The Road through your Windshield...

Headed south on Rt 10 through West Virginia last month on the way to Raleigh, the pain of no defrost option at elevation

 

Dave, doesn't look like your knuckles are white yet!

 

Coming home from Jalopyrama last May.

 

Crossing the CBBT on the return from Jalopyrama. Such a shame the sunny weather was south of the show.

 

Just saw this thread pop up again...anyone know what ever happened to "Fat Hack" the original poster?

 

The all too familiar "liquid sunshine" Wales is famous for.

 

waiting to load into the Spokane show 2 weeks ago.

 

Took my dad on a short road trip the other day.

 

According to his profile he hasn't been here since Mar 24th, 2019, over 2 years ago. Funny but as I opened the thread I was thinking the same as you.
Anyone know about @Fat Hack?

 

Well I hope he's alright...I wondered what happened to the Hamber that started the Trophy Gal Thread...as many are probably lone wolfs...but then one day there he was after years of absence...so fingers crossed that all is good and perhaps we'll see him back...

 

Me And the kids getting chocolate milk and donuts

 

Bare road for southern CA!

Ben

 

I like to stick to the back roads. I grew up in a small town in So cal and live on the out skirts of the town I am in. SO I like the empty country roads. I would rather go a little out of my way on my drive and stick to these roads then to jump on the freeway with the traffic and be there in a shorter time ( I will use the freeway in my OT cars). Plus more time behind the wheel of an old car is worth it also.

 

Hello,

My wife and I were outside of our normal boundary for the pandemic road trips. We wanted to see this old neighborhood that we were once going to live as late 20 somethings. Back then, we drove to the neighborhood and saw several houses already built. The one we liked was a house with a driveway between the main house and the separate garage with an upstairs granny or teenager flat. The two car garage was under the flat and the main house had another normal two car garage.

Back then, a house with a 4 car garage was sort of a rare bird in the coastal cities. Well, as nice as this house was and when our future child was a teenager, it would have been a perfect set up. A teenager hideaway and extra space for our garage usage.

Besides, the homes were located just up the street from the world famous, Merle’s Drive-In Restaurant in the Newport Beach/Corona Del Mar area.

Jnaki

As we were driving by the homes, we saw this bright orange Chevy panel truck sitting by the side of the road. Through the windshield, it stood out like full moon on a bright summer night. No one could drive by without stopping to look or take photos.

No, we did not buy that house. But, a 4 car garage would have allowed us to have plenty of space for our hot rod daily driver, 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery, to share its space with possibly a 1940 Ford Convertible and two other vehicles of our choice. There would have been plenty of space to build or modify another roadster or station wagon.

 

Okay just went out for a drive, and took a few pics.
Here you go,a little country and little bit Rick and roll. The trucks ride I mean.

 

Had to make a run to the parts store in town.

 

Hello,

Emergency drives to pick up a replacement part for your household emergencies seems to be the mode of the pandemic days. Sometimes, it provides unusual sights that bring back memories of a long time ago from the teenage years. As the photo above shows, a cool red Ford pickup truck that has some custom applications added to the build. But, it was the location and surrounding nature that was the impetus to get the mind flowing again about teenage years. There was something in that photo that took me back to our old Westside of Long Beach house and our hot rod/drag race days took place.

In the upper left of the photo was a giant Jacaranda tree. It had bright purple flowers and blooms quite readily. When we moved to our 2nd Westside of Long Beach house in 1953, I noticed the little purple flowers all over the street and our lawn. The whole street, Caspian Avenue, was a haven for the Jacaranda trees. But as we walked to school on the next block, they disappeared. It was just several streets of Jacaranda trees from the main drag, Santa Fe Avenue to the L.A. River that was the range of the purple flower Jacaranda trees, in our portion of the neighborhood.

The Long Beach area is well known for Jacaranda trees and there is a map that someone made of the whole city locations of these purple flower, Jacaranda trees.

Getty images

Jnaki

My brother learned the hard way. The purple flowers were beautiful, but left a sticky mess on any surface it touched. The 1951 Oldsmobile sedan was the first victim. Just imagine a Yellow, lowered rake, Oldsmobile with a contrasting purple layer on top of the whole car. Being in a hurry, my brother parked on the street pointed the way he wanted to go. He came inside for lunch and then whizzed out to go to his friend's house. But, was surprised with his Yellow Oldsmobile covered in purple.

Then, several years later, a similar incident happened on a pristine shiny black paint of the 1958 Impala with a purple coating once and that was enough. From that first encounter, the Impala was always parked in the garage or driveway away from the falling flowers. I was the one to do the fine cut cleaning and thorough wax job to get the black paint back to its shiny, glossy finish, again. I was the maintenance guy if I wanted to be taken places. It all worked out in the long run. I did not feel being taken advantage of, as I was learning by doing.


The good thing was that it was a beautiful sight during April to June of every year. The bad thing was we had to pick up the purple flowers from our front grass, the remnants blowing back into the backyard and garage, etc. But, the worst thing was when those teenagers came over to our house on Saturdays and the vacation times, they knew from experience that they could not park under those trees on the curb. So, there was a fight to see who would park in the drive way or along the house.

1958, Jacarandas just starting to bloom…


6799 Jacaranda trees in the City of Long Beach, so we were not the only neighborhood with the beautiful blooms and the major problem for the cars. Luckily, there was a power washing business just a few blocks back to PCH.

 

from a couple years ago at the hot rod reunion