Grateful for the car era I was raised in

I'm 63, when I was around 7 years old. I used to tell my father to drive over by the junk yards. I'd ogle all the 1920-1930 cars piled on top of each other. Always dreaming of having one of them. It was great to be able to tell the '40, '50 '60 and early '70 cars apart.
When I recently bought my Model A coupe. I went to the bank to wire the money for it. The woman at the bank asked " Oh I hear you're buying a new car ? What kind of car is it? " When I told her it is a 1930 Model A coupe, her jaw dropped. She couldn't even get the words out. She says "why would you want some thing like that ?" I told her because I'm stupid, I said if I buy a new car drive it around the block and bring it back I'd lose a lot of money on it. Then the new cars have to go back to the shop for any repairs, where I can fix any thing on the Model A. The new car will depreciate, but the Model A will hold its value or go up in price, but I'm just a stupid hot rodder.
The era I grew up in I believe was the greatest for the United States.

 

My parents had a gas station mechanic shop 50's thru early 70's, I would love friday nights when I could hang out and see all the cool local cars come in for premium gas that was purple in color and had a awesome smell and a buck would get 5 gallons. Back when the chief of police would scratch on my parents bedroom screen to wake Dad so he could get gas for someone who ran out, the cheif finally got his own key as to not wake my parents. Lots of cool cars and memories.

 

Amen Brother ..... Sad but so true

 

Totally agree about the cars and I'll go one further... could totally go without todays technology! Cell phones, wifi, kids who cannot disconnect from their video games and walk outside once in awhile (my son for example).. Back in the 70's we didn't have to carry a dang phone everywhere we went and guess what.. we survived! I really just want to unplug.. TV, home computer, cell phone.. man.. how wonderful would that be!?!

 

There's a Hamber that has the following for his signature. I can't remember who it is. Something like: "I'm writing a book about cars built after 1972. It's called cars I don't give a fuck about." Yeah, that pretty much sums it up for me too.

 

In the early winter months my Dad and Uncle had a tradition they did for years. They would go on sat.evenings and and tour the car lots looking at the new models that came out. I remember them trying out a car or two. After the new dealers we would start on the used car lots. I blame my car sickness on those two.
I lived up on a hill that over looked a 2 lane highway that didn't have much traffic at night. . My bed room faced it. On a warm summer night the windows open (no central air) I would hear the open headers coming. I would stand on the bed watching the 4 headlights bounce as they were grabbing the gears. In the dark I could tell which car won but not who's car it was.This went on for years. I lived real close to a couple of hang outs so within a few days you knew who raced.55 &57 Chevys everywhere. It was more fun when I was the one down on the road

 

We used to watch Dragnet. Their sponsor was the Ford Motor Co. I remember George Fenneman being the Spokesman for the new car unveilings and the weekly ads...
George was also the side man for Groucho Marx, on his "You bet your Life" show.
You said the 'secret word', the duck flew down and gave you "twenty-fi-dollas''.

George introduced the new Ford Thunderbird one September night in 1954...my Mom bought one 3 years later.

 

Going to a street show tomorrow ....the " one horse " town that I live in , blocks off the main ( and only ) drag for the annual SunSplash car show ......attracts about 700 vehicles which is huge for our town . It will be mostly old farts like me shooting the breeze and admiring everyones ride ....except for the odd new Mustang or Camaro that shows up for a "classic " event .

 

wll I too agree with about all of you.ive not liked a new car that's been built since around 1970.but my love affair with the old cars really went thru the roof when all the American cars went to European styling!! what the hell is so great about their styling.nothing in my book.i cant tell a buick form a Honda...if I got to spend more money than my house cost to buy a new car I want one that I like and the only one out there is the challenger with the hemi.and what ruins that car for me is the damn wheel size..thats is why all my cars are made before 70.welll my wife has a Chrysler 300 with the hemi but she drives over 250 miles a day for her job.but I don't have to so I drive my old cars,spend a lot in gas and im as happy as I can be...and people will come up to me and talk, don't get that with your European style cars....

 

I got my driver's license in 1962 and I have very fond memories of that era. It was truly exciting to see the new cars unveiled.
Although I was really a Ford guy at heart, one of the memories I have is of a new '62 Chevy "409" Belair Sport Coupe.
The older guys told us of a race between an acquaintance of theirs from a town several miles north of our North Jersey town and a guy from Central Jersey with a new "Fuelie" Vette.They were to meet at The Adventurer Car Hop on Rt 22 in Union, NJ and we were all to follow along.
With great anticipation we gathered at Bond's Ice Cream lot in Clifton, NJ waiting the arrival of Bill Ayers, owner of the aforementioned Belair.
When he finally pulled into the lot, my jaw dropped at the site of this car. The car was painted Chevrolet's Ermine White and had a no frills red interior with a Hurst shifter replacing the original factory "spagetti-shifter". Emblazoned down the whole side of the car in large, red, in-your-face lettering was the name "Cajun Queen". The car had black-wall tires with white, steel factory wheels. The front-end of the car was raised up several inches, it had header dumps protruding out behind the front wheels and a set of "Casler" slicks on the rear.
When he shut the car down and opened the hood we saw the "dual-AFBs" of the 409 hp version and we could hear the "tinging" sound of the tubular headers cooling down.
This guy was serious!. The whole experience made me want to burn my '54 Olds 98 four-door sedan. I was light years behind this guy! It sure was a lasting vision for me though.
The race never happened as we were "asked" to leave The Adventurer's lot as soon as we pulled in by the cops, who were also waiting our arrival with great anticipation!

 

Great thread for those of us that lived it!

I could see the 'coming doom' the year the Vette's chrome metal bumpers were replaced with painted plastic.

 

I am (69) and totally appreciate your post, as well as agree...
And that is why I really like going to car shows, especially smaller ones where the owners will gladly talk to you..
Good post....thanks...

 

I can remember when you could identify the car behind you at a stop light at night, just from the shadows of the available light reflections on the grill & front end.

 

As someone that does technition training in the collision industry I talk at length of how technology has changed the way we repair cars. In the course of my presentation I have pic of a car with the badging removed and ask
"What is it" 90% of the time nobody gets it. There is a lot of standardization in the auto industry for things like door openings, seam sealer usage, etc. as thing progress with the new cafe standards things are really going to change.

Hold on to your old cars with all your might....you will never see the beautiful lines, the comfort, and pure American Bad Ass again. The only new American car I would like to own just for the pure lets get in it and drive with the ac on and road trip is a Mustang GT and that's getting a new design soon and is getting away from the current " retro" styling.

 

I work on modern cars for a living and every so often we get a " no name" jellybean car in.
The manufacturer didn't care enough to put any extra badges on, nothing under the hood gives it away ( emissions stickers don't get replaced after a front end collision), nothing on the dash, steering wheel , trunk lid nothing.
Who made this piece of crap? Why should anyone care?
This is as close to invisible as a car can get.
All I want to do to it is push it over a cliff...