I love oldies rock and roll music. When I say oldies I mean the fifties and early sixties. I guess it has something to do with the era I was raised in, my taste in cars seem to be of the same era. I seem to be intrigued by many things of the fifties, old radios, typewriters, manual adding machines. I once bought an old typewriter just so I could take it apart. It is an amazing piece of equipment, a mechanical marvel. A maze of rods and levers. I am sure that some of you are wondering if I ever got it back together? Yes, I did, and it worked too. Actually it worked better than before I took it apart. While I had it apart I cleaned and lubed it with light oil.
Do you like roller skating? I mean the type with four wheels on each skate. I have enjoyed roller skating since I was eight or ten years old. My first pair of skates was the old strap on skates. Remember putting your skate key on a piece of ribbon and wearing it around your neck? You didn't dare not carry it with you when skating. Because sooner or later your skate would come loose on the front part of your shoe and you would have to tighten it back up. Its a good thing we had good durable leather shoes with heavy leather soles. If we had worn shoes like kids wear today, we would have been out of luck. We would strap our skates on and hit the pavement. These skates had steel wheels and could take concrete, or pavement with ease. When I was about fifteen I got my first pair of what we called shoe skates. For my young readers, shoe skates are the skates with the boot and skates all made together. We didn't have inline or roller blade skates then. My first pair of shoe or boot skates had wooden wheels. They were made strictly for rink skating. Many of the rinks then had live music in the evenings. They would have an organist to set the tempo. That is now a thing of the past. I still do a little skating, I have two pair of skates, one with Fo-mac wheels and the other with urethane wheels. The urethane wheels are the thing now days as they grip so much better. I however use the Fo-mac wheeled skates most of the time, they don't grip near as well as the urethane wheels and are more like the wooden wheels we used to use. I guess what you learn on is what you stay with.
The Titanic is another thing that intrigues me. I have a number of books on it and watch every special that comes on TV about it, I was lucky enough to visit the exhibit when it was in Houston. A friend and I went on a cruise last November through the Caribbean. The ship was close in size to the Titanic in length and width. At night I would stroll about the ship watching people dancing, gambling, eating, what ever. I couldn't help but think about the Titanic and the people on it the night it sank. Those people were just like us, having a carefree time, feeling safe and secure. Little did they know that with in a few hours they would be going through the most horrifying time of their lives. For many, they were living the last hours of their lives. That thought ran through my mind quite frequently. Its not that I thought it would happen to us. I certainly felt safe. I guess it was a kinship developed from reading so much about the Titanic and its people.
How many of you have traveled old route 66? I have traveled parts of it during my life. Some of it as a kid when we would go on vacation, some of it when I was in the Air Force going to and from home. It has been a dream of mine to travel the entire length of it, or at least as much of it as you can travel anymore. The Mother road as it is affectionately called has been beaconing me for a number of years. I have read volumes about it over the last few years and bought maps showing the original parts of it and the things to look for and see as you travel it. I would love to travel it in my 56 F-100, or my Falcon. It just would not be the same if you were to travel it in a new car. I haven't quite worked out the logistics of just how and when I will do this. I may do it all at one time, or I may do it over a period of two trips. When I do finally get to do it, you can believe that I will make plenty of pictures and post them on this web site.
Over the years my spouse and I have owned many cars. I know that you are thinking that we only had Ford built cars. Surprise, we have had a few GM built cars also. We had a 57 Chevy. four door hardtop, a 72 Olds four door hardtop, and a 75 Eldorado convertible. We have also had a few trucks too. Including one really big truck that was the ultimate car hauler. My better half owned a trucking company and he bought a Ford conventional cab. with a large custom built walk in sleeper that included a sink with running water, TV, with VCR. Refrigerator, and built in potty. This was the truck that we used to transport our cars to the car shows. It was a very comfortable way to travel, a mini motor home of sorts. We would seldom get a motel on the road, we just lived in the truck until we got where we were going.
Click here to continue Bio |
