"I don't feel tardy".... It's that time of year again.

[TheGoodTexan]

CLASS DISMISSED!

Friday afternoon, late spring of your senior year. You roll out of 6th period and dump all your books off at your locker. Light up a smoke on the way to the parking lot...but you can barely taste the nicotine over the smell of fresh cut grass, from the maintenance guys mowing the football field.

As you reach the parkling lot, you see your buddy Chip doing a brake-stand burnout...he just got his new Mickey Thompson's mounted on the rear of his Camero.

Cool...but you'll stick with the BFs on your Cragers....



Hop in the car....roll down the windows....pop in your Van Halen tape...FF>> to "Hot for Teacher". CRANK the Pioneer tape deck, through the Kraco EQ Booster....into the Pioneer 4-way 6x9s that are mounted in the rear deck...

"Got it bad, got it bad, got it bad...I'm hot for teacher..."

Your girlfriend Samantha finishes up cheerleading practice and comes walking up and hops in the car too.... "Can we take my friend Julie home?"



"Uh..ok....hop in the back seat Julie."


As you drive to the parking lot exit... the principal, Mr. Buttram


(pronounced Buh-trum, thank you very much)

... he sees you smoking and motions you to stop. "What's the problem Mr. Butt Ram?" ..... "Oh, they're not my cigarettes...my mom left them in the car and I was just trying them out. I don't like them at all. I'll just give'em back to her when I get home."

You drive off....about to enter into the last real summer of your life.

"Hey Julie, you want to go to the lake with me and Sammi tomorrow?"

[Jakedog]

Thanks. I was having a great day until you pointed out that I've become a grown-up.

I now see I have no choice but to go resurrect the derelict '79 T-top Z-28 that's behind my mom's place in the mountians, under almost fifteen years of dirt and weeds, and give it a new engine, a fresh paint job, and a spanking new set of BF's.

That isn't going to be HALF as big a chore, as convincing my wife to pull her cheerleader uniform out of mothballs.

At least I still have my cigs. Seriously though, awesome post.


Jake

[beach bob]

TGT's wayback machine is firing on all cylinders I see

My boy is in middle school and has three weeks left; the teachers have just about had it and the admin is acting like corrections officers cuz the 'bad' kids are itchy and squirrely and acting out like crazy... awful hard on a skinny little kid who actually tries to learn ... but, yeah, you can feel the summer coming on.

I wasn't into muscle cars, and the cheerleaders were waaay outta my league. So the start of my summer vacation was more like the beginning of that movie Joe Dirt I can remember Mom's Volare station wagon like it was yesterday

[jimd]

Crap, I had to drive my dad's old '79 Chevy Chevette. It was green. Most accurately described as phlegm green.

Girlfriend? Not with that car!

[TheGoodTexan]

Originally Posted by jimd

Crap, I had to drive my dad's old '79 Chevy Chevette. It was green. Most accurately described as phlegm green.

Girlfriend? Not with that car!

That's not my car in the picture, but I did have a '79 Cutlass with BFs wrapped around Cragers.

But get this....I bought my Cutlass for $900, with only 17k miles on it....And sold it two years later to my cousin for $700.

[Dennis68]

It's okay to grow up, just don't grow old.

[Dan German]

Originally Posted by jimd

Crap, I had to drive my dad's old '79 Chevy Chevette. It was green. Most accurately described as phlegm green.

Girlfriend? Not with that car!

I had a Chevette (Pontiac T1000, same thing). Mine had a Buick 3.8 V6. Nothing but mag wheels visible on the outside. It was beige. It didn't get me any girls but it sure made a lot of guys with "hot" cars look stupid in front of their girls. Take your pleasure where you can, I guess.

[Dennis68]

My first few years driving was spent behind the wheel of a '69 Nova 350 3spd auto that went through more exhaust doughnut gaskets than I could count. Great school car, lotsa of memories in that! Wish i still had it for sentimental reasons sometimes. Thank goodness gas was under a buck a gallon at the time. But I haven't learned my lesson when it comes to fuel efficiency:

[TheGoodTexan]

Originally Posted by Dennis68

Thank goodness gas was under a buck a gallon at the time.

Yep - the first time that I ever bought my own gas was a week after I got my Cutlass (Dad bought the first tank).

Gas was $0.86 a gallon....costing me about $12 to fill up.* I remember thinking, "How am I ever going to be able to keep this thing filled up?" :lol

[Jakedog]

Originally Posted by TheGoodTexan

Yep - the first time that I ever bought my own gas was a week after I got my Cutlass (Dad bought the first tank).

Gas was $0.86 a gallon....costing me about $12 to fill up.* I remember thinking, "How am I ever going to be able to keep this thing filled up?" :lol

Those were the days huh? I was just telling my wife the other day, (she didn't have a license or a car until she was nearly twenty three) about the glory days of the $12-$14 fill-up. Or popping in $5 and driving around all night with my friends.

I filled up my Jeep this morning, $57.87. Yikes.

Then again, a the change from my floor boards used to get me a pack of smokes, and a large fountain drink. Now that costs between $6-$7.

I often wonder what it's gonna cost my kids to have fun.



Jake

[TheGoodTexan]

Originally Posted by Jakedog

Then again, a the change from my floor boards used to get me a pack of smokes, and a large fountain drink. Now that costs between $6-$7.

I often wonder what it's gonna cost my kids to have fun.

Have you been to see a movie recently?

[e-merlin]

My Cutlass was a 73. I got it for $300, put in a timing chain and gears to get the Rocket 350, running, threw on a dual exhaust and a set of Michelins, and all was good for my last three years of high school and first year of college!

My first car? a $20 (yes $20) 63 Plymouth Valiant when I was 14.

[Jakedog]

Originally Posted by e-merlin

My Cutlass was a 73. I got it for $300, put in a timing chain and gears to get the Rocket 350, running, threw on a dual exhaust and a set of Michelins, and all was good for my last three years of high school and first year of college!

My first car? a $20 (yes $20) 63 Plymouth Valiant when I was 14.

I never had a Cutty of my own, but our family car from when I was four years old, to about six and a half, was a '72 442. I always wanted one.

My very first car was a '78 Subaru DL wagon I bought for $75. I sold it three months later, and bought a '72 Gran Torino. A previous owner had chopped it up, so when I got it, it had a 390, three speed on the floor, Starsky and Hutch paintjob, and the aforementioned Cragar SS rims. I lOVED THAT CAR.


Jake
www.myspace.com/gsharper

[staxman]

Somehow, I think some of you "geezers" are a little younger than me and had better cars. I'm 52 and graduated high school in '73. In 1970 when I got my first car, gas was 24.9 cents a gallon. My car? An old Chevy II Nova station wagon bought for $300 (no cheerleaders for me ). I put a quart of oil every week in that bomb(25 to 30 cents a can). My friends' parents wouldn't let me park it in their driveways because after a few hours there would be a sizable oil spot.

I loved that car though because it was a ticket to freedom. Ah, the memories I had in the back of that wagon( more chicks in high school than cheerleaders, ya know.)

Great thread!

[Preacher]

wow Tex,

for a moment there I was back in the 80's... I had more hair... and a flatter stomach...;-)

[Fendrcaster]

You damn kids! When I graduated, I was driving a '64 puke green Rambler station wagon. But, at least I could fill it up for about four or five dollars! The car was a piece of crap, but I have some fond memories of nights in that car.

[woodman]

mine was a '51 Chevy, ugly as a toad but got you there and back on fifty cents worth of the cheap gas.

[Dennis68]

My college years were spent driving around in a '78 Mercury Bobcat, the sister car to the, ummm, (Pinto).

It was less maintainance than the '69 Nova I had prior. And a little easier at the pump. I wrecked it in the early 80's when I hit a deer. The proceeds actually helped me by a '83 Strat, but not much else...

[Dennis68]

Originally Posted by Fendrcaster

You damn kids! When I graduated, I was driving a '64 puke green Rambler station wagon. But, at least I could fill it up for about four or five dollars! The car was a piece of crap, but I have some fond memories of nights in that car.

LOL! I grew up ridin' around in the back of my parents Rambler peering out the side window... One looked just like this... I often wonder whatever happened to that car? Crusher? Collector? Hmmm.

No that's wasn't our's and I have no idea who the chick is...

[Jakedog]

Oh, I've had a lot of cars, and not all of them were nice...

Coolest: that '72 Torino.

Best: My current car, '01 Jeep Cherokee 4X4.

Worst: '76 Firebird Esprit. If I ever see that car again I'm gonna pull over and take a big dump right on the hood. It would be beyond fitting.

Ugliest: '77 Subaru Brat. What the hell were they thinking with THAT one?

Fastest: that Torino.

Best handling: '84 Subaru Turbo something or other.

Most scored in: '75 Granada. No joke.

For what it's worth, I didn't date cheerleaders in high school. But I did marry a girl who was a jr. high, high school, and college, cheerleader. I think it just took the cheerleader crowd a little longer to figure how cool it is to date burn-out guitar players. The rest of the girls figured it out MUCH earlier.

I must say, Mr. GoodTexan has really put me in way-back mode today. I have been day dreaming since this was posted this morning. Getting out of school, grabbing my girl, a couple of friends, and their girls, heading out to the lake after finding somebody to buy us a bunch of cheap beer, building a fire, and pulling the old Pioneer home stereo speakers outta my trunk. We'd set one on the trunk, and one on the hood, and kick back on the water all summer long like that. Well, except for nights I had gigs...


Jake
www.myspace.com/gsharper

[TheGoodTexan]

Originally Posted by Jakedog

Ugliest: '77 Subaru Brat. What the hell were they thinking with THAT one?

What? Ulgy? With those cool passenger seats in bed....complete with "hang-on handles with rubber bicycle handle-bar grips" and all....? Not to mention the gull-wing sunroof.

Ok...ugly it is.

[greenmeanie]

As you reach the parkling lot, you see your buddy Chip doing a brake-stand burnout...he just got his new Mickey Thompson's mounted on the rear of his Camero.

Here is a creepy one for you .....My name IS Chip & I had a '69 Camaro my senior year with wide Mickey Thompsons on the rear. I was also not above a school parking lot burnout & listened to Van Halen constantly.

My question: Did we go to the same school, or was I that stereotypical? I'm kinda' creeped out!

[TheGoodTexan]

Originally Posted by greenmeanie

My question: Did we go to the same school, or was I that stereotypical? I'm kinda' creeped out!

uh oh....