Thread: Am I the only teen who envies.....

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I've been in and around drag racing since '59 and IMHO bracket racing killed drag racing. I was in So. California in the '60's and you couldn't beat Lion's, Irwindale, OCIR, Fontana, Carlsbad, Bakersfield, and Pamona. There was always good racing on Friday and Saturday nights and the AA/FA's generally stole the show.

The riots you guys are talking about happened all over, and while they were supposedly for some worthwhile purpose, the bottom line is they were senseless and counterproductive for the people who orchastrated them.

I lived in Pittsburgh, Pa. at that time, and was starting my Credit career as a Collector for a local finance company. Part of my territory was the "Hill District" of town. It was predominantly black, and the TV series "Hill Street Blues" was derived from this area. (Steven Botchko lived in Pittsburgh at one time)

Prior to the riots, I could walk the streets up there safely, and had a great relationship with all of my accounts, even though I was there to collect money from them, and was a white guy. Many times I would have a drink at the end of the day with one of the families, or even sit down for a bite to eat. They were just hard working, nice people. Then the riots came, and things did a 180 flip.

No longer could I go up there, as I was robbed twice at gun point, so we had to hire a black man to run that route. Businesses by and large drew a circle around the area and cut it off from doing business with those people, all because a small percentage of the population chose to participate in the riots and the following events. It was a really bad time, and soured a lot of people on blacks, as a whole, when it was only this small percentage who created the situation.

I know there were pockets in the country where discrimination was a terrible thing, but I don't think every town was this way. Maybe being white I didn't see it, but I grew up and went to a school that was 50/50, and we thought of the blacks as just another student.

When I saw the '60's riots and the others, like the Rodney King riots, it makes me feel like a few people decided it was time to get a new color TV, and this was a great way to get one. Plus, how does burning down your own neighborhood accomplish anything? All it does is put the good, hardworking people out of a job.

Maybe I am missing the big picture.


Don

your not alone, modern day sucks, the cars are lame, the culture is not cool at all, we have hondas and gangster rappers all over the place these days,i would love to be this age in the 1960s instead of the 2000's. it would still be worth it even with the risk of being drafted and the lack of civil rights.

I would much rather live in the 60's everything about it is better than the 2000's. I'm only 21 and all the older people me and my friend (Same age, who's got my old 283 bored to a 292 and stuffing it in a '82 Datsun 280Z!!!) have come to know and talk with tell us all their stories and knowledge make us both jealous. Though me and clay may never even know what it was really like.. we pine for those days. No computers, no gangsters, no shootings, just common sense, self-sufficiency, and simplicity.

Me and Clay look at everything and scoff at it saying "You know. I bet you back in the 60's/50's [subject] wasn't as complicated as they made it. I wish we could be there today."

I really wish I did live in the 50's and 60's. :/

Thanks for the responses guys. That dragster pullin a wheelie reminded of this pic of Nanook pullin all 4 wheels in the air..... I love how the throttle butterflies are closed.

I hope Awful Awful Fuel Altereds doesnt sue me for rippin their pic.

love that pick talk about biting off more than you can chew.
were just int he process of starting a outlaw track wont be quite like the 50s or 60s but it will be on a airstrip and we are only charging 5.00 a head to start with for fans. i will do my best to imitate a 50s rod with my limited traction bucket on 10 inch street tires

Originally Posted by canadianal

love that pick talk about biting off more than you can chew.
were just int he process of starting a outlaw track wont be quite like the 50s or 60s but it will be on a airstrip and we are only charging 5.00 a head to start with for fans. i will do my best to imitate a 50s rod with my limited traction bucket on 10 inch street tires

Wheres Waldeck? Germany?

hay piece your close waldeck means wooded corner , i am surrounded by germans who still speak german as this is mennonite and hutterite country, i also am of german heritage, but i anit in germany
waldeck is a small village in southwest saskatchewan approx 120 miles north of the us border above montana. it is a desolate treeless country with cold winters hot summers and good hunting. we have mucho oil though and also live in the province with the only socialist government in north america which is good in some ways but not in others.
got a car what kind etc.

The riots of the 60's always remind me of the old saying, "desperate times demand desperate measures". The frustration and turmoil of the 60's was a great example of it. I don't claim to understand all the reasons, but I do understand how they can happen..... Unfortunately the bad element turned whatever the reasons were into selfish reasons and the robbing and looting became the focal point.

All in all I believe the 60's were great, we had very good times and very bad times. Hot Rodding was great!!! When you think back on all the innovations and new equipment that hit the market throughout the 60's and 70's I think it was very exciting just to be living in the middle of it.....

Paper, you MAY be the only one since only us ol' coots is respondin'!!


I think that lots of folks can romanticize about whenever their youth was, but since there's so many of us that grew up in that era our tales of yore seem to dominate at this point in time.

Having said that, I don't think cruizin' like we did will ever happen again, and was never to the degree we enjoyed before then either. Living in the So Cal scene it was tops. Van Nuys blvd, Hollywood Blvd, Bob's Toluca Lake, a little tire turnin' action out by Forrest Lawn Cemetary........Down the street from Bob's on Van Nuys was Mashak Motors with the tan A990 Plymouth for sale on the show room floor (the inspiration for the Dodge I'm buildin'). Jim, the Rocketdyne engineer around the corner, and his new Shelby GT 350. Sundays at San Fernando and Flamin' Frank Pedregon literally lighting the tires (with a little help from gasoline )......see picture below. No dance (sock hop?) was complete without "Louie, Louie".

Having grown up as a pre-teen in Chicago, and as a teen in So Cal, that racial prejudice thing was a mystery to me. Although I did have a cop hold a scatter gun on me during the Watts riots. But I got a first hand dose of it in Biloxi, Miss, 1966. Had to leave a bar when they wouldn't serve my buddy George Wilson (yep he was black). You woulda thought (well obviously naive little ol' me did) in a GI town like that there would have been more tolerance.......but no!

One odd (to me anyway) note to make you feel like you have company paper....................In '73 "American Grafitti" came out, the catch line being "Where were you in '62". After seeing the flick my 9 year younger sister says to me......."You guys sure had fun back then!" After only eleven years?!?!? Just might be a commentary on how apparent the decline some have talked about was gaining momentum in the '70's.

Nothing said "drag racing" like an FED :-)

Then there was Top Gas Eliminator!

....and THE GASSERS!!!

I don't know if anyone else will agree, but for me, the class that still produces the feelings of the '60s is ProMod. Great looking cars, more than one "engine-of-choice", and mixed body styles producing a widly ranging appearance. Throw in wheelstands, violent handling, and you have something that had a Gasser for a daddy, and a Fuel Altered for a mommy! :-)

My dad talks about 60's the same way you guys do. He too grew up in SoCal in the 60's and says there were cruises, racing, and just tons of custom cars around there back then. He says that at cruises, if you wanted to race, you could race almost any car you wanted, meaning if you wanted to race a 1941 Willeys gasser, there were 2 or 3 to pick from.

Thanks for the stories guys, they're really entertaining!