… who else grew up riding shotgun unbuckled with the old man as he puffed on a unfiltered cigarette with a beer between his legs as a 3 year old with this kind of stuff playing on the 8 track

…. No wonder I turned out like I did lol

…. All my rowdy friends have settled down looks like

Crickets .....lol

… the writings on the wall

…. It was a good run lol

Yep

… I’m gonna down this last one … ease up to the house…. And hit the sack myself I guess

…. Probably snatch the covers off my ol lady and slap her on the butt lol

Watch it, she may just come up with a broken bottle

In the 8 track days it was Loretta and Conway blairing out the speaker's or Jerry Lee Lewis. I don't think i ever heard of Willie till the late 70's.

J you musta led a sheltered life

Yep

Best friends dad was a wild one. Used to load us boys up hammered to go on adventures fishing, check out caves, cliff jumping into the lake etc. we would usually take the back roads so we could ramp the railroad tracks in his truck, I remember a lot of tom petty and CCR. Good times.

Being the youngest child by the time I came along, "fun" dad had turned into rental property dad. He smoked cigarettes and listened to country music as I rode along to the next property where I usually grabbed my best friend, the "sharp shooter" shovel, to dig a ditch for a water or sewer line. lol

J you musta led a sheltered life

Oh i did, a trip to piggly wiggly grocery store was equivalent to kids going to Disney World now!

You got to ride in the cab?
You were a lucky boy.
Your dad was a gentle man.
I rode somewhere either side of a million miles setting on the fender well in back of the truck, handing beers through the sliding back glass when requested.

I don't know Jtrap, there were a lot of "intresting" people that were renters. I remember when my dad made the rule for no inside pets. Was cleaning out the mobile home of a former renter who was the owner of several chihuahuas. It seems they when the dogs pooped, instead of throwing the poop out, they just lifted the vent covers in the floor and swept it in. Guess who got to clean that up. lol.

Nope, dad didn't smoke or drink, Baptist deacon. I had to figure out all that myself.

And not the forgiving type, either.

Mom had a green ford station wagon. I think winter was worse than summer. Got cold inside pretty quick when Mom went into the store. Did not have A/C so in summer sister and me sat inside with the windows down and didnt seem too hot. Mom stopped at A and W on the way home in summer. Buy herself a root beer in a mug and kids got a small mug for free. I still like root beer.

My ol man had quit drinking by the time I was born. He had a bleeding ulcer and almost killed him. Doc told him either quit cold turkey or die it’s your choice. My dad’s friend told me your dad would pick me up at 5am for work digging foundations. He would have a cold one open in his lap, a cooler full in the back on ice and tell his friend you better start drinking if you want to catch up to me im already 3 deep. That was back in the day when guys could drink on jobsites and wear nothing but shorts and boots and nobody cared because the job still got done. My ol man always had a great work ethic and he made himself into something from being dirt floor poor. He is at his house in Costa Rica now as I type this. However work became the most important thing in life to him and still seems to be. Our relationship still sucks to this day because I never seem to measure up to him in his eyes. He became too judgmental of others. I often wished he would have drank responsibly and continued to do so. Maybe he would be more pleasant to be around.

My dad was pretty straight laced. My mom, however, was just like Savell's Dad. Lol

I remember grocery shopping too. My mom always had some old beater car or other, I remember an ugly maroon Buick Skylark. We would do groceries once a week at Tops Markets in Lewiston NY. I would go into the store whiles she shopped, but your mom probably had the right idea, Danny, so as not to be pestered with "can we get this?" questions, lol. I don't remember much about what was bought, but I do remember getting 1 8-pack of 16oz glass Pepsi bottles that came in a cardboard carrying case. This pop was all we got and would be shared between my mom and I for the week, and was always a treat.

Two of those shopping trips per month were special though. Once a month, we would go to McDonald's for supper. My mom would get a burger and chocolate shake, and I would get a Happy Meal with a vanilla shake. They had an outdoor playground there, and I was allowed to play for a little while after eating. Another week, I would be given a quarter to use the payphone at the grocery store to order a peperoni pizza from Vincenzo's pizza down the road. One of those glass bottles of Pepsi always got consumed on pizza day. I can still taste that pizza, and in fact, the place is still open, and on the rare occasions that I go back to NY, I am always sure to order one!

Mama's was a 76 malibu wagon with the fake wood print. It was known to blow through town and red lights with the hazards flashing. Just Maggie McLeod running one of the boys to the hospital. We were always breaking something, getting cut up or somehow getting hurt. I hold the record for most stitches in one month, five different trips. Oh and I learned about cigarette lighters in that car.

Looked like this one.

…. Dads truck was a 81 ford f100 step side like this one

…. He gave it to me when I turned 16

… only difference was it had good size mudders on the back

I did, sounds just like my early childhood but my dad always had a brown paper bag wrapped around his beer. And no 8 tracks, we only had AM- maybe a CB radio.

Ya know Warrior, I'd kinda like to have that car today!

Would love to have one of those today with the inline six. Heck, I'd even take it with three on the tree for old times' sake. Got to be a dang electrical engineer to work on one these days. Those old trucks could be torn down and put back together with just the tools you kept behind the seat.

Dad's was a 1970 F100 lwb fleetside, then a 76, then an 83. All lwb fleetside f100 with inline six and three on the tree, and he wasn't paying extra for that danged AM radio. All paid for in cash and in full.

You see a pattern there?

They only differed in color as color didn't matter.

… had the 302 in mine warrior… big time ! lol

That's funny, Savell. I think you did alright.

Lots of good folks still cruising around just like that now. One day, Zim and I decided it would be a great idea to get some extra exercise by hiking from our place down the road and around a loop of two country roads that formed about a 5 mile loop and then back to our place. We only did it twice because we couldn't get a quarter mile without being stopped by a neighbor in a truck, drinking a beer and asking if we needed a ride or just a cold beer to help with the walk. We would talk for a few minutes and just get going again before the next buddy stopped us with an offer for help or a beer! God I love where we live!

That reminds me, when Zim was 12 years old, his parents used to send him by himself with the family station wagon to go to the local bar/grocery store to pick up beer, bread, cigarettes and maybe some doughnuts. They would send him with cash and a list. He got some early training!

Yup.....my old man took me (13 year old ) to a couple towns over

To look at a car. He was smoking his Pall Malls with a Miller between his legs

At least a 6 pack in ..before we left in the 1959 VW...no seat belts..


We looked at the car...my old man and this stranger who was selling the car ..

Started drinking and shooting the breeze.

Well...the ol man got tipped ovah and said to me...Your driving home...because

He was on his 2nd suspended license for drunk driving.

So that's when I learned to drive a stick...and had a ball ...driving home.

One of the best days of my life !!!

RIP Pops !!!

….. that’s what I’m talking about Nessy lol

I pretty much thought the car would not start without the sound of the beer can opening.

Always the last sound before we went on an out-of-town trip.

Beer was 0.99 a six pack or less depending on what ya chose. I remember 4.99 a case long neck bottles of Hamms when I started buying it 10+ years later.

And mom making sandwiches, so we didn't have to stop (pretty sure it was a money thing we did not have a lot of extras.) Not super impressed with Bolognia samiches to this day. especially in a hot car on the highway with carsick prone siblings. LOL

… hey Mike

….. there’s a family story where grandpa had the family loaded up in the back of his dump bed pulpwood truck driving from East Texas into Arkansas… got so drunk he accidentally hit the dump lever and had kids hanging on for dear life as they crossed the bridge into Arkansas lol

…. Legend goes an angry woman hollering out her car window at him made he realize what was going on lol

Dad took the bench seat out of his old pickup and put it up against the cab in the bed of his new one. Wasn't bolted in for ease of removal to haul stuff. Sure was a lot more comfortable than the wheel humps. We were not allowed to sit up against the tailgate for safety.

We sat on the tailgate out in the pasture. Lost a boot once dragging my heel on the ground.

Funny that you mentioned mudders on the back.
When I learned to drive, it was when working for a neighbor on his farm.
I was taught how to use those mudders to get from point A to B.
I always had them on my trucks, then about 25 years ago, they were hard to find.
LOL I used to pull a lot of people out with a two wheel drive , and they had 4 wheel drive and all weather tires.

…. Thanks Mrs Patrice … I’m trying to keep the tradition alive best I can lol

… my ol partner the sheriffs son is headed over now … gonna be a long night lol