OK. Lets see how old you are. How is your memory?

Maybe this did not happen in your town, but in my town, everybody was busy buying new cars on the 36 monthly payments plan. Due to new car dealers' shady practices, the Truth in Lending Law took effect. Now you could see how much those low monthly payments were really costing you in extra interest over the life of the loan.

The general public likes to think it is smart, but with finance, the general public is usually dumber than a box of rocks. The system did not teach finance in grade school and high school. If you were a female, you took home economics and learned how to balance a check book. If you were a guy you camped out in shop classes.

Nobody was taught finance. The car dealers loved it. This was the time that Ford brought the Mustang to market. GM came in with the Chevelle, and the Camero. And SS 396. It could all be yours; Just signed on the dotted line and you now can drive off in your new Buick 455 Gran Sport. Perhaps you found a Pontiac GTO more to your liking. It was a nice party. For a while.

And then you started seeing this: A triple black SS 396 1969 Chevelle with white shoe polish in the the window. For Sale. Take over payments.

Nice looking Mustang moving down the street with white shoe polish in the window. For sale. Take over payments.

This kind of action was all over town. Even the low monthly payments were too damn much for the job you had.

For sale. Take over payments.

Anybody else remember this action in the late 60s ?

I was seven years old when the 60s ended, so what I remember from that decade is the first run of Hot Wheels, the golden era of Saturday morning cartoons, slot cars and electric trains, Diver Dan, the dawning of the age of Aquarius, Schwinn Stingrays, a mile long group of hippies walking down the street with signs, and riding in the back of the station wagon with no seat belts. And of course pinball machines every where.

I'm sure I missed a few things, but it is late.

I was there in the back of the '66 Bonneville wagon going the other way..... Still have my Aurora Thunderjet HO car collection.

The only thing I have left that I got in the 60s are a few photos and my Odd Rod stickers.

At least that kid doesn't have one of those center mounted shifters that came on the Krates to land on.

1968

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Nice! You got one of those fancy bikes with the shifter. Then there were those station wagons with both rear and sideways seats in the back.

Being a child of the 60s may make us sound old, but when I see the shape some from a couple decades later are in now, and the fact that I can still run circles around most of them and still have a lot of my hair, I feel pretty darn young.

Somewhere around 1964 or 1965. Most of the kids in the neighborhood were older than me. I'll let you guess which one is me and which is my older brother.

Funny, you don't see kids carrying toy guns or rifles anymore.

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Ha ha!
Who else has little kid pictures of themselves?

I'm on the left. (with my cousins. My little brother wasn't born yet.)

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That is my mother's house and she still owns it. See that ficus tree across the street? They were in front of every house in the parking and some of them are still there. What a fn nightmare they are!

I always figured destroying stuff was part of growing up.

Alright, who can tell me what these are?

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Herbie!

Those go way back. First car I owned was in 73. My first year of college. It was a baby blue Volkswagen bug my parents gave me. Drove that thing until the engine finally froze up.

Since we are playing this game, who can name this item... from memory.

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Hint- 1971.

It came and went, but it was something I took notice of at the time because of TV ads.

Alright, this isn't really fair because I just found out it was only test marketed on the west coast and northeast. I had searched this before and came up with nothing until today.

It's called an Oobi and was something you put a note or letter in and wrote an address on and set it down somewhere and it would be passed along through the kindness of strangers until it reached it's destination.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oobi_(toy)

I grew up in a neighborhood of vandals. Those hood pins could be pried off with a screwdriver. The kid down the street had a drawer full of them. As word got around, the Vee Dub owners who still had an emblem had drilled a hole and locked it in with a machine screw.

Lets' take a break. I'm older but I'm not blind. And the song is good listening.

That was a nice break. Thanks.

Here is some wisdom passed down from my dad about getting older. Advice he gave me. He tried to give me a couple warning signs about when your memory was going. He told me there were 2 major warning signs.

The first is when you are going to the bathroom and your forget to zip up your fly afterward. I think we have all been there. That is the earlier warning sign.

The second is when you are going to the bathroom and your forget to unzip your beforehand.

Yeah, I thought this thread is supposed to be about how old we are.

OK.

I remember seeing this commercial for the 1963 Corvette Stingray with its hidden headlights. I was 10 years old when these hit the street. I saw my first one about two weeks after they went on sale. We were driving the Kansas Turnpike with posted speed limit of 80. A red split-window rolled by doing about 90. It was fun to watch.

Looks like a pea picker.

You know you are old when you remember when a shiny new Krate could be had for under $100.

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I wish.

A 1968 Deluxe Stingray.

Krates in nice condition are > $1500.00 now.

I still have complete sets of both Odd rods & Odder odd rods, plus multiples of the rare ones... used to buy cases of these as a kid and trade & sell them.

Looks like a Pea picker crate

Yeah, that one had the bigger wheels. There was also a Stingray fastback that also had a center shifter.

Mine was a base model Stingray, copper in color, that turns out to be fairly rare as well because the color wasn't that popular. Can't say it overwhelmed me when I saw it, but pops was a bargain hunter and probably got a good deal on it at the time. Not complaining, it served me well for several years.

The Krates had a 16" front wheel and springer fork, as well as a sprung seat.
There were 5 speed and coaster models. The later ones had a rear disc brake.

The Fastback had 20"x 1 3/8" wheels, and were never as popular as the regular Stingrays.

My bike was a Deluxe Stingray fitted with a Sturmey Archer three speed coaster.
Reason being that my hands were too small to reach the hand brake levers.

We had a family owned Schwinn dealership, and even I couldn't have a Krate.
They were actually pretty damn heavy, anyway.

E

I had a base model Stingray. Purple with a white seat. As you, mine served me well.

You guys have all of your toys from when you were kids. I don't have any of that stuff. Of all the stuff I had, I had a housefly made of plastic that was about 12 inches long. It was huge. It had a suction cup to stick it to a mirror. For a cheap kid's toy in was highly detailed. I wish I still had that.

I bet they weren't knocking down your door for Stingrays that were copper. After a while it kind of grew on me as I was the only kid in the neighborhood that had one.

All I have is a small box of Odd Rods, Wacky Packages and a few other bits of memorabilia. Too many garage sales, too many moves, and too many other hobbies later. I've found it's easier to get in the habit of letting things go and make room for new than to hoard everything and get buried in it or the past.

Would it be cool to still have all my Hot Wheels and miles of track? Maybe. But I can surely live without it.

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana

Cool, I can't wait.

I guess our memories are a bit better than most on this website then. lol.

When you're starting to think it might be time for a reunion with Baron Barracuda.

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Had a friend do a similar thing a few years back with some star trek toys. Back when him and I were roommates, I remembered him loving showing off his in package toys. Fast foward a chunk of years, and he had decided to give the toys to his kids he now had....who were too young to really know what they were even playing with when they ripped open all the packages.

I understand priorities change in life...but since I'm still the big kid, it was hard to watch.

I actually got an Oobi 3 pack on my 10th birthday. I recognized it right away.

That's pretty cool. I found a pic of that 3 pack. it was just one of those things I saw as a kid that stuck in my mind, but the ad campaign was very short lived. I remember some dude put one on a fence post or something.

That wiki page says the Oobi was Parker Bros wildest failure.

Wow! I had forgotten about these.
First thing I did was remove the back seat post and install a mile high sissy bar.

Bicycle helmets?

Just don't lean back on the thing.
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I always feel kinda sad when Halloween is over. I love to watch all the old horror movies on amc.

I'm (that house) that really goes all out on Halloween, inside and outside. I have been doing this for years and years. I have quite a collection of what now may be called collector antiques? A room just jammed with everything Halloween. The walls even have paintings hung. The kids always say, this is the best scary house around.
But, to get back to, "you know you are getting old"....It is getting to be more and more of a chore...but, I still wouldn't have it any other way, plus the wife would say, "what else would we do with all this if we don't put it up"! I have so much I am able to change it up every year.
I also see this, "trunk or treat" effecting turnout...what a shame. Some kids will never know what it was like when you would look down the street and there would be kids at every door on both sides of the street. So, that means I'm old...I guess.

The old guy you are talking to is three months older than you.

LTG : (

Awesome, yea when my youngest son was in elementary school we made my 32x40 pole barn into a haunted house. I emptied the whole barn and hung tarps, strobe lights, fog machine etc. . Had the whole neighborhood over to walk through it. That was about 15 yrs ago. Life sure goes fast, gotta make those memories while you can. Now- Back to the couch!