Sunday, December 29, 2013

21 HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 wishes for all of you....

To all our friends and followers.....The countdown has begun.....In 2014, believe in yourself and you will achieve your every desire.  Reminisce on your past but move forward to a better future with good friends, good health, peace and prosperity from all of us at Hot Rods and Jalopies.
The next 11 post cards are Happy New Year wishes all having your typical early 1900's jalopies as the main theme.  Be sure to click all photos to enlarge them.
BE SAFE ON NEW YEARS EVE AND "DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE". 

 
How important the horse was even after the motor vehicle was invented!

A cold evening's ride in your old tin lizzie.
The "new" letting go of the "old".
Decorated with roses.


Making noise bringing in the New Year.
4-leaf clovers and horse shoes for Good Luck!



 

Bringing in January 1st.
Bringing in the NEW!


Children drinking and driving - an "old" twist on New Years......odd for sure!


I really enjoy these old pin-up girl photos...pretty gals bringing in the New Year.


 
This next one looks somewhat like a child's card bringing in 1937.....way before I was born ☺
 

 
Lucile Ball and Desi Arnaz bringing in the New Year back in the 1950's, and again Lucile Ball with Bob Hope in a similar time frame.
 



Now....Here are the Three Drunk Stooges back in the day having a great time on New Years Eve, but word has it that they never drank and drove.....well we can pretend...........because the big message is the one below this picture



You know how you will feel the next day anyway!!!!!!
PLEASE HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Sunday, December 22, 2013

May the Peace and Joy of Christmas, and Fond Memories of Your Childhood be with you All Year Through......HR&J final Christmas post...2013

 
The following pictures will have only a one line caption...enjoy the memories and we hope you enjoy your Christmas with your families.
A Family Christmas tradition 100 years ago.

This card is over 100 years old.



The above button in my collection was given to kids when they sat on Santa's knee in 1950!
 
Ethel, Lucy, Ricky, Fred...do you remember??

A very old Mickey and Pluto Christmas Card.....


Another very old Mickey Mouse Christmas Card

Finally a cute Christmas MGM Cartoon produced back in the 1950's starring Tom and Jerry...Do you remember them?......Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

Monday, December 16, 2013

ROGER, again.....Some Music.....Some Family and Friends - 2013 Christmas Post #3

Roger Rickards....MAJOR (no pun intended) STAR of Hot Rods and Jalopies Christmas posts this year had one more to share from his Christmas archives.  Here is smiling Roger with his Thistle Major Pedal Tractor under his 1950 Christmas tree...what an incredible photo.  If you click on the picture, you will also notice all the other things under the tree, and be sure to check back on the last two posts to see the rest of the toys Santa brought Roger that year.....Lucky kid in 1950!!

Pretty close to Roger's but produced a little later in about 1953 by Triang Toys is this Thistle Major Tractor....noticeable differences were the rear fenders and the tractor tread tires.
 

 
 
NEXT: is the song Santa Baby....which we all love to hear this time of the year.  Many artists did this song but none like Eartha Kitt.  She was the first to record it in 1953.  I will try to add the YouTube sound video to this.  Be sure to sing along.

Sing along with Eartha

 
This is Eartha's second request in the song above.......♪♪♫♪♫ A'54 Convertible - Light Blue.♫♫♪♫.  In reality it is a 1954 Buick Skylark Convertible.....for this, I would sing Santa Baby...☺
We have to have at least one old car in each post post.......
 
 
NEXT:  This is one of my favourite pictures of my future wife and I, still in high school in about Christmas 1962.  The picture was taken by the tree at my parents place.  We wore matching cable knit sweaters....a long time ago....how sweet it is!!
 
 

This photo jumps a few years to Christmas 1972, in the first house we bought.  Rosemary with our first son Darren at a little over 11 months old here.
 
 

Here's another one of Darren taken a day after the one above was taken....what a cutie!!















The following two photos jump ahead another 9 years to 1981.....Darren with the axe and his two cousins Jason and Colleen Barney....that's Darren again with Jason in the trailer.  That's the trailer I used to haul our racing Go-Kart around in the summer months.


Last:  The photo on the left below are my sons Darren and  Jay skiing at the original Mount McKay Ski Club, Christmas Holidays 1982....how we all miss that place.....it's very grown over, and if you went now you would never know there was ever a ski club there....except for some chair lift scrap iron still laying around.
......The last picture below right is taken at Loch Lomond Ski Club....This picture was posted once before, but it's such a favourite of mine, I have to add it to this Christmas post....it was also taken during our Christmas Holidays but way back in about 1960....  In the picture left to right is John Ritchie later to become one of Canada's #1 ski coaches, next to John is my old friend Dwight McIntosh, then Myself and finally another old friend Scott McCallum.  We had so much fun in those days, and in the winter spent all of our spare time skiing both at Loch Lomond and Mount McKay....and it never mattered how cold it was.... -25 Fahrenheit wouldn't even stop us.


















The final Christmas Holiday photo below is one I took circa 1955, and in the photo is Donald and Darryl Wheatley....neighbours and playmates who lived across the lane from us back then, and the little kid with the helmet is none other than Joe (Joey) Cooper, later to become my push mobile driver as well as starting his auto mechanic apprenticeship at Ray-Charles Texaco on Victoria Ave.
Almost every back yard had a skating/hockey rink in those days....we played outside most of the time...kids today are truly missing out.
 
We at HR&J hope that you enjoy these posts.....and if you do, don't forget to make comments and/or join "blogger" so you don't miss anything.  Dave


Monday, December 9, 2013

Santa, Santa's Knee, Cutting Christmas Trees and bringing them home in the trunk of what car? - Christmas Post #2....

I'm starting out a little different for this second Christmastime post.  This first photo(actually a scan) is pretty much self explanatory with the note on the top left of the scan.  I used this letter once before in a story on Chapples Limited and a prior Christmas post here in Fort William, Ontario.  It's such an interesting piece that I thought it would be nice to show it again.....and as usual click on all the following photos and scans once or twice for extra large to view them better.

There is no relevance to anyone I know in this next collage of 3 photos....it's just to show you that not all kids love Santa Claus and not all Santa Clauses love kids.  My favourite here is actually the look on the face of the first Santa.....gotta love it.

Now....connected to my first Christmas post is this photo of none other than the star of the last post Roger Rickards sitting on Santa's knee in 1950, likely in Chapples Home Store basement Toyland....he looks tentative but still relatively happy, because he's pretty sure he will get everything he asked for.
Now...in the photo to the right is actually Roger's future wife Barb....a real cutie, but in this photo Santa is whispering in Barb's ear that her wish will be granted many years down the line and she really will get married to Roger....☺
 
Roger...love the helmet and galoshes!
Barb...so cute!


The following photo is yours truly taken in 1951...a year later....same place....Chapples Toyland in their Home Store.  Note that I am not sitting on Santa's knee....He wanted me to but I was much to grown up for that business...but I still got all the Dinky Toys I asked for and in one more year I would have a new baby sister.
 
Another real cutie!

I don't have a Santa photo of my wife Rosemary but I have this wonderful photo of her taken behind their home back in Angus, Nebraska where she lived until she was 9, then moved all the way to Fort William, Ontario just so that we would meet each other in High School.....and yes, they did get snow in Angus.
 
The following picture is a family photo including my sister and brother going out for Christmas Trees circa 1959.  The picture of just us kids follows this one, but note my dad's '53 Chevrolet in the background with the tree cut and already in the trunk....those were wonderful times as kids, and it's always nice to have a photo with my little sister Daryle and my kid brother Corey in it too.
 



The above scan to the right is of those wonderful 1953 Chevrolets.  That was the only automobile  word allowed spoken in our house....other brands never cut it when your dad worked for the Chevrolet dealership in Fort William.  The model of his car is circled and the arrow points to the colour it was.  
Now... the photo below is my dad loading a tree into his 1958 Chevrolet company car in the same year all these photos were taken - 1959.  These trees were likely picked up for the Kam Motors Christmas Party.   I loved the fact that my dad started getting a new Chevy company car for a number of years starting in 1957.  He was allowed to keep it until it was sold as a Demo then he would get the next years car all brand new.  My mom would be driving our own car, the '53 above.  I couldn't wait to get my own car when I turned 16.
 

Here is that great Bel Air look....It was the Impala that had the three tail lights in a row in 1958.
Below is a bit earlier photo circa 1954 with myself my little sister at about two years old(no brother yet), my Dad and my uncle Cyril....with the Christmas Tree in the trunk of his own 1952 Chevrolet here, and next to that, a picture of what his '52 looked like.....surprisingly enough all the cars mentioned above and in this picture were all green.
Click for larger photo.


The following two family photos are a couple of my all time favourites.  We are going back here to circa 1940.  In the picture is my uncle Henry sitting on the hood of my dad's 1928 Studebaker Erskine.  It was called a poor man's Studebaker at the time, but as my dad told me, it was a huge car compared to the Chevrolets or Fords at the time.  In those days the word "Chevrolet" wasn't that important because Kam Motors hadn't started selling Chevy's yet. 
My dad's first car was a model "T" Ford Touring, which my grandfather sold on him when he was away on his first stint in the army.
Another interesting note is..... what looks like a lady swimmer diving ornament on the radiator of the car....It was an after-market piece at the time and was an image of the famous actress/swimmer/diver Ester Williams.
 

 


The picture on the right is my mother♥ with my uncle Henry....well she would eventually become my mother as my dad and her were just dating at this time....I wasn't even a thought when this photo was taken...☺


The last two scans for this post is a picture of Ester Williams and the Erskine, and if you click on the Ersk, you should be able to read a little about this car.

Merry Christmas to all...and shop 'til you drop.....there will still be another post or two yet.