Thread: Where were you in 1957? (Tulsa inspired!)

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I was 13 and had just finished the 8th grade and preparing to become a high schooler. At the time my step-dad had a 49 Chevy four door which he traded off in '58 for a '57 Chevy Bel Air two door post. I was big into models and thoroughly
P.O.ed at the Cincinnati Reds for trading off Ted Kluszewski. Later that year I met Tech and we've been good buds ever since.

'57 oh yeah. Got my DL week after my 15th birthday in FEb. I was 15 Soph in Hs, basball, football, hockey, swimming, broomball, control line model airplanes ..stunt and combat. .......and hot rods. I had just come from the Minn Iron range schools so I had already become pretty proficient in welding, machine shop, drafting, wood working, electricty and most other shop class. I knew what tools were for. Helped get a 40 Ford flathead running real strong, remember it well. Got a buddy's 50 Olds running real well too. ( I had access to a Sun dist. machine). I well remember going down and looking at a 57 chev with a 283 hp Rochester FI. and 4spd Exceedingly rare as these were really made for Nascar. Little did I know that 6 yr later I would have a duplicate of this and made a shambles of the local records for the class at Minn dragways.

Dad got a 57 Merc Cruiser. First car I could burry the speedo. Lost another trans ...racing. (3rd one) Began really learning to "lie like a rug" about car problems that always seemed to happen to me. haha By this time I had been driving for 3 yr.

Not much time for girls. Too many sports and mechanical things.

Not much of a trouble maker in school as I didn't want to miss my sports due to detention etc. Did well enough to get by and not get dropped from sports due to grades. ( mistake)

Didn't cause a lot of trouble at home either as I didn't want to lose the car privilidge or sports participation.

Knew about Korea and the trouble brewing in Viet Nam. I had good history classes. Didn't concern me at the time. I figured we could just bomb hell out of them and it would be done. After all, I knew all about airplanes etc Besides we won WW 2 and Korea was just a police action so the cops won right?? I was just a kid.

From there it just got better. Rock and roll started, ice skating and roller skating with the girls got a little better. ( I should have stayed with cars and got a dog).

I well remember Garlits, Cook and Bedwell, Isky, Engle, Hilborn, Gene Adams and a lot of the other pioneers. Tom Ivo ( I later waxed him with an alcohol funny car drinking nitro). 160 MPH, 170. I remember the physics teacher explaning why 160 was as fast as possible in 1/4 mile. Then showing him the HRM with the new 170 mph record. He said just maybe due to the tires gripping better than 1:1 like a gear.

58,59,60 were just the begining of the hotrod movement as we know it. The beginning of the gassers and the dragsters.

I lost track of the original intent here. The 57 Plymouth. I remember reading about it. (school project). Frankly as long as it wasn't a 57 Ply Fury with 2 x4 's I didn't care what they did with it. 50 years in the future. heck my dad wasn't even that old. It was just too far away.