By Donnie Johnston, ADVANCE COLUMNIST
When I was a child I could tell you the make, model, and year of almost any car that passed.
A friend even swears that there was a boy in his rural elementary class who could sit at his desk and tell the make and model of any truck that drove by the schoolhouse.
Teenagers of my generation had a fascination for cars and trucks, a feeling they inherited from their parents. Many, like Goober in the classic Andy Griffith Show episode, could take a car apart—especially the motor—and put it back together.
I have passed many a country home at which a motor, suspended with a chain, hung from the overhanging limb of a front yard oak tree. It had been removed by a 16 or 17-year-old boy who was preparing it for more power and speed. Almost every kid was a mechanic of sorts.
Of course, cars were simpler in those days. No electronics except for a battery and a solenoid. No computer chips. No EPA mandated hoses and filters. There weren’t many things that went wrong that a man couldn’t fix himself.
If you look back into an old family photo album, you are almost certain to find at least one photo of a good-looking gal sitting on the hood of a flashy car. Young people were proud of their cars, in great part because they had worked for the money to buy them. They were not an expected or demanded “gift” when the young person turned 16. I walked home in the dark from my first job for nearly eight months to save up $200 to buy my first car. I still have the receipt.
You can’t sit on the hood of a car today. You’d bend the fabric. Cars manufactured before 1972 were made of real metal. Then, too, young people are not as skinny as they were back then.
You never heard of a child or a pet getting overheated in a hot car back in those days. Only the very rich had cars with air-conditioning so, except when it was about to rain, you kept the windows rolled down. Plenty of air for anyone inside. And even a three-year-old could use the handle to crack a window. Now, if the car is not running, the electronic windows won’t move.
It was called “250 air-conditioning.” Two windows rolled down while driving 50 miles per hour. Grandmas and babies all survived.
Check the used cars ads from the early 1950s. “A 1948 Desoto with radio and heater.” No, until the mid-1950s, neither was standard. You had to pay extra to get either of them on many models. And radio was AM only, except maybe on Cadillacs, Lincoln Continentals or other luxury cars. Car manufacturers said, “Why bother?” After all, there were few FM stations and they only played high-brow music. You couldn’t get Hank Williams or Elvis Presley on FM radio.
The radios were simple. A dial for tuning, another for volume and an antenna on the passenger side fender that resembled a fishing pole. Low-watt local stations during the day and the big city 50,000 watters at night. And plenty of static, especially when a thunderstorm was within 20 miles.
Most states required motorists to place the registration card, usually protected by a plastic covering and held in place with a spring, around the steering column. In case of emergency, anyone could look inside and see to whom the car belonged. Watch old movies. Cops and private detectives were always checking the registrations.
Most people left the key in the ignition—with the windows down (in the summer) and the doors unlocked, even in high-traffic parking lots. People didn’t go around stealing cars like they do today. They were more honest and criminal penalties were stiffer. Besides, if a World War II veteran caught you stealing his car, he might take a tire iron to your head without fear of legal repercussions. That possibility kept many would-be thieves thumbing or walking instead of stealing.
People looked out for each other’s vehicles. If your windows were down and rain was coming, you opened the car door and rolled them up, even if you didn’t know who the car belonged to. It was common courtesy.
If the car was blocking another vehicle or an entrance, you got in, started it up and moved it— again, even if you didn’t know the owner. Nobody called the police or screamed bloody murder. Instead, they thanked whoever did it. In many cases, it prevented the owner from getting a ticket. Again, common courtesy.
You gave hitchhikers a ride, unless the person looked dangerous, of course. People were more trusting. Today, no one would stop for a man in a suit and a clerical collar, afraid he was pretending to be a preacher and out to get them. We don’t trust anybody.
Almost every man—and many women—could change a tire. No calling AAA. You just got out and did it. And often, the tire could be repaired on the spot.
Most tires had tubes, so if a nail punctured the tire and tube, patching the tube could get you back on the road. Most drivers carried patch kits, a little cardboard can with a metal top that had rasp-like ridges. Inside were patches and a small tube of glue. Most men could patch a tube in five minutes. I watched my grandfather patch a tube on the spot many times.
And there was a manual air pump in every trunk, along with a real jack and lug wrench, not the gizmos in today’s cars. And a real spare tire, which you put on if the hole was not reparable or you didn’t have time to do the patch.
Old tubes? The rubber made great slingshots. And old tires were hung by ropes from a tree limb and used as swings. Nothing was wasted.
Nobody had trucks except farmers and those who used them for work. It was felt that a truck was a vehicle for the lower classes. Today trucks are status symbols for old retired people who would pay somebody to haul something rather than get their beds dirty or scratched.
Yep, cars and attitudes have both sure changed since I was a boy. Back then cars were unique, each make had its own look. Today, they all look alike. And you need thousands of dollars’ worth of electronic tools to fix any problem. Sixty years ago, a set of wrenches and a screwdriver solved a lot of problems.
I won’t compare car and gas prices, but no matter how much you gripe, they are no higher now than when I was a kid, relative to wages in those days.
