Was Anyone Here Actually There?

I was there watching Jungle Jim BEFORE he teamed up with Jungle Pam.

 

I will be 59 this year so I was young in the late in the 60's but I saw a lot of wild and exciting stuff as I was growing up in Indy. The national drags at then Raceway park had their tech inspection at Speedway shopping center so there was hundreds of car lined up for close inspection by the spectators; rubbed elbows with Tommy Ivo, Bill Jenkins, Don Garlits. All great guys that would answers questions and sign autographs. Hurst set up a tent there and gave away snacks, drinks and all kinds of advertising stickers and decals.
Check out the thread "The Pole in Indy" dated 1-18-2009 by Speedwagon. It tells many stories of streetracing in Indy. It was unforgettable.

 

Yes, I was there, and it was magic. I joined the Road Angels in Belleville, Ontario in about 1966. My personal ride was a '60 Chev Impala 2 door hardtop---283 with double bump heads and a Borg Warner 4 speed, stick on the floor. The drive in restruants with car hops on roller skates, rock and roll, Sunday sanctioned drag races at a local airstrip, Saturday night unsanctioned drag races (Think 2 Lane Blactop). Vietnam (which for us Canadian boys was very much an American mess, but scary as Hell just the same)----Hippies, free love, Ban the bomb---fallout shelters, Kent state,--I remember what I was doing and how the world stopped when Kennedy was shot--Pierre Trudeau and 'Fuddle-Duddle".---Gettin' old sucks, but Oh, Jesus, the memories-----Brian

 

I was born in 1955...moved to Alameda (San Francisco Bay Area) in 1959. My dad would take me to Fremont, the Oakland Roadster Show, indoor midget races at the Oakland Auditorium, drag boat races in San Pablo Bay...

We lived across the street from a duplex, and one of the guys that lived there drove a Competition Orange full-fendered '32 5-window as his daily driver...my best friends older brother had a '56 Chevy 2-door post, and a Chrysler (maybe it was a deSoto) that we always fooled with...one time, I was the kid designated to "pour some damn gas in it!", and I did, and it backfired, and I was holding a burning fuel can in my hand, and I threw it across the street, and it landed right next to the partially completed hemi-powered Henry J gasser the neighbor was building. Luckily, no one and nothing actually burnt up!

I remember Chevy's Unlimited near Park St, a dimly lit two-stall shop off an alley where we'd peek in the windows and watch the progress on a wicked '55 the guy was building...and then one night, hanging out at the park, we hear this rumble a few blocks off...look around, look down the street...and here this thing is coming, out of the dark. Man, what a night

I can remember when Rod & Custom ran "Highboy of the Month"...and it was a column for jacked up cars, NOT traditional cars! I can remember walking UNDERNEATH the front bumper of a '65 Impala "highboy" at the Roadster Show.

The finest car in town was a black '50 Olds 2 door sedan...nose-high with a chromed straight axle and transverse leaf spring, radiused rear wheel wells, Americans with gold painted spokes, and a gold painted blower sticking out of a hole in the hood with a (Howard?) chain drive...you could hear it 1/2 mile away, and I NEVER saw him get on it...it was always a magic moment when that thing came into view.

Two slot car tracks in town, a couple more in Oakland, one in Berkley. Brand new Schwinn Sting Ray I purchased for $40 from Alameda Schwinn.

Sonny Barger. Eldridge Cleaver. Johnson. Nixon. Vietnam. My HS science teacher rode a rigid panhead. Alameda being an island, ENDLESS beach cruising on weekends. Beach Boys. Cream. Iron Butterfly. The Berkley Barb. Peoples Park. On my paper route, there was an MG TD with a small block in it that the guy just parked outside his house...just another daily driver.

And Alameda being (then) a huge navy base, the backdrop to my childhood was bookended on one end by seeing JFK drive down the street (on his way to tour the navy base) and on the other by the Summer of Love.

It could not have been more exciting.

 

It wasn't an either/or situtation for me....I was open minded enough to indulge in the "crap" on the other side of that coin too, and as a result had twice as much fun in the 60's!

 

I am 59 and counting. I go with it being a good time with a lot going on. When you[DollaBill] drop Red's name you surprise me since I haven't heard of him in a while. Cars, driveins, and memories good and bad. We are the lucky ones.

 

Im 70, had my first car at 8, first A 2dr at 12, and was already driving on our road, 3miles long and hardly ever petroled. Was fixin at14 and building at 16. Always was a Ford man, had several junk yards close to us on our road, and parts were just a walk or ride up the road. Ive lost count of the cars i've had, and still building. Almost finished with my latest 29 Pk Up. By summer for sure. Iceman

 

I was there when funny cars used the same motor as body manufacturer, even Rambler.

 

I'll talk to Ray Erickson and see if he will post. Ray was the first president of the KCTA in the mid-50's, but was cutting up cars before that. I believe he was present at the first nationals (or whatever they were called) held in Kansas in the 50's. Radicall Ray is 80 and if he says he's "been there and done that" you can believe it.

 

I was a kid in the 50's actually got involved in Hot Rods in the 60's

 

My brother is 64, I'm 55. He took me everywhere he went. I saw a good deal of it, not 40's or 50's, for sure, but certainly the 60's.
That does tend to make me a bit nuts when I see some of the stuff here people would like you to believe is "traditional", like rat rods, cars that scrape the ground on air bags, rockabilly, and suede.

 

Reading this I remembered when I was in the eighth grade. The 1958 Chevys came out I hustled from school and went downtown to Central Chevrolet to see the new Impala (this was in Fremont Ca.) When you walked in the dealership they were handing out 58" tall measuring sticks, like yardsticks. They were the how tall the Impalas were. Wish I'd held onto mine...

 

It's funny how you can still almost feel that vibe in Alameda, it's like the land time forgot.

http://jalopnik.com/tag/down-on-the-street/

 

You know, I was there in the late 50's and it's not that much different if you think about it. I'm still building cars with my buddies that back then I would give an eye tooth just for a ride in. I have parts that I could only dream of owning back then. I still listen to Lou Costello's Doo Wop Diner and the tunes are just as good now. Back then a good turnout was 20 or 30 cars cruising Penn and probably 5 were real hot rods. Now the Nats draws 12,000 and a local cruise will bring out 300+.

I remember my dad busting his balls to keep the speed shop doors open. Nobody had any money. I loved it back then but maybe a healthy dose of nostalgia has some serious rose colored glasses. And by the way the technology to hold this conversation wasn't there! I'm grateful to be this old and still doin' it. In short it never ended, it just keeps getting better.

 

ALAMEDA..........right, I was there in the Navy in the Sixties, I drove a '57 Ford Tudor sedan, black & white two-tone with chrome reverse rims, used to drag race at Fremont.

I'm old enough to remember & race at San Fernando Dragstrip, Lion's, Ontario Motor Speedway (also had drags), then the "Fox Hunts" at Irwindale. All that stuff is history now and with the recent demise of LACR (Palmdale)......we have no place to race in So Cal anymore that runs a weekly 1/4 mile program. The bracket racer is just sitting on the trailer on flat slicks.

 

Yep. I was there. In Tulsa OK. Born in 1942 so that makes me 66 going on 67. My dad owned an independent repair garage with every kind of tool a guy could want and my older brother was a Chevrolet parts man for 41 years. He's now retired and is restoring Corvettes and his own 1960 Chevy Impala that he's had for over 40 years. I worked for my Dad and learned a lot from him. Things that have saved me thousands of dollars over the years as I do my own repairs and maintenance on my cars.

We would take over my dad's shop after he went home for the day and I know we installed front coil spring in about every 55, 56 and 57 Chevy in Tulsa. Everyone used the 4-door Air-Cond coils up front and they all had the same jacked up front end stance.

I worked for Bob Creitz for a while as head gasket scrapper and this was during the period when Tulsa would host the Worlds Finals at the local Drag strip. Guys like Roland Leong, and the other California racers would hang out and swap stories but few could top the stuff that Creitz would pull off.

Fast Freddy Swanda, Mike Sizemore and others campaigned their fuel cars out of this one shop and many of the top fuel guys would work on their stuff at the shop over on Admiral Place a few miles from my dad's shop and down the street from Pennington's drive inn (Best Fried Shrimp Basket and clover leaf rolls you could ever have).

My brother and I had a 1927 T roadster (Still have it) with 283 and later a 338 in Fuel injected Chevy engine. My first car was a Black 1950 Ford and I raced that souped up flathead against everything in town including the Blown Studebakers and Dual Quad 56 Chevys. Even won a few races. Later I had a string of Corvettes and a V-8 Vega and a V-8 Chevy II. I had one of the very first 8-Tracks made by Lear ( Later, Lear Jet).

I'd like to do it again it was so much fun.

Lost_N_Austin

 

I ran an E Gas 40 Ford coupe at minn. dragway saw all the AF/X boys run back in the day

 

I'm another who also was "there", but in the midwest. Turned 16 in '57. My dad was a machinist and rebuilt wrecked cars on the side for extra money. Always someone's car in his garage behind the house for mechanical or body repairs. I can remember many afternoons after school and before he got home from work (when I was 13-15) sitting in a customers car and revving the engine. Lucky I didn't blow one up. My first car was a '55 Chevy convertible that came out of a local tornado, heavily damaged by flying debris. Never wanted to rebuild something like that again. On of my buddies dad was the body shop supervisor at a local Chevy dealer so we got a break on parts. He even sprayed a 57 Chevy hardtop for me at their shop one Saturday. A great guy. During my teenage and early twenties we bought, repaired, and sold many wrecked vehicles. I was always fortunate to be able to drive a fairly nice car, of course they had to be nosed and decked and have Smitty duals. You could drive all weekend on $5 of gas because it was 17-19 cents a gallon if a gas war was on. Friday and Saturday nights we would drop our dates off at 11 or 12 and head for the drag strip down by the Missouri River in the east bottoms to claim some bragging rights. I couldn't have lived in a better era. I miss it. Still love cars and still messin with them.

 

17 cent gas, 17 cent McDonalds burger, 19 cent cheeseburger, A&W rootbeer 50 cents a gallon in your jug.....

 

I got my first rod in 1963. I'm now 61.

 

I was a lurker in the 50's.....Saw Elvis's first TV appearance, and got rides in the older guys hot rods....Then I got into it in the 60's with bobber motorcycles, and early customs....But I gotta show ya some pix of my older buddy Dave who's really lived the life....



Dave built this Model A in the 50's, and still drives it.....He's made some changes over the years, but it's still quite a time capsule.....







In the last picture you can see a bit of a tall T coupe that Dave built in the 60's.....It's got about 350,000 miles on it and still runs strong....sorry I don't have a better picture.....The RPU is Dave's wife Anne's....It's the only vehicle she's ever owned or driven, and it's her daily !....Dave just keeps it fresh for her.....







Dave's still at it, and is now working on a Model A tub.....His shop truck is a 36 Ford PU....

 

COUNT??

I hope to tell you it counts!!

That WAS Hot Rodding.

Anybody that says Bikes, Crackerboxes, Sportscars, Hydros, and even Airplanes don't count, wasn't really there!

JG

 

PAUCHO,

Tell Dave that "He is DA' Man!!"

And darn lucky to live in a warm climate! ;o)

JG

 

I was there in Indy when Garlits shaved his beard .

 

After rereading this entire thread,It brings back memories and folks names that I fondly remember..Just wish I could go back to 1948 when I got caught up in this hot rod bug..Might do a thing or two a little different.Probably would have never sold my 2 32 roadsters or the 5-window or the 36 roadster or the 33 Willys sedan delivery Just cant seem to go back that far. I have however,been very lucky to have made my living in this wonderful Hobby.You young guys will have to take it from us old geezers after we are gone and keep the ball rolling..Do it proud!!!

 

I remember my dad racing his '55 Chevy sedan in the dry Los Angeles river channel against his buddies in the mid-fifties. He would sometimes go to the local dragstrip (San Fernando) and if my chores were done, I got to tag along. I once helped Tony Nancy out of his dragster at the end of a run, I was probably eleven or twelve years old. I remember that he swore a lot.

 

It's just a normal size yardstick, but from '58. Hangs on my wall...

We had a Fischer Body/ Chevrolet plant in town and went down to the factory to peek through the canvas covers they put up when new models came out to see the new cars.

Mutt

 

I was there in the 50's and on and I think I know where Elvis is hiding

"Doc" Parsons

 

I had a 55 Chevy Belair coupe in 1963. 283 block .040 over. Howard cam, 2 WCFB carters on a Corvette manifold, 3 speed Chevy box with a Hurst shifter. Speed equipment was cheap. I bought a set of fuelie heads from Hoffman Chevrolet for $200.00. Ran strong. I thought it was a rocket ship. Went 101 MPH at Westhampton Drag Strip and I got my "100 MPH" window decal.

 

I'm finishing up my 27 roadster/ 392 Hemi Right now, But I bought my 36 ford in 1957,
When I was 15. The car I'm Building right now is not traditional or a rat rod, it's being built the way I want it. In 1960 in the Oakland Roadster show, my 36 had Billet parts, But I made them. I Have built some traditional hot rods but they were back in the 50's and 60's.
i think too much is being made of the tag "traditional", and I think "Rat Rods " are ridiculous. We did NOT build stuff like that, we were Proud of what we Built.
I have helped my next-door neighbor with his Toyota, but he is doing all of the work himself, he's 16. thats a "Traditional HOT ROD, as far as I'm Concerned