It was (and is) Dean and his Porsche Spyder speak disobedience of rules of the road even back in the good ol' days....;-)
Poll:- life better now or in 1959?
- Thread starter JLM
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It was (and is) Dean and his Porsche Spyder speak disobedience of rules of the road even back in the good ol' days....;-)
That's true LW, but don't forget - he was a rebel! (Probably the only one that disobeyed the rules...) :lol:
Yeah, no kidding. Woodworking is one of my hobbies and I bought a few nifty hand tools when I was there. Now if only I could make them work right...:lol:
Safety glass has been around since 1929 (Cadillac was the first to use it as standard equipment.
Our friend's 1958 Buick Roadmaster has factory seat belts. They started becoming fairly well-known in 1954 and later.
lol Those cars back then were built like tanks in comparison to cars these days, and they didn't go as fast. No-one saw any need for crumple zones much but there were bumpers on them that were supposed to take a lot of the impact forces. That's what bumpers were originally for, you know.
Padded dashboards?
The 1959 Mercedes W111 came with a collapsible steering column along with a defined crumple zone.
At what speed and how do you know? Show me, please.
Yeah, but James Dean may have been a slow learner- he had just been stopped by a cop for speeding hours before the "accident". Guess he figured that cop was just "whistlng Dixie".
Isn't it funny that guys driving super bees and other heavy haulers can see anything if visibility decreases with size of vehicle?
Yeah, but we're talking about the 50s...according to some sources, everything is better in '09 so maybe that applies to human vision too!
Actually people aren't any better drivers now than then. Some people didn't pay attention to their driving then, and some don't now. The thing with 1959 is that there were a lot fewer people around not paying attention to their driving.Or could it be that it's hard for most people to see something coming at them at something approaching the speed of light? (Well, maybe not quite that fast...)
Yeah, but we're talking about the 50s...according to some sources, everything is better in '09 so maybe that applies to human vision too!
Not mine! I wear glasses now :lol:
I wouldn't say there is any relevence but the driver of the other vehicle was named "Turnupseed".
lol Yup. And we all know that there were those sorts of drivers in 1959 but aren't any nowadays.
If I remember correctly, the most used Japanese tools were saws and chisels. I even remember the names of a couple saws: dozuki and ryoba. We tried a few joints on some furniture we made. Works like a charm. No screws to loosen off, no nails to rust, no glue to weaken after a while, etc.
One of Les's fave beefs is that steering pumps could be rebuilt back then (and when he started wrenching in the 60s) using just a few replaceable metal parts. They cost about $30 for a brand new pump and the kits with the replacement parts were something like $4. Nowadays they are all formed plastic parts and you can't take them apart without ruining the entire thing and they cost like $200 and up. And besides that, it's a plumber's and electrician's and contortionists nightmare to uninstall and reinstall them. And on top of that, being no good for anything anymore, they are tossed out. Some are recyclable.
Progress. Yuppers, ain't it wunnerfel?
Progress. Yuppers, ain't it wunnerfel?
Oh, I long for the days when cars were easy to fix, because they were so poorly made you had to keep fixing them.
lmao, that's pretty weak. Quite ignorant of the facts, too.
The cars built these days have thousands of parts and things to go wrong whereas the cars back then had only hundreds. Properly maintained cars from back then far those of following years' models. I revealed that in a couple previous posts. I doubt these vehicles today could last 30 years, let alone 50.
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There are still some old-fashioned tool shops over there and they are a lot of fun to browse around in. The selection of saws and chisels is staggering. They are mostly there to serve the commercial woodworkers as there is very little DIY or hobby market there. Going into one of the old tool shops is like going back to '59...1859 in some cases! We're talking serious retro here. I suspect that even the commercial woodworking market is shrinking like crazy as automation andn high production has been a big deal over there for years...too bad. Another fine old "art" being lost. Along with sword making.
Although this may have been covered previously, it might be worth reiterating. One of the very best things about '59 vs. '09 was the absence of political correctness back then. Christmas concerts were called Christmas concerts, the Eaton's Christmas Catalogue was called the Christmas catalogue, and "Merry Christmas" was commonly heard everywhere. Well, we did hear "Happy Holidays" once in a while, but I doubt that it was based on PC.
Ah, the good old days. There's just another reason why life was better back in '59!
Ah, the good old days. There's just another reason why life was better back in '59!
It will probably never be covered enough. Even Santa Claus is a product of the Coca-Cola Corporation. Politically correct .... Ain't it the truth
no
Couldn't have picked a better answer, life was better back in 1959. It was nice not knowing.
That does not make life better, countryboy. What you seem to think is that ignorance is bliss. You probably would agree with the credo given in ‘1984’.
Ignorance is strength.
But you are right, in those days the majority white people didn’t care how what they say was perceived by the minorities. The words such as nigg*r, spic, dago, jap were in common use back then.
I remember a cabinet member in Nixon cabinet got into trouble for referring to a Japanese lawyer as ‘that little Jap’.
Now, no doubt in the 50s, the whites wouldn’t have thought there was anything wrong about that, but it caused a firestorm in the 70s.
So I agree with you in that people in those days didn’t care if they offended the minorities. But disagree with you that it made for good life. For whites, perhaps, but not for anybody else.