For those "youngsters" out there from us over 40

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rock em' sock em' robots and stove top jiffy pop."we" had our mopars but , when i was 10 ,my neighbors brought home a brand new 1977 dodge charger daytona. man that car still burns in my memories.how could we forget curious george, pixi sticks and bomb pops lol, ya , its the little things in life.in my day, Atari was the closest thing to the technology we have today and that wasnt until later when i was in my mid teens
 
I'm 56 and didn't have apaying job till I was out of high school.
You see, we lived in northern snow country out of town on a fair big peice of property where there was no natural gas or even propane delivery.
My after school time was spent splitting wood for the fireplace and the woodstove in the kitchen that my mom cooked on, then carrying about a 1/3 cord into the closed in porch area every evening.
There was a pencil line on the wall that my Dad said the wood stack had to be up to every night.
When he got off work and came home at 11pm and the wood was short of that line (AT ALL) he would get me out of bed and I would have to go out in 2-3 feet of snow to finish it.
Weekends in the warmer part of the year were spent out in the woods cutting and loading it on a two ton Chevy flatbed truck with 8 foot siderails, and I would ride back down out of the mountains on top of that load of wood with the chainsaws.
At 13 my dad bought me a 12 inch bar chainsaw so I didn't have to use an axe anymore to clear the limbs of the trees he was cutting up.
By the time I was 16 or so, I knew how to use every tractor, caterpillar, car, truck and tool we owned.
At 14 if it snowed too much that day I would have to go out at 10pm and start a small fire under the cat crankcase to warm the oil so I could get it started, and then drive it down to the paved road and wait for my Dad so I could drag his car through the snow back to the house.

Yea, kids today don't have a clue.
 
TV barely existed in my world, just an old black and white with rabbit ears. We got all of one channel clearly and occasionally a 2nd one snowy but watchable because you were desperate :banghead:

Years later they invented color TV's but only the rich had them, I had a rich friend so I got to watch there but thinking back it was terrible, all super bright neon colors. Still it was a treat :D
 
Seeing The Wizard of Oz in color for the first time was a trip.
The original was black and white.
 
We didnt have color TV until the late 70's or cable until the late 90's and I remember my Mom dragging us out to look at the first Amana Radar Range that came out.We all stood there watching the salesman heat a cup of coffe in less than a minute as we gawked with awe and amazement. Gas was about a quarter and we would cut peoples grass for $1 a yard with a big old heavy Bunton pushmower(that my Dad still has because the crap they made back then would last) I remember when the first Gemini capsule was launched we stood out behind my cousins house in Alabama and could watch it fly across the sky with your naked eye. But probably the best thing about coming of age in the 70's(besides the fact that the ladies grew up in that Free Love generation)was that when gas got up to 70 cents a gallon people freaked out and started dumping all them old musclecars for almost nothing. You could buy some of the most awesome equipment ever produced for hundreds of dollars. And when the police caught you out under age and driving drunk they would follow you home to make sure you didnt kill anybody. Any kid could walk into a fireworks stand and buy explosives so powerful that they would dismember you if you screwed up and last but not least you could walk into a store and buy a machine gun...Wasnt America great!
 
flipper said:
Yeah I bet they don't even know what a three on the tree is,no microwaves or slushies either.
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I was taking bets a couple years ago in high school that my friends wouldn't know how to put my dart in gear lol. I'd get in it and start it and then be like if you can pull it in to the parking spot in front of you ill give you five bucks but if u cant u give me five.
 
I'm one of those youngsters who knows a bit about what you guys are saying.

I'm in my 20's and I spent my childhood working for the stuff I wanted. I also have fond memories of older vehicles. Try explaining a 2-Speed Rear to someone my age, it doesn't work out so well :D I drove a '55 Cheby dumptruck for my grandfather, 4-Speed with a 2-Speed rear axle, manual brakes, manual steering. My friends just couldn't grasp the concept of shifting a rear axle while shifting the transmission too :D

Spent a summer driving a D100 with a 3 on the Tree... Carried a large screwdriver with me, because the beast liked to jam between gears at redlights :eek:ops:

explaining the purpose of 1st Gear / Low on a NP435 doesn't work so well either. "I thought you said this was a 4-speed? Why is there only 3 gears?" "1st is for heavy loads and steep hills..." "I don't get it." :eek:ops:

or a manual shift kit... that one confuses most of my friends. :D

Learned to drive a stick when I was 10 or 11, My dad threw me the keys to his dumptruck and said. "Plow the snow off the driveway, I'm going back inside where its warm... Don't hit anything!" :D
 
I remember when my daughter was younger(she's now 23 and she's my youngest) asking me "hey dad,why do they say dialing the phone?" I then realized that she had never seen a phone with a dial on it!!! By the way, I too was born in 1959.
 
I'm 42 and 15 years older than my youngest sister,who when she got her lisecnse my daddy got her a 66 mustang 6cy.She comes running in with way to much excitemnet and giddyness and says to me :director:"YA'LL NEVER GUESS WHERE THE HEADLIGHT SWITCH IS......IT'S IN THE FLOOR" I calmly reply yeahhhhh I'm not that young that I dont know that.In 1990 i bought a 84 daytona which was the first car I owned with the headlight switch on the blinker arm.Man that took some getting used to didn't it.
 
mopar410 said:
I'm 42 and 15 years older than my youngest sister,who when she got her lisecnse my daddy got her a 66 mustang 6cy.She comes running in with way to much excitemnet and giddyness and says to me :director:"YA'LL NEVER GUESS WHERE THE HEADLIGHT SWITCH IS......IT'S IN THE FLOOR" I calmly reply yeahhhhh I'm not that young that I dont know that.In 1990 i bought a 84 daytona which was the first car I owned with the headlight switch on the blinker arm.Man that took some getting used to didn't it.
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wow, small world. i bought an 84 charger 2.2. first car i ever had with the light switch on the signal arm. i never got used to it lol
 
73AbodEE said:
wow, small world. i bought an 84 charger 2.2. first car i ever had with the light switch on the signal arm. i never got used to it lol
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I had an '84 D50. Light switch was on the stalk too. Light function on the stalk failed (and the assembly cost more than what I had in the truck). So I installed a Foot Switch & Push/Pull Switch from an older Dodge truck instead.
 
when i was 9 years old i was baiting 1000 hooks of long line trawl gear a day and pullin guts out of cod fish for fun and had 2 years experience. 25 bucks a day and that was big money for the day . and loved it
 
73AbodEE said:
wow, small world. i bought an 84 charger 2.2. first car i ever had with the light switch on the signal arm. i never got used to it lol
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He he I remember bright lighting cars all the time because I would automaticly by stomping the floor as they passed.
 
CudaChick1968 said:
Three on the tree?? Heck, pretty soon you'll start hearing "What's a carburetor?"
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It'll be a cold day in hell before my kid has to ask anyone, but me what a carburetor is. at that very point in time I'm gonna put a thermoquad in her lap with an instruction sheet and tools and tell her to find out! lol I'll help her of course

As for being spoiled, my parents didnt have the money to spoil me. at 24, ive worked my *** off for almost everything ive had in life and im dang proud to say that.
 
And back then "Made in USA" meant something - quality.

And Schwinns were made in Chicago and lasted a long time - not Japan and break the third time you ride them.

And you were brought up to treat other people's stuff BETTER THAN YOUR OWN.

And people actually RESPECTED COPS.

And when parents got a divorce society looked down on them - now it is a common everyday thing...

It was also looked down upon to have a baby when you weren't married.

You had a choice of regular or unleaded gas for under 75 cents per gallon. Today's kids never heard of regular leaded gas.

And gas stations had full service pumps where the guy would pump your gas and check your oil and tire pressure.

You could get your car repaired at a gas station. Gas stations were not "food marts".

And the old "drive in theater" where you would hide 3 - 4 buddies in the trunk to get them in for free.

When someone's dad "wooped his ***" with a leather belt and it took 3 days to a week for it to heal enough to sit down again - he NEVER did that again.

And NASCAR actually used cars like the ones you could buy in a dealership showroom.
 
And what about only getting gas on even or odd days and running out sitting in the 2 block line to the gas station,Hell my first radio was an AM only radio that I got for my 13th birthday ,my mom got it by saving "green stamps".
Blue chip stamps came later.If you were forunate to go to Disneyland you could go on an E ticket ride. I still use that term today and my kids think Im crazy.

Yea ,being born in the 50s was a hoot and yes I did say "a hoot"


Bob
 
MVRCorp said:
If you are 36, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways...yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of forty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

1) I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

2) There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

3) Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ***! Nowhere was safe!

4) There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

5) Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

6) We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

7) There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

8) And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

9) We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen.. Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

10) You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your *** and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

11) There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!

12) And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!



13) And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!




And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!




See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1970 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 40 Crowd
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Hilarious. Make me feel...OLD, LOL!

1) Speaking of no internet, do you remember having to order your parts by catalog over the phone? Or walking into a speed shop like Vic Hubbard's or Super Shops? Swap meets were your best friend...and they were small back in the day.

2) If you needed a typed letter, you used typewriter. What a pain that was. There was no delete button so if you meesed up, you either had to use white out, and then line the paper back up with the typewriter or start over altogether.

3) Also, parent were allowed to use weapons like switches and stuff back then.

7) No cell phones, but we did have pagers. Which meant you had to find a pay phone to call someone back. Do they still have telephone booths anywhere nowadays?

8) I remember when caller ID came out. Not shortly after, caller ID BLOCK came out. WTH!

No DVD's back then either. You were watching VHS movies and the term Hi-Def was non-existent.
 
Motor oil came in cardboard cans.

Cool cars were cheap and they were our daily drivers. Just look in the classified ads section of the newspaper.
 
full service gas stations. cassette tapes LMAO. white out? do they still use that stuff? metal lunch boxes. sears catalogs. nickel and dime stores. bias ply tires. TV dinners in tinfoil trays. a TV guide ..WTF is that ?
 
Ah,those were the days! With the remaining brain cells I have kept since then the 60's-70's were much better than things are now.Didn't have much growing up(material things) but our family was really close-we did things together-as a family.I remember the cars we are restoring now weren't even on the street then and I got to watch the Superbirds,Daytona's,Cuda's,Swingers driving around my city when they first appeared.My first "job" paid $80.00 a week for unlimited hrs. or a new pair of jeans nowa days.Turn 55 this year and have alot of great memories when I was growing up,damn I'm older than my project car.Guess I'm kinda of an antique too.
 
The first year or so I can remember (about 4) our house had running water to ONE poor sink in the kitchen, no bathroom and no toilet Yup. "outhouse." Dad and Gramps added to the house before I was 6 (when we moved out) and put in a bath, sewer, and better kitchen.

My Mom's parents did not have bathroom, toilet, or even running water until I was 12 or 13, ditto the refrigerator, they had an ICEBOX

My Great Uncle came to live out his life with them and had enough money from the sale of his farm, he paid for an addition to the house, a bathroom, and a deep well. My Mom, Dad, and her sister and husband bought Gramma and Grampa a refrigerator for Christmas the same year.

We burned wood, put in a coal furnace when I was in Jr. Hi school, Dad put in oil head after I went to the Navy in 68, and later, natural gas. So that old chimney has had a LOT of different fuels through it.

Our tractor through much of my growin' up was an old "Farmall Regular" with electric start, hydraulic blade, and a "buzz saw rig" all added by my Dad

These photos were taken in 2002, STILL RUNNING!!! shortly before we sold the old girl. The hydraulics have been removed, and the flywheel ring was stripped, I had to hand crank 'er, just like when she was born about 1928

21mucls.jpg


10xu8op.jpg
 
Lol, I'll be 61 next week. What mvr said; except 39- nada. Seat belts? My mother, in the dark and rain, nailed that damn telephone pole with the 51 Chebby trick. My azz bit the metal dash; I still have that broken off front tooth.
Outhouses? been there. No tv? been there. Lived with grand parents while parents saving $ to build a house-2 story, heat came from the wood burning stove, used for cooking, that grandmother would get up at 4 am, to restoke it, 24/7 . About 1964, I got my first radio, 12 transister, with an ear plug. Holy crap, what a neat thing. Then the Beatles, etc; would fall asleep with that plug in my ear.

Then several weeks ago, took the 69 Charger to the dyno; owner said he was the only one in there that could deal with a carb (wrong, we figured it out later), but the young guys in there- lost, no clue about even how to adjust anything.

I'm glad I was born in 1951, I was taught to work early age, like 8, and got to be in all the old serious street dragging.
 
CudaChick1968 said:
Three on the tree?? Heck, pretty soon you'll start hearing "What's a carburetor?"
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i had that happen allready.2003 training a young man right out of high school at a dodge dealer,told to pull in 86 dodge 150 for trans problem...it was cold out.he comes back with out the truck.he said it will not start.i asked did you set the choke ? he said whats a choke ?
 
flipper said:
Yeah I bet they don't even know what a three on the tree is,no microwaves or slushies either.
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A three on the tree is a 3 speed manual tranny colum shifted and um im only 13 so some of us "youngsters" know what it is.
 
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