heaps " on the one side of the lot. i walked over and noticed the " old heaps " were a nasty 63 nova gasser, and a grey 41 willys gasser with a blown rat running open headers. its all about fancy paint and stereos now to most kids my age. a lot of my friends say they want to go fast, but then theyll drop 150 pounds of speakers and amps in there trunk. i have a 54 ford that im workin on. ive built the car hundreds of times in my head already, its like a freakin disease. theres something so cool about driving something you built, and put your heart into. the cars now have no soul in them. 1 guy can BUY the same " custom " parts as the next guy. the sponsors and high dollar companies have started to ruin real hot rods and one off cars

 

There are young guys into the classic stuff but it's sadly not like it was. I know a couple other guys into vintage tin and one of them is on here as well (Rudy, where are you?) but everyone else I know either likes exotics, new sportscars, or stupid lifted ass show trucks.

I'm only 20 so I'm by no means anything but a kid compared to a lot of you guys but I think it's how you grow up. My dad always had all sorts of cool cars and would take me along to his friend's houses to look at their stuff too. Memories of my childhood are mostly of being in my dad's blown '70 Chevelle while he'd give it hell, at his friend Ron's house looking at the 36 Plymouth he had, the '41 Willys he built afterwards or the 2 '55 Chevy trucks he built after selling the Willys, his friend Curt's place that had a cool '55 210 and various cars he worked on for other people, his friend Todd who had a '39 Plymouth with a 440 in it who let me help strip the 300 it came from (I still have the back seat emblem from it) or his other friend Ron's place to see the Cobra kit car he was building. We went to every cruise night, race, and car show around and my dad would point out all the different special parts any given car had, explain patiently every question I had, and would point out both the good and bad any given car had. He always had me in the garage watching him work and if it was something I could do he'd let me help (there's a picture of me as a 3 year old helping him loosen lug nuts). As I got older he got me subscriptions to whatever car magazines I wanted that he didn't already get and I read everything I got cover to cover multiple times dreaming of one day being able to do the stuff I saw in there.

If it wasn't for him I'm not sure I'd be into this amazing hobby today, at least as much as I am. He has no problem giving me shit if I screw up but at the same time he's also always been supportive and lent his experience when I've needed help.

 

just different time periods and also the parents. i am young and think about hot rods almost 24 hours a day. but i my dad is a car guy and so was my grandpa, so i was going to follow. my dad even tried to keep me out of it.

 

I got into the vintage iron early. I dont know if it was seeing a pack of harleys rumble by my house when I 4, or hearing stories from family members. I d seem to have the go fast gene. My great grandpa ran shine in the 30's