History Just an observation

......We must have gone to the same school.

 

Well, last year I became "that kind of Daddy" for my youngest, 17 and Sr in HS. Just got her license. I'm 56 at the time. Got the car with 6 year warranty and free oil changes for the 6 years too.

Okay, it was just a Ford Fiesta, but I won't be doing anything but brakes on the car for the next 6 years.

I chose this route because buying a used car I could afford, already had 130-150K on it. I didn't want another daily driver to work on

 

Drove this Junior year (when I wasn't walking)

 

Unless a kid today has a Dad or Uncle that's deep into old cars, they likely have little or no interest in them. It's understandable.

 

I would agree with that. Especially when it comes to traditional style rods and customs. If they get into liking "old" cars, its usually late 60's muscle cars they can do late model drive train swaps or if by some chance they like a model a or 32 they then want it as a rat rod. They are the ones that will then say their rat rod was just like how it was done in the 50's and 60's.

 

My senior year was also 1972. The richest kid in classbdad bought him a '71 Corvette and he was kind of embarrassed by it. When someone would ask him, he'd say he had a Maverick Grabber, lol. That was his idea of a silly named car. Another kid had a '69 Camaro 302. Then only 3 year old. I nice, but not-yet-thought-of as a big thing used car.

In my junior year I drove my dad's purchased-new black '55 Chevy two door hardtop Belair - just a 17 year old used car then. But I wanted a van(sheesh!) I got a '66 Chevy van and started fixing it up in my senior year. The '55 was equivalent to a kid having a 2002 Chevy Impala now, I guess. There was a kid who had a nice black four door hardtop '57 Chevy. A lot of Toyota Corollas, a '69 Monza with Torq Thrusts I thought was really cool looking. A young math teach had an early 50's tin woody - and he was embarrassed of having it in the teacher's lot!

 

I was class of '67. I had a eight year old beater, a '59 Ford four-door, three-on-the-tree inline six. I remember three kids who had nice, new rides. A Cougar XR7, A year old Stingray roadster and a Olds 442 ragtop (our senior class was about 300).

 

I wonder if kids complain about old people as much as old people complain about kids.

 

go to a drift car gathering sometime and come back and tell me kids dont do trick hotrods. 28 yr old s13 nissan with a 970 hp 3 litre 6 that sat and idled better than my daily. 1000+ hp ls chevys in bmws,toyotas with some of the most beutiful suspension components youve ever seen.just different places. watch out for some of those second hand rice burners, sometimes they add alot of beef.

 

At my school, in the late '70's, the cars were mostly 5 to 15 years old, with most of them coming from the late '60's. Of the few new cars, almost all of them belonged to females. It was a good time to be a kid, with a decent Cyclone, GTO or Charger available for under a grand

 

My 17 year old granddaughter just had a 20 year old Ford Ranger crap out on her on I-10 (Buckeye, AZ), on the way to high school. This was her great grandmother's truck, and she was proud to drive a manual transmission.

The daughter in law took a day off, got the granddaughter to school and the Ranger towed home. I'm about 240 miles from Buckeye - there is nothing I can do quickly.

After some telephone diagnostics, engine runs fine, clutch pedal "feels" right, transmission shift lever "feels" right - truck will not move forward or back - no unusual drive line noises. The truck is too old, and too worn out to put money into.

She will probably end up with some sort of ordinary used car, living in far west Phoenix, air conditioning this time.

 

i got to take a 69 yenko nova to the highschool for my daughters photo class .50 students and two teachers in the parking lot while i did 5 full throttle burnouts , 45 years later and didnt get suspended this time. three 17yr old girls made me show them how you do burnouts. they had never seen it done before.

 

Of course all modern Sedans look like a Camry whether it's new or fifteen years old.
When I was a kid I could name the make, model and year on every car I saw.

 

I doubt they talk about us at all.

Kids are kids. We were them, they will be us. The technology of our times differs but being young, dumb and you know the next part, remains the same generation after generation. There are a few dumb as a stump and a few brilliant ones (just like we had) the rest are very very similar.

 

I graduated in 1965 One classmate who's dad was daddy big bux was the only guy in school driving his own new off the lot car that year A black 65 Chevelle 327 4 speed SS. He traded in what may at the time have been the nicest 57 Chevy 2 door hardtop painted a solid Sierra gold with the hoo bumps rounded off and some small trim pieces removed. One of the girls in the class behind me got the first Mustang sold in town that her dad that owned a big orchard bought her. Another girl in her class got a new Mustang Fastback but she flipped burgers at a local burger joint to pay for it along with holding a couple more jobs. Good looking and didn't mind working for what she wanted.
When I bought my 51 Merc in 1963 some of my friends asked why I wanted a car "that" old as it was then 12 years old and most were driving mid 50's cars or their folks cars.
I know some local school kids who have an ungodly amount of money and work in their honked up mini cars getting huge hp out of little 4 bangers Not traditional hotrods but some of them have serous knowledge of the inner workings of the engines and they systems that run it.
One former student and his son built a 30 something street rod coupe that is ot for here but well built and was a several year family project that his wife is just as proud of as he and the kid are.
I think when they killed cruising in most towns they also killed the want for a lot of high school kids to have a "cool" car. When you had to have the baddest car on the ave to pick up the hot looking gals you busted your ass to have the baddest car on the Ave. Now as someone said a box with wheels with good
AC and a good sound system works fine for most gals and a car to get their attention usually isn't a concern.

 

With holes in your shoes, correct?

 

..............Shoes? Who could afford shoes?!

 

Doesn't necessarily mean they are making too much money. Just means they have real good credit. As long as they keep paying the minimum payment on all those credit cards, their credit is going to be alright.

 

Nope, just keep maxin out those credit cards!

 

There`s a famous politician from Iowa who gave a speech about wearing plastic bags over our snow boots to keep our feet dry used to live 3 houses away from me. The speech was before our president of the United States spoke.

 

I was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, I remember wearing plastic bags over our socks and inside our boots to keep our feet dry!


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I graduated in 77, my car was a 10 year old 67 Mustang that I paid for myself with money made from cutting grass, hauling hay, cleaning up home construction sites, etc. I saved what seemed like forever to get the $750 it cost me. The cars at school were similar, couple of mid 60’s Chevelles, another Mustang or two, a VW bug and. Karman Ghia, some pickups fresh off the farm. Nobody in my class got a new one, I think one of the guys who’s Dad owned a sawmill bought him a 5 year old Cutlass, that was probably the newest one.

I helped both my boys get their first cars, they had to put up half and I got the other half. I started both out in VW’s, really, it was the same car, the oldest got it first, then he sold it to his younger brother. The oldest then got a 68 F100 pickup, it too got sold to the youngest.

Grandson will get my stuff when I croak, if he wants it.

 

We called them "bread boots" as we used empty bread bags (shaped like socks) over our socks and under our sneakers. To cool to wear boots in the winter.

 

Sent you a PM

 

I graduated in ‘76 and was driving a 100,000 mile plus ‘69 AMC Rebel I bought off my parents for $250 in ‘75. They weren’t going to get anything on trade so I got it. We had everything from ‘39 Chevy 2 door sedan to new Corvettes in that lot. Town of 10,000 and it was a fairly rural area. Farm kids had the nicest rides. They sold their 4H cows and had money. I worked 2 jobs to keep my Rambler running and in gas.

I live across the street from our high school parking lot now. Small town of 2500 and almost all ag based. It’s mostly lifted 4x4’s with big rims and wide rubber band tires or economic boxes these days. Daddy bought most of them. Very few were modified by the owner. Daddy paid for that, too. I know parents that are driving 10-15 year old rusty junk so Jr and Jr’et can have a nice ride to school.

SPark

 

Thank you, that confirmed our decision, it helped.

 

I forgot, one kid got a brand new Mazda from his parents near the end of senior year. My senior year, I drove a 38 Chev coupe gasser, 322 nail head with 3 on the floor. I loved that car.

 

Well,,,,it is encouraging that many of the posts on this thread are from young people.
That means that just maybe the hot rod craze will survive!

Tommy

 

youre intake manifold is my age ,but i build drift cars and 8 sec. front drive hondas......... and 35 fords!

 

Muscle cars were king when I was in high school. (Class of '70) The fortunate sons drove Road Runners, Chevelles, Mustangs, and Camaros. I drove a '41 Chevy pickup with a 283, painted bright orange with white wheels. I didn't think it was that cool at the time, but found out years later that some of my classmates thought it was one of the most "bitchin'" rides in the parking lot!