I was born in the wrong era!!!!!!!

back in time machine:: like mopar92 just said, some parts of the country were generally "behind" most areas of the u s, s w Ga included! Dawson, Ga. Terrell Co. H S class of '66. yep you guessed it, there were even 66 kids in that class. parking lot as a senior, '65-66: one kid worked after school in Co. newspaper, he bought a new '66 Chevelle, 396 4 speed, not sure what the hp was would chirp the tires in all 4 gears. another kid bought a new '66 Galaxie XL, 390. girl that graduated year before, a neighbor, dad bought her a new fairlane, she just got it home, and let my "gubber head" friend take it down the road, he toped a small hill on a Dirt road, promptly rolled it. GONE! new and totaled the same day! I had a 64 ford custom 2 door post, 283 3 on tree, it was S L O W wwwwwww!

most kids back then drove whatever was handed down to them. very few new cars for them. a kid that was a junior, his dad was a big farmer, my dad worked for him. the kid got a new '65 GTO 3 deuce 4 speed. wow! I wanted that SOooo bad! we were so poor my mother took me to the dry goods store every Aug for my " school clothes" bought on credit; ( no there wasn't credit cards! ) . it took her the next 12 months to pay for them! really. I had job at grocery 12 hrs Sat and most afternoon after school. parents let me keep that for gas and tires and points/condenser/ plugs..... and horse feed money. I loved the horse stuff!

the 60's? besides the Viet Nam thing, there was the terrible racial unrest in the deep South. Terrell Co. Ga, very rural, very much "traditional deep South". 79% of the country's population was black. mid 60's neighbor kid had a little Honha 50. mom told me to stay off that thing or else. we rode that thing all over the country one summer, 64 or5..... our "game" was to find cars with "Northern" plates and play chase with them. Churches bombed, burned, people killed,riots, marches, people died, threatened, people went to prison over it,..... schools were segregated, our h s was built in the 30's no air, steam heat when it worked, the black guys had a new modern school, with air!

coolest car of them all to me was a kid that had a 55 chevy, hotrod, 327, 4 speed Hurst shifter sticking out of the floor, 1965,it was, fiberglass front end, red, black rolled and p leated interior, boy was that sweet!!!!!!!! run pretty good. but just so darn cool!!!!!

I graduate h s '66. mom tells me i'm headed off that summer to a jr. college 60 mi. away. suitcase college, everyone went home every weekend except a few kids from N. Ga. that was too far for such. summer of 66, some cool cars there. some plenty fast. some had a death wish.

my dad had gone thru 20 years in Marine aviation, 4 years in WW11 and 1 in Korea. he got out in '55 and we all moved back home to Dawson. it took a terrible toll on him., mentally. no one had ever heard of PTSD or whatever its called. he would never be able to set foot on another plane........ he told me "if ya get drafted ya gotta go." ... yes I knew that for sure. . " BUT if ya join, I will KICK you *** like it has never been kicked before". I myself had no desire to shoot Gooks, I wanted to raise cattle, train horses, have a FAST car! but the draft loomed. the lady that ran the draft board told me, you should have a "student deferment" but will keep you 1A, so when
ya get behind we can call you up and not waste time changing your classification. yep I stayed a little behind, and 1A the whole 4 years. then in '70 they have the lottery, it took till sept to figure they would not get to my number!
degree in Ag for whatever it is worth. main reason I stayed in college was that I really figured I would get drafted and killed in Nam BUT my parents would be so proud that I graduated!!!!! really.

I had summer job with usda., during this college stuff. they had a 55 gal drum of Ethyl Alcohol. or was it Methyl???? ( the one that gets ya drunk, the other kills ya). end of summer boss would let us get a gal of the stuff to take e back to school! summer job paid for stuff, but I only had extra money once in 4 years to buy a McDonald burger> really..... I drove home every 3 weeks, mom sent back enough food for me for 3 weeks, kid and I had rented an old moble home on edge of town. $45 a month!!!! gas was $.29 a gal.

I started dating a girl in Valdosta in spring of '66. ( ok one date till school was out)) 300 mi south. to get there I found some other kids that wanted to go. 2 of them, that's all that would fit in the cab of my pickup I had. Valdosta had a college there, the other kids paid gas, a date consisted of a "free date" I could not rub 2 nickles together.

being a kid back in the 60's, some of the best and worse times in my life. 95% best times. hunting, fishing, running loose, no commitment, no demands, ......not really a care or thought in my head generally. ah..... youth!!!!!!!
we left that sun late, headed up I 75, running 95 o=in this pickup whne the co sherriff stops us. let us go! got back to Athens on vapors 3 in the morning. no gas stations were open and we were all broke anyway.