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after reading "blu442's thread on "for all you old farts out there" it made me think of my conversation with my dad last week. I was telling him that it finally dawned on me the other day why my lower back hurts on occasion. ( no, not from too much sex with the flower-girls of the '60's ).
Way back in 1971, I had a two-wheel drive '57 ****** wagon with straight axle up front with 327 Chevy w 2-spd powerglide and Huge farm-implement tires on 10-inch chrome wheels. Balloon tires yes.
So I go to a Barn Party and there must have been 7-people who needed a ride home. No Problem, I am coherent. I gest all the people dropped off safely and I was afraid to go home facing a sever riddling from my dad from me drinking, so I thought I would take a "little drive" out into the country to sober up.
I didn't make it to the town city limits and dozed off and clipped a mail box. There was a semi-truck wheel welded to the mail box. That racket of hitting the mail box awoke me and all I could see ahead was a Power Pole. I turned the steering wheel - no-steering, I tried the brakes - No-Brakes either, then BANG !!!
I got the power pole "dead-center" and the impact pulled the seat belt out of the floor ! My lower back pulled it out. This was 1971, and I had 3-lids of pot under the seat. First thing I do is grab those lids, and throw them as far as I can into an adjacent field to get rid of "evidence." hey, there were cute girls at the barn party and they loved smoking pot and getting all Cuddly-Duddly and teasing us guys in their hippy-dresses.
I am lucky to be here today. and I lived through the wreck. ( another used of our 9-lives ). snicker, and in those days, the cops poured out our beer.
I actually took the ****** frame to a body shop with frame rack and had it pulled out and rebuilt the ****** wagon. I sold it, and bought a '65 Vette basket-case with the 396 solid-lifter engine. I have never in my life been so wind-burnt and sun-burnt after returning home from a "run-to-the-mountains" with one of those hippy-girls.
Same story again - out having too much fun and twice lost it trying to play Travis Pastrana, and sold the Vette before I killed myself. Mmm Robust Power.
I have one more story to share which I hope will bring some chuckles to you guys and gals:
It is 1973, and I have a brand-new Dodge Power Wagon and working at the local door-casing moulding plant. Fresh out of college so I grow my hair down over my shoulders, and am a free-bird and employed with a cute ski bunnie living with me. Yep high-heaven, and life is Good !
I've got a homemade lift in my pickup and it is 4x4 with headers of course and twin-glass-packs for the girls. This one particular day, it snowed 24-inches, and I am going home from work. There is a solid snow-berm separating the two opposing lanes of traffic and I am charging along at god-speed, and there is a slow moving car ahead of me, no problem. I romp on it and crashed through the snow berm which immediately pitched me slideways towards an upcoming bridge.
My dirt biking instincts told me to let-her come on around and go on through the bridge spinning around with "hopes" that I clear the railings.
I clipped the front fender on the railing on my way out of the bridge. Dad-Gummit, all in fun and games. and I had only owned the pickup for 2-weeks.
Where are those hippy girls and those bunnies that hide eggs and those super cute ski bunnies, they were probably watching and giggling.
Ha, I thought maybe some other's may want to share a few "Close-Calls of - "which wreck did you live through"
Len
Fun71: _ _ _ yeay, so far so good.
The older I get, the more I appreciate each sunrise. And also, as my eyesight diminishes, I try not to drive at night anymore.
68 Cutlass Supreme in 1981. I failed to negotiate a curve and sliced a telephone pole with a transformer into three pieces and end over ended the car down an embankment. I had the lap belt and shoulder belt on and they saved my life. The motor pushed into the cowl and caved it in and the rear end was torn out of the car. The only thing I salvaged from the car was the rear license plate which I still have.
My son pulled up to the lake one weekend, and his Suzuki sidekick had a new flame-job I was un-aware of.
I had bought this for him when he turned 16, and it needed a clutch. Out of curiosity, I walked down to take a closer look at the new "flames." What I discovered is that the flames were barbed-wire scratches from a fence !
So I asked my son what happened, and he said he dozed-off after dropping off his buddy and ran off the road and through the fence. (that was 10-years ago)
I am glad he didn't hit a tree. We got a good laugh sharing stories of our escapades that we have lived-through. Then my wife reminded me that the "apple" doesn't fall far from the Tree. hahahaha That tells me my son is in for a good-ride !
Once I experience the smell of gasoline while pinned under a steering wheel laying upside down in a ditch [after a few rolls] I had a flash of sanity and dialed back my idiotic driving habits
In the early 90s I had an '86 G-Body Grand Prix. It was snowing hard one night and I was just about to enter a pretty sharp curve on a country road. Coming towards me into the turn was a Ford Temp loaded with about five teens who were all underage drinking. They didn't make the curve and t-boned me in the driver's door. It blew all the glass out except the windshield, moved the steering column to the middle of the car, folded the back seat in half, buckled the roof, and ripped the rear axle out of the frame. Luckily since it was snowing, my car slid a lot which absorbed a lot of the impact.
I didn't know they were drinking until the police showed up and found a 12 pack of beer only half buried in the snow. As hard as it was snowing there would have been no finding it if it was there earlier. So they had to throw it out of the car right after they came to a stop.
We all ended up in the same hospital and I actually came out better than they did. The kids in the front seat all hit the windshield and they were a mess.
Their insurance must've gotten wind of the situation. They immediately settled on the total of my car which ended up being more than $1000 that I was trying to sell if for earlier in the same year and couldn't. With the cash, I bought my 88 Thunderbird which is the car I really wanted instead of the GP but couldn't afford it at the time. I still have it and it still looks like this.
There have been a few. 13 years ago I got a crushed vertebrae, T6, when a van ran a red light at 60mph and hit my 1998 Chevy Full size 1/2 ton, LWB, 4x4, in the left front wheel and spun it around 1/4 turn. That was the worst pain in my life. I went to hospital as I knew something was up. They took x rays and sent me home. I thought I would suffocate trying to get from the car into the house, about 30ft. It hurt so bad whenever I moved I couldn't breathe. Never worked another day. Got nothing except paid for truck, State Farm said sue us, you won't win, lawyer agreed.
But the interesting wreck was in 1973. I was 24. Drag racing on an unknown road in a 1969 COPO Camaro, 427/425 horse 4 speed. Wide open going into 4th gear, little dip in road sent me off into the scrub brush, over an embankment, into the top of a big sycamore tree which flipped me end to end, landed on the other side of the tree with the right quarter taking the hit. Shoved the quarter up to the back window. The only usable body part on the car was the driver door, even the top was unusable. I didn't have my seat belt on. I landed in the back, the back seat bottom was torn loose and I was between the loose rear seat bottom and the still attached rear seat back, unconscious for I don't think too long. No one came to help, I awoke to the smell of fuel as the tank was crushed, and clambered out fearing a fire. No such fire happened but I was hurt and out of my head, the strong odor made me move as fast as possible. Had a big gash in top of my head from taking out the interior light I think and a stiff neck for many years. Didn't slow me down much. Funny how we look back and think "How could I have been that stupid?"
Hit a telephone pole at a high rate of speed in 1985, sen in high school in a 1980 Olds Omega. The impact was so great that myself and the passenger in the front seat had our pants split from the zipper to the belt. Pushed the steering wheel up, bent the brake pedal with my right leg. Had a fracture to my left hand, muscle tears in my thigh, groin and a sore neck for years. No seat belt. I guess it was a good thing I was pretty much stone drunk. I learned from that accident. I was only 18
The worst was probably when I got run over by a tractor trailer on I 10 near Las Cruses NM. while on my motorcycle. Middle of the night, slowed to make an exit, then I got slammed and then pinned under the truck cab. When he finally got it stopped he got out and looked under the truck. I turned my head to look at him and the first words out of his mouth were " you should be dead". Then he said he never saw me. The only way they could get me out was to back the truck up. that was no fun either. I wasn't wearing a helmet. I do now. Most of the time sort of.
I got upside down three times in my dads new 60 Ford pickup chasing a rabbit on a gravel road.I can remember going over like it was slow motion, one two three and back on its wheels. Popped the front windshield out on the first go a round and didn't break it ,not that it mattered much. Everyone swapped positions in the cab but no major energies Lowered the cab by about 8 inches but I drove it home that way. Longest ride home ever to face my Old Man. First new car he had had sense his 53 Hudson..
Hmm, wouldn't let me add text. Anyway, mis-behaving, wiped out my Vette, and had stitches in my head, along with a headache for the week that I was off of work. I have neck problems almost 40 years later.
Thanks for the shared stories of what we lived through. And thanks also for sharing the non-gory stories, because we don't want to hear those.
I guess many of us lost high school friends over the years to auto accidents, or family members.
And too, I was looking for humorous stories that we can chuckle at because of our "blunders" at the wheel.
Tedd, _ _ _ the Rabbit Chaser ! hahaha
In high school i'd tell my folks I was headed to the basketball game and would then take my dad's '53 ****** pickup out to party with my friends at the Honda-Hills.
One evening I was chasing a jack rabbit over hill and dale, when I ran out of hill and the driver's side front wheel dropped off a creek bank that I was running mostly parallel with. Fortunate for me the bank swung to the left, and the front and rear tires bounced back up onto terra-firmma, and I didn't roll on over into the creek.
Close call. I finally shared the story with my father 40-years later while jeeping on the Rubicon Trail at Lake Tahoe. He said, "yeah, you always brought the ****** home with an empty tank, so I figured you were out having fun.
25-years ago, I bought a '61 Ford F-100 4x4 from a guy about my age. His father bought it brand new, and he was driving it northbound up Interstate 5, one day in a blinding snowstorm up near Dunsmuir, California. He was barreling right along when the rear-end broke loose and came around on him. He said he could remember hitting the snowbank sideways, and nothing more until he awoke. When he awoke, he said he was balled-up on the passenger side floorboards, and there was a little old lady looking down upon him asking if he were OK. He came through with bruises, and the little lady told him the pickup rolled over and landed back on its wheels. You could never tell today to look at the pickup that it had been over on it top and back. _ _ amazing.
To look at those photos of the broken Vette, that is why I sold my '65 after one year of ownership, after 2-near misses, back in 1977, when I was 26. When I bought the vette, it was a mechanic's special that only cost $2500 back then. That 396 was a powerhouse waiting to get me in trouble.
When the T-bone accident was mentioned, it made me think of buying a New automobile. I used to tell the guys at work, why bother buying new, when you can get hit by another driver after the 3-rd week of ownership, and from then on, you will be driving a New-Repaired-Auto, but still making the new-car-Payment.
That is why is tend to buy Salvage-Title Autos.
That might be a good interesting Thread " my Salvage-Title automobile " hahahaha _ _ _ I have several of them yes, well Two.
thanks for the entertaining stories, I got some good chuckles.
It was a different time.Rabbit chasing( shooting) was a common entertainment for a country boy in my time. There was this 900 acre grain field which was mostly flat that held rabbits in good numbers after it was harvested It was a favorite place to be with a load of outlaw friends after midnight and after a few beers. At that time I had a 46 Chevy pickup with the windshield modified so I could swing it out and prop it up with a stick. You never know when you need to shoot strait ahead while you are driving.you know.
All went well till I was in a sharp turn hot on the tail of wily wrabbit when I hit a badger hole, pistol in hand loaded and read to go (probably half empty from engaging said rabbit earlier in the chase) when the stick bounced out from the windshield , windshield came slamming down and smacked the barrel of my Ruger Mark 1.and discharged putting a nice hole in the middle of the driver side glass.My ears still ring.
For several years till I sold it I had to explain very embarrassing to people that hole was a a inside to outside hole and no one was hurt. Be careful out there there are crazy's among us.... Tedd
Been in a few but none really bad. I've seen many, many bad ones being a retired fireman for 25 years. But one involving my 1st Cutlass back in about '79.. My then girlfriend wanted to drive it to Raleigh. I said OK but be careful. Wasn't her fault but she was at a stoplight and a guy never saw her, never touched his brakes and hit her from behind. I had just bought the car a few months earlier and it was still jacked up in the back-end from the previous owner. She didn't get hurt but the rear bumper of the Cutlass went right over his bumper and raked everything back to his engine block. Totaled his car, broke my b/u lite and cut one of the impact pads and put a minor scratch on the bumper. Of course there wasn't cell phones so she just drove it back to my house and sat in it crying in the driveway. I walked up and asked what was wrong and all she kept saying over and over was "You're going to kill me!" After a few minutes of this, she finally said "I wrecked your car...". I guess I forgave her as that was 40 years ago and we've been married 37 years. Best decision I ever made.
It was not 2 hours after I got my drivers license that very day( 16 years old) dropped my mother off at work. As I was driving home on my own down a residential street, a women went through a stop sign and ruined my day. I T-boned her ruing my mother's beautiful 2 year old Silver blue 65 Cutlass Holiday, 330-320HP car. I was working part time after school helping her make the payments.Fortunately nobody was hurt. In the back ground to the right, that's actually Mitchell Field in Milwaukee.
Thank heavens for the improvement in automobile safety devices since the '60's.
It seems that airbags do save lives (and maybe ours). Also, too most autos today have roll-over sensors that cuts off the fuel to stop fuel flow.
Many new atuos today also have all of the sensors to alert us of another car in our blind-spots and auto-parking features, and Adaptable-Cruise.
Each of these systems requires a computer of some sorts, so today, it may be the norm for an auto to have 10 on-board computers.
thanks guys for the replies, they have been interesting, and I am glad we are here today. Stay safe
Rolled my 75 Dodge Powerwagon, I was almost to the shoulder of the freeway when the right rear tire blew. The truck spun around so I was facing traffic. When the wheels struck the shoulder the truck rolled once. I was wearing the lap belt at the time, which saved me. People who witnessed it thought I was dead. What a ride! Like being in a washing machine. Don't want to ever go through that again!
January 6th, 2019, 06:42 PM
Almost bent that car in half. I walked away with a sprained finger and a few bruises.
