Some Vintage Goodness

Here's the good news!

JC Whitney - Auto Parts and Car Culture

 

This name came up at my work maybe a month or two ago , we did a quick search to see what the status was and surprised they still exist.

 

As I think back to when I was a kid and things were so much different. Lets see...............

Rotary phones and pay phones
Leaded gas
Riding in the back seat of the family station wagon."all the way in the back and yes , no seat belt".
Actually playing outside , Mom wanted us home when the street lights came on.
I know the Sears catalog was mentioned but the Christmas wish book was great.
The game " Mouse Trap"
SSP cars ; the ones that had a geared pull cord on a flywheel.
Evil Kenevil stunt cycle.
Cox gas powered cars and planes.

..............and the list goes on.

As I think back and realize how things have changed.
I don't care what anyone says " We did grow up during one of the best times" and have been through it all.

 

I agree 100% bud. We were gone all day in the woods, or on our bikes, with several other neighbor kids that lived up to 2 miles away. We could be anywhere from the back yard to 5 miles away playing in a creek under a bridge catching crayfish ect. Those were some of the best times of my life.

 

We used milk crates and boards to jump our BMX bikes too. The horror....

Rode in the bed of a truck, on the highway even.

 

Same here , and we both survived.
Come on , the "Subaru Brat" was sold with seats in the back. I wonder how that would fly today?

 

I bolted a bench seat in the bed of my 84 ranger, up against the cab like the brat. Friends rode back there all the time. Early 90's we were still able to do so.

 

We have a rotary Mickey Mouse phone. Was a wedding gift from 1980. It still works answering calls. It times out when dialing out.

 

Well I’ll be danged

 

Yeah , That was sort of our reaction as well. Haven't heard that name for years prior to that.

 

And they might have been a metal milk-crate?

 

Some were yes. Lol

 

Cox airplanes were great. No telling how many I went through. Let us not forget Estes rockets, how cool are they? I remember my older brothers getting chemistry sets and they actually contained some good chemicals to do some legit experiments. Not any more, chemistry sets today contain crap to do pansy experiments that are guaranteed safe. Where’s the fun in that?
X 2 on Mouse Trap, loved that game.

 

I had a couple cox nitro cars and testors version too. One cox was radio control. I still have a couple estes rockets, one never launched yet. I have a cox helicopter hanging in my hobby room too. Lol

 

Solo with a .22 or a fishing pole I could be anywhere but I had a couple ponds I frequented, some I even had permission for.

As I got older between horses, hounds, hunting and rodeo dad was happy if he knew when I would be home and what state I was in! More than once I called, gone to Texas to go fishing, taking horses to Wyoming for a packing trip, I wanted to go snow skiing and the boss is paying my fuel if I would deliver a horse to Colorado on my way.

 

JC Whitney was great reading. How they got away so long with those illustrations instead of photos for so long I don't know. I would imagine how it would be and finally get it and just ugh. I remember my dad bought a tool kit and he was so excited to get it. The wrenches were made of sheet metal and very short. Completely useless. Some of the stuff they sold was okay to good, but back then there was no way to know!

 

Exactly. My BMX bike was my ticket to freedom. I could go several miles away. I grew up on the edge of suburbia. Farm land was transitioning to housing developments. We made a BMX track where a developer dumped many dump truck loads of fill dirt that created 6' tall mounds. The track went up and down these mounds in a circle. We all borrowed our fathers shovels to make whoops, berms and ramps. Endless fun. That area was next to a bull pasture but we knew how to get around it. Our parents did not. It was perfect.

 

You got that right. I rode my bike everywhere. We were full in the country. Dirt roads and a corner store that sold fanta pop, soda for the rest of the world, and cheese under a big glass lid that they would cut and sell by the ounce. Big ole yella wheel of cheese. John Tompson's store was its name. Digging up some fond memories now.

 

Would have guessed that Summit Racing (or someone like that) would have bought them up by now...