showing your age...

[Willow Oak]

Among the images of my dad I have in my head are him working on the car. We always had an old used car, and dad was always "tinkering" with it: adjusting the brakes; greasing the chassis; changing the oil; tuning the engine; etc. Every once in a while he would take all four tires off and set the car on cement blocks. He would have me sit in the driver's seat and pump the brakes while he bled the lines. On one such occasion we did that, then later in the day, Dad put the tires back on the car, and we went for a ride in the country. We were all enjoying the afternoon drive among the trees and the birds when all of a sudden ...WHAM!!!

There we were, bottom of the car slammed against the gravel of the old country road ...

... Dad had forgotten to put the lug nuts on the tires! In my mind's eye I can still see the tires rolling past, all four in perfect synchronization.

[pomtzu]

There we were, bottom of the car slammed against the gravel of the old country road ...

... Dad had forgotten to put the lug nuts on the tires! In my mind's eye I can still see the tires rolling past, all four in perfect synchronization.

Good thing we had no Interstates back then.....

[pomtzu]

On the subject of cars and driving...

How many of you older members had parents that both drove? My Dad was of the mindset that women had no need to know how drive, and Mom went to her grave at 79, never having driven a car. He wouldn't teach me how and wouldn't sign for me to take driver's ed either. My ex taught me to drive after we got married. I learned on an old used Opel Kadett that we bought in Long Beach, Ca. We were military, and he got transferred from CA to VA - piled all our meager possessions in the back and headed across country with me driving most of the way - with no driver's license! I finally did get it once we got settled in tho.

[RICHARD]

RC Cola, in bottles, 25¢
4 track tapes
45 singles
'Buy them by the bag!'
'Fill er up?'-A 20 won't do it today.
'Check under the hood?'
Landing on the moon??
Menu? LARGE bottle of pop, bologna and cheese sub and a bag of chips or Hostess snowballs/cups and change from a dollar.
Milk in the square wax paper box w/the flap stapled to the lid.
Disneyland ticket books. A tix were worth a dime and the E tix-I may be wrong-were 65¢ each.
Drop drills-Hide under the desk to escape the effects of Russian radiation-Now kids hide from their peers!!
Friday a.m. air raid siren tests.
Protest marches with wet hippies in the streets and anarchy was a sit-in at the Dean's offie.
LOL-cappucino was the drink of Bohemians!

I learned to drive in a Kadett, too! Canary yellow!

[kokopup]

My first memory of a family car was a Nash. My father would trade ever year and tell us to not tell anyone we had a new car. Back then they looked the same for several years. He bought the same color, which was sort of a butterscotch color. When I was around 13 he switched to Buick and he drove Buicks until I left home at 17. When I was 16 he also ownered a VW Carmen Gia that I got to drive on occassion. My mother had a Nash Rambler wagon that I learned to drive in. I remember knocking down a shrub next to the driveway because I could not get the gas/Clutch thing down and kept rolling backwards until the shrub was squashed. I remember at 13 trying to put dads car in the garage and hitting a post with the left fender. Needles to say I was in big trouble.

I remember when we had our first TV, Television was so new in Birmingham there was only one station. There was the indian test pattern showing most of the day until late afternoon when they would start normal broadcast. The first show to come on was "Howdy Doody time". My favorite night time show was "Dragnet". "Just The Facts Ma'am"

[pomtzu]

How could I have forgotten Howdy Doody??? - and Bob Smith and Clarabell? Shari Lewis and Lambchop was my very favorite tho - I loved Lambchop!

RICHARD: My Kadett was blue/green

This thread sure got off topic, didn't it? I hope allmycats doesn't mind too much......