This shot from 1945 reflects the fact that Model Ts were a dime-a-dozen then, and one could find them for free or maybe $5 just about everywhere. And the knowledge of how to keep them running was everywhere…in any man a generation older. They were easy to fix; and so light, a jack wasn’t even necessary to change a wheel.
If you’re wondering about that white letter ‘M’ on the guy on the left pants, here’s the explanation:
These boys were members of the Molestors Club, in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1945. Life magazine did a photo essay of teens there; here’s the link to the rest of the shots, a great look back into another era. “Clubs” then were a sort of cleaner-cut version of gangs, and have long disappeared with so much of kids’ free time, especially from affluent neighborhoods like these kids came from. And that name probably wouldn’t go over too well today…can you imagine the uproar?
The “M’s location on the pants combined with the name is great combination of wrong and hilarious…..
well mounted and strong fenders made feats like this possible
Nothing like white socks w/strollers or any dress shoe, especially with a suit! Guilty as charged on that, albeit for a brief time, as 1968 came around and some of the “hippy”/more contemporary styles filtered into the Midwest, thanks in large part to Rowan & Martin’s “Laugh-In”!
My dad, aged 73, wears nothing but white socks. Period. Jeans, slacks, suits — white socks.
My one grandfather always wore white socks with everything too, not that he ever wore shorts or bluejeans – neither of my grandfathers did and they were working class men, not professionals. He was an Oldsmobile man, for the record.
Here’s the thing – he actually told me to always wear white socks so the dye wouldn’t poison me or something crazy like that. He was a bit of a sauce monster ( a nice one, not a mean one thankfully) who had all sorts of crazy beliefs so I never paid it much mind. Has anyone else every heard this?
The white socks were quite the prep thing in the 50s and 60s. There are some great pictures in my dad’s 1960-63 boarding school yearbooks of everyone with high water khakis, white socks, and weejun loafers. And my slightly older cousin still wears them, pulled all the way up, with topsiders. Classic.
The “Who needs a jack?” scene was restaged in less amusing, more emergent circumstances around midnight one day last week, a block from my home. A Volkswagen Touareg wound up on top of a man in the middle of the street. Police, Fire and an ambulance responded and were going to lift the car with an air bag but decided to try muscle power instead, lifting the car while the two ambulance crew pulled the victim out.
The under-drinking age driver blew on the bad side of the breathalyzer and will likely lose her license for a year.
Not such a great name for a club these days.
That was a much more innocent time. The name would probably sound a bit rakish to the local girls, insinuating that her date for the night would probably pull her into the shadows and cop a feel (on the outside of her clothes) while stealing a (mouth closed) kiss.
Heavy teen sexuality circa 1945.
I remember in the romantic movie Flipped set in 1963, there wasn’t even a kiss! And in romantic movie My Girl set in early ’70s, kiss is the most.
Oh, and people seem to have a distrust feeling about the romantic story in movie Pearl Harbor criticizing it unreal :O
Not that much more innocent, one of those guys may well have gotten a girl sent to the Blessed Virgin Mother Of The Immaculate Conception Convent School for a semester or two until she was needed back at home to help with her new baby brother or sister.
Wasn’t this a line from The Muppet Movie?”
“Jack not name. Jack job.”
Yes. If you ever meet a used car dealer who reminds you of Milton Berle, RUN.
Although my favorite line came from Fozzie Bear: “Those guys don’t look like Presbyterians.” when they meet the Electric Mayhem in an abandoned church.
Teen boys look way better without the influence of hip-hop, and junk food ( responsible for the horrible styling of pants hair and overweight respectively ) and the best part is, there was no DONKY!
Centerdoor sedans were probably the cheapest of all Ts. Nobody wanted them when they were new. Terrible idea that somehow became a fad around 1917.
This car seems to have official lettering and color scheme and siren. The lettering might be something about a fire department?
I actually do not know how many people were driving around 1920s cars in the 1940s due to about 15 years of depression and war. Cool photos indeed of a bygone era and I see some improper lifting technics that are going to be felt decades later.
Jeezo Peezo ! lookit the CORDS showing through on that tire !! .
At the very least it needs a ” Oakie Recap ” A.S.A.P. .
I tried the link but only got one picture……
-Nate
“A Recap “…Wow …The scary part…I remember when my older brother bought a set, for his 54 Chev. My Dad freaked out, and my Mom made Dad go buy him a set of real tires. I’m thinking that must of been 50 years ago.
An ” Oakie recap ” is a whole ‘nother thing……..
-Nate
No kidding ~
When I was younger & single , Church Girls were the easiest to get into bed .
-Nate
Yep, and preacher’s kids were the best hellraisers.
Even in the early 70’s, my best friend, the son of a Lutheran preacher, would find me the best drugs (especially hallucinogenics) and double dates with him meant that we swapped girls halfway thru the evening.
Sad to say, I hardly had any experiences with the opposite gender during my formative years, due to a combination of overprotective parents, bad luck, and my own dorkiness. I REALLY got cheated.
As an adolescent / young teenager:
I never experienced a “puppy love” romance.
I never got to play Doctor, Spin The Bottle, or any of those other adolescent rite-of-passage games with the opposite gender.
I never got to enjoy an attractive female doctor or nurse give me a thorough, detailed physical exam.
An an older teen / young adult:
I never had a high school or college sweetheart.
I never went to an afterschool dance ( no opportunities to kiss, grope, or grind ) .
Didn’t have my first real date, or first real kiss, or first real action, until I was 22-24. That’s freakin’ pathetic, isn’t it???
Not the end of the world, but those early feelings of frustration and despair over my lack of experiences with females probably laid the foundation for the mild to moderate depression that I still struggle with to this day.
I hear ya. I left high school in the summer of 1968 the absolute loser that no girl would be caught dead saying “good morning” to, much less be caught in a conversation.
Moved 200 miles away for college. Three years later, I’m a glam rock drag queen, and a normal Friday night had me bringing two lovelies home during the course of the evening before settling on the third who stayed the night.
All one needed was to get away from the crowd that ruled you a jerk.
And the real fun was at the 30th and 45th class reunions. There is no better revenge than living well.
“And the real fun was at the 30th and 45th class reunions. There is no better revenge than living well.”
At this stage of my life (graduated from high school in 1969) I’m happy to just be living, revenge enough for me.
Yes to all these responses .
Fun times if not overly smart .I got my High School GF pregnant , big oops .
Now I use my multiple screwups as life lessons to our Teenaged Foster boys , much to the horror of the Agency .
On the other hand , the Agency tells us that if one in five isn’t dead , on drugs or in jail by 18 that’s great .
Instead , we usually get them through High School and working , some go off to College , most all of them have a good attitude , realizing that life isn’t fair but you can still be happy and live well .
-Nate
The part made me most frustrated is, I was in a typical typical puppy love relationship around 6 or 7 until 12 13, with a quite adorable sweet girl ( or maybe myself was that type too ) in the same way as the movie My Girl, plenty of kids around were teasing us a darling couple. But I eventually fell in love with her cousin ( a boy! ) and grabbed his little butt… Other kids growing up together were responding like “you are gay?????” I don’t know why I didn’t ask for that.