by xe

Created on: March 28, 2009   Last Updated: March 29, 2009

We were so lucky to be car nuts in the '60's! We were just kids - who read hot rod magazines, built plastic car models, listened to Elvis, and knew older guys (and even a few girls) who had cars. One spring-time Saturday evening, while our patents were sitting around talking and watching TV after dinner at their house, we played in his bedroom. We had each just bought one of the '3 in 1' AMT plastic models of the '32 Ford - the "Deuce Coupe" from the Beach Boys song. Opening those boxes and carefully studying the instructions, chrome engine parts and sheet of decals was a true adventure. Like we would ever build a stock one with fenders and a flattie! We didn't know that much about cars, engines, transmissions; and of course at 14 had never driven a car ourselves. But we were Car Nuts!

The songs and magazines talked about strokers and cams, chopped and channeled, overhead valves and top-loader trannies (not to mention the TJ Tuck'n'Roll Seats); and we were working on understanding the words so we wouldn't sound dumb with our friends, especially the older ones. The Weekly Reader books we could get at school had provided a few contributions - there were one or two about kids, car clubs, their first car, sports cars (the Red Car comes to mind), and these were studied and cross-referenced against other sources to work on solving the mysteries.

At around nine that evening, we asked for a dollar or so, and for permission to walk the few blocks to the local A&W Root Beer Drive-In a few blocks away from his house. Allowance in hand, we waited until we were out of the drive-way to stand up the collars on our jackets against the evening chill, like we saw James Dean do in the movies. Sauntering down to the Drive-In, we were ecstatic to see that several of the small town's hotter cars were there. Memories of specific makes and models are fuzzed over by time, like the blue fuzzy trim that was on the rear view mirror of one two-door coupe.

I remember the eight-ball shift knob adorning the chrome floor shift stick. One of the guys, obviously worthy of our adoration, had converted his three-on-the-tree Chevy to a floor shifter! Now, we were too dumb to grasp the simplicity this represented when compared to the four-on-the-floor's we read and heard about, but Ron had actually modified his own car! Parts ordered by mail from the J.C. Whitney's catalog made it possible. I still have a few '60's Hot Rod magazines, and the ads are filled with fuzzy dice, Lone Wolf club jackets and chrome exhaust tips.

The big topic was the pin-striping accents on another car - there were suspicious shiny areas around the striping that inspired a heated debate over whether the pin-striping was real or decals, but it was cool regardless. Returning to his house, the remainder of the evening was devoted to researching the catalog and magazines to learn more about what we had seen; and the further analysis and planning associated with souping up out 'Deuces' - 1/24th scale but as real as we could make them at 14 years old! Life was grand, and we were Car Nuts!

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