The Madness begins..........

It is 1957 and Will Pierson, Lane Anderson and Mark Hjelm take a drive.....Ok, so it would be 50 years until I meet those guys, but this is an electric car that my dad gave me for Christmas 1957. He was a road contractor, so we painted it Caterpillar Yellow!

" Nice hats boys"...If you had that now... cha ching ~

Great old pics, Will. I'm sure I have some of similar vintage somewhere. I think guys become "car guys" at a pretty young age.

I remember that day....... I always thought the front end looked like a Karman Ghia and the back looked like something from Buck Rogers.I had a red metal, pedal fire truck with ladders. I loved to ring that bell......Oh those were the days........

I was riding a water buffalo in the rice paddies!

My first four wheeler
Whooooo Silver
German U boat Captain
Waiting on a flood with the launch code box

The Chevy in the background was, new.

I wasn't even a dirty thought in my dads mind.... WTF are those hats!?

I look pretty big for just 1 year old, huh?

Those hats are winter headgear in Michigan in 1957. Mark
's tractor had broken down, so Lane and I were giving him a ride home.

In Michigan in winter, if your hat doesn't have ear flaps, it ain't a hat. They call it a "beenie".

and all the girls wore BA-BOOSH-KAs

I'm also an old Michigan boy (Berkely in the suburbs of Detroit) and I remember BA-BOOSH-KAs very well. It is what my Romainian grandma called a scarf that was worn over her head.

We left Michigan in the dead of winter in 1963 and moved to Huntington Beach, Calif. where I became a surfer over night. Those were definately the days!
Troy

I musta got your vibes Troy. Lived all over Detroit and finally in Utica (26 Mile and Van Dyke after getting married. We were in San Diego by April 1967, and our first stop -literally - was at the tip of Point Loma, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean.

Troy, I moved to Florida in 1962. I wish I had stowed away with your parents and hit Huntington Beach! You hit Surf City USA, home of great surf, and "2 Girls for every Boy!" I hit South Florida, where it's flat 10 months a year and every Midwesterner goes to die. The motto there is 3 Granmas for every Gran Pop!

As someone still in Michigan, it is interesting to read about all the former Michigan folks as I look out at the snow.

Hey Will, I guess you and I went to different high schools together! ;-)

Yup! I feel very fortunate to have grown up at the beach right at the start of all that great Beach Boys music. But, when you think about it, I think we are all very fortunate to have been born in the second half of the 20th century. I can't think of any time in the history of the world that I would rather have been born. Think about it; the music, the cars, the technology advances...we had it all!

Will those pix are awesome... Just reminds me of the early day with our cardboard box cars.. we didn't have any pre-fab metal to play with.. just cardboard, but we worked it baby... good memories Bro...