Back in the ol days

[misfish]

I always thought it would look neat in an open bonnet rod.. never got around to it, but the engine is still here!!

 

Throw it in one of yer planes and put a stinger bee on the tail.

[Harrison]

Moosebunk, I echo 100%

Edited November 27, 2010 by Harrison

[blue pickeral]

Back in the old days everyone is writing about, banks were extremely stingy when lending money for consumer goods. You could get a fixed interest mortgage for 30 years, but loans for anything else were rare.

 

You may remember a TV commercial for HFC - Household Finance Corporation. Their slogan was "we believe when you want something it becomes a need!". Not sure what happened to HFC, but the banks realized they were missing out on a money maker and began lending more freely. Thus began a long trail of instead of figuring out how to make things cheaper (while taking into account fluffy 'options' to things - such as heated mirrors on cars)they just figured out easier ways for consumers to finance things. Looks like 7 year terms for a car loan these days?

 

Also, in northern Ontario there was 1 TV station. The then owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs wouldn't allow the broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada to include the first period of Leafs' games to encourage people to buy tickets and see the game in person. As a 5 year old youngster, signed up for 'Squirts' organized hockey and during our first game, half the kids headed for the shack after 2 periods thinking that's how many periods were in the game!

 

I hate the Leafs to this day, have never spent a cent that would benefit them and (apologies in advance) have a dim view of anyone with a Leafs license plate or flag on their vehicle!

[dave524]

Back in the old days everyone is writing about, banks were extremely stingy when lending money for consumer goods. You could get a fixed interest mortgage for 30 years, but loans for anything else were rare.

 

You may remember a TV commercial for HFC - Household Finance Corporation. Their slogan was "we believe when you want something it becomes a need!". Not sure what happened to HFC, but the banks realized they were missing out on a money maker and began lending more freely. Thus began a long trail of instead of figuring out how to make things cheaper (while taking into account fluffy 'options' to things - such as heated mirrors on cars)they just figured out easier ways for consumers to finance things. Looks like 7 year terms for a car loan these days?

 

Also, in northern Ontario there was 1 TV station. The then owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs wouldn't allow the broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada to include the first period of Leafs' games to encourage people to buy tickets and see the game in person. As a 5 year old youngster, signed up for 'Squirts' organized hockey and during our first game, half the kids headed for the shack after 2 periods thinking that's how many periods were in the game!

 

I hate the Leafs to this day, have never spent a cent that would benefit them and (apologies in advance) have a dim view of anyone with a Leafs license plate or flag on their vehicle!

 

Banks remember setting up a chequing/savings account 35 years ago, as long as I had a grand in there, there were no service fees for any number of transactions and a good interest rate to boot, next they cancelled the minimum balance no service fees but the interest usually covered the service. Today the fee is $10.95 a month and the interest is squat, but I do get a $4 rebate now as a senior citizen

 

Grew up watching the Leafs in Niagara in the original six days. We had the same thing going on with the missing first period too. The games would start later then, 8:00 pm and on Saturday you would get the whole game but the Wednesday home games, you would get regular programming till 9:00 pm and then they would cut to the game usually around the start of the 2nd. " Happy Motoring " with Murray Westgate

[JohnF]

I always thought it would look neat in an open bonnet rod.. never got around to it, but the engine is still here!!

 

That's what Bruce (my buddy) wants for his tricked out flathead with the three deuces on top. He just sold the other rod that would have been perfect but for the too cool tricked up Olds engine already resident in the open air. It was a classic Ford bucket from the 50's that some American feller offered way too much money for. Bruce had too many cars in the garage and really wanted some space. I'm surprised that he sold that one though. He'd hung on to it for at least 40 years.

 

Kinda like the '28 Chev sheet metal I kept around for years thinking I'd get a frame for it one day (and a drive train, and an interior, and a lot of body filler, etc etc). I always ended up spending my time helping friends build cars for themselves. I guess it was cheaper fun. The rest of the fun was that invariably they wanted to test their new rods against other guys on the street but for the most part these guys couldn't drive for beans. Driving meaning shifting. I could shift. It was easy in OPC (other people's cars) because you just kept your foot to the floor and listened or felt the revs and when it felt right you hammered a shift. I never missed but I'm not sure I'd have been as cocky about it in a hot car with all my own money invested. I drove my own cars hard but the fun ones didn't have the same power, or when they did it was usually in front of an autoshifter and it was more about top end than 1/4 miles. I'm amazed looking back that I kept my license.

 

Speaking of the old days. I bought and built a few well-used (two out of parts boxes) motorcycles and got interested in Enduro riding so my first new bike was a Yammy DT1b in 1968 for $850 all set up new from the dealer. Nifty bike that had all my Triumph and Harley riding friends laffing at me for this wimp toy. They stopped laffing the first day we took the bikes out to a farmer's gravel farm. He had some nice sod/dirt hills for climbing and the big iron boys often met there on Sunday afternoons to rip and snort up the hill on their street tires and street gearing. I showed up one day with my little Yammy with a new set of gears and a big nasty motocross tire on the back and walked up their easy hill. Before long they were all lining up to give my bike a try and they loved it. It kinda spoiled their big bike fun after that though. At least after that they allowed me to ride with them unless we were going to some place cool like Grand Bend. They didn't want to be seen with me on the Yammy but I had my own old 650 Triumph with the peanut tank, rail, front end extensions, megaphone pipes and dogbone bars that I could roll out for those rides. But I loved to ride that Yammy the rest of the time.

 

Sure miss those days but my bike riding days kinda came to a halt on orders from SWMBO shortly after I brought my 12 year old son home on the back of the new used Kawi Ninja and before I could warn him to keep his mouth shut he blabbed that we were going some speed slightly in excess of the legal but it was on a perfect road freshly paved with excellent forward visibility and absolutely no traffic in sight. The bike didn't so much as quiver, not like the old Triumphs for sure, and Matt just kept hollering in my ear to go faster. I only got to keep that bike for the summer and was under orders never to take the boys on it again. Actually the 13 year old made that easy. He refused after hearing his brother babble. I succumbed to the pressure from the wife front finally and gave up bikes for golf and other boring grown up stuff. I'm suffering the pangs lately though. I really am missing riding. Problem is I wouldn't settle for a cruiser, only a crotch rocket and I'm not sure how my aging hips would take to that riding posture any more. It was tough enough in my 40's. I ended up standing on the pegs a lot even then. I'd also be very happy to find another Yammy Enduro for an around town ride but they're kinda rare now and while we're living in the condo parking is an issue.

 

If you guys keep this thread running I'm gonna be back to talk about what it was like riding in the horse drawn milk wagon to save some walking on my paper route at age 11/12, working in a grocery store as a bagger/carryout and doing phone in orders and home deliveries with my boss(remember those days) Friday nites and Sats and then daily in the summer for something 50 cents per hour, two summers in a meat packing plant (seems to me the pay cheque was something like $60/wk) when summer students had to figure out how to avoid the sweet (not!) jobs on the kill floors or the stock barns (got great stories about those two summers, and I still eat meat including bologna that I mixed and chopped and hung), on the CNR spare gang lifting track and chucking escutcheon plates up and over the side of a high gondola car till the pain in your shoulders had you hanging by an elbow off the ladder and letting the train drag you along the roadbed as your free arm got torn out from the heavy little plates, on road construction trying to keep my little (we were physically about as dissimilar as two brothers could be) brother out of fights with big nasty impatient drivers who generally were pretty quick to chill when they realized they didn't just have a 125# toothpick to deal with (truth is I was never a fighter but size works too), and finally joining the ranks of employed adultery in 1965 as a teacher at a rich-making contract of $3,400/annum with benefits.

 

I'll stop typing now.

 

JF

Edited November 27, 2010 by JohnF

[misfish]

Great read John.

 

Thanks again guys.

[HTHM]

I'll stop typing now.

 

JF

You REALLY need to get mobile again, don't you??

Thanks for the read (s)!