My “Favorite Hour”……….

Everyone deals with frustration in their own way, some through healthy channels and others, NOT so healthy.

Every now and then, I need to "leave here" for awhile, and this past Sunday was one of those prime times.  I didn't "skip church" as I said I might, but I DID get away from the sheer LUNACY of today, by leaving 2012 behind for an hour or so.

Traffic is usually pretty light on Sundays, so I went out and pulled my Olds out of hard storage, and after church I enjoyed one of those little "Mikey hours", as I call them.

I hate the 21st century with a blue-purple passion, and I've never made any bones about that.  Nothing down here makes sense to me today, and except for an occasional glimpse (mixed with a LOT of imagination), I don't even recognize my own country anymore.

But before Barack ("we ain't drillin' HERE") Obama, and his Arab friends force us all into these little electric cars that nobody wants, I'm still going to enjoy mine.  All of them., including my "escape modules", and you saw one of them in my blog about "Ol' Red."

I have ANOTHER, although you'll rarely see it out in public.

This is my Oldsmobile.  My dad had a red  white '55 when I was a kid.  This is a '56.  It's all original, all steel, and every piece of it was built right here in the USA.

It was built during a time when it actually MATTERED to Detroit, what kind of products they were putting out.  This car is "AS ISSUED".............

....right down to that original "324" "Rocket V-8" (way back then, every division of GM had their own engines & transmissions----everything wasn't just a 350 with a 350 turbo like it is now).  The Olds division started using an advanced head & valve design in 1949, and the performance was so good, they called their new 303 V-8 the "Rocket"........and the name stuck for the next 20 years or so.

I remember as a kid, I used to think, watching those commercials, that the Oldsmobiles actually had REAL rocket engines, like "Flash Gordon" might have!  (They WERE some of the fastest cars out there at the time though, and very popular with the California Highway Patrol, and NASCAR as well.

Naturally, the chrome ornamentation was "rocket-oriented' as well.  Back then, Olds made cars in three price ranges, the "88", the "Super 88" and the "98".  Depending on what you could afford, there was a "rocket for every pocket", as the man on the television said!  "98" being the BEST, the "88 (like MINE) was the "plain Jane"....and the "Super 88" was the one in the middle.

While I HAD owned a few Oldsmobiles in my lifetime, I always wanted a mid-50's one like my dad had....and in the spring of 2005, that opportunity finally came.

It had been purchased brand new in Van Nuys, California.  One-owner.  He'd passed away in February of 2005, and his kids didn't want the car....only the MONEY they could get out of it!  They advertised it online, a classic car dealership in Lynnwood Washington (just a bit northwest of Seattle), bought it and trailered it back to Lynnwood, detailed it up a bit and put it online.  My old buddy Harvey happened to see it, KNEW I'd been looking for one and called me with the info.  To make a long story short, I own it, and it's HERE!

It's in beautiful unrestored condition and runs as good as it looks, but it's more than just an old car to me.  To an even GREATER degree than that 64 Fairlane, THIS car goes clear back, not only to my days on Potrero Hill, but the San Bruno district before THAT.   I wasn't old enough to drive back then, but I would look at cars like this and dream of the day I COULD get behind the wheel of one.  (especially one with a REAL "rocket engine!")

This is pretty much how it looked to a 10-year old, sitting in the back back, looking over Dad's shoulder as he drove down the road, and someday I'D have one just like it.  (only TOOK 47 more years to DO that!)  And in 2005, it cost me a "few" dollars more than what Dad paid for HIS in 1957!   It wasn't cheap.

But to MY mind they're a lot more for the money than any NEW one, with their solid construction, and tasteful use of CHROME, (not PLASTIC).

And when I'm cruising down the street, AWAY from FOX, the problems, the blogs, and the rest of the crap that surrounds us today, I'm watching traffic from over-the-top of an all STEEL dash, tastefully two-toned and embellished with chrome.....not some some plastic digital indicator box that looks like it came from a video game.

It's not a "Toyota" at the gas pumps, so I can't afford to run around town all day in it, but as a "50's kid", you can bet I savor every moment of wheel revolution! 

When for ME......it becomes "time to strangle somebody"....my old "88" let's me "go home for awhile"  For some it's a pair of headphones and your favorite music.  For others, it's a good book.  For old "Zook" here, it's the rumble of glass-packs, the gentle swing of the fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror................

......and the little "wiggle-waggle" of the Hula Girl back there on the rear shelf.  (I WAS gonna get that little dog with the "bobbing head", but I thought the Hula Girl was a bit classier!"

"Betty" rides with me too.  Interesting thing is that "Betty Boop" is actually more popular TODAY, than back before we were BORN, when she first came in cartoon form to the old movie theaters!  And she looks right at home in that Oldsmobile.

"Marilyn's" there too on the steering wheel, along with the lady on the cover of the SHOWROOM brochure that also came with the car!..................you remember................

...the one the dealers gave you to take home and browse through while you were making up your mind, after your test drive.........

And if you BOUGHT the car, the owner's manual (which didn't require for than a dozen pages or so), would tell you how to drive it, care for it, and everything ELSE you wanted to know about the car, but was afraid to ask!

You might recall a few blogs ago, when I wrote about that old "green-handled screwdriver" that I wouldn't part with for anything........This little oldtime "traffic light" ornament is just as special.  It also hangs from the rearview mirror in the Olds.  It FIRST hung from my FIRST CAR.....that 57 Chevy Bel Air.....and in only a very few 'select" cars that I've owned since.................

           57 Chevy Bel Air                                                 '59 Olds "88"

        '68 Ford Torino                                            '67 Mercury Monterey

And now, THIS one.  Out of the 63 cars I've owned in my lifetime, that little "traffic light" has only "swung" from the rear view mirrors of FIVE.

And as the old "spinner caps" start rotating toward the beach or Mel's Drive-in, when I drop it into "Drive"....the only thing missing is that old "tube" radio transmission..........that only people OUR age can still hear.........the one that came out of NOWHERE-----from EVERYWHERE.....and that echoing voice of the "midnight mystic"...........

"HELLO!!!.......HELLO!!!..............Who IS that on the Wolfman Telephone, BABY??"

Yeah................................................yeah....................................

Sometimes I think it IS "healthy" to get a little pissed-off from time to time......gives you a reason to get out there for a few miles of "yesterday's highway"

Not that you really NEED a reason.