Old pics of families and cars and houses, nostalgia junky

So I am a fan of old stuff, particularly 1970s and prior, America, family reunions, houses, scenes, cars, etc. I just really enjoy perusing the past. I was born in 1967, so anything before that I really dig. I know many LTGers grew up in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Below is a cool pic example I found in a 1950s history group I joined.



Anyone want to share some cool old photos or shots from your long ago days?

thanks!

The late 60's and early 70's were a fun and horsey time for me.

Me on a Schwinn at the Pebble Beach Spring Horse Show in 1968:



Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara at the Junior Nationals in 1971:



At the Flintridge Children's Show at Flintridge, CA in 1971 doing cross country hunters.



Is this kinda what you're talking about???

You have more guts than me my man. I think horses are beautiful. I dated a woman who was really into showing and horses. They scare the hell out of me. Way too big I guess. I'll stick with my dogs.

My Father was involved in the early days of drag racing here in New Jersey.

Here are some photos from a meet in the early 50's from Woodbine Airport in South Jersey. (There were no "Drag Strips' yet!)

Back then they didn't race side by side for low elapsed time, but one at a time for top speed at the end of the quarter mile course.


Look at how many people turned out to watch the action!




An old beater and some war surplus parts and you've got a dragster!




I love the style of the cars and clothing.




It was amazing what was coming out to race from backyards and garages!




Here's somebody on a speed run in a nice five window coupe!

Then in the mid to late 60's he ran drag races at the Old Bridge Speedway. It was a half mile paved oval and they drag raced down the front straight.
The track length was 1/12 of a mile! It was all about the hole shot. They ran for trophies, jackets and t-shirts.


Because they started on the banking of the fourth turn of the oval track, they had guys to hold the cars so they wouldn't roll through the timing lights.




They had a class for everything at the "Bridge"!




Qualifying started during the daylight hours with eliminations run under the lights.



My Dad not only managed the drags, he was also involved in the design and building of the timing equipment.
If that wasn't enough, he also wrote a results column for Eastern Drag News!




He also was president of the New Jersey Timing Association. Here he is handing out trophies at the end of the season.
(He's the one on the right!)

The Guilds of Grot said:

Then in the mid to late 60's he ran drag races at the Old Bridge Speedway. It was a half mile paved oval and they drag raced down the front straight.
The track length was 1/12 of a mile! It was all about the hole shot. They ran for trophies, jackets and t-shirts.



My Dad not only managed the drags, he was also involved in the design and building of the timing equipment.
If that wasn't enough, he also wrote a results column for Eastern Drag News!

He also was president of the New Jersey Timing Association. Here he is handing out trophies at the end of the season.
(He's the one on the right!)

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Is that the same place as Raceway Park in Englishtown? I know they always used to mention Old Bridge in the ads. I remember the goofy giggle at the beginning.




LOL - go to the webpage to hear the intro giggle. Warning - auto play sounds.

GAD said:

Is that the same place as Raceway Park in Englishtown?

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No it is not. Old Bridge Speedway was on Route 516 in the Browntown section of Old Bridge Township. It closed in 1968.

Raceway Park is a quarter mile drag strip on Pension Road just out side of Englishtown which is in Old Bridge Township, (hence the confusion). I believe they got started around 1967.


Here is what Old Bridge Speedway looked like in 1963:




It's now a housing development:

davismanLV said:

The late 60's and early 70's were a fun and horsey time for me.

Me on a Schwinn at the Pebble Beach Spring Horse Show in 1968:

Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara at the Junior Nationals in 1971:

At the Flintridge Children's Show at Flintridge, CA in 1971 doing cross country hunters.

Is this kinda what you're talking about???

Click to expand...

these are great pics Tom, thanks! love the riding bike pic, killer shades or glasses man

fantastic shots of the drag racing in NJ. those color pics, hard to believe those are 60+ years ago, I mean, the clothing and attire is so 50s style, but those pics are fresh looking. awesome!

Westerly Wood said:

fantastic shots of the drag racing in NJ. those color pics, hard to believe those are 60+ years ago, I mean, the clothing and attire is so 50s style, but those pics are fresh looking. awesome!

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They were scanned and enlarged from slides which were in a box for 60 years. Therefore they never lost their color or faded. (They may have also been helped digitally a little bit.)

Now that you all have me going, the black and white photos were taken by my Dad with an early Polaroid Land camera. He would peel off the photos from the back of the camera and stick them in a folder. Then on Sunday he would "fix" the photos and write his column so he could get them in the mail to Eastern Drag News on Monday morning.

In looking further through my Photobucket I found a scan of one of his articles:





While I'm bragging on my Pop I might as well mentioned that he also invented the "Christmas Tree" starting light system. If you look closely at the photo below you can see a vertical array of lights hanging from a cable suspended across the track. Because the track ran stock car races on Sundays they couldn't attach the lights to the track, hence the cable.

Richard, you're right. They're big and heavy and when mistakes happen (and they do) you can get hurt. That's why my left knee is garbage and needs to be replaced!! LOL!! Wouldn't have missed it for the world, though. They're sweet animals. We just ask them to do a lot of dumb stuff that seems entertaining to US!!

Oh wow, Kurt!! Loving the photos!! Those cars are AWESOME!! Thanks for sharing those!! :encouragement:

p.s. - you look a lot like your dad!!

I love it all!

I see the legendary Don Garlits' name there.
His first dragster:



"Don and Pat built the “T”, their first “Real” race car, under an oak tree at their home in North Tampa in 1954. An electric welder and gas torch modified an old 1927 Ford Model “T” Roadster to accept a 1948 Mercury Block, ’39 Ford floor shift transmission, and a ’48 Ford rear (a very common method of building a “Hot Rod” in the early 50′s). The “T” was sold in 1956 but during a 1986 parts search in N. Georgia Don accidentally found the old “T” rusting away in a junk yard. He purchased it and personally did the restorations, completed in 1988, and taken on tour with S.R.I. This “Hot Rod” represents the latest “state of the art” in drag racing in Florida during the 1954 period."
@ Clay:
I'm sure there was other stuff goin' on in the '50's but autos were a major part of American culture, maybe due to the interstate system being instituted by Eisenhower, all of a sudden folks could travel easily all over the country at highway speeds and the the "land yacht" made it comfortable, too.
Then there were the "submarine races" at the drive-in, and the drive-in diner, and a sizable contingent of guys like Grot's Dad who just wanted to see how fast they could go, or at least watch other guys doing it..
Some of the popularity of drag racing's also been attributed to veterans returning from WWII and Korea and either having the skill sets to build 'em or the desire to recapture the excitement of flying, too.
In the '60's muscle cars were huge in the midwest: Ohio, Illinios, Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, Kansas, where you had miles and miles of straightaways through cornfields between intersections and even then it was only a stop-sign, assuming you saw it.... :glee:
The chase scene in "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry" evokes some of what that must have felt like, in the setting of walnut groves in California:

There's a lot of truth in the observations that those cars were built to go as fact as they could in a straight line.
In the heartland, there were a lot of l-o-o-ng straight lines.
And Sunoco "World's Highest Octane"102 octane gas:

When compression ratios routinely exceeded 10.5-1

Great stuff!

walrus

davismanLV said:

...Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara at the Junior Nationals in 1971:....

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Holy Cucamonga, davisman! That's some athleticism going on there! And what a horse!

I wonder if I've got anything to scrounge up....

davismanLV said:

p.s. - you look a lot like your dad!!

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Yep, sure do!

adorshki said:

The chase scene in "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry" evokes some of what that must have felt like, in the setting of walnut groves in California:

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One on my favorite "stupid" movies of all time! Saw it in the theater when I was 15. Enjoyed Susan George's acting immensely!