Before The Government Became Our Nanny.

[jerryd6818]

I remember doing this.

(Take note. I'm not saying any of these were or are good ideas. )

[FRJ]

FINALLY!! --------- A solution to WHEEL ANTS. ----------- I hate wheel ants.

[samb1955]

We used to ride in the back of dad's pickup truck and it was a blast. No way I'd let a kid ride back there now.

[jerryd6818]

We used to ride in the back of dad's pickup truck and it was a blast. No way I'd let a kid ride back there now.

Yeah, now it's against the law.

[eveled]

I think of those types of things often. Thinking we survived. Then I remember some of us didn’t. Lol. If people had more common sense. We wouldn’t need so many laws.

Wheel ants? That s a new one to me.

[XX Case XX]

Wheel ants? That s a new one to me.

Me too. What's a wheel ant? Wouldn't they just fall off while you're driving?

_____________
Mike

[Mumbleypeg]

Those brought back some memories! My first car bought with my own money was a 1950 Ford two door coupe. Huge back seat, and of course no seat belts. I bought it for $300 cash in 1962, with money I saved from mowing lawns - back then that was a lot of lawns!

Our neighbor was the local Nash dealership sales manager. He knew I’d been saving up for a car and he told me he had a good one for me. They took the car in as a trade-in for a new Nash. Sounds too good to be true but the previous owner was a spinster who had bought the car new and seldom drove it - it was 12 years old and IIRC had under 10,000 miles on it. At the time I was too young to legally drive it but I had been driving tractors, pickups etc since I was old enough to reach the gas, brake and clutch pedals. It was a small town so driving under age was no big deal, most of the kids drove as soon as they were able.

Like you said Jerry, “before the government was our Nanny”. Nowadays there are laws in some states requiring a child to be 13 years old or over 65 inches tall before they can even ride in the front seat!

Ken

[KnifeSlinger#81]

I like the idea of the laying down seats, would be so much more comfortable on road trips.

[mariacrow44]

OMG!! I just love this site. I learn more things here than in real life!! And yes what is a wheel ant?

[cody6268]

Let's see; cleaning your car upholstery with the exhaust fumes seems like an accident waiting to happen. I guess they hadn't heard of a thing called carbon monoxide back then? All I can say is thankfully, they invented the ShopVac.

[samb1955]

When you thought you've heard it all wheel ants come up! My dad bought a car one time that came with a live possum in the trunk. He took it back and told whoever he wanted the possum out or his money back. They got the possum out for him and he kept the car.

[RobesonsRme.com]

Maybe it was due to the fact that we didn't have 24/7 national news coverage, but I cannot recall ever hearing about an accident involving a pickup truck and major loss of multiple lives that were riding in the back.

Lord, the miles I've logged sitting on the wheel-well of a PU cannot be tabulated.

My Dad was an American Motors man. He loved their engines.

We had multiple cars with fold down seats.

Sarah and I dated in a Matador that had fold down seats.

That had absolutely nothing to do with our getting married. We didn't have our first child until 1975 and we married in 1969.

Thought, I'd pre-empt the snide remarks.

Charlie

[KleenCut61]

Let's see; cleaning your car upholstery with the exhaust fumes seems like an accident waiting to happen. I guess they hadn't heard of a thing called carbon monoxide back then? All I can say is thankfully, they invented the ShopVac.

The Attachment on the Exhaust is flow through , Which will pull a vacuum on the Carpet hose Drawing in the fresh air on the Nozzle end , Pretty nifty if ya ask me

[zoogirl]

Maybe it was due to the fact that we didn't have 24/7 national news coverage, but I cannot recall ever hearing about an accident involving a pickup truck and major loss of multiple lives that were riding in the back

We did. Three or four kids, I think. As I recall, they were from my high school but a couple of years before I started.

I ate a big flying bug, standing in the back of my friends family truck, on the freeway!

[samb1955]

Maybe it was due to the fact that we didn't have 24/7 national news coverage, but I cannot recall ever hearing about an accident involving a pickup truck and major loss of multiple lives that were riding in the back

We did. Three or four kids, I think. As I recall, they were from my high school but a couple of years before I started.

I ate a big flying bug, standing in the back of my friends family truck, on the freeway!

Well, how did it taste? Inquiring minds want to know.

[zoogirl]

I was too busy spitting to notice!

True story. I once had to bake about 25 ice cream buckets of assorted mealworms, cockroach’s, stickbugs and crickets. My boss happened to walk by a tray of cooling mealworms, grabbed a handful, said that ‘these are good’ and munched ‘em!

[Colonel26]

Great thread. I’ve ridden many a Mike in the bed of a pickup, on the fender wells and the tailgate. My favorite when I was a kid was when Pa or daddy had the cattle racks on the truck and we could ride in the bed standing up holding on to the racks. But man did those junebugs hurt when they hit you in the forehead.

I also remember when I was a real little feller standing up in the seat of daddy’s 70 something Ford truck with a metal dash riding down the road. Good times.

Hey, don’t tell the nannies but this was just a few minutes ago. A couple of them are KY State Trooper’s kids so I think we’re ok!

[jerryd6818]

Sarah and I dated in a Matador that had fold down seats.

Charlie

I bought one new in '77 to use as a work car. Called it the Kenosha Cadillac.

[RobesonsRme.com]

I forget the year, but Mom and Dad we’re driving back from Decatur in a 1959 white Rambler and it broke down. There was an AM dealership nearby and they were towed there. Timing chain had broken.

When they told Daddy how much the repairs would cost, he went inside and traded it in on that Matador.

The smell of a new car was an intoxicating drug to my father.

Charlie

[Shearer]

Maybe it was due to the fact that we didn't have 24/7 national news coverage, but I cannot recall ever hearing about an accident involving a pickup truck and major loss of multiple lives that were riding in the back.

Lord, the miles I've logged sitting on the wheel-well of a PU cannot be tabulated.

My Dad was an American Motors man. He loved their engines.

We had multiple cars with fold down seats.

Sarah and I dated in a Matador that had fold down seats.

That had absolutely nothing to do with our getting married. We didn't have our first child until 1975 and we married in 1969.

Thought, I'd pre-empt the snide remarks.

Charlie

Charlie I could not help myself.

Were you a slow learner. .

Grant

[TripleF]

Never seen those....wish I knew about them back then....oh well.

One of the dads' lets the boys ride in the bed of the truck in the park....no worries. I let them hold onto my roof rack and foot step and drove around
slowly in the camping area.....people are becoming nannies for sure, everybody's soft these days and the kids have become bigger than the parents.

Don't get me started...

Loved the ads. very cool. Thanks Jerry!

[fergusontd]

Those are all good ideas, I don't see a problem! WHEEL ANTS! And all this time I thought it was those Bias Ply Rayon Firestone tires! ftd

[RobesonsRme.com]

Wheel ants were successfully eradicated in, I think, 1951, through a Government sponsored program.

Charlie Noyes

[jerryd6818]

I think you're right Charlie. I seem to recall my dad mentioning that.

[Mumbleypeg]

Reminds me of a character that was a regular feature on WBAP radio in the DFW area. Hal Jay was the morning D.J. and had a regular group of comic characters. One of them was a shady mechanic named “Rusty Springs” whose garage was the “House of Pings”. Rusty would give car care tips involving some imaginary problem, and advertising his garage’s weekly special. Like changing your “muffler bearings”, or your “perambulation gears”, for some astronomical sum like $2000. “Wheel ants” or “lug lice” would have been typical.

Hal Jay had a great group of funny characters that appeared on his show, usually at least one every morning. I found this on-line description:

WBAP Unique Characters

"Sam from Sales" (Performed by John Hanson) (a high-pressure salesman, Samuel Poteet--Esquire—with humorous stories about his very large family of cousins; this was the original WBAP character; he is not featured at the 7 AM broadcast).

"Breakfast with Betty" (Performed by Eric Harley) (a sex-crazed wannabe chef who repeatedly hits on sportscaster Steve Lamb, encouraging him to divorce his wife – KXAS-TV reporter Deborah Ferguson – or, at the least, have an affair with her).

"Leif Raker" (Performed by Eric Harley) (a stand-up comedian/gardener featuring corny jokes).

"Mystic Chuck" (Performed by Eric Harley) (an alleged psychic who has "visions" but never answers the initial question as posed by Hal Jay; instead, Mystic Chuck gives an unrelated answer to a question, and then follows it with the question as the Punch line; the bit is a spoof of the Johnny Carson sketch Carnac the Magnificent).

"This Reporter" (Performed by Eric Harley) (a news reporter who always gets confused or terribly off subject; the name "This Reporter" spoofs the fact that reporters often refer to themselves in third person while reporing a news story).

"Shorty Lavender" (Performed by Eric Harley) (the adventures of a jockey from nearby Lone Star Park who proclaims himself the crew's "Four Feet of Fun Guy" and associates with a similarly named jockey, "Thigh High Johnson").

"Professor Lester T. Besterfester" (Performed by John Hanson) (a fictitious professor at Texas Christian University, Hal Jay's alma mater, is billed as the Chairman of the Speech Therapy department – despite his own slurred speech, specializing in "16th century grammar appreciation").

"Rusty Springs" (Performed by John Hanson) (an auto mechanic operating "Rusty Springs House of Pings", the alleged repair shop for WBAP's fleet, who creates nonsensical mechanical terms supposedly involved in auto repair – while charging outrageous prices).

"The Reverend Robert Jiltem" (Performed by John Hanson) (a parody of Robert Tilton, a televangelist promoting his latest scheme while claiming that the idea "won't cost much – no, only a tiny amount – simply send me five, ten, fifteen, or twenty THOUSAND dollars" and offering a religious trinket in exchange).

"Doctor Ben Golfin" (Performed by John Hanson) (a fictitious medical doctor – the name is a parody of the stereotype that doctors are more interested in golf than patients)

"Chief Wilbur Wetfeather" (Performed by Eric Harley) (a Native American meteorologist, often apologizes for bad weather claiming that he accidentally performed a Native American dance which caused it, and warns the crew of what they believe to be bad weather – such as "Strong Wind", only to learn that Wilbur is warning them of one of his relatives).

"Pedro from Payroll" (Performed by Eric Harley) (a Hispanic character who purportedly works in WBAP's payroll department, but is portrayed as anti-stereotypical – for example, he opposed the Great American Boycott).

"Willie Landum" (Performed by John Hanson) (the self-proclaimed "Fishing Guide to the Stars"—the name is a spoof of "will he land them?"—who provides oddly-named, and sometimes sexually suggestive, fishing lure names; this character is featured exclusively on Fridays just prior to 7 AM so that the morning news crew may receive the "Weekend Fishing Report", though in recent periods does not appear every Friday as before).

"Akmed Dangerfield, the 'Wacky Iraqi'", (Performed by John Hanson) who generally provides updates on the goings on in Iraq, and will often have to change his report in midstream due to the subject being bombed out of existence (once, Akmed complained that the bombings destroyed his country's main industry, the Seven-Eleven Training Center).

"Grit Sissle" (Performed by Eric Harley) (the "Great American Truck Driver", who does reports while on the road; he is known by his CB handle "Naner Puddin" and finishes every sentence with "come back?" and two short blasts of his air horn).

"Tug McCord" (a cowboy character who reports on "life on the range", which usually involves exotic foods not normally found in traditional cowboy cuisine).

"Captain Steve Lightning" (a fictitious pilot for American Airlines who, when he speaks, uses elongated "ahs", some of which get "stuck").

"Natural Howard", (Performed by Eric Harley) a spoof of local "Dirt Doctor" weekend gardening show host, Howard Garrett, who believes all gardening issues are best handled with "natural" solutions and cannot pronounce the word "herb" (Garrett, whose show was a weekend fixture on WBAP, later moved his program to rival station KSKY and is thus no longer featured).

"Ze Inspector", a spoof of Inspector Clouseau (Performed by John Hanson) who would insult the hosts regularly (his introductory line was "Greetings, you American swine"); no reason has been given for his departure.

"Dusty Plains", would "guest host" a segment called "Tales of the Old West with John Wayne". Hal Jay would introduce the bit and inform listeners that "John Wayne couldn't be with us this morning" and give an often humorous explanation for what the long-dead Wayne was busy with that day (example: "John Wayne couldn't be with us this morning. He's out skiing with Michael Kennedy.") He would then introduce "our guest host" Dusty Plains, who would spend the rest of the bit telling a story of the old west that took place "in the rootin' tootin' town of Dodge City." The story would usually involve Marshall Dillon, Miss Kitty, and other characters from the Gunsmoke series. The story would end with a violent confrontation between Marshall Dillon and another character, which would typically result in bloodshed and dozens, if not hundreds, of people laying dead "when the smoke cleared."

"Heywood Yousueme" - a spoof of an attorney (the name is a parody of "hey, would you sue me?") who would provide (bad) legal advice to listeners.

Ken