81 Comments

1. Marie Claude:

about old things,

I found a report filmed by the american army in north Africa, in the expedition towards Tunis
(3 consecutives videos)

N° 1 the arriving and parade in Alger

http://www.dailymotion.com/related/x9hws8/video/x92a0q_larmee-americaine-en-afrique-du-nor_shortfilms

Jun 13, 2009 - 11:03 pm 2. buddy larsen:

Looking forward to that, MC! Sometime if you can, catch New Yorker editor & self-appointed overage combat correspondent Ralph Ingersoll’s first-person memoir of that campaign, in “The Battle is the Pay-Off”. You’d enjoy it even in English; it’s straight ahead reportage without any ‘clear-to-native-speaker-only’ decorative filigree & circumlocutions.

Wretchard, brings back memories, alright –Broderick Crawford’s jowls jiggling like spring-loaded jello as he barked orders into that two way mike on the end of that new-fangled coiled cord. But a quibble, “da, da-da-daaa” was Dragnet. Jack Webb as Sargent Joe Friday. “This is the city….”

Jun 13, 2009 - 11:23 pm 3. wretchard:

Your can hear the signature opening beat of Highway Patrol in the clip above. Same sequence of short and longs as Dragnet. The opening monologue isn’t as famous as Joe Friday’s “This is the city”, but it’s still a gas. Only recently did I discover that the Highway Patrol opening monologue has been done in Spanish. “Veinte uno cinquenta” over and out.

Jun 13, 2009 - 11:31 pm 4. buddy larsen:

10-4

Jun 13, 2009 - 11:36 pm 5. Elwood:

It’s got a cop motor, a four hundred and forty-cubic-inch plant. Cop springs. Cop shocks. Cop suspension. Cop tires. It was a model made before catalytic converters, so it runs on regular gas.

Jun 14, 2009 - 1:00 am 6. Karen Yvonne:

I always loved the cars from the 1950s. They were so distinctive and had style galore. The decade of the 50’s has been panned as a time of stultifying conformity but, whether that was true or not, it sure wasn’t reflected in the designs of cars. Since that somewhat and imo wrongly-maligned decade, it’s been downhill societally ever since. Thanks for the fun look back.

Jun 14, 2009 - 1:04 am 7. wretchard:

In about a month it will be forty years to the day since man landed on the moon, a distance in time equal to the gap between the moon landing itself and the roaring 20s. It would be interesting to weigh up, in one balance, the masses of uplifting visions that politicians have conjured up in their speeches and in the other, the wreckage of multibillion dollar shibboleths which litter the landscape.

Perhaps we’ve mistaken the reflection for the face. Public endeavors are a mirror in which the spirit of the age is represented, but not the spirit themselves. The dead glass shows only what the living likeness resembles. In an age when government is being expanded as never before it may be well to reflect on the danger of falling in love with the expression at the expense of the thought.

Jun 14, 2009 - 2:36 am 8. Dave:

Reminds me of how, following the death of an
in-law, we wound up with a 1954 Buick Roadmaster. That was some buggy and all those
things like factory air, power windows. power
everything. An elegance to that car and it had raw power to spare, to boot.

It was a nice complement to our 1953 Chrysler Windsor with the 6 cylinder enigne and semi-auromatice transmission (you shifted gears by lifting your foot off the accelerator, then pressing it down again once you felt the “thump” of the next gear. Had ARA-installed air conditioning with the tubes up the back window. Freeze you out of there, but the engine would heat if you caught a tailwind.

Did not have TV where I lived until 57. BUT, there was the radio. Lone Ranger, Cisco Kid, Johnny Dollar, Gunsmoke, Big John and Sparky, Game of the Day, just to name a few.

I could skip lunch at school a couple of days,
use the proceeds for a box of 22s, sneak the Old Man’s Remington pump with the octangonal barrel into the neqrby cow pasture and decimate the jackrabbit population of the Permian Basin.

Yeah, we had our shortcomings, but it was not a bad time and place to start coming of age.

PS: For Marie Claude: I also remember the
fall of Dien Bien Phu and wondering if I would ever see any action in “French Indochina”. Remember regretting the loss of that garrison and wishing I could have done something for them.

And that is the way it was. Sort of, anyway.

Jun 14, 2009 - 3:48 am 9. Doug:

1955 Buick Century “Broderick Crawford Special”
-
“Leave your blood at the Red Cross, not on the highway.”

440 came later, Elwood, Broderick’s had 322 cubic inches.

Jun 14, 2009 - 4:00 am 10. I'm Just Plain Dumb:

- please delete

Jun 14, 2009 - 4:40 am 11. Barry 0351:

10-4 and the phrase “When a cop comes upon a wreck in the highway it’s not his job to find out whose wrong or whose right but whose left.”
6-2-and even, over and out!

Jun 14, 2009 - 5:39 am 12. Philo:

This was my favorite show when I was young! Thanks for the memories.

And, we had a ‘56 Buick, light blue with a white top. It was a beautiful car; it looked a lot like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Buick_Century_4-Dorrars_Sedan_1956.jpg.

There is a great danger to falling in love with the expression rather than the thought. Sometimes, however, the expression really is beautiful.

Jun 14, 2009 - 5:53 am 13. RWE:

Ten Fowah!

Jun 14, 2009 - 6:09 am 14. bogie wheel:

The decade of the 50’s has been panned as a time of stultifying conformity but, whether that was true or not

Look at who the panners are. And what they are offering instead as a vision of what America is and should be.

That will tell you pretty much everything you need to know.

There are, of course, several things about the 1950s best left in the 1950s. Jim Crow. Polio. Girdles. The Korean War.

But … the nuclear family, un-desperate housewives, un-snarky kids, interstate highways, Disneyland, automatic everything, and Billy Graham crusades were not the bane of American existence.

The panners criticize the ’50s for, among other things, projecting the false image that every family was the Cleavers. This, I think, is a distortion of what was going on. (I wasn’t around in the ’50s or even for most of the ’60s, so this opinion is the result of retrospective inquiry, not firsthand experience.) But it seems to me that shows like “Leave It to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best” (and remember, there were a LOT of movies at that time that were pretty damn dark, as well as crime shows like “The Untouchables” on TV, so touting the lighthearted family comedies on TV as representative of all of American entertainment is itself a gross distortion) weren’t intended to be seen as “this is who everyone is.” Did it fit some families? Yeah. Did it not fit others? Yeah, that too. I think anyone with half a brain had to have understood that at the time.

The unstated message of these shows was a focus on innocence and stability, in particular in the American family. On defined roles, on Mom and Dad being in charge (ultimately, anyway), and kids as mistake-makers and lesson-learners, on childhood as a time when misadventures didn’t, thankfully, carry lethal results, because there were enough grown-ups around to restore peace & order.

By contrast, what have we got on a lot of popular entertainment these days? Adults who act like kids, and kids who act like adults. No grown-ups whatsoever, unless they’re the scary kind. Chaos instead of peace & order. This vision of ourselves, largely from the folks who had the benefit of growing up in the ’50s watching Beaver Cleaver and who now trash that kind of fare as … “not real.” Insisting on the one hand that culture has no role in offering the ideal. And yet, on the other hand, purveying and and consuming record numbers of self-help books. Irony, anyone?

I hate to be Freudian about all this, but the older I get the more I come to the conclusion that 99% of the motivation for this pit of filth called popular culture that we all find ouselves tarred with (esp. as it gets exported overseas) was, at its base, always about libido. Racial justice, needful and way too overdue as it was, was not, sorry, the primary concern of tens of millions of young white Americans in the ’50s and ’60s. But under the meta-banner of “Freedom,” racial justice was a useful vehicle behind which to push the sex-with-anyone-at-any-time agenda.

Take a look at the ’50s-panning movies, the text and the subtext. “Racism is bad” – frequently a text. Which is pretty well understood (albeit not entirely, nor by everyone) nowadays. But what’s the subtext?

What, for example, turned all those colorless characters in “Pleasantville” into full-hued, lovable humans? Was it, as in Pinocchio, the noble act of ultimate sacrifice for another that transformed a non-human into a human? Nope. It was just the act of shagging. Subtext? “Before the sexual revolution, we were but mere dull, dim shadows of real humans; our entire society, a half-lived purgatory of stultifying conformity. After the sexual revolution … ahh, Life! Love! Happiness! Freedom!”

It doesn’t get much more puerile than that.

Folks, we have handed the cultural megaphone over to a bunch of people with the mentality of horny 15-year-olds.

Jun 14, 2009 - 6:16 am 15. alfa6:

In response to the trivia question, yes there was a chopper and it was a Bell 47.

In the late 60s and early 70s the Missouri State Highway patrol drove the full size Mercurys. This gave rise to the expression, “You might outrun Mercury but you can’t out run Motorola”

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

Jun 14, 2009 - 6:16 am 16. NullificationNow:

The Icon of GM cars – 57 Chevy Belaire

Jun 14, 2009 - 6:17 am 17. Sgt. Mom:

Oh my – when I was about three and by brother a baby, my parents were living in a tiny, tiny rental house, remote and lost in the part of Beverly Hills that really was hills, at the end of about a mile of dirt road. The house was used as a location for an episode of “Highway Patrol” – apparently, it looked like the perfect wilderness hideaway for a fugitive gangster. So the whole crew was there shooting for a couple of days. My parents were very grateful for the catered meals – as my father was in grad school on the GI bill at the time, and the catering crew gave Mom what was left over from them. At one point, my little brother escaped and crawled all the way up to the door, as the cameras rolled and one of the actors opened it, looked in and said “It’s empty – no one is here!” while heroically managing to ignore the toddler at his feet.
Oh, and watching Broderick Crawford’s male nurse trying to keep him sober through-out? That was entertainment!

Jun 14, 2009 - 6:22 am 18. JFSanders:

Thanks for that Sgt.Mom.

As you do. I remember a totally different time than what is represented as “history” by the powers that be. I grew up in the “deep south” as in a county in Florida that to this day is still mostly stuck in the fifties. It is said to be the only place in the country where two major interstates cross that there is NO development beyond the minimal requirements to be a city. As in it is named one. There are exits from both interstates into the more rightly called town than city. And it has a notoriety that almost everyone will recall but few will know the name of the place.

A clue. His first victim was a little girl walking home from elementary school and she and I were of the same age and she was in my class. She was found stuffed under a porch. Not more than a couple of hundred feet from where I lived.

Jun 14, 2009 - 6:53 am 19. programmer:

My first car was a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air. I bought it with my own money, earned by throwing hay bales in the hot summer sun and catching chickens on chicken “ranches” during the winters. It had been originally bought new by my cousin, somewhat older than I, who was a logger (Pennsylvania term for lumberjack who owned his own company). He had specified certain modifications to the transmission, motor, and chassis that gave it greater ground clearance and poweful low end torque. It was designed specifically for hauling him back into rugged country and getting him back home at the end of the day and providing a little more comfort that the usual jeep. He was a good mechanic and a careful man, hence when I finally got it, it was still in very good condition.

The fun part of this car is that the top speed was not all that great due to the rear end gear ratio, BUT 0 to 60 was sudden. Many drag races were won by coming off the line fast, getting in the center of the narrow country roads and not letting the other car pass.

The gas mileage was not great, obviously, but gas was around 26 to 28 cents a gallon, if I remember correctly and being farmers, we always had a 500 gallon tank of gasoline on the farm for the farm tractors, which, of course, I had a key to the lock.

And it was perfect for after the dance excursions into lonesome country with the current date for private “conversations” usual for the under 21 age group. A good radio, cold drinks, warm companionship and the cool night air far away from the rest of the world, usually up on top of some ridge line looking out over a valley below where the sparse lights of farmsteads twinkled on the ground and stars twinkled above.

Life was good.

Jun 14, 2009 - 6:55 am 20. feeblemind:

I only vaguely remember the Highway Patrol. In the early sixties, I remember coming home from school to reruns of Sea Hunt and Whirlybirds. Lloyd Bridges in underwater knife fights and a helicopter version of cops and robbers. Great stuff for a boy of about 7. Re old cars: I am amazed at the way men drove in the 50s. Anecdotally I have been told stories from several sources of routinely driving 80-85 mph while getting 20-25 mpg in two ton ‘battleships’. The old cars had no air pollution hobbles on them and burned leaded gas, so they were air polluters by today’s standards.

Jun 14, 2009 - 7:39 am 21. Hutsul:

I love old Buicks. i have owned a 1938 Special for the past 37 years (I drive it) “Wouldn’t you really rather have a Buick?” I am witnessing the evaporation of all that matters – in an amazingly rapid tempo. Not only is Buick and GM gone; but now Flint is being bulldosed! Why do I think that I am living in a Twilight Zone episode where all my fond memories are brought forward and then erased by a presidential poseur.

Jun 14, 2009 - 8:08 am 22. Lorenz Gude:

Cars evolved a lot in the fifties. The early 50s cars usually had less power and their suspensions were usually very mushy – to be fair they were pretty well used by the time I got my license in ‘57. On the other hand a Model A ford felt crude but solid – you were always certain where your backside was in relation to the road. Still, some of the mid 50s GM cars like Crawford’s Buick were real movers – I remember flying across Vermont in a ‘54 Olds 88. But the cushy ride of these cars didn’t wear well – or at least the shocks didn’t. At the end of the original introductory video above you can see the body of Crawford’s Buick rock and roll as it arrives beside a parked cop car.

Jun 14, 2009 - 8:08 am 23. buddy larsen:

LG/22; that’s driving-for-the camera-frame –they come into the frame a lot faster than normal driving and have to do a disguised panic stop in the frame. If they rolled in at normal driving speeds they’d be craaaawling onscreen.

NN/16; if the icon ain’t the ‘57 Bellaire, i don’t know what would be (then they completey fouled up the tail feathers the next year on the ‘58, doggone it).

Jun 14, 2009 - 8:55 am 24. bob:

He is one of the few performers who have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6901 Hollywood Boulevard and another for television at 6734 Hollywood Boulevard.–
-/

And, he could sure talk fast. Out of the side of his mouth.

Anybody remember Sky King?

Jun 14, 2009 - 9:07 am 25. NahnCee:

My parents were the proud owners of a brand spankng new Ford Mercury station wagon. White on the outside, gorgeous blue upholstery on the inside. Custom ordered from the factory so there was a wait involved before taking ownership.

Proudness lasted approximately two weeks, before the thing started falling apart. It was a lemon before there were lemon laws. The dealer refused to do anything about it. I remember a family vacation where something blew up at the top of Rockies in the same area as the Donner Party became stranded, the family dead in the water way far away from civilization and/or a mechanic, and the utter frustration and anger of my father.

Detroit having problems even then building a reliable car, to the point of having to have laws passed (lemon laws) *forcing* the system to do something about their design and manufacturing flaws. BAck then, the car manufacturers put out commercial after comercial insisting that it was our patriotic duty to “buy American”, provide jobs for fellow Americans and help the economy — now it’s become our patriotic duty to buy NOT-American (hello, Japan!) and to break the unions.

Maybe 1950’s cop cars came off a different assembly line and didn’t suffer the serial break-downs that normal people had to put up with.

Jun 14, 2009 - 9:33 am 26. RWE:

I tried the Highway Patrol 3 point turn. Knocked over 3 mailboxes and an abandoned Yugo. Does not work too good if you are not in the middle of the desert.

At Santa Ynez Airport over the mountains from Santa Barbara well up into the 80’s they had car rental agency there that rented nothing but 58 Chevies. Now the 55 was neat and the 57 cool and 59 really snazzy with those big flat fins, but the 58 was the ugliest car made until they came out with the Aztec. Nonetheless, the guy who ran that rental place said they were great, very reliable. Seeing a row of 58’s sitting side by side – and looking just like 58’s should look in 1982 (i.e., POS) was a sight to behold. He rented them so people could fly in and drive over to Solvang. The cost was very low, but despite the cars alleged reliability the charge went up drastically if you went further than the 2 miles to Solvang because he had to come tow them back so often. He left them unlocked and the keys in them because no one in his right mind would ever steal one.

Jun 14, 2009 - 9:33 am 27. F:

Nahncee:

Good story, but the Donner Pass is in the Sierra Nevada mountains, between Reno and Sacramento, which does NOT detract from your comment about Detroit turning out lemons. That is true enough. I live only a few miles from the Donner Pass. F

Jun 14, 2009 - 9:54 am 28. Gordon DeSpain:

Wow, memories…I was born in 1940, and, the ’50s were my teenage years. My uncle owned 55, 56, 57, 58, and, 59 Roadmasters, but, my first car was a 1938 Buick, four door Sedan (suicide Rear Doors, opened from the front) that I bought for $100 in 1956. I truly believe it was a Gangster Car, because it was literally Bulletproof (proved at least twice, by mangling Cars that had to audacity to hit it).

It had a ‘48 Straight 8, with an automatic Transmission that would shift one time, and, a clutch that you had to push when you stopped. This took me through the 10th and 11th grades, and, almost every kid in Pasadena, Texas rode in it at least one time.

I also had a ‘59 Belair 2 door sedan, with a 283 Cu In V8, 2 Bbl Carb, 180 Hp, single exhaust (that I dualled out) that God must have breathed on, because I was beating the ‘57, 3X2 Carb and 2X4 Bbl Carb, 270 Hp Belairs regularly (almost every one I raced) and, dreaming of the day I would own a ‘57.

In the ’60s I had a ‘39 Buick 4 dr Sedan (bought in memory of the ‘38) with the original Straight 8 Engine, and, Truck Trasmission with a Granny. Both of those old Buicks have memories attached that I’ll lovingly carry to my grave, including the fact that the ‘39 was the first automobile my children ever rode in.

Someone memtioned Dien Bien Phu, and, that brought back memories as well: Hurricane McGoon (McGovern) flew his last Cargo Drop into Dien Bien Phu, was hit while pulling out, but, held it in the air with his toes for about 200 miles, only to crash and die just off the end of the Runway. He was the best friend of my first cousin (once removed), Robert Powell Gray, and, they used to party at Raffles, before Robert went down on his 40th mission with Claire Chenaults Flying Tigers. Robert Mitchum played Bob Gray’s part in “30 Seconds over Tokyo.”

And, yes, I’ve been to Sidi Bel Abbes and seen the sign over the Door of the New Recruits Dining Hall: “You are a dead man, and, the Legion will find you a place to die.”

Jun 14, 2009 - 10:57 am 29. erc rodson:

My first car was a white four door 1958 Chevy Impala, which was previously my Grandmother’s. Got it when I turned 16 as a gift. Back then, and up until about the late seventies, it was possible to do your own repairs, up to an including ring jobs and replacing ignition systems. Most of us were shade tree mechanics to a greater or lesser degree. No more with the introduction of computerized diagnostics and smog control systems.

However, cars last a lot longer now, largely because of better quality control and materials. But, cars from the fifties and sixties had more character and if you carried tools, much of what broke you could fix. But, remember how common it was to see cars broken down along the highway and people standing around or bending over the engine with the hood up? Rare sight today, although part of that is due to cell phones.

Jun 14, 2009 - 11:00 am 30. Mad Fiddler:

To Eric Rodson: A big reason why we don’t see so many folks stranded along the highway is they’re at home, fully occupied with trying to get their Win-doze™ operating system working after a crash.

Typical elapsed time between crashes for Win-doze™ systems – from scientifically gathered and objectively evaluated data – is approximately 37 minutes, 21 seconds. That includes boot-up time, which averages 6 minutes 13 seconds.

Seriously, in 2000 I worked at a start-up web entertainment company in “Silicon Valley” with the latest greatest souped up Win-doze o/s. Ten of us animators working with Flash found our systems crashing at least once per hour. In the course of a 12-hour shift (we were non-exempt employees) that means eight minutes per crash/reboot cycle times ten animators times 12 hours adds up (960 minutes/60=16) to SIXTEEN HOURS of Lost Productive Time.

Hmmm. I don’t recall having any Gin this fine morning…

Well, it wasn’t always as bad as it sometimes was.

Disclaimer: This diatribe in no way refers to any product of the multi-billionaire computer software enterpreneur and really nice guy Mr. William Gates, not to be confused with the spokesperson of the current occupant of the White House.

Jun 14, 2009 - 11:47 am 31. sgi:

My first car, The Beast, was a Ford Galaxy 500 but I can’t remember the year…65? Anyway, when you stepped on the gas and the 390 engine took over, it was like riding on air. It totaled a Z-X that had the misfortune of rear ending it. And more than once it met the challenge of a road race.

I finally totaled it myself driving it into a wall to stop it when it lost it’s brakes. Not a scratch on me but the building that I ran it into still bears the scars.

Those were the days, my friend
We thought they’d never end

Or something like that.

Jun 14, 2009 - 11:58 am 32. Marie Claude:

Doug and fhose that are interested (in french)

http://www.hemaridron.com/twodescphotos28.html

Jun 14, 2009 - 1:47 pm 33. Beverly:

First car I ever owned was strictly a utility vehicle: a ‘64 Chevy Nova. Cost $200 (I bought it in 1979). Multiple layers of gold spray paint, rusted out trunk, no ignition key necessary (my boyfriend had hotwired the ignition so you just turned the switchplate to start it), no working radio, a couple of windows you couldn’t lower, and the door locks didn’t work.

It developed a wicked shimmy whenever I went over 40 mph, so I took it to a friend’s truck repair shop, and he told me to get the wheels balanced. That fixed the shimmy, but it still had about 6″ of play in the steering.

I got a car repair manual, and got to know my engine: you really could tell what was going on, and if you couldn’t fix it yourself, you could watch the mechanic do it and actually understand what he was doing.

Along about that time, they came out with a muscle car that was so stupidly designed that you had to take out the engine to change the spark plugs. Amazing.

Fave car: learned to drive in a 1959 Ford station wagon (Country Sedan, with seating for NINE, one bench in the “very back” facing backwards). Had seat belts, my parents’ idea, special-ordered. Drove like a freaking tank. Took me 20 minutes to saw my way out of a tight parallel parking spot one day–no power steering.

Also fun: our 1969 Peugeot. Gas, not diesel. Fully reclining seats and moon roof. Only 95 HP, though.

Jun 14, 2009 - 1:47 pm 34. Marie Claude:

(suite)

http://dienbienphu.xooit.com/index.php

Jun 14, 2009 - 1:55 pm 35. Herb:

I had a 62 Ford Galaxie 500 289 3 speed with Overdrive. Felt like it weighed 5000 lb. Smooth rider. The OD was automatic. you shifted up in 3rd by backing off the gas like the Chrysler above. It engaged from a pull knob on the dash. When it was engaged the whole car drove differently even in the lower gears. Never seemed particularly exciting in either case.

Another feature of the OD trans was it would only hold the car in reverse. In 1971 I parked in 2nd on a small hill after a run home from Auburn to exercise the privilege of voting against Geo Wallace and it rolled down and hit a CMU wall. Cost $50 to sort of fix.

Cant sort of fix anything any more.

Jun 14, 2009 - 2:18 pm 36. Marie Claude:

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/Dien+Dien+phu/video/x4ujum_dien-bien-phu-10-ans-plus-tard_news

Jun 14, 2009 - 2:18 pm 37. Marie Claude:

Dont miss Bigeard on Dien Dien Phu, in a few words he gives the synthesis of the war for us, bizarrely, the soldiers had the same contempt from our population as the GI did from your population at the end of Viet Nam war

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-rXPkCxwCM&translated=1

Jun 14, 2009 - 2:19 pm 38. Marie Claude:

Dien Dien Phu (Viet video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4Ggih20lpc&translated=1

Jun 14, 2009 - 2:20 pm 39. trangbang68:

Marie Claude, Reading “Hell in a Very Small Place” and “Street of No Joy” by Bernard Fall has given me great respect for the French paras and Legionaires.

“Obama said Son, you’re gonna drive me to drinkin’
If you don’t stop drivin’ that hot rod Lincoln”

Jun 14, 2009 - 2:43 pm 40. Cowboy:

I see the 1955 Buick MSRP was around $2,330.00. I looked up average income in 1955, and got around $25,000.00. So, that’s around 10% of income. Today’s Buick Lucerne’s MRSP is $30,000.00, and average income is $50,000.00. I tried to get numbers on the historical cost of hot rolled steel and gave up too soon, but I bet you the price of raw materials has declined in relative terms since 1955. I suspect the ballooning of costs can be attributed mostly to the cost of regulatory requirements in mpg, safety and emissions, as well as swelling health care and retirement costs. GM is now carrying retirement and health care costs for 1,000,000 people who no longer work for it. These were things we all demanded of GM and the Big Three. We insisted on higher costs for them, and by extension on ourselves. Then we bought Japanese.

My father graduated high school, got a job on the line in a furniture factory, got married. He saved for 8 months and bought a new Chevrolet with cash. To this day he can’t understand why anybody would ever accept making a car payment. The next year he made a down payment on a house and got mom pregnant with me. Mom didn’t work. She was a homemak and greatly esteemed in that role.

You could do stuff like this in America 50 years ago. Everybody did.

I’ve seen the landscape slowly changing my whole life, quite aware of the economic changes I’ve seen and fretting over them the whole way. I wish I could say I had an easy solution to get us back to the sound fundamentals that built the world of our youth, before we monkeyed with them beyond recognition.

Don’t know if it can be done, sadly.

Jun 14, 2009 - 2:51 pm 41. Cowboy:

oops, scratch that 1955 income number — I see it was an “adjusted” figure. Actual number in 1955 real terms was $4,950.00, according to the survey.

Jun 14, 2009 - 3:12 pm 42. Unsk:

Bogie Wheel-

When the film industry started to censor movies in the early thirties, crime per capita was almost as high as it is now. But from the early thirties to the mid sixties, when they stopped censoring movies, crime declined almost continuously to its low around ‘65.

I really think there was a tremendous beneficial effect upon society by the standards imposed upon movies starting in the 30’s. Those movies and later TV programs set positive standards of behavior that people tried to emulate. Now nasty, ugly behavior is the cool thing for movies and we have seen the results.

Jun 14, 2009 - 3:49 pm 43. bogie wheel:

Cowboy -

I found myself looking at that $2,330 (in 1955 dollars) too. The inflation calculator is a crude tool, though in just that simple calulation a $2,300 car in 1955 comes out to $18,539 in 2009 money.

But there are so many other factors. Longevity of cars and car parts then and now (as pointed out above) … technology, culture, taxes …

We know it was more than possible to raise a family (even one with several kids) on a single income back then; it was the norm and most of use grew up in those kinds of households. We also know that it is far less possible to do that kind of thing today.

So what has changed? I’ve read that the overall tax burden (NOT just income and payroll taxes, but the cumulative, including those you pay on yer frackin’ phone line) on a middle-class income has increased dramatically from the 1950s to today. If this is true, it’s not just your perception that it’s much harder to get by these days; it’s an actual fact.

At the same time, however, I can’t help but think that our expectations of a certain standard of living have changed over the years, too. Inflation adjusted, I probably don’t make that much more money than Ralph Kramden, but I sure as heck live in a nicer rental than he did. But I still rent. Hence the second job (saving $$ for a house downpayment). Could I save money by moving to (a) a smaller apartment (b) with no air-conditioning and (c) in a crappier neighborhood? Sure. But I’ve done that already. And I also got mugged at gunpoint in that neighborhood. Call my second job the price I pay for personal safety.

Jun 14, 2009 - 4:10 pm 44. bogie wheel:

Unsk -

I don’t think there is a direct correlation between the two (crime rate & movie graphic-ness), given that the crime rate in the U.S. during the 1920s and early 1930s was likely skewed by Prohibition-related crimes.

However, the overall point — that coarse popular culture coarsens the culture overall — I agree with. It wasn’t that there weren’t plenty of movies “for adults only” in those days … “Double Indemnity” and a lot of the other film noirs showed a lot of human depravity. But if you’d taken your kid to see those films, the worst that could have happened was he’d be bored to sleep or throwing popcorn by the end of the first act. You wouldn’t have had to cover your kid’s ears and eyes.

I don’t think the entertainment industry should be able to continue having it both ways. Either entertainment influences thought & behavior, or it doesn’t. So either stop cranking out the filth (if it does influence), or stop with the naked liberal political advocacy already (if it doesn’t influence).

Jun 14, 2009 - 4:28 pm 45. toad:

First car, 1954 Chevy two door with a “hot water” straight six. Most impressive sheet metal, 1951 Buick that a group of college students tried to dent up by going down a alley and banging the metal trash cans out of the way. Put a turret on that thing and some wider tires and you could send it to war.

Jun 14, 2009 - 5:20 pm 46. buddy larsen:

bogie/44; that last paragraph, jeeeez, how could i have missed that all these years? Kee-Rist wot a sanctimony & hypocrisy cleavin’ nowhere-to-hide war-axe of a Truth –

Jun 14, 2009 - 6:30 pm 47. Leo Linbeck III:

No thread on the Highway Patrol is complete without Junior Brown:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_wLVCLPx0M

Enjoy!

L3

Jun 14, 2009 - 6:30 pm 48. Doug:

True Confessions:
-
Mom thought Broderick was hot.

Jun 14, 2009 - 6:50 pm 49. RWE:

Speaking of Highway Patrol, do y’all remember that 50’s film “Them” about the giant ants? I always thought it was among the best of the 50’s monster movies but I can’t watch it any more without laughing.

Do you realize the Highway Patrolmen in that film were wearing BOW TIES!?! Cops in BOW TIES? That’s harder to believe than giant ants!

Jun 14, 2009 - 7:33 pm 50. buddy larsen:

“Them” was GREAT –when they started finding those big hills of sugar in the drainage tunnels under ‘the city’ –i had to crawl under the seat and bite down on my Mouseketeers giant mouse ear hat –it was either start screaming or get under there and ‘bite the felt’

Jun 14, 2009 - 7:55 pm 51. rickl:

41. Cowboy

I remember my dad saying that if you made $10,000 back in the 1950s, you had really arrived. It was kind of a benchmark of success.

He told me that in the early 80s when I got my first job working in a self-service gas station and made more than $10,000/year.

I vaguely remember that my parents had a 1958 Chevy Impala when I was a little kid. It was two-tone blue. Either my grandparents or an uncle had one that was two-tone green. I probably have photos somewhere of them together.

My first car was a 1973 Dodge Dart. I bought it around 1982 and I loved that car. I was never a shade tree mechanic but I used to pretend I was. I had many adventures with it until I got carjacked in 1986.

Now I drive a 1991 Toyota Corolla which I bought in 1999. Best car I’ve ever owned. I no longer attempt to do anything mechanical with it since I discovered that I don’t have the aptitude for that sort of thing.

Jun 14, 2009 - 10:42 pm 52. rickl:

47. Leo Linbeck III

Excellent! I saw Junior Brown open for Bob Dylan once, and I’ve liked that song ever since.

Jun 14, 2009 - 10:55 pm 53. Doug:

Dennis Miller and Doug agree, “Them” was an all time classic.
—
One of my most vivid memories involved stainless steel aliens with insect like heads on a long slender stalk.
“Head” had three lighted “eyes” of red, green, and blue? plastic.
Naturally, they had the ability to zap people with a death ray.
Don’t remember name of that classic.
—
“Gamara” the rocket powered flying turtle was a comedy classic Japanese Sci-Fi as presented on Mystery Science Theater.

Jun 14, 2009 - 11:18 pm 54. rickl:

53. Doug:

One of my most vivid memories involved stainless steel aliens with insect like heads on a long slender stalk.
“Head” had three lighted “eyes” of red, green, and blue? plastic.
Naturally, they had the ability to zap people with a death ray.
Don’t remember name of that classic.

That sounds like the 1953 version of “War of the Worlds”.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046534/

Jun 14, 2009 - 11:23 pm 55. Doug:

Thanks, rickl,
That’s it.
Don’t remember some of the people in funny outfits in the stills, but who could forget those terrible, terrifying machines from Mars?
—
Barry says:
“We can’t beat their machines, we’ll have to beat them.”
Don’t remember the resolution to that puzzle.
—
The War of the Worlds Trailer
Great Reminder of the seriousness of the situation.

Jun 14, 2009 - 11:43 pm 56. Doug:

“When the Worlds Collide”
made by the same guy was another thriller.

Jun 14, 2009 - 11:48 pm 57. Doug:

RWE @ Work

Jun 14, 2009 - 11:58 pm 58. rickl:

A Moon is Born

A newsreel from 1956 or 1957. The depiction of the Vanguard rocket is accurate. The third stage really was carried inside the second stage housing.

Interesting how we went from 1950s cars to 1950s space travel.

Jun 15, 2009 - 12:39 am 59. John Williams:

@ 18: doesn’t ring any bells

Jun 15, 2009 - 12:54 am 60. buddy larsen:

doug/55; The resolution to the puzzle, the Martians all died rather suddenly of some sort of virus or bacterial infection that was benign to Ertlins but lethal to the murderous visitors.

Jun 15, 2009 - 7:10 am 61. buddy larsen:

18 & 59; Lake City, @ I-10 & I-70 intersection ?

Jun 15, 2009 - 7:39 am 62. Fletcher Christian:

“The 1955 Buick Special model 46R (style 4437) was among the most popular Buick ever made – 155,818 were built. Each weighed 3,720lbs and were priced to sell at $2,332.00. The cars came in both two and three tone paint and were powered by the small V8, 188 horsepower engine with a variable pitch dynaflow transmission.”

OK, so one of the most popular Buicks ever made (and therefore presumably one of the most popular cars, full stop) weighed close to two tons and was powered by a “small” 188-horsepower engine. And none of the Americans here think there’s anything wrong with that. And Americans wonder why everyone else thinks they have a culture of conspicuous waste. Right. Got it.

Jun 15, 2009 - 7:44 am 63. buddy larsen:

FC/62; Remember, in the 50s we were finding gigantic new oilfields everywhere –and our country is large and cities are far apart –heavy vehicles once up to speed have momentum –as explained by your Isaac Newton, of course. And as far as waste, we’ll all be forever in the shadow of the mountain of waste built up by Europe’s Hundred Year’s War of 1914.

*******

Latest Nyquist column, on Peggy Noonan’s new book “Patriotic Grace”, it’s about nuclear war & has a prescription for effective avoidance –i think you’d be glad to have read this column as it is a ’sender’ for those certain you know-whos in everyone’s circles.

“Holding It Together” begins What are we barreling toward?” asks Peggy Noonan in her latest book. “A difficult time, I think,” she says. Has this famous Washington speech-writer become a pessimist? Is she referring to economic hard times? No. She is referring to a future attack on the United States. She therefore writes: “We know we live in an age of weapons of broad and immediate destruction, that they can be deployed against civilian populations by any group with the will, money, and mad focus to do it.” Even more alarming, she writes, “I think a lot of people are carrying around in their heads, unarticulated and even, in some cases, unnoticed, a sense that the wheels may be coming off the trolley and the trolley off the tracks, that in some deep and fundamental way things have broken down and can’t be fixed anytime soon.”

Today’s economic troubles are part of a larger unraveling. We do not hear much talk – in newspapers or TV – about this unraveling. People are still trying to be optimistic. They are expecting the market to turn around. They tell themselves that weapons of mass destruction will never be used and are therefore useless. They do not attempt to explain why the Russians, Chinese, Iranians and North Koreans want these “useless” weapons. People pretend it is “peace for our time.”

(end quote, read more @ the hyperlink)

Jun 15, 2009 - 8:21 am 64. buddy larsen:

OOps –sorry for that crashingly off-thread #63 –damn phone and Monday morning –i had meant to put it on a ‘not-for-fun’ thread –rather than this ‘for-fun’ one. sorry —embarrassed –will attempt to salvage w/ Rodney Dangerfield:

…back in high school i called this girl i liked –she said “come on over, nobody’s home” –I went on over –nobody was home.

Jun 15, 2009 - 8:34 am 65. Karen Yvonne:

Hey Buddy, it’s good to see you back. Recently Dave had observed you’d gone AWOL and I’d noticed that too. Yeah, you were missed and I, for one, couldn’t decide what I missed more – the entertaining Texian talk and humor or the terrifying Nyquist links. Well you’re back, true to form, with both in the two posts above. Nice going. Alternately laughing/trembling. Gotta love it.

Wretchard: “In an age when government is being expanded as never before it may be well to reflect on the danger of falling in love with the reflection at the expense of the thought.”

That is a very good point. And I would rather have (if it’s a choice) the reliability and enhanced safety features of today’s cars over the beauties of the past. But I’m not seeing a solid connection there between 1950’s private auto industry’s design flair and today’s government uber alles grand visions. Maybe I’m missing some bigger picture (wouldn’t be surprised).

bogie wheel @14: That was a great post. Well said.

Jun 15, 2009 - 12:05 pm 66. buddy larsen:

KY/65; –why thank you –i know i overdo the Nyquist –but he’s good, sort of a clinically depressed and paranoid wretchard –but anyway, re your ‘reliabilty and enhanced safety features’ remark, i remembered an article long buried in my ‘cars’ file, here ’tis jest fo’ you:

Thank goodness they don’t make ‘em like that anymore

Jun 15, 2009 - 1:22 pm 67. Doug:

Nyquist is the spray form of Nidol, right?
Didn’t know it was used for depression.
-
Did “we” ever get to see the Martians?
Did they ooze out the doors when we put Martian Wheat Rust in their porridge, or what?

Jun 15, 2009 - 3:07 pm 68. Doug:

What I do seem to remember is the once mighty Martian craft suffering a loss of erection of their gooseneck stalks.
Could not help but feel a bit empathetic about that.
…proof of my caring, sensitive nature.

Jun 15, 2009 - 3:22 pm 69. buddy larsen:

i think in the oralgenal movie we got to see the arm and fingers of one of ‘em –the recent remake with Oberst Graf von Stauffenberg-Toppengun-Cruise showed ‘em better –they looked if Al Gore and a huge Manatee had a baby. Oh, the huge manatee!

Jun 15, 2009 - 3:59 pm 70. Herb:

Buddy shame Shame SHAME SHAME SHAME on you. May your computer crash. May your cell phone battery die. May Baraq have mercy on you. May the fleas of a thousand . . . . oh never mind . . .

Jun 15, 2009 - 4:02 pm 71. buddy larsen:

LOL –”may a diseased yak befriend your sister” (stolen with great respect and gratitude from the magnificent Carnac the Magnificent)

Jun 15, 2009 - 4:29 pm 72. Doug:

Orson Bean has some great stories from the early days of George Gobel, Johnny, et al.
Far from the bitter old man Letterman has turned into.

Jun 15, 2009 - 4:59 pm 73. buddy larsen:

i always thought Orson Bean should’ve had a role in “Inherit the Wind”.

Jun 15, 2009 - 5:21 pm 74. Doug:

Reminds me:
Also great stories about Gene Kelly.
Don’t remember what he was working on with Kelly, but they hit it off.
Like all pros, he said Kelly worked his butt off.

Jun 15, 2009 - 5:48 pm 75. Doug:

Orson is the father-in-law of boy genius Andrew Breitbart.
Both Dennis Miller friends.

Jun 15, 2009 - 6:32 pm 76. sigintel:

“Them” or as we called it “Giant Ant’s” scared the pants off of us. I was terrified for months after. While Hwy Patrol was a great TV show and the “squad cars”, whip antennas and motorcycle cops yacking in radio lingo “neat” ( I got my first Ham Radio license and station in 1960 and despised CB and the 10 code after that), the two TV shows with real “cool” cars that had the most influence on us mid-western boys was Route 66 and 77 Sunset Strip ( Kooky Kooky lend me your comb) smooth southern Cal lingo and babes!

My grandpa drove a 39′ Olds sedan that he bought new in 1940 just before WW2, until 1971 when grandma made him trade it for a 56′ two door Merc (two tone black and white). The 39′ Olds still had running boards and tear drop head lights and a fine chrome grill and hood ornament. My dad was a Desoto man…those beasts were built like tanks and had the most incredible chrome grills and bumpers. You could carry a family of eight in a four door! He bought his last Desoto in 57′ which had big fins and killer tail lights then he switched to Buick Electra’s (four holes). We had a game as kids that if you could’nt name the Buick model by looking at the number of holes in the cowling your buddy could punch you in the arm. I got my drivers license in 64′ and bought a 28′ Model A Ford with a 326 old engine for $150. That one required alot of work and I sold it and bought a 55′ Chev Bel Aire for $150…great for the outdoor movies and back seat fun with my girl friend… drove it for a year and sold it for the same price before I went off to the university. Being a poor college student when wages were like $1.50/hr for part time work, it was hard to save up for “wheels”, but I managed to do it and bought a 1950 Olds Rocket 88 (with a window visor) for $75 which had actually been owned by an old lady and had the original seat covers and tires and had less than 25,000 original miles.

The list goes on:
1961 International Harvester TravelAll
1953 Chevy pick-up
1951 Chevy Pick-up (traded for a 1951 DKW 150 cc motorcross bike that I bought in Belgium for $20)
1949 Chevy Sedan Delivery
1953 Chevy Sedan Delivery
1957 GMC pick-up
1959 GMC Carryall
1950 Jeep Wagon
and my last “old car” was a 1950 Willys Jeepster rag top that was all original (Nassau Cream) with a 4 cylinder Hurricane engine.
Today my daily driver is a 1982 Jeep Scrambler (only 29 years old) which I intend to drive …. well until I can find a deal on the one that always got away, a 37′ Ford covertable.

Jun 15, 2009 - 8:04 pm 77. Doug:

That Rocket 88 was a steal!
Buicks still had a straight eight back then.
Did the Olds have a V-8?

Jun 15, 2009 - 9:19 pm 78. John Williams:

@61: I was actually looking at Live Oak, which seems to be a bit smaller than Lake City.

Jun 15, 2009 - 10:29 pm 79. buddy larsen:

JW/78; but the riddle said “…there is NO development beyond the minimal requirements to be a city. As in it is named one.”

Jun 16, 2009 - 5:38 am 80. sigintel:

Doug…Rocket 88 was a V8 326, Hydromatic tranny, and power steering…really cruised comfortably at 70

Jun 16, 2009 - 4:55 pm 81. Doug:

Kind of ahead of it’s time.
Buick was back in the stone age.
Folks had a 49 Buick Super, straight 8 gas guzzler.

Jun 17, 2009 - 2:16 am

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