[ROCKMAN]

vt - Yeah, complex mix of mixed up emotions. LOL. For me it was a combination of too many John Wayne movies and trying to escape poverty that drove my "plan". That falling and not much value to the job market going to the cheap state uni while sleeping on the couch in my grandmother's front room was my best option.

And deciding to major in geology in 1970 was just one more lucky stupid choice I made in my life. No job potential then...and in 1975 virtually unlimited potential. Thank Dog the Arabs got mad at the US over the Jews. I'm smiling as I type but still true. The worst residual is a case of survivor guilt that deserves no sympathy: I survived by not ending up with my ass in the shit with folks who I had nothing against trying to zap me.

But I suspect most here have their own twisted path they travelled get from point A to point Z.

[vtsnowedin]

1973 I was 13, I had just discovered boobs, I mean girls...I didn't look away for least two years

You ain't kidding us. You ain't never looked away except when your wife was watching.

[careinke]

I was a sophomore on an AFROTC scholarship, tuition, books and $100 per month at WSU. Lived in a co-ed dorm and worked in the dining hall to pay for room and board. Did not have a car so was always trying to hitch a ride back to the west side during holidays. Sometimes I hitchhiked across the state.

Washington State lowered the speed limit to 50, changed all the highway signs, then changed them again to 55 when the Feds made the interstates 55. It was hard to make it across the state on one tank of gas if you had the wrong license number.

Had a lot of computer geeks on our dorm floor. We would break into the "DARPA" room and play computer sailing races against USC. It beat the hell out of PONG.

[vtsnowedin]

VTC did not have it's own computer. They were hooked to one at Dartmouth college by phone line. There were four teletypes in the computer room that you had turns at and one of those would be shut down when the book keeper in administration was doing the payroll. We played LEM on it when we got the chance.

[ROCKMAN]

PONG!!! Best story: a fellow geology student had such bad CP he couldn't use an electric chair...used his feet to push himself backwards. First Pong showed up in campus bar when drinking on a Frtiday afternoon. Didn't take too many games to become a lot better then someone''s first time. Not being able to use his fingers Glen would use his chin.

So by time the Friday night crowd arrived we contrtolled the machine. And newbies would challenge by putting quarter on machine and quickly lose. So funny to watch their faces losing to a cripple in a wheelchair using his chin to play. Next morning Glenn couldn't remember how he got a scabbed up chin. Geologist + Pong + lots of beer = hysterical. Next time he rubber band a handkerchief on the knob.

Glenn ended up with PH.D, worked for Shell Oil in early computer days. Lots of publications. Was named national handicap person of the year once.

[PeakOiler]

In late 1973 I was 15 years old and a sophomore in high school. By 1974 I was driving a red 1970 Opel GT that year that I bought for $1700. I was working at Taco Bell part time to pay for it. I still have that car! I also rode my bicycle. I still have that bike too! The bike still works, the Opel GT doesn’t, but could be restored if I can find parts and have the extra money. But I really don’t need another gas burner. Perhaps I should convert it to electric! LOL

The last time the Opel GT ran (after I rebuilt the engine in 1990) was in 1994.


The image above is not of my car, but just like it.

I was playing YES' "Fragile" and "Close To The Edge" , etc., in that car all those many years ago...

[Outcast_Searcher]

The last car I had I could work on like that was made around 1985, now the engines have computer spagetti wiring all over and making adjustments means having a computer that can plug into the car computer and adjusting the programming.

Yes, but for 99% of us, isn't that better, given how much better fuel injection (and the computers involved) are so much more efficient AND reliable than carburetors?

Between fuel injection and platinum plugs, cars run incredibly reliably if you don't put much mileage on them.

A good friend of mine was recently remarking how the 1992 Paseo (like a smallish Corolla) I gave him about 12 years ago had never failed to start, and always gotten him to his destination. Recently it was running badly, and a spark plug had broken. The plugs and wires had NEVER been changed or fiddled with for the 25+ years the car had been driven its 80 thousand-ish miles.

That would have been basically a complete impossibility before platinum plugs and modern car technology like fuel injection.

And on my first new car, an '82 Toyota Celica, I changed the plugs yearly for about 10 years (if I got lazy and waited two years, the car ran roughly and got worse mileage toward the end), and fiddled with he carburetor a lot. And when winter weather was really cold (like zero and below), it sometimes wouldn't start. Modern fuel injected cars not only start, they start the first time and easily down to say 20 below (which is as cold as it ever gets in central KY), as long as your battery and coolant, etc. are in good shape, you have the right weight oil, etc.

Unless I'm having battery issues, I rarely even open the hood anymore. Jiffy Lube or a chain-store mechanic shop I trust does the lions' share of the maintenance. Most issues (for my Toyotas) when my cars get a decade or more old are things like a bad sensor, which are generally easily diagnosed and quickly and reasonably cheaply replaced.

So for me, I no more want to go back to having to work on our cars a lot than I want to go to horse and buggy as the main transportation mode. There are some things which objectively, technology is not making "worse".

If gearheads WANT to buy classic cars and fiddle with them -- good for them, and may they greatly enjoy themselves!