Little White Truck

My grandson Aaron just bought his first truck. He is so proud and announced to me, “It is a 5 speed!" Then proceeded to tell me that I probably didn’t know how drive it. How do you tell a teenager that when you learned to drive, all cars were straight sticks? He laughed and did not believe me. I drove when there were lots of things that have fallen by the wayside. Fender Skirts, of which there were several kinds, and they all made your car look cool. They were a must have just like continental kits, which were rear bumper extenders and spare tire covers that were supposed to make any car as cool as a Lincoln Continental. There were curb feelers and steering knobs and Portawalls for your tires, which are actually inexpensive fake white walls. Yes, there was such a thing as white wall tires. The dimmer switch was on the floor and there were no turn signals. We had emergency brakes, now they are called parking brakes. The accelerator was called the foot feed and there was usually a knob you had to pull in cold weather to 'choke' the engine. There were little wing windows on our cars that could be turn to direct the airflow as there was NO air conditioner built in. We had bench seats front and back, full sized spare tires, AM radios, glass pack mufflers, and whip antennas. Power steering, power brakes and tubeless tires didn't exist. Back to those fender skirts — it just occurred to me that perhaps I assumed too much, thinking everyone was familiar with them. By way of explanation, they are pieces of bodywork that cover the upper portions of the rear tires of an automobile. I always thought they were strictly for aesthetic purposes, but after a little research, I find there were also aerodynamic reasons. Rather than air flowing into and being trapped in the rear wheel well, it flows smoothly over the bodywork. Fender skirts were most popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Cars had chrome, lots of chrome. The bumpers were beautiful, shiny chrome. We had spinners and baby moon hubcaps and two toned paint on cars. And, when you went for gas, which was around 35¢a gallon, they asked “Regular or Ethyl?” They checked all the fluids and washed all your windows. There were so many “filling” stations a lot of the brands have fallen by the wayside, either out of business or gobbled up by a larger company. I always went to the Sinclair station. They had a huge green dinosaur as a corporate 'logo'. His name was Dino. You could go to ESSO and put a tiger in your tank. Every fill up you would get a drinking glass; you could collect a set and buy the matching pitcher. Most gave you green stamps. Ah the good old days. One of these days I will go out and drive that little white truck I may be old but I still remember.