The good old days were pretty bad.

[Paa_Paw]

I have no idea what happened to our old Oliver orchard tractor. It disappeared while I was in the USAF.

Among the other things that vanished then were the first car I ever drove. And another which was the first I had ever bought. My Dad had a new Desoto, and I was not allowed to learn to drive in that. We also had an old (1938) Packard Limo with a 12 cylinder engine. That was the car in which I learned to drive. Too young at the time to register the car in my name, I bought a 1936 Chevy 5 window coupe. It was registered by my Dad so we could put a plate on it. None of those vehicles remained when I left the Air Force.

[hammer]

The first car I ever got to drive I put in the ditch! My ma's younger brother thought he would teach me to drive, but I had a hard time reaching the peddles and steering wheel and shift stick all at the same time! The car was a model A ford that he had just finish restoring. This was his first of many. The second was a model T that I got to help.

This uncle was the one I spent a lot of time with, other then the one on the farm. We did a lot of car swap meets and car restoring time together. later on this uncle bought a chicken farm and I help him with it. I farmed it the first year after graduation so he could focus on selling the eggs and chickens.

It may sound like I spent more time with uncles then with Dad, but Dad did a lot with us boys too! With him it was fishing, learning to hunt and mechanical work. He was a mechanical engineer. In those good old days, Dad would buy the $50.00 beater car for work, pull it into the garage and call one of his brother to help. At the end of the day they would have the old flat head 8 rebuilt and a case of beer at gone. The one car I remember the most, because I really liked it was a 55 Studebaker. Mom always got the good car of course.

I sure miss some parts of the good old days. I like to call them, the black and white days, you know, before color TV!


Bob

[Paa_Paw]

The black and white days, That is good. But for me it was photographs. We had color film, but I usually used Verichrome Pan film since the colors faded so bad. At least the Black and White image was permanent. I continued to use Black and White even when processing color was faster and cheaper.

It is odd, the black and white images were good and would last indefinately. We now are again at a point where images have the promise of permanence. Unless the file becomes corrupted. Now as then, the only way to be sure you had those images was to share them so a copy could be made.

[hammer]

I never stopped to think about the black and white photos! I did up a DVD for my Mom & Dads 55th anniversary a few years ago and the photos that I had taken myself from years gone by were black and white up to about 1969 or 1970 or so I think.

I do remember my first compact camera that was good for color film. Both my older brother and I got one for Christmas. It was a pocket 110, Kodak I believe.

As for color TV, we were the first on the block to get one, and watching Bonaza and Star Trek in color was a big deal!

[Paa_Paw]

The early years were growing up in Los Angeles. Dad Went to volunteer for the Army but they would not take him. He was too old, had too big a family, and his civilian job was too critical to wartime production.

Grandpa, a carpenter, worked for the Army building barraks. He also worked on the housing for the internment camp Manzanar.

Mom worked at Norris Stamping making munitions. Norris industries now makes restaurant equipment.

Because my Dad was on call to keep the electricity flowing to local factories we not only had a phone but we had a private line. Most people were on party lines. Also because he was a lineman and always on call he got a much more liberal Gasoline ration. My uncles Sonny (William), Bud (Gerald) and Tommy all went into the service. Sonny  went into the Army and wound up being in the group that hiked up through Italy. Bud was in the Air Corps as a gunner in a bomber stationed in England. Tommy was in the Navy serving in the Pacific. He survived 2 sinkings but went down with his third ship. Sonny got home without serious injury but he was never quite right mentally. Bud had nightmares which gradually went away. All are long gone now.

After the war, We were the first family on the block to have a TV. It had a small round picture tube that produced a picture not much amore than 6 inches wide. It had rows and rows of tubes that put out so much heat that we would only have it on for an hour or two on summer evenings. Even in winter it put out so much heat that if we were watching TV the front door would almost always be wide open. All three channels went to a test pattern after 10 PM or went dark,

The good old days were pretty bad. fortunately we really only remember the good stuff.

[hammer]

Yes, you are right about the remembering the good stuff Paa_Paw!

The old cars that I was talking about needed rebuilt engines so much sooner then are cars today. And  just look at the spark plugs today! I didn't need to replace the ones in my 95 dodge van until after I had over 100,000 miles on it.

A private phone line. Down on the farm they all still had party lines but in town we had private when I was a kid.

I had 4 uncles in WWII. The one that I stayed with on the farm was there all 4 years. he started in north Africa and also hiked up through Italy and was shot once in the butt digging a guy out of a fox hole that he got buried alive in, both survived! One that was in England Army Air Corp, One that fought in the battle off the bulge, shot in the leg, and died in 65 due to problems of the wound. the last uncle was a Marine in the South Pacific, and he never got wounded, but you know the crape the he saw. They all are gone now.

My Dad served in the Army, Korea 1951-1953 motor pool Sargent.     

[Paa_Paw]

My older brother served in Korea. He was in the National Guard when they were called up to active service. I was much too young. I graduated from High School in 1955 and went into the Air Force in August of that year. I was a medic. First assigned to the Hospital at Maxwell AFB in Ala. Then to Orly, Paris, France for a year. Then Ramstein Landstuhl in Germany for two years. Dyess AFB, Abilene, Texas. Wheelus AFB, Tripoli, Libya. Back to Dyess AFB and got out in Dec. of 1963. What good fortune, I served over 8 years and missed both Korea and Viet Nam. That is not to say that there were not some trying times, but not in time of war.

What you said about the older cars would be difficult for a younger person to accept these days. It was rare for cars to get much over 80,000 miles on an engine without a major overhaul. Now it is not uncommon for an engine to have over 300,000 miles on it and still be running strong. My sons wondered at the fact that the old Packard had a 12 cylinder engine and presumed that it must have been incredibly powerful. The engine actually had no more displacement than a big V8, The large number of cylinders produced an engine that was incredibly smooth in operation though. One oddity was the fact that the Packard Limo was referred to as a 7 passenger car even though it would actually seat 8 people. The driver did not count as a passenger.

[hammer]

my 1st car was a 65 dodge cornet (not sure of the spelling). Mom and Dad bought it new, and the day I turned 16, Jan 74, I passed my test, I got a 98 (been driving since age 13 on the farm), paid Mom And Dad for the car and my first six months of insurance. I am still with the same insurance company today, 5 vehicles and the house with them.

Didn't we need to do the points and plugs about every three to four thousand miles or so on the old cars, I am having trouble remember that.

My 95 dodge van didn't need anything but brakes and tires before the 100,000 miles. I didn't even need to touch the exhaust system until I hit 110,000!

[Paa_Paw]

I don't think it was all that bad, seems to me that you might be able to get close to 10,000 Miles on a tune up.

My pickup is a Mazda B2500. It is actually made in the US and is simply a rebadged Ford Ranger. It now has over 280,000 Miles on it. The timing belt has been replaced twice and it got new plugs each time. The front brake pads were replaced once, Back brakes are still original. It came with a set of Michilin tires that went 120,000 miles. None of this would have been possible 50 years ago.

[hammer]

Yep, you are right, but how did you get so many miles on those brakes? You just must go, go, go and never stop! LOL

The Chevy Astro my oldest daughter is driving has 276,000 miles on it, but the head gasket is bad along with other things. The van is mine that I was providing while she was in collage, however she is a senior so she applied for a loan to get her own car, and it has been approved. So once she has the money in hand we have to go car hunting. I will help with insurance until she graduates.

Some of the cars that we think are not made here are, and the ones like Dodge or Ford are not made here. We have a Toyota that was made here in the states. My youngest drives that one, and Debbie has a 2005 Dodge Dakota 4X4 that we bought new, but it was a demo so a lot of money was knocked off.

[Paa_Paw]

High mileage and low wear comes just as you thought. I rarely touched the brake pedal. I averaged about a thousand miles a week. Obviously some days I did not leave home and other days I might use over a tank of gas each way to a service call. Leaving home with a full tank of gas and stopping only to fill up again is not hard on a vehicle. Going 120 thou on a set of tires could be explained the same way. Relatively few starts and stops; Graded highway curves were the rule and a corner in town was the exception. What is to wear the tires and brakes under those terms? I rolled the truck off the dealer's lot in Redlands Ca. On a Thursday. Friday of the following week I stopped at the dealer's shop for an oil change. "After only one week? Where have you been?" "Miami, Florida" was my response.

[hammer]

So many people think it is great to get the car with few miles on that the little old lady drive to church and back! The truth is that car is full of carbon, and the car with high miles from the traveling salesman will be much better if they are highway miles.