Where were you 50 years ago?
 

I got discharged from the US Navy in April 1973 and went to work with my then father in law doing residential roofing, If you want a taste of hell try putting black shingles down over black felt in 100 degree temps and 80% humidity.I did that until October 1975 when I got hired by the Fire Department, I worked there for 30 years, 24 hrs on duty 48 hrs off On my off days I worked for Sears as a deliveryman. Between thee two jobs I worked about 80 to 106 hrs a week, Plus I went to night school for residential electrical construction under the VA plan.
As our class project we wired my new house.
So after getting all the house wired and finished in 1976 my then wife decided she wanted to be known for herself,so she divorced me in 1977.
I won't lie, the divorce hit me hard. Not only did I lose 5 acres of land and a brand new house but due to my work load my ex was given custody of my son.
If it weren't for the good Lord and friends I probably would have lost my job at the Fire Department.
But I hung on and met the woman of my dreams in 1980. We were married in July 1982 and have been going at each other for almost 42 years now.

Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco. My carrier was in dry dock undergoing overhaul.

50 years ago I was dating the young woman that I am still married to. We married in 1976.

Fifty years ago I got my name on a Stromberg-Carlson patent for a computer controlled telephone central office switching system, along with 4 other engineers. It didn't take long for the whole world to to copy it, so the patent became worthless (other than the patent awards Stromberg paid us). The second patent was more long-lived, an open-ended-architecture design of computer interrupt hardware.

50 yrs ago I was 10 years old cutting grass and building tree houses.

I was in first grade. :)

Not born yet

1st grade. Catching frogs, bugs , salamanders…

50 years ago, I was stationed in Germany and my wife and daughter had just left MN to join me over there.

My wife had made me promise we would come home at least one time during my 39 months overseas. I was going to keep that promise too. But my wife decided that the costs of flying home vs the possible once in a lifetime travel opportunities we had in Europe were too high.

While stationed in Germany, we traveled to Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Switzerland and Austria.

The travel bug has stuck with us as we have been back across the Atlantic 4 times since then - back to Germany and Austria in 2013, Italy in 2019, Iceland in 2022 and Sweden in 2023.

We've also traveled extensively in Canada, been to numerous islands in the Caribbean and South America.

Our next big trip is to Okinawa - where our grandson is a crew chief for a VM 22 (Osprey) with the Marines. This will happen April of 2025.

Wow, what great stories! Interesting to see the differences and where we all were and what types of lives we’ve led!

In 1974, I would’ve been 13, watching jealously as a guy who had been our neighborhood paperboy was driving around in beautiful 73 Formula 350. I remember seeing that car on the showroom floor the year before through the window! I would go down and look at it at least once a week!

That ended up being my second car, as I bought it from the third owner in 1980! I owned it till last year when I parted it out and used it as a donor car for my 1970 Formula that I am restoring now!

I was 15 years old, soon turning 16 when I could get my drivers license. My dad had lined me up with a weekend job that involved crawling under houses and in attics pulling wire for an electrician that rewired old houses, but I didn't work every weekend. I had a friend a few months older who already had his license, and I remember going into Charlotte and ogling the new cars on weekends when I wasn't working. I had a small Honda CL125 that I rode on my parent's land (they had about 14 acres). The annual summer camping trip to Ocracoke Island National Seashore was coming up soon. Dad's main driver was a 1966 Catalina 2+2. He was operating his garage at the time and was selling cars out of his shop. He bought a 1963 Falcon Sprint with a 260 3-spd for me to drive. It had a bad engine, so we swapped in a 302 from a later car. I didn't drive it for long, he bought a 64 Galaxie w/390 automatic. I didn't drive that long either, I burnt the rear tires down within a month. I had saved some money and had a part time job, so bought my first car purchased with my own money a little later in the fall. It was a 1968 Torino GT convertible with a 390 4-spd. After the Arab Oil Embargo hit a few months later, American Muscle was dirt cheap. It crossed the auction block for $275.

Studying Business Admin at University of Cincinnati, working for the VA, and raising my 2-year old son. Oh, yeah, working on my '67 400 4-speed '67 Firebird.

Fifty years ago we lived in Norcross Georgia and drove a '69 Pontiac Catalina that we bought new in '69. Also had a Ford pickup and many evenings after work I'd hook up the bass boat and go up to Lake Lanier for a couple of hours of fishing. Back then one night a week during the warm months there was a little informal bass tournament on one of those nights that ten or so guys would fish in. If you've never been on Lake Lanier it is a big beautiful lake and you can drop a dime in 20' of water and watch it fall all the way to the bottom. There are lots of under water islands in it and if you find them you can catch bass off of them.

7yrs old. playing with hot wheels lol

At age 18, I was in my second semester at General Motors Institute and working my Co-op sessions at GMAD Lordstown. My freshman year was spent entirely in the Tool Engineering Department doing everything from filing Operation Description sheets and fixture blueprints, to designing hand tool assembly jigs. My car at the time was a 1969 4-door Skylark with a 350 2 barrel, nicknamed "The Tuna Boat" by my roommates thanks to the bow-like body lines on the side and the "gills" on the front fenders.

There was lots of pressure to maintain grades to keep the job at GM, but it was essentially a 100% scholarship and worth every drop of sweat and late hour of study put into it. I'd do it over again in a heartbeat.

Was graduating from HS. Didn’t even own my first Pontiac yet…..

8 years old, I was probably playing with hotwheels.

Same here

Ditto

50 years ago I was 6.

I was 4 years old. My Dad drove a 1968 Camaro RS/SS 350. My mother drove a 1967 VW Beetle convertible. I mostly watched cartoons, played outside, and tried to make it through the day without pooping my pants

Was 12 and fixing bicycles and mini bikes. Early start to fixing cars. Had 2 older brothers that liked to wreck stuff, LOL.

I was 16 and putting the finishing touches on my 1st engine rebuild- 62 Bonneville 389. Bored out the 389 to 400 (+.060), only regret was not putting in a somewhat hotter cam like an 067 or maybe even an 068. The 4spd Super Hydramatic was a trip to drive.

Was at University of Wisconsin-Stout working toward an undergraduate degree. My 67 GTO hardtop had a 400 4bbl/ 068 cam/ headers /Turbo 400 with Hurst dual gate shifter, and 3.55 gears. Special feature was a homemade 40watt (RMS) amp complete with tuner(4 knobs partially visible under the dash in the pic)/ headphone jacks/ 8 speakers, and a strobe light on the rear shelf. The amp and strobe light was powered by an inverter in the trunk. Sounded great and you could actually feel the music. Nobody had anything like that at the time. Anyone remember The Edgar Winter Group "Frankenstein"? My riders would totally freak out man when I flipped on the strobe light at the ending! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwwjCqWMqmw

Same here.

13yrs old, Grade 8, playing with AFX slot cars, Fire crackers, building and flying line controlled 0.49 engine model airplanes and starting to build my first RC plane, graduated from a Mustang/ banana seat bicycle, to a 10 speed.
Starting to really notice Girls…..particularly the ones hitting puberty.

I was riding around on this Schwinn sidehack I had built out of several old Schwinn bike frames. I did all the cutting and fitting, a couple of the neighborhood dads that were into dune buggies and motocross bikes did the majority of the oxy-acetylene gas welding on it. 50 years ago it had shiny red paint and two nice banana seats I had recovered in black Naugahyde.

By this time I had moved on from being heavily into building 1/24 & 1/25 scale model cars and playing with HO scale slot cars and redline Hot Wheels to building motocross bicycles. This was right at the dawn of commercially available motocross bicycles when we were all building our own.

Was looking forward to building my first engine, a VW 1500 about a year later at 15 years old.

I was 12-year-old, fixing bikes and starting my working career, Detroit News paper route. That taught me a lot about commitment, every day every kind of weather. I was already planning my automotive future as my dad had just sold his 1966 GTO that he bought new for only $500 to my neighbors' cousin. He later totaled it.

Finishing my Jr year of high school

50 years ago
 

I was 18 working full time at the folks' butcher shop in Whitehall on the east side of Columbus. A year later off to USN boot camp.

BTCS

Finishing up 3rd grade.
Had a Schwinn Grey Ghost and a MiniTrail 50.
If I wasn't in school or in bed I was riding one of those

I was 8 years old and conducting all sorts of military operations with my GI Joe's and all their gear. I think Kung Fu grip was out by then. Also tearing up the neighborhood on my bike. Good times.

1975. The beginning of the end for Boiler Techs eh Senior Chief? Gas Turbines would be entering the fleet about that time.

Three and a half years prior to even being a twinkle in my fathers eyes.

I was 10. School, fishing, watching cartoons on Saturday morning, reading comic books and getting slapped around by my 3 older brothers.

1974. USN Aviation Structural Mechanic. VC 6 Det Dam Neck, Va. Beach Virginia
Permanent detachment out of NAS Norfolk, Va. with Fleet Combat Directions Systems Training Center. Cruised Virginia Beach streets in my 62 TriPower 4 speed Catalina.

Graduating from High School.....with a 66 Pontiac lemans Conv...200.00 Drivah...

At university partying instead of going to class.

I was 8 years old, mostly taking stuff apart and trying to put it back together, bikes , trikes , plastic toy cars.

Recently discharged from the US Army (Stratcom). Back home in Youngstown, Ohio the first order of business was to purchase a car and I found a low mileage, red, 67, ram air GTO. Wife was good with it and it was our daily driver for a few years (got to love those 4.33 gears....lol). By this time I'd pretty much given up the hope of being a professional musician so it was back to school (Youngstown State) for electrical engineering. Few years later visited my parents in Raleigh, NC and immediately decided that Youngstown needed to be in my rear view mirror!

I was going to be twelve years old and had just acquired my paper route. Was looking forward to being a teenage in just one more year. Spent my time not mowing yards or running my paper route at John Herman Biggs’ garage in my hometown trying to learn everything I could about engines ( which became a lifelong passion).

I might add that I also still have the GTO that I owned when we dated in it 50 years ago.

Working in friend's garage and cruising at nights in a '65 Fastback Mustang with a worked 289, 4 speed top loader and 4.11 posi. Lot of stop light drags and good times!

Didnt know what a Pontiac was 50 years ago.
Had it been 48, was on my way to Alaska.
Switchin up riding in dads 67 Belair or following in his girlfriends gold 69 GTO 4spd.
I started to look at cars different after that trip.

Didnt know what a Pontiac was 50 years ago.
Had it been 48, was on my way to Alaska.
Switchin up riding in dads 67 Belair or following in his girlfriends gold 69 GTO 4spd.
I started to look at cars different after that trip.

Lol our fam car was a 68 camaro and I was five....poop & pee haha

Oh yeah, (hesitate to add this) later in '74, the back seat of that 62 was being used with regularity. Bob Seger's "Night Moves" still strikes a cord that makes me smile. :)

NOT EVEN A THOUGHT YET

Funny, that is what I am doing now!

I still remember being in 1st grade and seeing the 4th graders in the hallway and thinking, these guys are huge!! 😂