Official Old Fart Thread!

[HDRock]

My first car. 1952 Plymouth

We had one of those when I was a kid ,it was brown in color



I pushed an Ice Cream Cart for a couple of seasons, when I was a teen, to make some money, any one ever see them any more
I haven't seen any in a long time

Us kids made out good picking up empty's.
The next street over was a dead end street , it was a party spot at the end, we would take our wagons and fill them over and over with returnable bottles.
The half mile long dirt road was also littered on both sides in the ditches with empty's ,deposit was 2 cents

 

[Paulywalnut]

I remember no seatbelts in cars. I rode standing next to my dad with my arm around him when he was driving. That was with metal dashboards.
Stopping quickly and banging your head was common place but we survived. My favorite place was to lay up under the back window above the back seat.
That was real cool.

 

[WeldrDave]

I remember no seatbelts in cars. I rode standing next to my dad with my arm around him when he was driving. That was with metal dashboards. Stopping quickly and banging your head was common place but we survived. My favorite place was to lay up under the back window above the back seat. That was real cool.

That's when cars were made of real steel, not chrome painted plastic. The first car I remember us having seat belts in was a 1969 pontiac bonneville. "What a battleship"...

 

[Paulywalnut]

That's when cars were made of real steel, not chrome painted plastic. The first car I remember us having seat belts in was a 1969 pontiac bonneville. "What a battleship"...

My parents got a 67 Plymouth fury with lap belts that they stuffed down into the front seat never to be seen again.
.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

And let's not forget the Burma Shave signs. I was still young when they went out.

 

[begreen]

That's when cars were made of real steel, not chrome painted plastic. The first car I remember us having seat belts in was a 1969 pontiac bonneville. "What a battleship"...

First for me was a '67 Barracuda.

 

[fossil]

~1967, my best friend's mom insisted that we go into Tahoe City and find a set of seat belts to retrofit my '55 Chevy before she'd let us drive back down out of the mountains from Tahoe to the Bay Area. The story of why (what happened on the way up) is too long to relate here. So, that was my first car with seat belts.

 

[Ashful]

All my cars had seat belts growing up, but we never wore them (perhaps outside of a big trip on the interstate) before 1985. That was the year I was hit by a car, and we all started wearing seat belts after that incident. I think there were some advertising pushes around that time, because I remember a lot of folks who never wore them, starting to about that time.

 

[HDRock]

First car was ,1960 chevy bel air, black.
Did not look any where near this good , It was a Party Car, paid $125.00 for it in 1970, gas was 19 cents a gallon
When the tranny went out , I traded my Schwinn Sting Ray Bicycle for a tranny, the guy wanted the bike for his son.
When the tranny went out ,I still had reverse, I drove that car 4 mi backwards, stop lights and 2 left turns, no bull

 

[BrotherBart]

And let's not forget the Burma Shave signs. I was still young when they went out.

 

[WeldrDave]

And let's not forget the Burma Shave signs. I was still young when they went out.

Wow, I had forgotten that...... I was a very "young kid" but I remember one about "Cupid and a girl" I think? Help me out here.......

 

[BrotherBart]

In Cupid's little
Bag of trix
Here's the one
That clix
With chix
Burma Shave

 

[Jack Straw]

This what my grandmother used to wash clothes, how dangerous was that!

My grandma cleaned the house on Mondays and Wednesdays, Tuesday was clothes washing day and Friday was for buying groceries. I'm not sure what she did on Thursday, maybe baked?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

That washing machine looks much newer than the ones we had. Even when my wife and I got married (51 years ago today) she had a wringer washer and a solar clothes drier.


How about looking back to the time when we planted corn 2 rows at a time and picked it (not shelled) one row at a time. That is scary compared to today's machines.

 

[Ashful]

Happy anniversary, Dennis!

 

[WeldrDave]

(51 years ago today)

Congrats ....

 

[Jags]

Ya had to kick start my grandmothers ringer washer.

(Happy anniversary, Dennis.)

 

[begreen]

What she didn't have to go down to the river and beat it on the rocks?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Think about bicycles. When I was a little boy all the bikes were basically the same. Then along came the 3 speed English bikes and wow! Many years later I saw a 10 speed and could hardly believe it. I also could hardly believe how the handlebars looked. I thought it was foolish until I rode one. That was an awakening. Now today there are so many styles out there it is amazing. Here are a couple of my bikes that I ride today.

 

[Retired Guy]

I remember when women didn't wear bras!


But, realistically, not too much has really changed. We went on vacation on jet aircraft when I was a kid, drove in cars with AC and automatic transmissions and made phone calls. Cable TV even came along when I was in my mid to late teens!

The biggest change, IMHO, is in communication, specifically the internet and other networks.

8-tracks sounded great! I'll bet a decent one still does. I remember my buddy firing up the 8-track with the Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" and telling me how all the tracks were laid down...

We had $60 Harmony Electric guitars when I was a tween...my bro still has his and uses it regularly!

When I was a kid in upstate NY heaters were an option in cars and the wipers worked from vacuum motors that stalled when you accelerated.

This list proves that you are not an old fart.

 

[WeldrDave]

This list proves that you are not an old fart.

I agree I'm definatly not the oldest fart here, but I can still out work the 20 somethings I have working for me. Ive been active duty longer than they have been alive, and you should here them whine and cry..... I have banned cell phone use "during" working hrs, That absolutely kills them....They have no idea what it is to do a honest days work.

 

[webbie]

A difficult part of oldfartness is getting used to the reduced value of money. My dad is pretty cheap...in some ways. His dad was even cheaper, and the story there was that he would pick a penny out of a urinal...

So, here it is 2013 and I find myself thinking 20, 50 or even 100 dollars is a lot of money. But it's not. Yet it's almost impossible to adjust my thinking. Seriously!!

On one hand, this is a good thing. It drives me to incredible levels of thrift and savings. When our refrigerator started dumping puddles on the ground a couple weeks ago, I should have just called the repair guy. But it would have probably been $150-$200. So I did all my internet research and found some frozen blueberries clogging the defrost drain.

I know I need to reframe my monetary thinking, but can't figure out an easy formula to do so. For instance, it would be easy to just 1/2 or double the value - that is, think of $10 as $5, etc. - but that's not steep enough. On the other hand, doing it by decimal poins is too much - that is, thinking of $100 like $10 is probably going too far.

I don't want to turn into a cheap old fool (from the current cheap upper-middle aged one).....so I am on a quest to better understand the current value of a buck. Maybe it would be good to think of a $50 as a $20? Or maybe go as far as thinking of a $5 bill as $1??

 

[Retired Guy]

A difficult part of oldfartness is getting used to the reduced value of money. My dad is pretty cheap...in some ways. His dad was even cheaper, and the story there was that he would pick a penny out of a urinal...

So, here it is 2013 and I find myself thinking 20, 50 or even 100 dollars is a lot of money. But it's not. Yet it's almost impossible to adjust my thinking. Seriously!!

On one hand, this is a good thing. It drives me to incredible levels of thrift and savings. When our refrigerator started dumping puddles on the ground a couple weeks ago, I should have just called the repair guy. But it would have probably been $150-$200. So I did all my internet research and found some frozen blueberries clogging the defrost drain.

I know I need to reframe my monetary thinking, but can't figure out an easy formula to do so. For instance, it would be easy to just 1/2 or double the value - that is, think of $10 as $5, etc. - but that's not steep enough. On the other hand, doing it by decimal poins is too much - that is, thinking of $100 like $10 is probably going too far.

I don't want to turn into a cheap old fool (from the current cheap upper-middle aged one).....so I am on a quest to better understand the current value of a buck. Maybe it would be good to think of a $50 as a $20? Or maybe go as far as thinking of a $5 bill as $1??

A six of domestic beer should cost $1.25 in my monetary frame, but it costs about 8X that. So to get the RG value I just divide the current price by 8 to fit into my mind.

 

[WeldrDave]

A six of domestic beer should cost $1.25 in my monetary frame, but it costs about 8X that. So to get the RG value I just divide the current price by 8 to fit into my mind.​

And you are "RIGHT" on the mark with that, example..... when that six pack was $1.25, a pickup truck was about $4000.00, now Beer, $8.00 a sixpack, Pickup $32,000

 

[begreen]

I can remember seeing gas for $0.10/gallon in Texas. I'll bet BB saw it even lower.