Folks Of Interest What kind of car culture do you come from?

I was actually born in Monterey Park, my first home was in Bell Gardens. We moved to Azusa and then, by the time that I started school we lived in Baldwin Park, in 1955 we moved to Covina. By 1968, I had had enough of the hassles associated with lowered cars and chopped Harleys and I moved to Phoenix with my girlfriend. Stayed there until 1993 and moved to Arkansas, cop's here don't give a damn what you drive or ride, I think that I'll stay!!!

 

I have a good friend in Prairie Grove. Your part of the world is really nice.

 

I was born in Riverside,Ca in 1963. My family was not into cars. We had older cars that's because that's all my parents could afford. I always played with hot wheels, slot cars and electric trains. Always liked cars. Growing up my neighbor had a 68 Camaro,my dad's friend had a Model A.When we moved across town my neighbor Bob Brown had a 57 vette drag car. A big influence on me was Rebel Without a Cause and American Graffiti. When I got old enough to drive, I bought my first car with a little help from dad a 67 Camaro. Every extra dollar I had went into it. I used to cruise Market St in Riverside, Drag Race on North Main and Agua Mansa. My Camaro got wrecked in the early 80's taking my sister to school. That's about the time cruising Market died out and mini trucks and VW's were the thing. I got out of cars until the mid 90's when I bought a 55 Chevy Pickup. It got me make into cars again. I haven't stopped since and have had several cars since then. I do like living in Southern California (Yucaipa) despite the high taxes and politics because there is always something car related to do almost everyday like breakfast, local cruises, swap meets and car shows.

 

In NE Nebraska there were several guys with cool cars and hotrods which I always lusted after, with a few in our neighborhood. Never got my sickness from my father, like Butch/56SedanDelivery I had a father but never felt like I had a Dad, he tried to keep me from going down that path. In fact when I bought a 26/7 T Tudor complete body with dreams of building it from the ground up as my first such build, he blew his top and told me in no uncertain terms to get that thing out of his garage! So I ended up in the muscle car scene until much later in life except for spending a ot of time with friends who were able to build their own hot rods. I started out racing motorcycles, then into drag racing, back to motorcycles and snowmobiles when I worked at the local MC shop, then on to stock cars and then getting my grandson imersed in the performance culture by starting him off racing go karts and riding motorcycles and us building on my 58 that will one day be his.

 

While growing up in rural northern Kansas, my dad was a jalopy racer with some drag strip time thrown in, when not too busy farming. After age caught up with him he was part of pit crews for other racers. Stock car and sprints especially. But his heart was always in the older days and cars, also Cushman motor scooters. I grew up in the muscle car era and did my share of dirt roundy rounds. But as we both aged and literally became best friends, I saw and felt his passion for the older cars and grew to appreciate them as he did. Most of my best memories of him involve the times we spent cussing and discussing this passion!! Since his passing I spend countless hours in my shop by myself continuing to do what we did together. Damn I miss him! Hoping some day my son becomes more interested in this hobby. It took some time and age before I realized what my dad seen in it. So I guess there is still hope for that. Did I say I miss him???

 

My dad was a lifetime car guy who had a number of cool cars over the years but didn't modify them when he got older. He did take me to the drags, car shows and circle track races when I was young and in my teens. He always seemed to make it to car shows where I had the truck or my old 51 Merc over the years.
First step father traded a 53 Mercury for a 52 Ford Victoria with a 312 Thunderbird special in it in the mid 50's. That was my first time being around a "Hot" car on a daily basis. The car was lowered but had held the C Gas track record at Ellensberg in the mid 50's.
I discovered Hot Rod Magazine while on the bookmobile in the 5th grade and over several months checked out every issue they had I think. One house we rented on Bainbridge Island had a stack of old Mechanics Illustrated magazines from the early 50's in a hall closet and I read every one of those times over carefully returning them to the closet. One had the article Tom McCahill wrote about going to Grnatellie's shop and modifying the shoebox Ford he was driving with their parts.
I envisioned myself as a drag racer at an early age but after seeing acquaintances kids do without because the race car be it drag or circle track needed parts and the entry fee had to be paid I decided that I wasn't going to be a serious racer. Slow progress on my projects could be attributed to the simple fact that the car or truck came in second to family needs.
I was into the whole street rod ideology of having to have the latest trickest parts on my ride for a number of years until it got to be too much and I bailed. My 51 Merc was pretty traditional though as it was lowered, had 57 Cad hubcaps, Desoto grill and white walls. More of an early 60's Narrow whitewall build than a 50's build though.
Around 2000 I was totally burned out on the car thing and having to always have the trick of the week item that was obsolete the next week and quit going to car shows and bought a sailboat and id the boat thing for a number of years.
Sometime in late 2007 someone in BC on a hard core traditional board mentioned "those guys over on the HAMB" The BC guys had already woke up that thing in the back of my head that said what I really liked hot rod or custom wise was the way they were built when I was drooling over those magazines off the bookmobile when I was in the 5th grade. Blame a guy who was in the 6th grade at the time named Steve Bitenvelt (sp) who I saw with an issue of Hot Rod in his hand on the bookmobile. That led me here where I found guys who like cars the way I like them.

 

Hanging out on Douglas and Kings X

 

I started car culture just after the war. the rest of you clowns are just following my lead.

you are welcome.

 

Me as a kid


me as a old man

 

I will turn 60 in a few months, finished school in 1977. Living in a small rural wide spot in the road jokingly called a town, two gas stations a Post Office and a mechanic shop back then, now just one store that sometimes has gas and a newer Post Office building, I didn’t have much of a car culture to relate to. Oh, there were a few Tri Five Chevys jacked up to the moon, a Chevelle or two, a Road Runner and two or three Mustangs running around, but I really didn’t know the owners, just their cars. Almost never saw a pre war car, if you did it was usually a stock A model, never saw a rod anywhere but in magazines. But I lived for Hot Rod and Popular Hot Rodding to come out every month, and I devoured every word in them, even if I had no idea what the hell they were talking about a lot of the time.

High school consisted of mostly 60’s cars, I had a couple of 67 Mustangs, there were a few Pintos and Vega’s sprinkled in that were bought by the better off kids parents for them. The rest of us bought what we could afford, I mowed grass for three years saving my money until I bought that first Mustang, a 200 I6 automatic that wouldn’t pull a sick whore out of bed, but it was freedom from home! Gave $600 for it, traded it and gave $400 boot on another 67, this one with a 289, I was in heaven! Just like the ones in the books, I traded around and came up with some Torque Thrusts or knock offs, put on some wide tires and dual Hush Thrush muffs and I had my first hot rod! I thought I was a big shit with that car, drag raced it on the street and at a drag strip, I was living large!

There just wasn’t much going on in my side of the county. When I started dating my wife in late 1977, I found all kinds of drag cars and hot rods on the other side of the county where she lived, a mere 20-25 miles away from me was a world I had only seen in books! And until then, I never knew it! That area had been a big bootlegging area, and the bootleggers and their kids had some fast cars! I became friends with a lot of them. I moved there when we married. Even now, some 41 years later, there are more street rods and muscle cars around my area than the rest of the county. A lot are owned by descendents of those old bootleggers.

So, no real culture to speak of. I learned by reading books and hands on trying. My old man could change his oil and spark plugs, but that was about it. I did a brake job on his pickup a year or two after I had got married, he was somewhat amazed I could do that without any formal training. He was a good carpenter, but auto mechanics weren’t his thing even though he worked in a factory that made windshield wiper motors for the big three.

Just think, if I had of had this internet thing back then, it might have saved me a lot of busted knuckles and time doing stuff the hard way. I’m still just a hack compared to a lot of y’all, but I have fun doing it!

 

You need to recreate that top pic.

 

Grew up in Sunland Ca 1940's and 50's. Rods and Customs everywhere our highschool had 30's 40's and 50's cars in the parking lot, Ray Vega's tub and Norm Grabowski's "T" were there cruising the parking lot. A bunch of Scooters and Whizzers. loud pipes were in, so were primer spots. my Dad had an Auburn Boat Tail 851 Speedster, 41 Buick tub, 49 and 52 Ford convertible, many dinner conversations about cars Ray Vega tub with teaneau cover
Just the best times. JW

 

my dad drag raced a 47 plymouth in the dalles oregon in the 50s, i grew up with an old dad and an appreciation for old things especially cars, bought my first car at 14 with my life savings, 1954 ford customline 4 door, still have it, i have bought sold and restored over 48 cars by 30 and i suffer from a lot of the same afflictions as the rest of you haha. I was just ralking to my dad and got a kick out of how much perspectives change. I recently discovered the 1939 5 window studebaker with the split grill in the fenders and was blown away by how beautiful it was, very reminiscent of a willys to me. I talked to dad about em and he laughed and said yeah i spose so, in my day we thought they were dogs, we wouldnt have been caught dead in one. comical

 

I have no idea. My dad was a mechanic for a few years after the war and they say when I was little I would work on my wagon fixing the carburetor, distributor or differential. (in '49 dad was making $44.00 a week as an apprentice - house, 3 kids and one on the way-, made journeyman, $77.00.) 1950 he went back to college. By the time I hit H.S. I knew nothing although as a pre-teen dad let me help him put a Sears short block in the '50 Merc. (Learned to drive in that car.) On my paper route there was a bright yellow coupe, no hood, no fenders. Bought my first HRM July '61, Beach Boys coupe on the cover, subscription for my birthday the next month. Also bought all of those small Hot Rod books on carburetion , ignition, brakes, etc. Order of the Arrow, '61/62, there was a guy from Ojai, or Santa Paula, or (?) that came to the meetings in Ventura driving a purple, full fendered '33/34. Senior year, filled a hole in my schedule with a double period of auto shop. 3 years of Army as a track and wheel mechanic. Folks had moved to D.C. so I wound there. Took a summer job at a dealership that lasted 4 years. One of the guys asked me if I could tow his stock car to a new garage because his truck was broke down. Got involved and that is where I started to learn fabrication skills.

Have never had a mentor or friends into hot rods. Got my coupe (now coupster) in 1980 as the left overs of someone's project, the '57 Chevy pick-up in '86. I got to drive the coupster in the early '90's. Neither of them is on the road right now. I think I've managed to do everything the backwards, hard way. I've learned so much from the H.A.M.B. during the time I was lurking until now.

 

I will be 47 this year, so I grew up mostly in the 70s & 80s. My Dad had his own repair shop right at the house, and I pretty much grew up watching him wrench, and talking with his customers. Cars were my only real interest, and it wasn't pushed on to me, but just came naturally.
Three of his friends that would come by, usually at closing time, and BS became some of my "heroes". Bob had a 33 Ford Tudor sedan, Kenny had a 40 Standard sedan, and Dick had a 40 Deluxe coupe. There were others, too, but these guys made the biggest impression on me. All of their cars would be considered street rods, but this was in the late 70's, so none of the monochrome and billet. Dad had a 40 Standard Tudor in the corner.
I messed with a few OT cars, but my high school car, and the first one I really cared about, is a 64 Falcon Futura 2 door hardtop. I bought it from Dick (with the 40 coupe) at the age of 16. Still have it. My high school friends were all car and truck guys, too.
Dad always told me that if I wanted to enjoy cars as a hobby, not to become a mechanic. So, I joined the Navy and became a machinist. Met some great guys in Florida who were kind enough to let a young car nut hang out around their shops. Got out, returned to Minnesota, machined and welded for a few years, and got married. And became a little burnt out on playing with metal all the time (had quite a few different cars and trucks by then).
I went to work for a telephone company, bought my own place, became a Dad, and kind of slowed down on the car stuff. When I did get the itch to wrench again, I got into off roading, building rock crawlers. That is a lot of fun, but it is a dandy way to continually hemorrhage money!
Then, one by one, all of these heroes of mine started to pass away. And my Dad's 40 was still sitting in the same corner it was when I was born, and his memory was starting to get sketchy.
I offered to bring the 40 home and get it road ready, but he didn't seem comfortable with it leaving. So, I bought a 39 Standard Sedan from an ad right here on the HAMB (and discovered the HAMB by finding that ad in a Google search!). I pushed hard to get it ready to bring to his 80th birthday, but couldn't get it done in time. Then my son bought a 66 Mustang, and it took me away from the 39 to help him on his new project.
I ran across an ad for the 40 Deluxe in my avatar, and it seemed like the answer to getting my Dad back out in a Flathead Ford while he could still appreciate it, so it came home with me.
Buying that 40 is one of the best things I have done in years. Dad has driven it, and still enjoys riding in it (although, sadly, things have gotten to a point now where it is a new experience each time), and it brought me back to my first love-the early V8 Fords. And I have joined a local club and become more sociable again through meeting new similarly minded folks.
Sorry if that got long-winded. Just my journey through car culture.

 

I was a gas man by trade , worked in a gas production plant for many years . We had huge pieces of equipment to keep running . Always tinkering with something mechanical , I could not leave anything alone , I learned to fix anything from a pregnant whore to a basketball game . I advanced up through the ranks and finished my working days with the guy with the GTO pictures . Eric Emmerich , don’t hold that against him , he was rehabilitating a Section 8 into freedom .

 

In my dad's day South African car culture was largely about road racing and sporty cars. In the US that kind of thing has long had a snobbish association which doesn't apply in many other places in the world. In South Africa it certainly wasn't an upper-class snooty thing – references to a certain American mustard brand would not be appropriate In fact for many around here any modified car carries a working-class stigma, to the point where a former employer of mine had reservations about the tasteful stock alloy wheels on his new VW Golf Mk4, because they look a bit like the alloy wheels uncultured yokels might fit out of a hankering after supposedly untempered garishness. Be that as it may; modifications here have traditionally followed road-racing lines: fat tyres all round, lowering, driving lights, cut-down bumpers or no bumpers, etc. When American hot rods finally became a bit better known around 1970, the road-race background contributed to our getting it horribly wrong. It took South African hot rodders thirty years to learn that the "little" half of "bigs & littles" meant "little" and not "just a smidgen smaller than the bigs."

My dad and my paternal uncles were always into Italian cars. My dad had a sequence of Fiats until his fortunes allowed him to afford his first Mercedes-Benz, when I was five or six. The most noteworthy was his 600, with a judicious sprinkling of Abarth bits. My uncle became a life-long Alfisto. He had swapped an early 1900 twin-cam into a Giulietta 4-door and then progressed through a series of Giulias to an Alfa Six c. 1980. He also had a second-hand Jaguar in between and latterly a few BMWs. A student of the then-esoteric, he had at one stage something very close to an American hot rod in the form of a Ford 103E Anglia with Buick rims on the back and a side exhaust which rendered the passenger door inoperable. Their friend, who would marry my aunt, also had small Fiats; at 86 he still drives one, having traded his last Uno in on a new Panda. He had a Topolino in the '50s and would boast of its "overhead fanshaft."

At the time, American cars were considered soft, heavy, and clumsy; powerful certainly but too bulky to use in anger. American cars were around in considerable numbers but were seldom modified. They were bank manager's cars, ostentatious but simultaneously stodgy and conservative.

There were the beginnings of "zef" culture. The term was a pejorative for a stigmatized set within a broadly stigmatized subculture; it came from the British Ford Zephyr, a cheap big car popular among working-class whites also enamoured of their interpretation of the American culture they saw in the movies. (An example of the appeal of movie-American can be seen in the linguistic habit of phoneticizing English terms into Afrikaans, and then pronouncing them with an American accent. Thus a term like "vulcanize" becomes phonetically comprehensible by thinking of it as if it were spelled "walkanaais" in Afrikaans – hence it becomes "valcanize" when the first A is Americanized on the way back.) But the American obsession did not include the classic traditional hot rod. The modification culture remained rooted in road racing, with a few added innovations like artificial fur on the dash, lemon-juice bottles in the shape of a plastic lemon on the end of the radio antenna, and, when the Ford Cortina Mk3 replaced the Zephyr as the hot setup, transparent plastic wind-deflector bubbles on the side windows and louvred plastic sun shades over the rear window. The classic zef Cortina sits nose-up like a speedboat on small, wide tyres sticking out of the wheel arches, and is decorated like a Christmas tree. Latterly there have been attempts to reconstruct "zef" as a sort of trendy counterculture, unsuccessfully to my mind because the proposed musical idiom is a poor fit, and also because a really authentic reconstruction would have to incorporate a truly disgusting degree of racial bigotry.

When hot rods really began to appear on the cultural horizon here around 1970, it was in the thick of the fad-T era. Thus we got to know the hot rod as a sort of automotive joke, a juxtapositioning of the new and the old, the bad-ass and the quaint, which was fundamentally humorous, satirical, and subversive in its intent. That, too, stuck. Just as many failed to understand big and littles, so it was thought that it couldn't be a hot rod unless it was an "outrageous" colour like purple, orange, or lime green. The origins of the local understanding of hot rods was both historically and conceptually close to flower-power ("fad-Ts are what hippies drive") but it didn't take long for an association with the largely contrary culture of "zef" to form. The local hot rodding scene has not yet shaken this off entirely.

My own path was a bit different. I was exposed to the hot rod through Tom Daniel's box art for the Tijuana Taxi, seen in a toy shop window in Rome when I was seven (thanks, Tom!) My dad couldn't really understand why this excited me far more than the then-current Lamborghini Miura, which was sort of the ideal of which all his Fiats had been vague shadows. But I'm the mad scientist of the family, I suppose. Creative possibility has always drawn me much more than any amount of excellence could.

 

Pittsburgh in the 60s. No place like it for a hands on gear head.. Pittsburgh was the industrial center of the world and was building the nation back then. I grew up with people who had machine shops in there basements and what they couldn't make at home they could make at work. Every block had foundry's, machine shops, chrome shops ect..

We had the best of jobs and made good money. PID Pittsburgh International Dragway was the local Dragway as was many of the city bridges. I grew up watching the teens race across the 40th street bridge and down Sears lot in Lawrenceville.

 

I was born in 1958 and my brother was born 4 years later. My dad was from Milwaukee but spent his teenage years in Sacramento where he picked up the car bug. When he moved to Iowa he brought that car bug with him. I'm pretty sure my dad was THAT guy in the neighborhood that the other neighbors told their kids to stay away from, the Kools cigarette smoking, Hamms beer guzzling, dirty, greasy hot rodder. And of course that made them come around and hang out at my dad's garage like moths to a light bulb. Growing up, my brother and I were introduced to racing go-karts, stock cars, drag cars, hot rods and customs. It was a great childhood. He passed away last month. RIP Dad.

 

Amen to the last part. In the last thirty years it really has been slowly dying out. Things got real expensive all of a sudden. And the younger kids are all about phone's it seems. I constantly have to pry the phone out of my older kids hands, just to make him look around and see something....

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Great story Zookeeper!

Living in Sonoma County and been up and down 101 my whole life I gotta ask what town!?


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My earliest memories where on Roxbury dr. In Pasadena CA., I was about 6 early 70's.... There where two brothers that had black tri five Chevy's, my dad says they where 56's clearly i don't remember... But they had a full machine shop in there garage... An they put a Big Ass I love my hooker headers heart sticker on my chain driven pedal tractor... An then a Mexican couple moved in next door to us, Carlos was the Dude's name an had a 54 I swear, but my dad say's 55, Straight axle bad Ass green Chevy if my memory is git'n Rite, Steelies in the rear Cragar ss skinnies on front, An a white Chevy logo's on it... Had a bad ass chopper to, Hard tail loud pipes... I begged my mom long enough she let me ride through the hills with Carlos.... My dad at the time had a sunbeam Alpine daily an a 55 F1.... I believe that's how the corruption started....

 

by wicarnut posted Jan 20, 2014 at 5:27 PM

Milwaukee Wisconsin, I was lucky, born into it. Midwest car racing (all different types) is still thriving, the car hobby very active and agree California was the trend setter, hotspot in the beginning, not so much anymore IMO. Always interesting to read other men's history and for the young people today it is a different world, car wise/otherwise. The HAMB is about history, ALL history is important IMO.

 

Thanks, I grew up in Rio Dell, Ca. It's so hard to believe that town went from such a neat place to grow up to the shit hole it is today. There were neat cars everywhere, maybe not expensive cars, but hot rods, muscle cars, etc. were not even remotely uncommon. I remember about 1975 or '76, a NICE '55 Chevy gasser that was bough just for it's magnesium Torq Thrusts for $500. Not sure what happened to the rest. I'd gladly give anything to own it today. I got a ride to Kindergarten in my dad's coupe regularly. Here's a pic of it during that time.



It had a 312, 3spd and a 9 inch and rattled the windows of the grade school. I thought everyone's dad had one. There was an honest to gawd '54 Corvette three houses down the street with an Olds engine swapped in. Two blocks away there was a metalflake blue '60 Corvette with a straight axle and a (wait for it...) 406 Ford in it and white, fenderwell headers. It's still there last I heard. I think every 3rd '69 Chevelle SS with a 396/4 Speed must've been in that town at some point. Now it's a drug-infested town with a few nice houses, but mostly people that are involved with the drug trade. My folks still live there and I go back a couple times a year to visit. It makes me sad to know the current generation has no clue of what a neat town that once was.

 

I was told by my parents, that I was born a Hot Rodder! They said that I made car sounds, before I could talk. Lol My dad was never into cars. But as soon as I was talking. I asked for toy cars. I bought my first real car, at age fourteen. { a 1931 Chevrolet sedan } I seen it advertised in the local news paper for $50. I called the guy, and I got it for $30. That was all the money I had at the time. When I got it home, I completely tour it apart. I soon found out, that it's alot easyer to take'em a part, then to put'em back together! I hung out at the service stations in our town. I watched as the older guys built, and then drag raced their Hot Rods. I also read all the Henry Gregor Felsen books, and the Hot Rod rags, like Drag Cartoons, Rod and Custom etc. etc. The only thing I thought about when in school, was Hot Rods, and girls, and in that order too. I had a 38 Chevy coupe, and a 68 Vette, while I was in high school. I was working at that time. Also as a kid on my bicycle, I saw an old 34 Dodge delivery Hot Rod, in our town. I made it my goal, that I would own it some day, and I did. I don't have these old Chevys. But I did keep the Vette, and Dodge delivery! Oh yeah, the girl too! lol Ron....

 

Not what i come from but had a local start signing autographs when his car was in one of the much maligned publications... wasn't even a feature.. show coverage if i'm not mistaken..

I hate him for a number of unrelated reasons..

In Oregon you have to bring your own..

 

Hello,

We moved to the far Westside of Long Beach in 1949. The surrounding area was primarily residential including some designated Navy housing. (any farther west and we would be in Wilmington, CA ) But, within a few blocks, it became industrial. The farther south and west, it became huge manufacturing plants and businesses leading to the Long Beach/Los Angeles Harbors. To the west of us were the oil refineries of Wilmington and Lions Dragstrip.

We did not know of car clubs and cruisers that were in our neighborhood until we were able to walk to and from school several blocks away. That opened our eyes as there were more sightings of hot rods, custom trucks and cars. But, the hot rods started to grow on my brother and me. So, we always kept an eye out for more parked and on the street. Until we started driving, we did not know that there were so many speed shops and actual, famous builders in the area. The closest shops being a short bicycle ride across PCH were very handy.

As we started driving, the Bixby Knolls hot rod/drag race scene was the biggest thing going in Long Beach. After spending the day/night at Lions, it was off to the two big name drive-in restaurants for snacks and hot rod talk in the parking lots. (show off your car or hot rod, too.) The Westside was a flurry of early hot rod/drag race culture with all of the fastest drag racers located near by our house.

But, living on the Westside of Long Beach had its ups and downs, too. It was ocean close, (4 miles) but far away from the actual local, surfing spots. The hot rod/speed shops, the drag racing parts manufacturers, and the near by (1.5 miles) Lions Dragstrip, all played a huge part of our "culture" in growing up in the Westside and Bixby Knolls. The Westside area had the first drive-in restaurant on the corner of PCH/101 and Santa Fe Ave. (Near Mickey Thompson's Speed Shop.) We also smelled the local factories' wafting aromas of oil, gas, fiberglass and broiled hamburgers/steaks, all at the same time, with the afternoon West winds.

Jnaki

The whole hot rod drag race scene was boosted by the various local clubs and promoters of the almost monthly, hot rod/custom car shows. The local mini shopping areas, the Municipal Auditorium, Vet's Stadium, the big convention centers, sports arenas, and the nearby city parks and beaches were the big locations for boosting the car culture.


A few of the local area clubs. Wilmington was just over the 101 Highway bridge, a few minutes away.

It was big during the late 50s and 60s, but started to die down with the rest of the country’s limited regulations on cars and wagons in the mid 70s. Smog laws, mpg, and bad designs from the USA Factories played a big role in the slide downwards.

Now, it was up to the small hard core factions in every city to keep the spirit alive and well. Thanks to the HAMB for keeping this idea open for all to enjoy. So Cal is not Texas, but the cultural ideas of hot rodding still linger as long as the old guys are still around and contributing.

As nice as it was growing up in Long Beach, the old adage of "You can't go home again," rings true with each visit or drive through the area for a historic function or two. Everyone growing up in all areas of sprawling, Long Beach will have a different take on the car culture. They are worlds apart, but the car cultures are/were similar during those early times and places.

Thanks for the memories...They are/were the basis for our future.

 

I grew up in the 21st century urban south, so according to most my influences should result in vehicles that are lifted and have rediculous rims that are either impractical for the street for some reason or another. I know that reflected most of my high school, if they did anything to their cars and trucks. My influence seems to have come from my great-grandfather and his brother-in-law’s high school builds, however. I’ve been working on making my daily look like a modern interpretation of the mean muscle you’d see at the strip sometimes in the 1960’s and 70’s, while my Thunderbird will eventually be riding low and customized. First I need to get her running and get some money though.