Any time some one starts doing a lot of remembering it usually means they are scared shytless of going forward. A new job? Some people will go hungry rather than go do something out of the norm, or step outside a comfort zone. Many people enjoy seeing what it was like back then, for me I can’t fix the past , but I can make changes for the future.
The hit series called Madmen will terminate Sunday evening at 8:00PM our time here in the Mountain West. The series is all about what it was during the 1960’s in a wyld industry called advertising. We see products that were pitched in ways that today, would be pulled by agencies over protests by political action group like the feminists amongst others. Today you would, even if women still wore them like they used to, but packaging and TV ads for pantyhose or sheer stockings would be screamed at. Yet back in the 1960’s this was all just common place. The goodie two shoes of yesterday have made our nation and society has been too purified insecticide , and for many men sterilized . Its called Politically correct, its called lets not do what we did back then. But many of us long for the days when truckers were honored and at times praised for delivering this nation its goods, and foods. Tow truck owner operators were seen as the true rescue squad of disabled vehicles, although some of the professional look has been improved since then, but we were given respect. This nation was not so damn money hungry and actually praised and honored our political leaders. Today this nation is so damn confused that its not loyalty nor honor that’s the problem, people are living in fear. Now surely that in years and a few eons ago, nobody would have though we’d have a African in the seat of being the President of this nation. Back then as well as now, few of anybody trusted any politician, and especially Yankees. But we all swore to protect and defend this nation from all oppressors. And we did, and still do. Which is why so many go with good intentions , but return so damn messed up, that they blindly followed orders and saw terrible tragedy that was avoidable. It’s a known saying there is NO such thing as military intelligence.
The 1960’s saw a drastic turn in our ways of thoughts. Traditions and trends. One day many women were told to dress conservatively, yet turned around and were being spotlighted if they were not wearing nylons, mini skirts, full color makeup like all bold colored lipstick, and near auto paint grade finger nail polish. Bouffant and crew cut Page Boy hair do’s were the in thing, and oh yes no bras. Bra burning became the norm, and a very unpopular foreign conflict was taking place in southeast Asia called Vietnam. Our nation changed and for many in a good way. There was three maybe four major TV networks, All had full one hour drams and shows that were funny, and serious, carried a moral message, and we all dreamed of climbing on that horse named Trigger and riding with Roy Rodgers. Then came the 1970’s . But back in the 1960’s truckers stopped to help change a tire for a family or person in need, or help in some way. Today damn few of us would even think of stopping, in case there was some drug inflicted person looking to snag a high, that just shoots people. Cops wanted to shoot crooks, but supervision was such and shooting boards and internal investigations were so strict and stern, few cops would pull their pistol, for fear repercussions. Today the boards and internal investigations just pretty much throws crap under a rug, and says justified shooting. ten soda pops, cherry cokes for 15 cents 69 cent diesel, 89 cent gas, the nation was productive. We evolved from there into a era of disco, African beats were heard, in dance halls, Blues were the thing to get a groove on, and of course, the big disco bands. Earth Wind & Fire, K.C. & the Sunshine Band and a new truckers toy imported from Japan to keep track of highway patrol troopers who loved to write citations for excessive speed, anything over 60mph. This was over an oil embargo that came up in 1973, cars were downsized, the Mustang , Charger, RoadRunners, and such were replaced with Valarie's, Dusters, and yes the Pinto. Big V8’s were hard to insure and even harder to get parts for, instead technology crept in. We soon had electronic ignition originally built by Chrysler Corp, GM came around with HEI Ignition, no points or condenser. Electronic circuit boards were installed in mini boxes under the floor to control every working part of a car. Carbs were thrown out and replaced with fuel injection, although we had FI, in the early 1960’s with some of the then Corvettes, and the push button gear selectors on the Plymouths and Polaras. Belvedere’s had these as well and the Coronet, Dodge’s version of the same car had them,. The trouble with those was in cold climates, ice would freeze over the control rods from the servos and you had to wait until things got warm enough to melt the ice over the tranny, or risk climbing under and carefully moving the selector over in gear and pray you didn’t run over yourself in the process. When it came to big rig trucks, most were cab overs, which meant the cab was over the engines, many just called em COE’s . Then by the mid 70’s long nosed Peterbilts, Kenworth’s AutoCars and others came about. Deep throat engines like 3-1/4 Cat diesels, the infamous Cummins KTC 600 two stick gear boxes gave way to single shifter 13,15,and 18 speed transmissions. During the fuel embargo and because of the cb, becoming a coast to coast freight hauler became a noble profession. Not a dreaded low level job. Guys bought basic rigs and added everything from TV’s to on board rest rooms, twin stacks, big chrome fuel tanks, and those big CB antennas with just about as much juice coming out as some small town radio stations. Back in the 1960’s when Ham operators gave up the 11 meter band that became CB, it was regulated by the FCC.(Federal Communications Commission) You got a temporary license in the box of a new CB, and an application to buy a license, it cost $100.00 to do so. Talk about on it without one, you got a fine. By the mid 70’s the FCC saw there were so many of these cb’s out there, that the FCC pulled back the licensing situation. You bought ears as we called it and started yapping. CB’s were the social network, and cell phone all rolled into one thing. Eventually Hollywood got into the game and long before Airwolf, Jan Michael Vincent did a thing called White Line Fever with a custom Ford CL9000 cab over called the Blue Mule,
of course TV wasn’t too far behind launching a series that none of the retro networks are running called B.J and the Bear,
many more tv series based on the concept of the wyld cowboy turned trucker were out there. The bikers of the era were riding 18 wheels. Such big movies such as Convoy, with Kris Kristofferson came out, based on the number one longest lasting song of the era, Convoy which stayed on top of the billboard charts longer than any Beatles, or other pop tune. CW McCall launched a empire there, a advertising executive out of Omaha Nebraska doing a jingle for Old Home Bread called the Old Home Filler up and Trucker Café. Everybody wanted to be the Rubber Duck, or RD and ride that big black Mack R model 
Of course I’d be low on my duties if I didn’t mention this. At the time there was a small group that was a youth group half of a CB Radio club called the I-80 Control CB Club. The name of the youth side of that organization was the JR-14 CB club. Just before my birthday in 1977 and just slightly before I went into the Marines, a experimental 4-h Club was created based on the 4-H wheels project and the Tractor safety project, and the TeenAge Truckers Association, based loosely on the Independent Truckers Association that became the Rode Knytes Association in 1980.
We’re sorry to see Madmen go away, but its groovy to look back and think of where you were, what you did, and how more simply we lived. Too bad we can’t go back to such a time.
Well its lights out for me, take a few sleep hours to be with you on the online radio.
73’rds to ya’ll
Quote of the Day:
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
--Kahlil Gibran
Zephaniah 3:17“The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.””
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