Mr Gee, Harold and I go way back trying to stop time long enough to enjoy life, Late is what one says when referring someone who no longer can take the time to enjoy life as they have now passed on to the after life.
Doug,thanks for the pics of the arboretum. I always enjoy the photos you SoCal guys post of the past.My dream as a young teen was to come to Cal and experience the car scene. Always a pleasure. Thanks guys!
I grew up along the beautiful foothills of Sunland-Tujunga. I was born with a bad foot and every time I had a surgery or casts on my leg my Dad would say, "Don't worry, that's why we moved to the "foot-heals" so you could get better fast!" And he'd pack us all up in the Kaiser or whatever old car he was working on at the time and take us on a leisurely drive up Foothill Boulevard, into Pasadena, along Route 66, going and going til we could get out of the smog of the San Gabriel Valley and actually see the healing mountains. My Mom burned our trash in a backyard incinerator, like Doug's family and everyone else's. Neighbors would chat while incinerating their trash. I remember how our eyes would burn from the smog, especially during the hot, humid summers. We were all breathing the brown haze that became a sad symbol of L.A. back then. People fought for better living conditions and eventually smog controls came in and (amazingly) things got better and better. Looking back, it's hard to believe how bad it really was back then. My Dad still lives in the house I grew up in, keeping our '41 Chevy and all our other cars going. a
Amazing, 1939...pre-Pearl Harbor...the New York World's Fair would just be opening..."Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With the Wind" would premiere--in "color"! The world has changed so much since then, but The Arboretum remains almost exactly the same today.
The new issue of Westways (Mar/Apr 2011) has a great article on Dean Jeffries, "Sixty Years of Blood, Sweat & GEARS!"
Ontario Motor Speedway was only here for 10 years but it was a great place to watch races at. They had a open house a few days before the 500 mile USAC Indy car race on Labor day in the mid 1970s. The weather was breathtaking, absolute perfect in the late afternoon. They were giving free laps around the track in station wagons, seen parked on pit row. The view heading into turn-3 looks like were going full racing speed. This was a great day.
70's hair!!!!! cool pics Tom....many fun days spent there...NASCAR, NHRA, USAC, GP bikes, Quastar, F5000 and on and on.....
Dad wasn't a car guy. He was a airplane guy. The big stuff in the 1950s. Here he is at LAX about to board his next flight as Captain of Western Airlines. The plane I think is a DC-6. For around town driving he had a 2-door 1949 Chevy Fleetline. I remember that car as a deep blue (but not black) color.
In addition to all the smog controls and anti pollution laws I think a major contributor to cleaner skies is the lack of industry, in the 50's & 60's they were manufacturing everything in SoCal, autos tires, steel, you name it, I remember as a kid going by the steel plant at night and watching them pouring molten steel, and the red hot ingots on a over head conveyor moving along. People used to park across the street and just watch, our version of a light show, (Mazooma you probable have pics of that somewhere) I also remember going by one of the auto plants and seeing all the new cars parked outside and wishing we had one, thinking about what year it must have been I still wish I had one of those “new” cars, for better or worse L.A. is a much different place today then in the 50’s I miss those days but not looking to move back… This is still one of my favorite threads, thanks all for the memories
we have replaced the loss of industry with millions of cars and hundreds of thousands of more houses. The 50's-80's the smog levels were historic....much, much has changed since then. I know one thing, the air is nothing like the days of my youth, You could taste the air...it was awful. Not today.
Yes I do, used to go to Clancys. Also do you remember the name of the liquor Store across the street from Clancy's?
I remember in the mid 70's when we had SMOG DAYS at school because the air was so bad. East coasters and silly snow days - HA!
Upon further review I think I goofed about location of Clancy's in Manhattan Beach. I believe the correct intersection was PCH and Marine. I think there was a drive-thru car wash on the corner. I remember seeing the liquor store as we were always driving by but not its name.
In December of 1963 the Baldwin Hills Dam burst open and flooded the area below it. 10 years later it was still possible to drive up close to it and walk around the remains of the Dam at the top and take a photo of the destruction. I wonder what it looks like today?
Now your making me hungry. I sure wish they would move east, along with Tommy's. Those and the mountains are the ONLY things I miss from LA. Way to many people/cars now, and they all seem to have attitudes.
Yeah I remember flying into LA in the 70's the air was so brown it litterly look like a blanket over the city, I also remember the big joke was, "I don't trust any air I can't See" really wasn't funny tough, it was killing us...I know when I visit my family now you can actually see the foot hills from the 210 & 605 and I remember what a beautiful place SoCal is. I do miss it at times, LA a great place to live, but I've gotten spoiled living in a smaller area, people complain here if it takes more than 5 minutes to get across town...
The Jalopy Journal
