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Re: Pubescent Admirations WAS: Rotary Spitfire - and other musings

To: <DANMAS@aol.com>, <shmitty99@hotmail.com>, <spitfires@Autox.Team.Net>
Subject: Re: Pubescent Admirations WAS: Rotary Spitfire - and other musings
From: "Ron and Angie" <nottingham@alltel.net>
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 20:54:49 -0500
Dan,

    I'm only 30 and it makes me feel old!  So I was a little different while
growing up.  I had a 'necker knob' on my 79 Merc. Capri RS.  It had bucket
seats, and a center console.  Couldn't do much 'necking' in that.  Had the
Moon Eyes (didn't have any Moon products, just stickers), HiJackers (now, I
really did have HiJackers on it, took a while to find them!), Thrush (it
really did have a Thrush Hush muffler) stickers, everything except fuzzy
dice, now that is where I draw the line.  All this was back in the good ole
days of 1984.  To be 16 again... I think I would buy a 70s land yacht with
the bench seats, big honkin' V8, nuthin' under 400 cubes, 2 door hardtop....

Ron and Angie - Dalton, Ga
84 300ZX Turbo    77 Spitfire      92 Tempo GLS    62 Vitesse
IZCC# 4779
"I gotta go, you're killing me!" - Kim Peterson, WGST 105.7, Atlanta
>
>Ryan,
>
>Back in the good ole, bad ole, days, in the early days of hot rodding,
there
>was a guy named Dick Moon who produced some very fine speed equipment. His
>trademark was a pair of eyes. When you bought a piece of speed equipment
from
>him, you got decals with a pair of eyes to put on your car's windows to
>impress everyone. These "eyes" became so popular, that he started selling
all
>sorts of thing with eyes on them - gear shift knobs, a styrofoam ball to
put
>on your antenna, valve stem caps, radio knobs - just about anything you
could
>imagine. They were real popular in the'50s and early 60s, but faded out for
>awhile. Now that all of us old farts are re-living our mis-spent youths,
Moon
>corporation has re-issued these things to help us spend our money.
>
>The other items which were popular back then:
>
>Olds Fiesta hubcaps: Believe it or not, staid, sedate, Oldsmobile offered a
>set of hubcaps on their 56, 57 models, which had a set of flippers on them.
>Many "Kustom" cars used these caps as is, while other used just the
flippers
>to put on other types of hub caps. Hub cap modification became a very big
fad.
>This was before mag wheels became the available.
>
>Fuzzy dice: A large pair of fuzzy cloth dice, about 4 inches square, which
you
>hung from your rear view mirror. They came in a multitude of colors.
>Eventually, you could "dice" just about everything - gear shift knobs -
same
>stuff as for the Moon eyes.
>
>Rat Fink: a cartoon character created by Ed "big Daddy" Roth, creator of
some
>spectacular show cars. A particularly nasty rodent, originally appearing on
>tee-shirts. Ultimately, you could get, yes, you guessed it, rat fink gear
>shift knobs, etc, etc, etc.
>
>Bigfoot gas pedal: a cast aluminum gas pedal in the shape of large, bare,
>foot, complete with five toes. You could also get a very small "foot" for
the
>dimmer switch, which was floor mounted back then, as it still is on some
>Triumphs.
>
>Knecker knobs:  This will be the hardest of all for someone of your
generation
>to understand. In the fifties, about the hottest thing a guy could do with
his
>girlfriend was to drive around with one arm around her, and steer the car
with
>the other. A knecker knob was a spinner knob that fastened to the steering
>wheel to make it easier to steer with one hand. Parking in lover's lane and
>smooching was called "necking," hence the name "necker knob" for necking
while
>driving. In your generation, you go straight to the apartment, but that was
>pretty heady stuff for us back then.
>
>Jeeze, does this make me feel old!
>



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