Art & Inspiration Why do folks my age love hot rods? Here's why...

A childhood of Saturday morning cartoons left some serious imprints on my brain. Here's one that has stuck, although the lesson may not have...

 

Mighty Mouse was one of my favorites. Thanks for taking me back !

 

Hahahahaha...
That was great.

 

I blame Hot Wheels.

 

Yep hot wheels, cartoons, but an older kid across the street from me had an OT 66 SS Chevelle that just rattled our windows when he fired it up. Also my brother and I walked by the Poweres and Riley FED and Funny car on our way to and from grade school. How could a young kid not like the sound and rumble of nasty cam in a cool car?
Dan

 

"Here I come to save the day! That means that Mighty Mouse is on the way!"

 

Hot wheels & matchbox cars were the gateway drug for me & my big brother in 1967-68:

 

Mom and Dad probably thought cars were a safer and better option then other things I could have gotten into when I was youngster. Toy cars were cheap and kept me entertained for hours.

They may not be as cheap as they were back then, but they can still keep me entertained for hours, and for the most part, they are still a safer and a better option then other things could be.

 

That could be me and my bother other than our hair would be shorter and a 66 Ford wagon in the back around.

 

Damn! Mighty Mouse. Had forgotten him. A search for Mickey Mouse & Hotrod, brought me this HAMB thread. The Gumby short is pretty funny.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/disney-cartoons-featuring-the-hot-rod.1106371/

 

Thats Great! 1958 was a good year for kids.

 

For me and my childhood buddy's? Yea Hot Wheels and models. We also thought that Speed Racer and Racer X may have been real guys. LOL.

 

Now call me weird but this lightbulb moment from the early 60's is one I get whenever these kind of "memory prompts" are posted............
Thinking it was about 1960 when it started, (I think) I had just started grade school, the morning ritual was before my mom started making my take to school lunch, she would set me up in front of the TV with cartoons on and I would have my toast to dip in my hot cocoa, by the way, who remembers TV trays? boy that thing was a huge part of the ritual.
For some reason, I don't recall the actual cartoons, (I got over them pretty fast once I discovered cars) but the rest is real clear, weird, right, life was simpler in those days.
Oh yeh, I walked to school, alone too, remember when that was safe!

 

This didn't help much either.
Made no difference that it wasn't a car. It had a steering wheel and made noises and tickled my ding dang. I would've been about 5yrs old.

 

Early 60s showed HAMB correct cars, the later 60s still had cars, but they were OT like the Monkeymobile, the Batmobile, the Green Hornet's car, and list goes on. But the cartoons had great cars and shows like Happy Days, and the beach scene shows, and the Elvis movies all had great HAMB appropriate cars

 

oooh.. totally forgot models. I was chopping tops when I was 11 or 12. did the Merc model as well as the Revell 54 Chevy. did the 36 Ford coupe as well. the only model I have that survived is a lowered custom 57 Chevy.

 

My favorite

 

Yes, this brings back memories. Older brother and I were allowed to watch 2 hours of cartoons on Saturday morning. Beanie and Cecil, Bugs Bunny, Rocky and Bullwinkle. Remember Fractured Fairytales?

Then, as long as it wasn't terrible stormy weather, "get out of the house"! And we only had 2 channels and b&w tv. Stormy weather we could watch more tv. Usually until our father got home from the hospital. He'd make rounds Saturday mornings, then stop by the Italian Importing store and a little Italian bakery. Fresh Italian bread, hot peppers, beer for him, ginger ale for us! Mmm, mmm! And Peccorino Romano cheese! Yum! Guess I gotta get supper now...

 

Hot wheels and model cars did it for me. Snowman ⛄️

 

I think Tonka trucks somehow fit into that equation as well.

 

Structo, too.
My inoculation of the gearhead virus came when my dad (who had no mechanical experience or training) took apart the engine of our family car, a '52 Henry J, and replaced the bent valve, overhauled it with a valve job, new rings, bearings, etc. and made it run like a top. Mom was overwhelmingly impressed and kept bragging about his triumph, enough so that I thought that his achievement was the pinnacle of manhood and I wanted to emulate that. I got my chance at 15, when I overhauled our next family car, a '53 Willys Aero Ace two-door hardtop with a 161 c.i. F-head engine. I also built lots of plastic models, sniffed the glue, and bought plenty of Matchbox cars including a '58 Thunderbird that I treasured.

 

I’ve been into hot rods and cars in general as long as I can remember. My first and very clear recollection of being stunned by a car’s presence was when I was four years old. A guy up the street from my grandmothers house had just purchased a new OT car, a 1969 Hurst Olds 442, yes, the white and gold one with the big scoops. He slowly rolled by my grandmothers house as I was standing in the driveway and I distinctly remember hearing the rumbling idle of that car and it’s audacious looks.

Hooked for life!

It didn’t matter what year, make or model, from that point on I took notice of any hot rod or race car, the louder and more mean sounding the better.

 

Wow, you guys opened a flood gate of memories. Everything I mentioned above plus model cars, cox powered tether cars, home built push cars or down hill racers. My younger brother and I built numerous carts from scrounged lumber and wheels from garbage bins. We lived in a very hilly town, great fun, these carts usually had a major break down early on sometimes on the first run and were fairly slow. One day we found some honest to goodness wheels/tires with ball bearings that worked - the holy grail - nobody in the neighborhood would come close to our speed now. I found a piece of shaft however its diameter was to large, my father suggested I talk to grandpa who has a lathe and can turn down shaft to fit. 8 year old me “what’s a lathe?” The lessons began. Grandpa turned the shaft and drilled some holes so we could use wood screws to attach, a much better deal than a bolt for axle that didn’t fit well and attached with fence staples. My grandfather , dad and uncle raced stock cars and boats in the 50s and understood what my brother and I were up to. Long story short that cart was the fastest in the neighborhood. Next we learned about braking he he. The bottom of our hill had a 90 degree turn and the the scrub brake we rigged up wasn’t the greatest Whoops
Thanks Dan

 

Hello,

All of those cartoons on a giant screen at our local (few blocks away) movie theater gave us the fantasy we liked. Cars were fun, they got us to a location that we had to walk or ride the bus. So, the ease at which was convenient was probably what moved us to cars in the first place. We would see our dad drive off to work and then we played all day. Likability of the ease at which cars moved and helped our family as well as a zillion other families was the point. We got it. even in our sandbox, dirt fields and playground activities involved little cars to make things move.

But, as we grew up, the influence of cars in magazines was eye catching. From the ads in Life Magazine showing how much fun a new “Buick” could be. That must have hit home to our dad, as he was a longtime Buick owner. 41 Fastback, 49 Roadmaster, 53 Two Tone sedan, 57 two door Roadmaster, 63 Wildcat, 63.5 Riviera, 68 Riviera, 73 Regal, 78 Regal and his last one an 82 Regal.

After we started driving, we never looked back. Cars gave us freedom to move from our house to places we only dreamed of going. The mountains we could see from the school playground were now an hour away. The far away friends living in other cities in So Cal were now as close as the car could take us for a visit or two.

Jnaki

Our influence was based on toy cars as most started, but my brother was the first to feel the need to move from model cars parts modifications to real car modifications. Then during the 50s, it all seemed to hit at once. So Cal was blooming and our old Westside of Long Beach and our high school hot rod culture moved right in and set everything ablaze.

Once we got involved, it was hard not to scrutinize our future purchases from new cars to cruisers to functioning station wagons, etc. what we learned we applied to those purchases with new eyes and choices made due to our knowledge of engines and old cars. That was important.

My wife and I had to “endure” family comments from those that had no clue about hot rods or functional modifications for a pleasant road worthy car. But, for us, we got involved and have liked hot rods to this day. Realizing the reality of driving our 65 El Camino all over So Cal, California coastline and into the mountains for a number of reasons was well worth it.

The 327 powered Ford Sedan Delivery was also the hot rod to open our eyes to fun, despite comments from others.
Those days are long gone, but they created a memory from all of the action we had during our long stay in So Cal. Our choices of cars allowed us to be somewhat creative and enjoy life as it should be for a couple of kids that morphed into "old folks" history... YRMV

 

Hot wheels, model kits, Street Rodder magazine, my gene pool, and helping my dad work on restoring several cars got me hook line and sinker!

 

I suspect I am a bit younger than you guys. For me it was hot wheels/model kits, TV/movies (American Graffitti, Smokey and the Bandit, Dukes of Hazzard, Fall Guy). The big one was a single mother who was way into surf/hot rod music and movies. American Graffitti was on network TV once a year when I was a kid. Mom made an event out of it with food from the A&W/DQ, and we parked in front of that big console TV.

Several nice OT cars in the extended family didn't hurt, either (69 Camaro RS/SS, 74 Stingray, 70 Mustang, 70 Buick GS...)

 

....I suspect it is because I hated walking and riding my bike a Schwinn with a banana seat, Swan neck handle bars and a rear slick....A natural progression to a Hot Rod and freedom of the road

 

A kid across the street had a red and white 58 or 59 Corvette. That might have caught my interest. The real clincher was a couple years later when my Uncle moved in with us after landing a job in our town. He had Hot Rod magazines that he shared with me, he and my Dad helped me win the pinewood derby in Cub Scouts. The trophy for the pinewood derby was a AMT model car kit of a 63 Mercury Comet, that started my model interest. It has been game on ever since!

 

This is probably what got me started. I was maybe 11 or 12 when these model kits hit the market. I had a paper route at the time so I had ready cash. These kits were $1.50 if I remember correctly and I must have built a bunch of them.

 

I'm pretty sure it was ingrained from birth for me! The family car when I was born/brought home from the hospital was my Dad's 57 Chevy Bel Air with a solid lifter 301 SBC. Can you imagine this being one of the first sounds you hear?! Starting at the age of 3... I always had hot wheels or match box cars in my pockets. For my 10th birthday, my Dad got me subscriptions to Super Chevy and Hot Rod magazines. When I turned 18... Dad helped me to find my 66 Chevelle SS. Still have it after 36 years. Dad still has his 57. Hot Rods have always been a part of my life... And always will.