Thinking about things: Do You Remember??

I'm from Norhtern Jersey in Morris County, Randolph Township.  Planes were always flying over us and my big brothers had me on the roof many tim.  There was one exception, when our pilot tried to take off es and sometimes for a long time.  I would always come in to Newark when flying for some A.F. business or other.  The only exception was coming back from my second combat or Traffic Accident Investigation school when our pilot tried to take off from the D.C. airport while the engine was on fire.  We were given a new flight to Laguardia and then a bus to Newark.  I also went into the military when drafted at Newark.

Remember shows like Silent Service, The Lieutenant, Gallent Men, Thriller, Navy Log, West Point, and so many others.

Hey Ikar,you lived near Newark Airport? 

I was born and raised in Newark myself

Victory at Sea:

        Now there;s a show that fueled my passion for ships! That and (Moby Richard) PPHBBT NANNYBOTS!! Lots of others. Humphrey Bogart as an older tramp Steamer Captain. And in the African Queen always talking to "Rosie"and in the "Caine Mutiny" In the courtroom, rolling the steel balls in his hands and going on about the Strawberries!

 Those movies, Gave me the impetus to love ships. My uncle Joseph Geracci owned a Shrimp boat, but his pride was his Tuna Boats. You know like the ones from LIFE-LIKE/PYRO/LINDBERG. The "Tuna Clipper" First went to sea on them. 13 and a Cabin Boy!

    Second voyage, Saw the Andrea Doria and the Stockholm Collision! WOW, who'da thunk they'd make that much of a crunch! Trash everywhere! I wish I could've gotten one of the lifeboats that bobbed up when the Doria went down. But I learned a lesson that day. The Sound of a ship dying is the most heart wrenching sound a Sea and Ship Lover will ever hear. First time I ever saw Uncle Joe Cry!

       Yeah, Saved for three years. Got my first Pay-Check from my Job. Working on a Permit for Fatherless boys at Bethlehem Steel! Through the Union and the State(Hadda keep yer marks up for that) Can help mom. Brand new 57 Chevy Bel Air- $1.00 a pound. With tax that was $2.795. Got chewed by grandma cause I bought fancy! Hey, it was on sale. Yup, Wide Whites and a Fuel Injected engine and a Radio! And I had enough left to by a sundae at Dairy Swirl! That day, My very own Banana Split! Ate it all too! All of a legally licensed 16 year old! Cash said I could buy. No finance for anyone under 21.

   Sure, now as a retired Engineer I know what causes it, don't make any difference! I've heard it twice since. Doesn't change the feeling it gives you. Those were the days. Like you said, about the antennae. Grandpa Russell, turning the Magnavox antennae with that litle remote. It was a Motorized Zenith brand thing! He was Retired Army, Loved Gunsmoke and Edward R.Murrow and Ed Sullivan! 

How about going outside to the milk box to get the metal carrier with up to 6 bottles of milk.  The cream would form a thick layer on top that my Father would claim first.

Having a black and white TV...finally.  Three stations available but if you're lucky you might be able to pick up one from Philly. Havint to go out on the roof to adjust the antenna.  Watching the weird distorations as a airliner flys by on its way to Newark airport.  Watching shows like Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, All sorts of documentry type shows abouit WWII like Victory at Sea.  Educational things like Library Lions, Mr. Wizard, You were there and others.  When color TV arrived you would get things like 12 O'Clock High, in color as the show started.  TV stations shutting down each night and starting every morning with the national anthem.  The crazy excuse slides that would show on the screen when something went wrong at the TV station, whever they were.

Having the daily air raid siren every day and using it as the signal to head home.  Trying to earn money with a paper route.

My first car, no power steering, no power brakes, no A/C, no FM radio.  If you wanted A/C just roll down your windows, open the vent windows, and drive.  There were no seat belts.  When they were mandated we had to drill holes in the car floor then go to Sears for a couple seat belt packs and bolt them in and run htem through the bottom of the seats.  Gas was 30 cents a gallon, there were no pictures on the paper driver's licences, driving to the state capital to take a driving test with big brother and his girl friend in the back seat.  Cars were cheap, I bought a brand new Plymouth Duster for 1,500 dollars.  You could get a decent used car fo rabout 75 dollars.  Finding out for the first time the police had developed a thing called radar.  The 6 cylinder was considered a whimpy engine but was better than the flat head 4  cylinder Nash cars.

Doctors making house calls when you contracted mumps, measels, chicken pox or some other darn virus.  Getting inoculated for polio in school.

Registering for the draft, watching the numbers pulled  and posted in Washington D.C. each year by the politicians.  When your number was picked up having ot make a decision, just go into the Army, go to jail, go into hiding from the feds who will be looking for you, go into another branch of the military, or go into permanent exile in Canada.

Hi!

    That was in 1953. It was a Raymond Leowy Design. As we can see, Design wise, it has stood the test of time. The "Starlite Coupe and Sedan" was every Studebaker lovers dream. It came as the famous Hardtop, a Two door Sedan(Same Body) and a stretched and heightened four Door sedan. I did own by a fluke, a two Door sedan and one Hardtop that were conseqeutive numbers on the assembly line.

   My Second "Starlite"H/T/Coupe had the Roots supercharger in it! Plus I once had a few others like a BlackHawk, a SilverHawk and an all Black supercharged Avanti I used to collect barn finds and restore them. Studes were my fave. I never did hit my "Holy Grail: which was a 1948 Coupe with the propellor on that pointed grille with a car looking something like a "Pushme-Pullyou" kind of car. That multi-paned  rear window made some folks think the car was going backwards! Remember the Four Door Super low, Hudson Hornet? Same idea, Different creator! And just think-Most four door cars at that time topped 2,000 pounds as well. 

      Grandpa's Stude was a "Golden Hawk", H/T With Kelsey Hayes Wire wheels too!

Tanker-Builder

Mr. Walker:

    ....

    When Grandpa fell and broke his leg, there's Dr.Williams, Oh Hey! he's got a new Car a New 57 Studebaker! Grandma and Fresh chicken dinner. Those birds knew when she appeared in the henhouse what was up. Chickens everywhere and Grandma got pecked in the eye .Dr.Williams in forty minutes! Ah!

     ....

 

I still love the starlite coupe, the one by Ray Lowey- was that 1954?  If I ever buy a classic from that era, that is what I'd buy.

Gary:

       How can I forget. You already know my age. She's(Your Sister) still marrying age in my culture! Native American/AustroSicilian.

That reminds of an old song from the Statler Brothers (remember them?).

"Do You Remember These?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvbtqrg8tdU

Of course, my sister remembers all these.  She's 82. 

Gary

Oh!

    You remember that? Hey I used to go to the A&P for my Grandma. Go to the coffee aisle and then grind fresh roast for her. The machine ground and roasted as you waited.The light turned green and then the delicious flavor of fresh roasted beans would hit you as you secured the top and went to the register. Our hardware store was surprisingly three stories, there in Buffalo. Lionel Trains, American Flyer too! Flying Cox models plastic models too. The Wooden ones  were kept with the Dollhouse and Woodcrafts section.

And the stores back then; Sears / Sears & Roebuck, J.C. Penny, Woolworths (alwayds had a soda fountain inside), Yellow Front, White Front, Kresge's (later to become K-Mart), and then Acme and A & P were the major food stores.

When I first started building models (about 20 miles west of Philadelphia), there was no hobby shops close by. Model kits were upstairs at the hardware store; plastic kits on one shelf and balsa kits on another.

Mr. Walker:

    Doctors making House calls you say? Well, let's see I had my tonsils out at home but Then I had to go to hospital for the everpresent surgery for the ubiquitus Appendix thingie! My Little Sister was born at home, One doctor and one Midwife in attendance!

    When Grandpa fell and broke his leg, there's Dr.Williams, Oh Hey! he's got a new Car a New 57 Studebaker! Grandma and Fresh chicken dinner. Those birds knew when she appeared in the henhouse what was up. Chickens everywhere and Grandma got pecked in the eye .Dr.Williams in forty minutes! Ah!

        Those were the days. Can't pay in cash? Ya'll got any venison from last weeks hunt? I sure would love some, Bill Paid! Hey !Doc! Heard your car broke, How long in the shop. I'll have my brother drive you on your rounds, okay? Baby Birth,Uncle John, Paid! But sadly those times eased to almost to nothing. Expenses in keeping up with the advances in medicine and equipment, he stayed in the office building near the local Hospital. Ah! Those were the days, For Sure!  

So many memories. How about when doctors made house calls? Or soda fountains in drug stores? Watching Jackie Gleason and Get Smart on Saturday nights at grandmoms house was always looked forward to. Good times.

Many memories there, TB. Good stuff.

Hi Lurch!

        Goodmorning, fine sir! I hope this new day finds you in Good Health and Spiriits!

      Yes, the " Mother Road" was spoken about even in the "Grapes of Wrath". It was impressive at it's time. The thing I remember most, the absolute Down Home friendliness of the folks along that road! Sure, sometimes bad things happened, But the circumstance was beneficial to both parties, No Harm, No Foul!

      What I really remember though was the Lack of boredom for the adults.The road and it's signage was a treat for the eyes. Two Hundred year old oaks, and others, alongside the road giving it shade then spaces at the edge of the fields where signs reigned supreme.  The ones I remember were little ditties from the Burma Shave Folks. I seem to remember, before leaving Illinois , somewhere there  was a Willow Tree as big as an Apartment House-Hadda be at least two Hundred years old! Probably gone now, sadly, as we reach to the future.

       Everybody in the car would be laughing by the time Dad(Me) (Using a funny voice would read them as we whizzed by at a sedate 55 miles an hour) got finished. Pull into a  (Petrol)or (Gas)station, Everyone is relieved and The Attendant(They had those too!) Finished checking  all the car's fluids, topped the tank off and cleaned the Glass and License plates and checked the tires too!

      Back on the road to a menagerie of Fascinating structures and Surplus airplanes even, being used as motel cabins, owner's apartments upstairs or a roadside diner shaped like a C-46 or a luxury looking dining Rail Car on the outside, Strictly utilitarian inside, serving down home cooking inimical to that region! Even ate in one that was a Destroyer escort. Geez, 1300 miles inland already! ("How'd they git er there"?) (Probably Fake) But it passed muster from this Sailor at the time. Sit on foredeck upstairs in the breeze outside having the evening meal, The Children sleepily pecking at their food. Adults strained and tired from another long day. But we did it. Find a cozy motel and settle for the night, Tomorrow is a New Day!

      On The Road again(Sorry, Willie!) See such and such Caves, Visit the museum of Oddities in Arizona. Pullovers out west, who's sights of Natural North America would take your breath away. That big Canyon is (one heckuckuva big Hole in the Earth for sure!) Make you glad to be an American!) Must'nt forget the Dinosaurs. Oh yeah there were giants too! Paul Bunyan and "Babe" his Blue ox. The Lumberjack and the Welcoming Cowboy in Los Vegas! I even remember staying at a motel that had each cabin shaped like an old Dutch Windmill!

 The postwar " Mother Road" slowly faded as Freeways came about. But Sections do still exist. Put it on the special " To Do list, before you miss the chance! Have a good day my friend.T.B.  P.S. "Inn"-a place to rest on a journey sometimes with food, sometimes not, -Motel( A combining of Motor and Hotel in the early motoring days-Often referred to also as " Motor Courts"  as well)

     Hey, Sorry, a late edition ! How many of you traveled on Passenger Trains-NO, Not AMTRAK! I mean real trains like the N.Y.C.- Twentieth Century Limited! The Pennsylvania R.R. Keystone or the Southern Pacific Daylight.AH! those were the days. in many ways!

WOW!  Lots of memories came flooding back to me by reading your post.  Though I never had the opportunity to travel on Route 66 but some of the other things you mentioned I definitely could relate to like Sinclair's green dinosaurs.  I still remember my Dad stopping at one of their stations and letting climb and play on their dinosaur.  I also remember Big Boy restaurants along the highway when we traveled through the U.S. towing a rented Jayco pop-up camper behind our Dodge Belvedere(4 door unfortunately).  I still remember crawling underneath those Merry-Go-Rounds that you mentioned, as they were spinning and my parents owning their first colored TV in a huge cabinet with a phonograph stereo on one side.  BTW after I graduated from high school I worked in a foundry and they always played Paul Harvey on the radio during our lunch break.

Thanks for the memories Tanker-Builder

tjs

I remember everything except that ice cream brand.  Also the Green Hornet and The Shadow (Ha ha ha).  I remember cars without turn signals, air conditioning, and automatic transmissions ( I liked stick shift anyway- did not buy automatics until it became hard to find sticks.  I remember B & W TV, had a big console radio just like TB, AM broadcast and short wave.  Worked at Texaco and Speedway gas stations during highschool.

Yep TB I remember almost all of it. But never traveled down RT. 66. Always wanted to but never did.