'70's life

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MOPEkidD-3 said:
I would EASILY give up all of that crap in heartbeat if I could live in a world more like the 60's or 70's. In fact, that's one of the reasons I bought a 1970 Plymouth Duster as my first car instead of some brand-new fuel-efficient low-emissions computer box with wheels. Most of the technology we have these days is useless and I'm tired of being forced to use it in school and at work.
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agreed, it's nice to have a newer car, but nothing beats having a car you can actually understand and work on. If something goes wrong with my Saab, forget it, I'm bringing it to the shop, on my 70 Dart, chances are you can SEE the problem and make a reasonably easy fix without fighting wires and computers to get to the source.
 
ckj688 said:
agreed, it's nice to have a newer car, but nothing beats having a car you can actually understand and work on. If something goes wrong with my Saab, forget it, I'm bringing it to the shop, on my 70 Dart, chances are you can SEE the problem and make a reasonably easy fix without fighting wires and computers to get to the source.
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Not to argue but think about.

A/C My '68 newport sucks to see out of when it rains.

Handling, well the new cars benefit from 40 years newer tech.

Reliability my little '88 honda (still 32mpg) is about to pass the 200000 mark with only minor maintenance. (my newport got an engine rebuild at 120k)

Fuel mileage is a lot better, and tuning isn't a big deal.
I can take my newer subaru into the mountains and not have to worry about hopping out to tune the carb and also I know it will start when it is 0 out, also with awd it doesn't get stuck, and I don't have to have the hassle of chains or changing the tires to winter tires.

The interiors seam to be nicer and they don't tend leak or rust.

Safty, a big one, abs, airbags, crush zones, tire tech. A lot of people are still alive because of these things.

Don't get me wrong I love my classics, the look, the power, but when it comes down to it there is a reason that new cars are still selling.

Edit: If I was to put money into a newer car it's gonna be a nice car not some cheap kia, I would much rather follow the route of 5.7 and do a hemi swap with modern suspension then wast my money on some cheap pos.

I do think that kids have it way to easy these days, what ever happened to if you are bad you get punished? Stop making excuses for everything buck up and face the fact that you did something wrong. And yes I am only 20 and am saying that.
 
I graduated highschool in 85 and you could get away with alot more back then. I remember alot of bush parties with bonfires and booze. The cops would sometimes be waiting on the road just to make sure that at least one person in the car was old enough to drink (18 years old in Alberta) and then tell us to have a good time. They usually didn't try to enter the party or some in the crowd would try to see who could knock the ligths of the cruiser with their beer bottles.

I remember my high school had a smoking roorm for the students too.

In the US, I think that the kids partied hard and were allowed to get away with more because there was a chance that they could be drafted at any time. Can't imagine what that was like growing up in Canada.
 
ckj688 said:
agreed, it's nice to have a newer car, but nothing beats having a car you can actually understand and work on. If something goes wrong with my Saab, forget it, I'm bringing it to the shop, on my 70 Dart, chances are you can SEE the problem and make a reasonably easy fix without fighting wires and computers to get to the source.
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Definitely agree! I am 20 and preffer my Duster way much than a ricer or new car that is full of sensors and computered kind of stuff. Parts are cheap and big part of the work is a do-it-yourself.

Yeah, 70's life was simpler, better. Maybe I was born in the wrong year!!
 
Ah the early 70's..

Hemi Cudas for dealer cost of about $ 3,400, gas was about .35/gal and no wife/ kids!!
Bought my Kawasaki 500 for $ 795 and made over $3000 street racing.
Them guys in those 'wicked fast' (low 13 sec) street cars were so easy to beat.

And you could work on a car without a computer or 27 pages of some technogeek shop manual just to change a light bulb.

The downside was -no computer or internet.

A fast stock car ran mid 14's

No overdrive trannies

No fuel injection

Electronic Ignition was just coming out and very primitive. At least Lean Burn was a few years away.

Leaded gas and no cats.

Bias ply tires that were about as good as todays temp. spares.

I could go on and on.....One other thing...the girls were really hot!!
 
I graduated in 1975, all we did was party, drink and race. I had a 69 swinger 340........It was fast. it was nothing to street race 3 or 4 times a night, get 3 hours sleep and do it again. Annie green springs, Boones Farm or Shlitz malt and 2 bucks for gas.......The movie is RIGHT ON. MAN I'm Lucky to get through that and be here at the age of 52
 
yellowdartdave said:
Ah the early 70's..

Hemi Cudas for dealer cost of about $ 3,400, gas was about .35/gal and no wife/ kids!!
Bought my Kawasaki 500 for $ 795 and made over $3000 street racing.
Them guys in those 'wicked fast' (low 13 sec) street cars were so easy to beat.

And you could work on a car without a computer or 27 pages of some technogeek shop manual just to change a light bulb.

The downside was -no computer or internet.

A fast stock car ran mid 14's

No overdrive trannies

No fuel injection

Electronic Ignition was just coming out and very primitive. At least Lean Burn was a few years away.

Leaded gas and no cats.

Bias ply tires that were about as good as todays temp. spares.

I could go on and on.....One other thing...the girls were really hot!!
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Never lost to a car on my 500 Kawie!!!!
 
MOPEkidD-3 said:
I would EASILY give up all of that crap in heartbeat if I could live in a world more like the 60's or 70's. In fact, that's one of the reasons I bought a 1970 Plymouth Duster as my first car instead of some brand-new fuel-efficient low-emissions computer box with wheels. Most of the technology we have these days is useless and I'm tired of being forced to use it in school and at work.
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I'm 21 and couldn't agree more... Wish I could have grown up back then too.
 
Sparky said:
Never lost to a car on my 500 Kawie!!!!
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Sparky, yellowdartdave: You never ran me. lol Yup, some of the bikes were fast back then. They'd get me out of the hole, but by mid track they were "toast." I was always prepared for a street race, I'd open the dumps on the headers, cheater slicks (early version of the wrinkle wall) bleach and rosin. 50 bucks, one 1/4 mile pass, winner take all. Not many takers back then, because that was a lot of money. Guys usually had to pool their money to pay for a race. Although it was fun doing the street race thing, it was "stupid." Surprised I'm still around to talk about it. Oh, and I did occasionally get beat by a bike, just not a 500 Kawie. lol.
 
Funny as it sounds, my high school days seemed like a combination of "Dazed and Confused" and "Napoleon Dynamite"
 
Hey Grinder???? You are one of the VERY FEW that has not ever been arrested. I've partied WAY HARDER that most people, but we are talking about FREEDOM!!!!!!!
 
They start them young now days too...I remember the only things I had in my Kindergarden class were..Lincoln Logs,..Etch A Sketch...a Lite Brite...and those big Fat Pencils. We took Naps in the middle of the day and the paper you wrote on had big lines for you to write in so you couldn't mess up. Now my son is in Kindergarden and he is reading books and writing reports ...plus learning Spanish..Its this pushing of every thing that is causing the stress and the resulting teen age suicide rate to go sky high ! People need to back off, cut up all those damn credit cards, light a joint and go in the corner and play with a Rubik's Cube. Let the kids be kids...we all do stupid stuff when we are young....thats how we learn our lessons. :toothy10:
 
Grew up on military bases overseas in the '70's and '80's. My dad was a commander in various security and intelligence groups, so none of those movies remotely look like my life. Not that I don't laugh at some of the humorous stuff in 'em, I just never had those types of experiences. When I was younger I always felt a step or two off from my peers, but as I have gotten older I realize how cool it was to grow up like I did. I have been to places, met all kinds of people, seen history happen in front of me, and had experiences that just stop me in my tracks when I think about them. The current social climate is a strange dichotomy- the masses want the government to ensure their safety/security, yet retain their freedom and take no responsibility for their actions. Sucks!
 
OMG I was 15 in 1975, it was so different and so much fun. Bars served us at that age; an enterprising classmate sent off for fake i.d.'s for anybody for a few dollars. The owners of the German restaurant where we were all busboys let us have 2 beers after our shift. It wasn't a big deal and we never got in trouble. Luckily the roads in Florida are straight and flat. If a cop stopped you he would just tell you to be careful and you would drive home.

There was lots to do...skateboarding, frisbee golf was in it's infancy, go-karts, the beach in the daytime and at night with a fire, the planetarium where they played 'Dark Side of the Moon,' darts, pool, tennis. Everyone knew how to drive a 'three on the tree.' Going to football games.

If a neighbor kid fell off your trampoline, his parents wouldn't sue. People weren't so status conscious, strangers wouldn't think twice about helping anybody. I feel sad that today's youth don't experience the carefree feeling we did.
 
14 in 1976 with a bonding card that said i was 17 from my night job at the horse track and we got away with just about anything , I remember a cop stopping 2 of us with 4 cases of beer { here in Canada a 24 is a case eh } borrowed from a beer truck and asking " what is it boy's are you just under age ?" " Well yes sir but I'm close to 18" " Well then fellows get a cab so know one else sees you "" Yes sir thank-you" they didn't screw you unless you did something wrong to some one else , we got escorted home while driving drunk in those days you got the dui after you hit something not in case you might hit something , but we also fought for those rights in the early 70s there were some pretty nasty brawls with civilians and the cops so they new we demanded our freedom and if we were out of line we took what we deserved but if they were out of line they better watch there *** it gets awful dark at night and thats the difference today the nintendont generation isn't going to trick a couple of "bad cops" into chasing them down a dark alley were there buddies are waiting to **** kick em good and it didn't have to happen very often for everyone to know right is right of course when 2 guys had a problem they settled between themselves man to man with none of this getting jumped crap if it wasn't fair then maybe someone stood up for the little guy but it was still 1on1 and what happened to the drive-in ?
 
People were way more layed back in the seventies and early eighties. Everybody cruised town while sipping suds. If caught, the beers were poored on the ground and you went on your way. Kids would bring their newest guns into school to show them off and it was normal. Pocket knives were a must have, getting into bars underage was the norm, and the cost of living was cheap. I miss those years.
 
karlkafer08 said:
They start them young now days too...I remember the only things I had in my Kindergarden class were..Lincoln Logs,..Etch A Sketch...a Lite Brite...and those big Fat Pencils. We took Naps in the middle of the day and the paper you wrote on had big lines for you to write in so you couldn't mess up. Now my son is in Kindergarden and he is reading books and writing reports ...plus learning Spanish..Its this pushing of every thing that is causing the stress and the resulting teen age suicide rate to go sky high ! People need to back off, cut up all those damn credit cards, light a joint and go in the corner and play with a Rubik's Cube. Let the kids be kids...we all do stupid stuff when we are young....thats how we learn our lessons. :toothy10:
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Heh, I remember being caught up in all of that. In 6th grade I was learning pre-algebra and writing a report or making a presentation on some stupid thing almost every week. It was nuts. I've definitely "dialed back" in school and I'm trying to take it easy until I go to college, which shouldn't be too bad because I took a couple college classes (Physics 1 and part of 2 and Calc 1, 2, and 3) in high school. I agree with the "light a joint and play with a Rubik's Cube" statement; sometimes I wish my dad would do that because he's constantly stressed out from everything. Of course, I sometimes feel overshadowed because he worked so much harder than I did when he was a kid (Syrian refugee in the mid-70's) but I've come to accept that my life never was remotely similar to that.

About the parents too I have noticed that a lot of them are super protective. A lot of them seem to be really "squeemish" too; not really my parents or my friends' parents, but the families living in my neighborhood and of the kids who go to school with my little brothers. Give your kids some damn freedom and let them play with pretend guns and make fake wars and get in fights and stuff. Every kid did that 40 years ago and you don't see the majority of them being homicidal psychopaths today. Grow some balls America!!!
 
Demon and Sparky,

Ran mid 12s new. With a little 'tweaking' (modded carbs, a bunch of porting, crank worked, chambers and upgraded ignition) I could ride it to the strip, change to colder plugs and run low to mid 11s all day, change plugs and ride it home, turn signals, mirrors and all still on the bike.
A lot of it was in the launch but the top end was awesome.
I put 45k miles on it before I sold it to a friend. I am so glad that I got it back 29 years later.


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yellowdartdave: That is so cool that you got the Kawasaki back after all those years. Sure appears to be a strong runner and it's a real nostalgic looking ride.
 
Demon,
Yes it is great to have it back. The friend that I sold it to was into Brit bikes and had a habit of putting his BSA around and shifting at about anything just above an idle. He was so bad he could be in 4th gear before he cleared an intersection from a stop sign. Needless to say that he could foul the plugs on the Kaw just by looking at it....Something about a powerband that started north of 6000 rpm. It was warmed up just a bit!
I had to detune it alot and when he tore the bike down in 1978, the good parts were replaced by the stock stuff. He never put the bike back together.
The bad thing is that in the mid 80's, he moved and he says that THE WIFE thru out all the old junk. Over $500 (1973 dollars) at dealer cost worth of Kaw race heads, pistons, jugs, clutch and tranny parts went to the dump.
I have put 371 miles on it since my son and I rebuilt it frome the bare frame.
And yes, I took it home to Cincinnati and re-aggravated the neighbors. And more than a handful of them remember it from back in the day.
It does not have the old snap to it but it is a lot easier to ride. If I want to go fast, the Blackbird is a lot faster and much quieter.
 
yellowdartdave: I know how it feels to have someone throw good parts away. Happened to me years ago when I got married and moved out of my mom's place. She decided all my parts in the garage were junk and had the "junk man" take them. She even sold a '55 Olds my sister had kinda' bent up in an accident. I was planning on pulling the engine for safe keeping. I had installed a "rare" '57 J2 in that Olds. That I do miss, but life goes on. Good luck with that ride. Sure is nice.
 
Grew up in the 70's ... It was a time of freedom and fun times! BUT that being said I was in my teens It should have been fun. I'd go to work after school at the IGA food store,and then hang out with the guys & gals at the bowling alley parking lot and race Once in awhile to settle a dispute. Drag racing Saturday night at the "Hall". And getting chased by cops and being able to get away.... remember that? and Yes I believe there was even some drugs around back then. Of course always Boonesfarm and Old Milwaukee ponys. Life was fun and times where good.
The party my friends had for me when I left for the NAVY are still mentioned when we see each other. I liked the 70's But life is easier now.. because of technology.
 
Wyoduster,
Warm Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill and cold White Castles....
Excellent breakfast food for when you wake up and ya don't remember where you are or how ya got there.
 
Dave, seeing that 72 in that kind of shape brought a tear to my eyes.
It looks great. I traded mine in back in 81 for a 750 Kawasaki. I crashed that bike real bad, so much so that I can no longer ride. Still wish I had the 72, just to look at, I loved that thing. Here is a couple of poster size pics, One is from racing somewhere in Quebec and the other is after I had it tweaked and did a little customizing.

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Sparky: Another great looking "nostalgic" Kawasaki. Sure brings back memories. Sorry to hear about your crash. But you still have memories of that bike.
 
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