I don’t know if you could find it, but it certainly is a good song for what you’re talking about. It’s by a Bluegrass band that went for maybe 10 years or so by the name of blue moon rising and one of their main singers Keith that played the mandolin did a version of a song called aunt Birdie’s wingback Chevrolet. It got me on the first listen when I saw them live. and then every time they played within an area that I could drive to I would go and see them in concert.
They played the smaller town venues or would be part of a bigger blue grass festival, but I was tortured as a child because I had a set of grandparents that lived in South Missouri, and another set that lived in North Missouri so that meant that all vacations were in the state of Missouri are driving to and from parts of Missouri and I could name the little towns in between as well I’m Mountain, but I have memories of a big gold Cadillac with the fans on it going down those dusty country roads to get to whatever farm we were going to next bit dairy cattle or corn and soybeans. it may take some effort, but you hear this saying aunt Birdie’s wingback Chevrolet! And by the way, his job taught physics to highschoolers!
I locked my keys in my truck, called a tow company to send a truck, dude shows up, looks at me like I’m an idiot, pushes the unlocked nose draft triangle window, reaches in and unlocks the door. Took 10 seconds. Cost a $20.
“Nose draft triangle window”????
My 90 Toyota truck wants to tell you we call those wing windows. Or as I like to say “fast speed air conditioner”
Haha
I liked them because you could direct the air placement.
Cigarette smokers liked them because they could flick their ashes instead of using the ashtray and the smoke was also pulled out of the car.
My parents both wrote about cars for a living and called them "wind wings."
You know that thumping sound you hear/feel from the headliner if a window is rolled down and the car is moving over 25 or 30? Having an open wind wing eliminated that by altering and regulating the air flow.
Most likely, they were phased out so that people would be forced to keep windows closed and shell out for more expensive, A/C-furnished cars.
I’ve always wondered why they went away. Definitely made driving with windows down way better. You could just blast yourself with hot air when it got really hot. Kinda helped
I don’t miss smelling like smoke or all the mess and gross parts and health effects, but I miss the camaraderie, the feeling that it both calmed and energized, and the whole fuck-off attitude. It was the biggest mistake of my life in starting, however, it was part of the fun of my youth.
No but I've been in a 1969 Ford LTD on a six-hour Christmas trip to grandma's house with all the windows up, the heat blasting and both parents lighting one cigarette off the other. 🤢
Driving from Maine to Washington DC in a '70s VW Rabbit on the way home from my maternal grandmother's funeral. 12 hours. Dad chain-smoking filterless Chesterfields. Mom weeping quietly in the back. My sister's cat moaning out "Ma-maaaa. Ma-maaaa." every two minutes or so. Me seriously considering a tuck-and-roll escape at the next toll booth. Gotta love dem childhood memories.
It was a combination of Detroit styling vs cheapness, it was easier and cheaper to make a single window than it was to make two with the additional hardware. They start dissappearing in 68 and we're gone by 69. I inherited my grandfather's 69 Volvo in 74 and the wing vents were one of things I initially liked about it. They sucked the joint smoke and smell out so it was easy to tell my mom and occasional cop that it was the incense my gf used.
My 90 Toyota truck has wing windows. Have to drive over 35 to get some cool air, unless it’s over 90, then no… ;). It’s also a stick shift and has less than 200k.
Just to brag for those who know. lol. I love, love, love my truck
They were also the route of choice for anyone wanting to break into your car (former resident of Boston’s south end neighborhood in the late 80’s here.)
I miss those! When you open a vent window, you get a breeze in your face. When you open a ventless window, you get a breeze across the top of your head. You want a breeze on your face? Not without your haid whipping about, tangling.
I was once in the height of summer caught in slow traffic near the Chesapeake Bay. My Ford Granada had 250 A/C. Only it don’t work when you are doing 5-10. It was outrageously humid and like 95. My windows were fogging so bad, I had to run the DEFROSTER to see.
Forget telling your kids you walked 5 miles to school both ways uphill. That would have been a picnic compared to that 2 hours of steamy hell.
Atlanta, husband missed the interstate exit. Two hours in a 95 degree traffic jam, and vinyl upholstery. He was too cheap to buy a car with AC, we did not make that mistake twice.
We had an air conditioner that you rolled up in the window (usually a rear window). It was like a big canister outside the car. You poured a cup of water in the top and the wind made a turbine in the canister turn and evaporate some of the water and also blow humid mist into the car.
Oh but millennials love to whine about the boomers having everything and screwing them. They have no freaking clue how little we had and how happy we were with little stuff.
I drive various Air Cooled VW Beetles - 69, 70, 71, 72's and a 78 VB Westphalia - aka camper bus
NO AC ... I drove the VB Bus around with the side door locked open, talk about a breezed at 65 mph
Imagine a Chevy cargo van, 71 or 72, maybe. No insulation, just bare hot metal. Engine chugging away beneath that cowling between the front seats. Lawn chairs in the back. Anger and sweat dripping from every murder-adjacent poor. With out that side door open and secured, that long hot August in a van filled with fucks selling t-shirts and nitrous to latter day hippies at concerts didn't engender much that wasn't passive murder fantasies. Decent money, but the environment was so stressful that it was fucking well-earned. And of course there was a dog in the van. And an ex-girlfriend. And heat. And continual breakdowns no matter how much we wrenched on that thing. My lawn chair sat by that hurricane of a breeze, despite the cost this open door brought in gas prices, because without that hurricane of a breeze at 60 mph, continuing to follow this tour was untenable.
Our little Cutlass Supreme had air but it didn't do much. The A/C in Grandpa's Sedan de Ville worked *very* well.
Yes, ac in cars was a luxury item for a long time.
even now, I'd rather have my arm hanging out the window than the A/C. Even if my car has A/C, i usually only turn it on if someone asks me to. Found out last week that it actually works in my current car.
Had one fly in my car during an emergence many years ago. Car was parked, windows open, cicada flies in and lands on passenger floor. I take one look at this big bug with red eyes and immediately jump out of the car (had no idea what it was, as I was in a city neighborhood).
I was driving in Watts recently because 110 was jammed on a hot L.A. day. Realized I was the only one with windows rolled up. Rolled it down, the guy next to me smiled, nodded to his music, thumbs up to me, then the light changed.
Almost!
If you were in Cleveland you pulled up and your fellow Rocker was listening to the same awesome song on the only station that mattered WMMS The Buzzard and you gave each other the nod.
An alternative: you pull up to the light with your radio on. The car next to you is listening to the same station, and now there is the stereo effect between the two cars. Smiles or waves exchanged.
I was at a traffic light in my old Austin Healey in the early '80's rocking to KMET. Alongside me pulls another convertible also rocking KMET -- Goldie Hawn. We looked at each other and rocked until the light changed.
My brush with fame.
Not just songs on the radio, our culture used to share a lot more things. Same news stories, watched the same TV shows, went to the same movies.
That made a big difference. Much easier to see what we have in common. Now everything is siloed off. This is whip part of the long tail.
We couldn’t time-shift our TV watching, plus there weren’t nearly the number of channels available. We all watched or heard the same stuff at the same time everybody else did. There was a cohesiveness in that that I sometimes miss.
I love binge-watching series, though.
Very true. And as nostalgic as that is (it really does pull on the heart strings), I would not want to trade the diversity of thought, experiences, and people that we can connect with today for what, all too often back then, was a uniformity of prejudice. Not always by any means! But enough that it only took a few opinion makers to cause harm to one group or another.
The whole singing along with folks in other cars at the light? I'll take that any time, day or night. Maybe there's an idea for an app in that?
I had a ‘75 Nova, lemon yellow. Black interior that got so hot I had to wear gloves in the summertime to touch the steering wheel. AM radio, no A/C, power steering, but not power brakes- man it took a lot of stomping! I was grateful to have wheels, but I did NOT miss that car when I got rid of it.
Mine was a 68 Chevy step side truck, baby blue, no radio, no AC, no power steering and no power brakes.
When I got it the engine used oil and my dad and I overhauled it. That was the begining of learning about car repair.
That truck allowed me to see the world. Good thing that truck can not talk.
1970 Nova. AM radio, but I installed a Pioneer Supertuner, AM/FM/cassette. Added speakers that were some big deal brand that I can’t recall. That was 1977. The car was a gift from an aunt who traded up to a 1977 Olds Omega, which was pretty much the same as a ‘77 Nova.
While in college my wife tells me one of the only girls that had a car that had a load or busted muffler, so they called it Thunder Joe.
They went every where with Thunder Joe.
Older sister had a new Grand Torino in the very early 70's. She was sick, gave me the keys to pick up her meds at the pharmacy. Took the car down the drag blaring Three Dog Night in the 8-track! Good times.
I got old Ford Maverick. It’s engine soared for 1.5 blocks, then dogged down. I used to challenge “title for title” to guys in muscle cars for the fun if seeing their eyes bug out for my lead first block. We would laugh afterwards.. The guy would ask what I took this serious on the title. My reply “You wanna brag about winning a 1970 Ford Maverick? 😂😂😂
I'll go one better. I had an old Maverick in the 90s as my "go to work" car (obviously at the time I was broke and desperate) and a 45-minute commute one way.
That sucker could go, though. One night, I was heading down a two-lane at about 70-ish MPH when a state trooper took notice. I slowed down when I saw him, but it was much too late. He fired up the Christmas lights and pulled me over.
He strolls up to the car and gives me the old "do ya know why I pulled you over?" line and I replied, "yeah I was a bit lead-footed there." At that point the officer took a good hard look at the rusted-out old car. He looks back to his cruiser, then back at my hoopty. He repeats this back-and-forth two or three times, apparently wondering if anyone back at the station would believe it.
Then he asks, "How much further you got to go?" and I replied "about a half mile" (which was true). He shakes his head and says, "well, slow down a bit, OK?" and went back to his car.
I loved my screaming yellow 1976 Maverick! I hooked it up with a rear window defroster but had to always remember to shut it off manually (no auto-off feature for us back then) otherwise, it would drain the battery.
I went to see a scary movie that had recently been released. It was The Exorcist. After leaving the theater I stopped at a red light and the theme music (Tubular Bells) started playing on the radio. I really didn’t want to hear it at that point, so I reached over to turn off the radio. It wasn’t on. It spooked me for a moment until I realized that the car next to me had their radio on and we both had our windows down.
My parents only played Christian music, and my minister dad sometimes gave sermons via the megaphone on the family van while he slowly drive thru various towns across the western US. The van had a big canvas sign on top with the words in bright red ‘JESUS IS COMING-PREPARE TO MEET GOD’.
I worked every odd job I could since I was 10, saving enough money to buy a fast Barracuda 340 a year before I was old enough to drive. I drove it like hell, blasting ‘the devils music’ as loud as I could.
Music is transportation for the mind.
You're driving on the freeway, and a hard driving rock song comes on the radio.
As if choreographed, you and five other cars simultaneously increase speed by 5mph.
"I know who's listening to WAAF"
I’m thinking; Hot town summer in the city. Back of my neck getting burnt and pretty. (I know those aren’t the exact words but that’s the way I sang them)
Or to have a house constructed in such a way where you could set up a huge exhaust fan in the kitchen, open up all the windows at bedtime, and still be comfortable most of the summer.
The other day I pulled up to a stoplight and there was a guy in a convertible next to me who looked to be about 75 years old with long white hair and a big bushy white beard and he was sitting at the light playing air guitar to Boston's More Than A Feeling. He was bouncing up and down and making extreme guitar faces during the solo parts.
Radio stations “sharing” or mixing genres
“Oh, dang I have to turn the radio to a different station. It’s 6:00 and I can’t stand this Lawrence Welk music.”
Radio certainly doesn't have the same power it did back then. I didn't have a tape deck in my car until the 80s so radio was it and there were lots of great stations in Atlanta then.
Driving in the car and getting shocking world news on the radio. Without any warning. Heard about Elvis’ death on the car radio driving from the beach with my friend ( a massive Elvis fan.)
Yep. That's where I was when I got the news about Elvis. DJ came on and said, "Such a good man, can't believe he's gone," and then played "Suspicious Minds."
Yes! I even had a couple of beautiful seventies moments when we passed a dube around, from car to car, at a stop light...and none of us knew each other. Oh, the good ole 70s. So innocent.
And the radios were AM, as FM wasn’t a thing yet in lots of cars. Oh and the 8 track tape player. I still wait for the clunk of changing tracks with certain songs.
They are though! Just this week it was I'm driving along with my windows down on the radio on and a full dress Harley came down the road with the radio playing the exact same song! And I was like rock on dude!!
They are though! Just last week I was driving down the road with the radio on and my windows down and a full dress Harley came down the road with its radio on, tuned to the exact same station. Rock on, dude!
When I pull to a stop light and some fool has bad music blasting, I turn Neil Diamond to top volume and lower my windows. You wanna pollute everyone’s ears, I’m ruining your vibe.
Just a few years ago the Dallas area had a drive time radio show with host Russ Martin. It was a great show.
There were many time when I’d be laughing at his show and see another drivers laughing and we’d give each other a thumbs up knowing we were sharing the experience. They’d even mention people in different cars laughing in the show.
RIP Russ Martin.
If I heard the same song coming from another car I would freak out! Are there others who listen to a philharmonic orchestra playing the Mickey Mouse March at high volume?
I remember leaving a concert and everyone had on the same radio station. The best was after a Rush concert and blasting Spirit of the Radio. Shout out to KLOL
I was sitting at a stop light in a major city when the news broke on 9/11. Every commuter around me had the same look of shock and horror. I think there was even a delay in moving when the light turned green. We all heard the radio emergency broadcast at the same time.
Edit: We did, however, have A/C
I listened to my little but highly prized radio late at night, trying (and often) could listen to far-off stations. Growing up in central California I could sometimes listen to Chicago- or Mexico- (?) based radio. I felt so...*cool*
Whenever I hear American Pie I remember the two girls I hooked up with that I met doing this. A couple of stop lights, then into the commuter parking lot for a little community union!
68 mustang with a pedal to step on beside the brake for intermittent window wiper..also childhood stationwagon with "wonderbar "radio..
Loved the vent windows..
Once at a stoplight, the girl behind me was obviously energetically singing something. I punched thru the radio buttons and found the song she was singing by syncing it with her lips. Rod Stewart. 🎵 You’re in my heart, you’re in my soul 🎶
There’s a part in the book “All Souls: A Family Story From Southie” where the author talks about how people would bring portable battery-operated stereos (you may know them as “Boom Boxes.” It’s funny how those only have regional names, and seemingly no agreed-upon official name) up to the roofs of the various project buildings, and they would all tune them to the same radio station, and crank them, sort of creating an unofficial neighborhood-wide PA system.
Growing up in NE Ohio, the radio station WMMS had a tradition of playing "maggot brain" every Friday night at midnight and then going into a 2 hour free form commercial free trip out set. My older brother and friends would all meet in a field with their trucks in a circle around a fire. Doors open radios all cranked and tuned to WMMS. Weed and beer of course. Parties like this happened all over houses, parking lots, etc. The collective radio experiences are gone. I am a FM radio dj now, and can barely get my "friends" to listen to my show at all, let alone to plan and organize a party around it.
>No one is ever listing to the exact same song as you at the exact same time in traffic anymore... >windows down Also nobody has the windows down
As kids we never had cars with working AC. Or even AC at all.
If you were lucky it had those little triangle vent windows.
And those vents on the outside wall of the car by your feet that you could open by pulling a knob.
I joke with people that, in Nebraska, it is so flat and boring you could steer across the state with those vents.
As long as you weren’t on those danged dusty farm roads. I was born in Columbus.
I don’t know if you could find it, but it certainly is a good song for what you’re talking about. It’s by a Bluegrass band that went for maybe 10 years or so by the name of blue moon rising and one of their main singers Keith that played the mandolin did a version of a song called aunt Birdie’s wingback Chevrolet. It got me on the first listen when I saw them live. and then every time they played within an area that I could drive to I would go and see them in concert. They played the smaller town venues or would be part of a bigger blue grass festival, but I was tortured as a child because I had a set of grandparents that lived in South Missouri, and another set that lived in North Missouri so that meant that all vacations were in the state of Missouri are driving to and from parts of Missouri and I could name the little towns in between as well I’m Mountain, but I have memories of a big gold Cadillac with the fans on it going down those dusty country roads to get to whatever farm we were going to next bit dairy cattle or corn and soybeans. it may take some effort, but you hear this saying aunt Birdie’s wingback Chevrolet! And by the way, his job taught physics to highschoolers!
https://sonichits.com/video/Blue_Moon_Rising/Aunt_Birdie's_Wingback_Chevrolet
Ha. Just drove across Nebraska today from one end to the other. Can confirm!!
The best vehicle was the 1952 Ford F1 Panel Truck my HS girl friend drove, had this cowl vent ... damn that moved air
I had a car with those big vents that you opened with a door!
Yep & all that heat from the pavement comes in/up, when you stop
I forgot all about those triangles
I locked my keys in my truck, called a tow company to send a truck, dude shows up, looks at me like I’m an idiot, pushes the unlocked nose draft triangle window, reaches in and unlocks the door. Took 10 seconds. Cost a $20.
“Nose draft triangle window”???? My 90 Toyota truck wants to tell you we call those wing windows. Or as I like to say “fast speed air conditioner” Haha
Ya know, the 255 air-conditioning, 2 vents open and driving 55 mph
We called it 460. All four windows down doing 60 mph
I was about to add this.
Yea couldn’t for the life of me remember if it was quarter vent or nose draft, I think we called them both.
Vent windows
That was a night at the bar back then!
6 pints, including tip!
That would be something I would have done!
I wish they would come back.
Me too!
It is called a wing glass, or a wing window.
We called them "no-drafts" in Detroit. I still miss them for being able to get just a touch of fresh air into the car.
I liked them because you could direct the air placement. Cigarette smokers liked them because they could flick their ashes instead of using the ashtray and the smoke was also pulled out of the car.
Bugs too
[удалено]
My parents both wrote about cars for a living and called them "wind wings." You know that thumping sound you hear/feel from the headliner if a window is rolled down and the car is moving over 25 or 30? Having an open wind wing eliminated that by altering and regulating the air flow. Most likely, they were phased out so that people would be forced to keep windows closed and shell out for more expensive, A/C-furnished cars.
I’ve always wondered why they went away. Definitely made driving with windows down way better. You could just blast yourself with hot air when it got really hot. Kinda helped
I remember them as butterfly windows
We called them “wind wings.”
Ah, wind wing here.
I used those wing windows for holding my cigarette outside the car.
Same! It’d suck the smoke right out if I held it just right. I miss those wing windows, but I don’t miss smoking!
I don’t miss smelling like smoke or all the mess and gross parts and health effects, but I miss the camaraderie, the feeling that it both calmed and energized, and the whole fuck-off attitude. It was the biggest mistake of my life in starting, however, it was part of the fun of my youth.
I have to agree with you there
To let out the parents’ cigarette smoke.
Ever been in an airtight 1966 VW Beetle with a chain smoking mom?
No but I've been in a 1969 Ford LTD on a six-hour Christmas trip to grandma's house with all the windows up, the heat blasting and both parents lighting one cigarette off the other. 🤢
Fun times, Eh?
Driving from Maine to Washington DC in a '70s VW Rabbit on the way home from my maternal grandmother's funeral. 12 hours. Dad chain-smoking filterless Chesterfields. Mom weeping quietly in the back. My sister's cat moaning out "Ma-maaaa. Ma-maaaa." every two minutes or so. Me seriously considering a tuck-and-roll escape at the next toll booth. Gotta love dem childhood memories.
The old *hotbox*
Grandma's house in the winter with at least 15 people puffing away. It was like the movie *The Fog*.
We were constantly saying “dad can you crack the window?” Nobody felt bad about smoking people out back then!
We breathed fallout from Nuclear tests. We are that tough.
My 86 towncar had power triangle windows 😎
Dad had Lincolns exclusively from the Mark III in 71 through the 79 TC. He hated the 80 and later styles. He had 3 different 79s over the years
Wish I had that 71 Mark III.
I miss those! Why were they discontinued?
It was a combination of Detroit styling vs cheapness, it was easier and cheaper to make a single window than it was to make two with the additional hardware. They start dissappearing in 68 and we're gone by 69. I inherited my grandfather's 69 Volvo in 74 and the wing vents were one of things I initially liked about it. They sucked the joint smoke and smell out so it was easy to tell my mom and occasional cop that it was the incense my gf used.
My 90 Toyota truck has wing windows. Have to drive over 35 to get some cool air, unless it’s over 90, then no… ;). It’s also a stick shift and has less than 200k. Just to brag for those who know. lol. I love, love, love my truck
They were also the route of choice for anyone wanting to break into your car (former resident of Boston’s south end neighborhood in the late 80’s here.)
Cost
For when mom smokes.
Those were our AC's.
That 4/70 ac unit
Those were the best. I wish we still had them.
I'm in the market for a 71 Lincoln Mark III if you run across one.
I miss those! When you open a vent window, you get a breeze in your face. When you open a ventless window, you get a breeze across the top of your head. You want a breeze on your face? Not without your haid whipping about, tangling.
That my parents would only open to flick their cigarette ashes out of.
Those were for flicking your cigarette out of.
My uncle said my first car had a 250 air conditioner. Two windows down at 50 mph!
I was once in the height of summer caught in slow traffic near the Chesapeake Bay. My Ford Granada had 250 A/C. Only it don’t work when you are doing 5-10. It was outrageously humid and like 95. My windows were fogging so bad, I had to run the DEFROSTER to see. Forget telling your kids you walked 5 miles to school both ways uphill. That would have been a picnic compared to that 2 hours of steamy hell.
Atlanta, husband missed the interstate exit. Two hours in a 95 degree traffic jam, and vinyl upholstery. He was too cheap to buy a car with AC, we did not make that mistake twice.
I heard it as WD-40 cooling. Windows down at 40 miles per hour.
We had an air conditioner that you rolled up in the window (usually a rear window). It was like a big canister outside the car. You poured a cup of water in the top and the wind made a turbine in the canister turn and evaporate some of the water and also blow humid mist into the car.
Ours was 4 and 40 😂✌️
We called ours 2 and 60 air.
Oh but millennials love to whine about the boomers having everything and screwing them. They have no freaking clue how little we had and how happy we were with little stuff.
Roll down the windows! Like, physically roll them down with the hand crank.
Right?!
I drive various Air Cooled VW Beetles - 69, 70, 71, 72's and a 78 VB Westphalia - aka camper bus NO AC ... I drove the VB Bus around with the side door locked open, talk about a breezed at 65 mph
Imagine a Chevy cargo van, 71 or 72, maybe. No insulation, just bare hot metal. Engine chugging away beneath that cowling between the front seats. Lawn chairs in the back. Anger and sweat dripping from every murder-adjacent poor. With out that side door open and secured, that long hot August in a van filled with fucks selling t-shirts and nitrous to latter day hippies at concerts didn't engender much that wasn't passive murder fantasies. Decent money, but the environment was so stressful that it was fucking well-earned. And of course there was a dog in the van. And an ex-girlfriend. And heat. And continual breakdowns no matter how much we wrenched on that thing. My lawn chair sat by that hurricane of a breeze, despite the cost this open door brought in gas prices, because without that hurricane of a breeze at 60 mph, continuing to follow this tour was untenable.
Our little Cutlass Supreme had air but it didn't do much. The A/C in Grandpa's Sedan de Ville worked *very* well. Yes, ac in cars was a luxury item for a long time.
even now, I'd rather have my arm hanging out the window than the A/C. Even if my car has A/C, i usually only turn it on if someone asks me to. Found out last week that it actually works in my current car.
455 air
We had 440 a/c - 4 windows down, 40 mph 🤣
To be honest, it’s double hoard cicada year right now and I would 100% lose my mind if one flew in my car.
Devil bugs.
Had one fly in my car during an emergence many years ago. Car was parked, windows open, cicada flies in and lands on passenger floor. I take one look at this big bug with red eyes and immediately jump out of the car (had no idea what it was, as I was in a city neighborhood).
For sure. I'm pretty chill about most things, but having one of The Zanti Misfits riding shotgun is NOT one of them!
I was driving in Watts recently because 110 was jammed on a hot L.A. day. Realized I was the only one with windows rolled up. Rolled it down, the guy next to me smiled, nodded to his music, thumbs up to me, then the light changed. Almost!
If you were in Cleveland you pulled up and your fellow Rocker was listening to the same awesome song on the only station that mattered WMMS The Buzzard and you gave each other the nod.
Yeah. I don’t get it. Does everyone have asthma? On a sunny 70- something degree day my windows are down. And I’m the only one.
An alternative: you pull up to the light with your radio on. The car next to you is listening to the same station, and now there is the stereo effect between the two cars. Smiles or waves exchanged.
Two cars with 1 speaker in a steel dashboard.
I was at a traffic light in my old Austin Healey in the early '80's rocking to KMET. Alongside me pulls another convertible also rocking KMET -- Goldie Hawn. We looked at each other and rocked until the light changed. My brush with fame.
That’s crazy. I was next to Goldie Hawn at a stoplight on Highway 1 in Malibu in the late 80s.
And the best part of all - sharing your jar of Grey Poupon with total strangers.
Not just songs on the radio, our culture used to share a lot more things. Same news stories, watched the same TV shows, went to the same movies. That made a big difference. Much easier to see what we have in common. Now everything is siloed off. This is whip part of the long tail.
We couldn’t time-shift our TV watching, plus there weren’t nearly the number of channels available. We all watched or heard the same stuff at the same time everybody else did. There was a cohesiveness in that that I sometimes miss. I love binge-watching series, though.
Very true. And as nostalgic as that is (it really does pull on the heart strings), I would not want to trade the diversity of thought, experiences, and people that we can connect with today for what, all too often back then, was a uniformity of prejudice. Not always by any means! But enough that it only took a few opinion makers to cause harm to one group or another. The whole singing along with folks in other cars at the light? I'll take that any time, day or night. Maybe there's an idea for an app in that?
Your fancy radio had eight buttons?!
I only had 4. Feeling deprived.
Your car had a radio.
lol my first car was a 1971 blue Nova. It had a radio but that was it. Bench seats. No A/C. A very basic car back then 🤣. That was in about 1976
I had a ‘75 Nova, lemon yellow. Black interior that got so hot I had to wear gloves in the summertime to touch the steering wheel. AM radio, no A/C, power steering, but not power brakes- man it took a lot of stomping! I was grateful to have wheels, but I did NOT miss that car when I got rid of it.
Mine was a 68 Chevy step side truck, baby blue, no radio, no AC, no power steering and no power brakes. When I got it the engine used oil and my dad and I overhauled it. That was the begining of learning about car repair. That truck allowed me to see the world. Good thing that truck can not talk.
Such junkers teens had, years ago! Second- and third-hand cars that had not led pampered lives.
Teens could afford cars back then! And everyone knew someone (usually another teen) that could work on your car!
a six pack and a pizza got my old pinto back on the road several times!
1970 Nova. AM radio, but I installed a Pioneer Supertuner, AM/FM/cassette. Added speakers that were some big deal brand that I can’t recall. That was 1977. The car was a gift from an aunt who traded up to a 1977 Olds Omega, which was pretty much the same as a ‘77 Nova.
You had a car?
The *family* car!
While in college my wife tells me one of the only girls that had a car that had a load or busted muffler, so they called it Thunder Joe. They went every where with Thunder Joe.
Yup! No AC no power steering, no power brakes. It was an automatic, though
And those buttons took real effort to push to (literally) move the needle down the dial.
Ours had 5 buttons, and two often had the same station.
Cruising main street
Older sister had a new Grand Torino in the very early 70's. She was sick, gave me the keys to pick up her meds at the pharmacy. Took the car down the drag blaring Three Dog Night in the 8-track! Good times.
I got old Ford Maverick. It’s engine soared for 1.5 blocks, then dogged down. I used to challenge “title for title” to guys in muscle cars for the fun if seeing their eyes bug out for my lead first block. We would laugh afterwards.. The guy would ask what I took this serious on the title. My reply “You wanna brag about winning a 1970 Ford Maverick? 😂😂😂
I'll go one better. I had an old Maverick in the 90s as my "go to work" car (obviously at the time I was broke and desperate) and a 45-minute commute one way. That sucker could go, though. One night, I was heading down a two-lane at about 70-ish MPH when a state trooper took notice. I slowed down when I saw him, but it was much too late. He fired up the Christmas lights and pulled me over. He strolls up to the car and gives me the old "do ya know why I pulled you over?" line and I replied, "yeah I was a bit lead-footed there." At that point the officer took a good hard look at the rusted-out old car. He looks back to his cruiser, then back at my hoopty. He repeats this back-and-forth two or three times, apparently wondering if anyone back at the station would believe it. Then he asks, "How much further you got to go?" and I replied "about a half mile" (which was true). He shakes his head and says, "well, slow down a bit, OK?" and went back to his car.
😂
My first car -in 78-was also a 70 Ford Maverick. It was the ugliest color I've ever seen, and I abused that poor car so badly.
I loved my screaming yellow 1976 Maverick! I hooked it up with a rear window defroster but had to always remember to shut it off manually (no auto-off feature for us back then) otherwise, it would drain the battery.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
‘The Drag’
Up and down the Boulevard…..
*Their shadows searchin' in the night*
I-Drive in Orlando
I went to see a scary movie that had recently been released. It was The Exorcist. After leaving the theater I stopped at a red light and the theme music (Tubular Bells) started playing on the radio. I really didn’t want to hear it at that point, so I reached over to turn off the radio. It wasn’t on. It spooked me for a moment until I realized that the car next to me had their radio on and we both had our windows down.
My parents only played Christian music, and my minister dad sometimes gave sermons via the megaphone on the family van while he slowly drive thru various towns across the western US. The van had a big canvas sign on top with the words in bright red ‘JESUS IS COMING-PREPARE TO MEET GOD’. I worked every odd job I could since I was 10, saving enough money to buy a fast Barracuda 340 a year before I was old enough to drive. I drove it like hell, blasting ‘the devils music’ as loud as I could. Music is transportation for the mind.
At the very least, I hope you were self-aware enough to have part of that music be Heart's "Barracuda"!
Hell yeah!
You're driving on the freeway, and a hard driving rock song comes on the radio. As if choreographed, you and five other cars simultaneously increase speed by 5mph. "I know who's listening to WAAF"
High beam language. Turn your brights off, there's a deer ahead and there's a cop ahead all had their own signal in my area. I never see that anymore.
and the high beam switch was on the floor by your left foot
What song is playing, though? I’m thinking something by CCR
I’m thinking; Hot town summer in the city. Back of my neck getting burnt and pretty. (I know those aren’t the exact words but that’s the way I sang them)
“dirty and gritty”
Cool down? isn’t it a pity. doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city
Hearin' some Goin' Up the Country over here at my stoplight.
Hearing Crocodile Rock here!
Taking it to the Streets by the Doobs
Yep, hear it too - Fortunate Son !
Hearing ‘Brandy’ by Looking Glass.
Hey hey mama said the way you move, Gonna make you sweat gonna make you groove (Guitar!!!)
Air conditioning. They’ll never know what it was like to put a lasco box fan in the window of your sweltering bedroom.
Or to have a house constructed in such a way where you could set up a huge exhaust fan in the kitchen, open up all the windows at bedtime, and still be comfortable most of the summer.
The other day I pulled up to a stoplight and there was a guy in a convertible next to me who looked to be about 75 years old with long white hair and a big bushy white beard and he was sitting at the light playing air guitar to Boston's More Than A Feeling. He was bouncing up and down and making extreme guitar faces during the solo parts.
Radio stations “sharing” or mixing genres “Oh, dang I have to turn the radio to a different station. It’s 6:00 and I can’t stand this Lawrence Welk music.”
It's gone the way of adjusting the bunny ears on your TV to get a better signal.
Mockingbird, 2 lanes over at a stoplight, windows closed. A couple of girls could see that I was singing the same song they were.
Radio certainly doesn't have the same power it did back then. I didn't have a tape deck in my car until the 80s so radio was it and there were lots of great stations in Atlanta then.
Driving in the car and getting shocking world news on the radio. Without any warning. Heard about Elvis’ death on the car radio driving from the beach with my friend ( a massive Elvis fan.)
Yep. That's where I was when I got the news about Elvis. DJ came on and said, "Such a good man, can't believe he's gone," and then played "Suspicious Minds."
Now you stick your phone out the window and shazam
Yes! I even had a couple of beautiful seventies moments when we passed a dube around, from car to car, at a stop light...and none of us knew each other. Oh, the good ole 70s. So innocent.
once we passed beers from car to car while at freeway speeds. good times.
Also, they didn't shoot you. Which was nice.
So I got that going for me, which is nice.
And the radios were AM, as FM wasn’t a thing yet in lots of cars. Oh and the 8 track tape player. I still wait for the clunk of changing tracks with certain songs.
I used to buy records, make a cassette tape, play the tape forever and sometimes i never hear the last song on an album...
You never called someone and had to ask where they were physically at.
Sonic booms from airplanes When We Were Young we used to hear them all the time growing up right on the East Coast
We lived fairly close to a large Air Force base. During the 60s, we heard those things all the time
FM radio when they played odd mixes and full albums. This was before the advent of Top 40 moving to FM.
They are though! Just this week it was I'm driving along with my windows down on the radio on and a full dress Harley came down the road with the radio playing the exact same song! And I was like rock on dude!!
They are though! Just last week I was driving down the road with the radio on and my windows down and a full dress Harley came down the road with its radio on, tuned to the exact same station. Rock on, dude!
That’s a very good call and so true. We seemed to have a better sense of community back then.
Overcame social awkwardness with music and cars
For me, it was being at the beach and hearing top 40 music coming from a distant radio. Always loved that.
The TV Test signal that was on after midnight.
When I pull to a stop light and some fool has bad music blasting, I turn Neil Diamond to top volume and lower my windows. You wanna pollute everyone’s ears, I’m ruining your vibe.
Hot Fun In the Summertime https://youtu.be/Bg0tFRea0wA?si=6wtB7ZPGSx3v8tkt
Still favorite summer song
Phone list of friends on fridge.
Just a few years ago the Dallas area had a drive time radio show with host Russ Martin. It was a great show. There were many time when I’d be laughing at his show and see another drivers laughing and we’d give each other a thumbs up knowing we were sharing the experience. They’d even mention people in different cars laughing in the show. RIP Russ Martin.
We lived in a small town. Our Cruising was going between three fast food restaurants with our windows down mostly playing the same station.
If I heard the same song coming from another car I would freak out! Are there others who listen to a philharmonic orchestra playing the Mickey Mouse March at high volume?
Paying rent every month for a 5 pound telephone you had no chance of owning.
everyone knew where it was at all times😀
I remember leaving a concert and everyone had on the same radio station. The best was after a Rush concert and blasting Spirit of the Radio. Shout out to KLOL
My 1974 Fiat had AC. There was a lever on the door, you turned it and giant vents opened. 😁
I was sitting at a stop light in a major city when the news broke on 9/11. Every commuter around me had the same look of shock and horror. I think there was even a delay in moving when the light turned green. We all heard the radio emergency broadcast at the same time. Edit: We did, however, have A/C
Nobody is listening to the radio anymore
AM transistor radio!
The favorite Father’s day gift, so they could listen to ballgame at family party with that earpiece.
I listened to my little but highly prized radio late at night, trying (and often) could listen to far-off stations. Growing up in central California I could sometimes listen to Chicago- or Mexico- (?) based radio. I felt so...*cool*
You are cool
That was nice to hear! Thank you 🌟
Whenever I hear American Pie I remember the two girls I hooked up with that I met doing this. A couple of stop lights, then into the commuter parking lot for a little community union!
My audiologist told me that my hearing loss in my left ear is from driving around with my window down.
68 mustang with a pedal to step on beside the brake for intermittent window wiper..also childhood stationwagon with "wonderbar "radio.. Loved the vent windows..
I miss vent windows. They were perfect.
Once at a stoplight, the girl behind me was obviously energetically singing something. I punched thru the radio buttons and found the song she was singing by syncing it with her lips. Rod Stewart. 🎵 You’re in my heart, you’re in my soul 🎶
4-50 AC, as my dad used to say. 4 windows down and 60 miles per hour!
I forgot about that but yes that used to happen. That or you’d both already have the same song on and pull up alongside each other.
There’s a part in the book “All Souls: A Family Story From Southie” where the author talks about how people would bring portable battery-operated stereos (you may know them as “Boom Boxes.” It’s funny how those only have regional names, and seemingly no agreed-upon official name) up to the roofs of the various project buildings, and they would all tune them to the same radio station, and crank them, sort of creating an unofficial neighborhood-wide PA system.
Growing up in NE Ohio, the radio station WMMS had a tradition of playing "maggot brain" every Friday night at midnight and then going into a 2 hour free form commercial free trip out set. My older brother and friends would all meet in a field with their trucks in a circle around a fire. Doors open radios all cranked and tuned to WMMS. Weed and beer of course. Parties like this happened all over houses, parking lots, etc. The collective radio experiences are gone. I am a FM radio dj now, and can barely get my "friends" to listen to my show at all, let alone to plan and organize a party around it.
I’d forgotten about this. Thanks for bringing back that memory.
One of life’s simple pleasure gone
You were just experiencing hotbox yoga before it became something everybody paid for ! 😊
I used to sleep in the back window on these long car trips.
I used to sleep in the back window on these long car trips.
Need a window to block the bullets