Category Archives: Cars

One man’s car is another man’s low rider

She just walked away from it. It was 1956 and my 18-year-old oldest sister parked her 1937 Ford sedan in our back yard and she never drove it again. Never mind it was almost twenty years old and her very first car. A dusty relic far as she was concerned. A rolling museum antique. ManyContinue reading “One man’s car is another man’s low rider”

We need to stop making more cars.

  The year of the embargo. The price per gallon went from 29-cents to 59-cents almost overnight.  The year was 1973 and we were living in Hawaii.  Our favorite place to fill up our 1963 Plymouth Valiant with regular gasoline was at the Penny automotive center just down the street and above Peral harbor.  BackContinue reading “We need to stop making more cars.”

He will do anything for popcorn.

  Then there was Rickles another Yellow Lab. A dog who wrote the book on pleasing.  He loved to please most anyone in his presents.  He would do almost anything to get a scratch behind the ear.  But he would fall to the ground to keep from getting his ears swabbed out.  He couldn’t flattenContinue reading “He will do anything for popcorn.”

Stay on your side of the car. You’re touching me.

Our August vacations 1950 to 1963. Being the low man on the vacation totem pole my dad got his vacation time off in August. The hottest month of the year. Most of our annual vacations were driving to Oklahoma from Los Angeles. This was pre-Interstate on the southern route going through Yuma through southern Arizona,Continue reading “Stay on your side of the car. You’re touching me.”

If I were a car, I’d be a Beetle.

Automobile manufacturers! Do this! First a bit about my car and my thrifty background. The most fun I ever had driving any vehicle was back in my college years living in Los Angeles. Spring 1967 up to my first real job in 1969. Driving a car by the seat of the pants and mostly handsContinue reading “If I were a car, I’d be a Beetle.”

Fill it up and check my tire pressure.

Fill’er up Joe. It was a tall clear glass cylinder about two-feet tall and about 15-inches across with lined markings, Markings representing one gallon each mark. The heavy glass cylinder sat on a round red metal frame with a long handle parallel to the metal and glass tank. If you pump the handle a redContinue reading “Fill it up and check my tire pressure.”

Driving into the future 1956.

Motoring into the future 1956 GM Motorama was a live presentation I and others attended and saw in Los Angeles at the spacious Pan Pacific auditorium. It was an auto show displaying all of General Motors’ current cars and trucks. Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Cadillac, GMC and more. Plus, some of GM’s plans for theContinue reading “Driving into the future 1956.”

You should see this at least once.

January 1, 1999 Pasadena California. I was invited by the City of Pasadena, along with five other guests to sit in the front row at the curb to view the annual Tournament of Roses parade. This was offered to visually impaired and family. So, Ronda, her sister and brother-in-law, our youngest daughter and a friend,Continue reading “You should see this at least once.”

What’s the matter with L A.

L A is a great big freeway. Growing up in Los Angeles in the 1950s I witnessed the excavation and construction of some of the first so-called Freeways in southern California. However, the first real freeway was constructed about the same time I was born and it went into service just after that. An uninterruptedContinue reading “What’s the matter with L A.”

You can have your Mercedes or Lan Rovers. However I will take an old VW bug any day.

I had owned and drove with great pleasure two VW beetles. Drove them during my college and early working careers. Oh, so fun to drive. My first VW beetle was a 1958 with the small oval rear window. The headliner was a bit torn but the rest of the car worked including its radio. WhatContinue reading “You can have your Mercedes or Lan Rovers. However I will take an old VW bug any day.”