[wdb]

Originally Posted by 3798j

When my frugal father ordered his '63 Plymouth Belvedere station wagon (to replace our '58 Plymouth wagon), I begged him to opt for the full wheel covers instead of the dog dish hub caps. His reply, "do you know they're a $12 option?"...when we went to pick the car up, there it sat with the full covers. He just smiled when I profusely thanked him.

Which brings up another thing that has changed over our lifetimes, namely the lifetime of a vehicle. Used to be that 50,000 miles was when bad/expensive stuff started to happen. Valve jobs, head gaskets, rod bearings, none of those jobs were unusual for 60K mile cars. Today it's easy to find Hondas and Toyotas with 200K miles and more left in them.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by wdb

Which brings up another thing that has changed over our lifetimes, namely the lifetime of a vehicle. Used to be that 50,000 miles was when bad/expensive stuff started to happen. Valve jobs, head gaskets, rod bearings, none of those jobs were unusual for 60K mile cars. Today it's easy to find Hondas and Toyotas with 200K miles and more left in them.

Agreed. I remember when my '67 Dodge Dart hit 100k. It was a cause for celebration and awe. My current GLC300 has 103k on it and aside from a torn driver's seat, it looks nearly new. My last 7 vehicles have all gone at least 150k before I replaced them.

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by Vindicator3

When I was a kid mine and one other Dad in the neighborhood were the type who would never spring for power windows because it was "one more thing to break," while all the other kids had super-cool power windows in their parents' cars. Of course I whined and complained about it.

FF to me with small kids (a couple of decades ago) and my car (with power windows of course) is in for some kind of dealer service and they are out of their normal loaners so they bring Enterprise over with some very basic and very small Chevy coupe with no options. When I got home that night, the kids were very excited that "I got a new car" and not only that, it was red! But the best part for them was when they got in and found the window cranks. "Why don't our regular cars have these cool window cranks?" I just had to LOL.

Great story. I loved being a kid. I love being a dad. I absolutely love being a granddad. Stories like this one remind me of how much fun it is from each perspective. Art Linkletter said it best; "Kids say the darndest things"!

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by 3798j

When my frugal father ordered his '63 Plymouth Belvedere station wagon (to replace our '58 Plymouth wagon), I begged him to opt for the full wheel covers instead of the dog dish hub caps. His reply, "do you know they're a $12 option?"...when we went to pick the car up, there it sat with the full covers. He just smiled when I profusely thanked him.

Another great story. The little things matter. Your dad would smile knowing that you are telling this story 60 years later. I think he got his $12 worth out of that decision!

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by 3798j

When my frugal father ordered his '63 Plymouth Belvedere station wagon (to replace our '58 Plymouth wagon), I begged him to opt for the full wheel covers instead of the dog dish hub caps. His reply, "do you know they're a $12 option?"...when we went to pick the car up, there it sat with the full covers. He just smiled when I profusely thanked him.

My dad was semi-frugal. When I was a kid, he was a GM guy all the way. But, instead drinking the kook-aid each year and buying a new car, he'd by a 2-year-old car for 1/3 the price and keep it 2 years and then do it again. He always came home with fully-loaded cars. We always had great cars in the driveway. Thanks Dad!

[UncleWede]

My dad was head of a law office of 1. New cars were purchased when he had fully depreciated the last business expense, then that depreciated car became mom's. There was only a 75 Volvo between the 70 and 85 Cougars. At that point I got the 70!

For some reason I was with dad when he was looking for the Volvo, model 245DL
Dad: What's DL? Diesel?
Sales: DeLuxe
Dad: OK, I'll take it.

Then the negotiations began. It was nearly a month of lot visits and walks. He always bought in December. Said prices were dropping for the dealers to make a final year end sale, and that he could use a full year of depreciation for owning the car during the calendar year.

[3.0L]

Originally Posted by Vindicator3

When I was a kid mine and one other Dad in the neighborhood were the type who would never spring for power windows because it was "one more thing to break," while all the other kids had super-cool power windows in their parents' cars. Of course I whined and complained about it.

FF to me with small kids (a couple of decades ago) and my car (with power windows of course) is in for some kind of dealer service and they are out of their normal loaners so they bring Enterprise over with some very basic and very small Chevy coupe with no options. When I got home that night, the kids were very excited that "I got a new car" and not only that, it was red! But the best part for them was when they got in and found the window cranks. "Why don't our regular cars have these cool window cranks?" I just had to LOL.

There was a fellow in our neighborhood with a new land yacht, maybe a
Cadillac. He always wore a suit and tie. Car windows were always rolled
up, even on hot days, so we assumed his car had AC. Dad learned from
a neighbor who knew the guy that it had no AC. He just put on a show. ��

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by Buug959

Yup to all except the first and the last items. I think I still have the nut cracker and a couple of the picks in a drawer somewhere.

I'm with you. I didn't get the last time either.

Anybody know?

[JeffL0]

Originally Posted by sygazelle

I'm with you. I didn't get the last time either.

Anybody know?

Yea, they still make them. It's a chalk holder for music instruction
https://www.grothmusic.com/p-3197-st...er-holder.aspx

[Esteban]

.

[Buug959]

Originally Posted by JeffL0

Yea, they still make them. It's a chalk holder for music instruction
https://www.grothmusic.com/p-3197-st...er-holder.aspx

I guess maybe I'm not that old after all. The only time I had any music instruction was in elementary school and the chalkboard in that classroom had the staff lines permanently printed on it.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by JeffL0

Yea, they still make them. It's a chalk holder for music instruction
https://www.grothmusic.com/p-3197-st...er-holder.aspx

I remember those now. Our music teacher used to use those when it was time to explain notes and chords and so on.

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by M_Six

I remember those now. Our music teacher used to use those when it was time to explain notes and chords and so on.

My elementary school teacher used one of those music chalk thingies with chalk only in the outermost two holders to make lines on the blackboard for cursive writing lessons......

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by M_Six

I remember those now. Our music teacher used to use those when it was time to explain notes and chords and so on.

Yep, same with my music teacher in Jr. high. Didn't recognize it in the pic above.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

My elementary school teacher used one of those music chalk thingies with chalk only in the outermost two holders to make lines on the blackboard for cursive writing lessons......

Maybe that's what I'm remembering, now that you mention it. Except with 3 lines to show the upper limit of lower case letters.

[Pauly Wauly]

Originally Posted by Esteban

.

I’ve never met any of my grandfathers . Maternal died before I was born and paternal left my father when he was young and moved to a different country, I also never met my paternal grandmother.

[3.0L]

Originally Posted by wdb

Which brings up another thing that has changed over our lifetimes, namely the lifetime of a vehicle. Used to be that 50,000 miles was when bad/expensive stuff started to happen. Valve jobs, head gaskets, rod bearings, none of those jobs were unusual for 60K mile cars. Today it's easy to find Hondas and Toyotas with 200K miles and more left in them.

I bought my 1st car in late 1966. It was a 1964 Corvair Monza with 80,000
miles on it (Chevy dealer said it belonged to a traveling salesman).

I only put 20,000 miles on during the 3 years I owned it. I had a lot of fun
with the car, but I had to put a lot of work into it. During that 20k miles I
pulled the engine/transaxle twice to replace blown head gaskets and a
cylinder. A bolt broke in the rear suspension, leaving a spring dragging on
the street. Fortunately, I was in town when that happened. Then there was
much time spent chasing rattles, most of which I cured.

My new wife drove the car during my 12 months in Vietnam. I had plans to
soup up the car a bit when I got home (dual carburator heads) but shelved
that idea after I spotted the new Mercury Capri.

Our 1970 Capri wasn’t much better. It was pretty well shot at 100k miles,
just like the Corvair.

To contrast that, when we traded in our 2012 GLK 350 with 102,000 miles
on the clock, it still ran great; dashboard wasn’t cracked; paint looked good;
shifted fine and it only had one intermittant rattle.

[Esteban]

Originally Posted by Pauly Wauly

I’ve never met any of my grandfathers . Maternal died before I was born and paternal left my father when he was young and moved to a different country, I also never met my paternal grandmother.

You know that guy's not my real grandfather, right? (JK)

I never met mine, either. Only my maternal grandmother, so we're similar.

[Pauly Wauly]

Originally Posted by Esteban

You know that guy's not my real grandfather, right? (JK)

I never met mine, either. Only my maternal grandmother, so we're similar.

I thought he was. He has a white beard just like you

[Artemis]

Originally Posted by JeffL0

Yea, they still make them. It's a chalk holder for music instruction
https://www.grothmusic.com/p-3197-st...er-holder.aspx

First item:

[ezaircon4jc]

We still have the item bottom, center!

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by 3.0L

To contrast that, when we traded in our 2012 GLK 350 with 102,000 miles
on the clock, it still ran great; dashboard wasn’t cracked; paint looked good;
shifted fine and it only had one intermittant rattle.

When I bought the almost-Mighty Freightliner a few years ago, it had just shy of 1/4 million miles on the odometer and the engine still had 47K left on its warranty thanks to dieselgate.....