In lieu of a rant… Because it would devolve into four letter words…
You get old school things…
My uncle ran one of these for years, and was very successful because he had good people and a good mechanic!
These were ‘the thing’ to do, when you wanted to get out of the house.
Before there were video games, there were pinball games… And some of these are literally worth tens of thousands of dollars!
And back in the day, diners and some restaurants had these… Wurlitzer music boxes at each table.
And something guaranteed to drive the millennials nuts… Along with stickshifts…
What I’d really like to see is a millennial try to start and drive an old pickup with three on the tree, and a starter button on the floor! 🙂
I’d have trouble remembering to find the starter! OTOH, next generation all know how and why to drive stick.
The dial phone confused them. Flashbulbs are also a mystery – as well as the film speeds in question for flash.
Harrumph.
That tie seems a little short.
No, you would not like to see a millennial grind the gears and ruin the clutch of a perfectly good old pickup truck.
Have them attempt to deal with a necktie or a bow tie. Want even more fun? Disconnect them from technology for a few days. The withdrawal is truly amazing.
If you want to kick it up a notch about manual (“standard”) transmissions, see if you can whistle up an early 50s tractor, dump, or mixer with NO synchro rings. If you don’t remember how to double clutch on the fly, you will “grind me a pound.”
Oh, by the way, go ask a car salesgirl about a ‘standard’ transmission and see if she thinks that mean an automatic…
On the fly? How about going down a steep hill on a winding road with a few hundred pounds of concrete and sand in the bed when you thought you could double clutch?
And one more detail for Psychokitteh: The headlight dimmer switch on the floor. Oh, and how about confronting said millennial with a hand choke too?
Heh… Did that on a Farmall B, narrow front wheels, pulling a side delivery hay rake. I decided I was too fast in road gear for the hill and tried (with emphasis on the TRY) to down shift. Needless to say, the rest of the ride was exciting.
I still find my foot searching for the high-beam button. Hah. Thanks for that reminder.
And… belts, automotive belts that is. No unibelt, but a belt for each ‘feature’ like the alternator and the a/c, if equipped. Have them tension the belts properly (I remember on my old Datsun B210 the alternator was the tensioner, it pivoted on one bolt and the other slid in a groove…)
Talk about wing windows.
Even hubcaps as we knew them have gone away. Everything is ‘rims’ these days.
Just to throw a wrench in things… I’m on the leading edge of the generation known as ‘Millenials’ and I can ride a motorcycle, rebuild a small-block Chevy, drive a dump truck with a 5+2 (even, yes, an unsynchronized one) and I know what the little silver button on the floor does for the headlights.
Yeah, there’s a lot of useless people in my demographic. It isn’t as bleak as all that, though.
I learned to drive on a 1948 Chevy pickup and a 1952 Ford 8N tractor. Farm was sold when I was 15 and distroyed my life at the time.
All- Thanks for the comments, and yeah, most of the kids wouldn’t get it. WSF- 1930s ties were that short. Wolf- You are one of the few!
Posted from my iPhone.
From 1995 until a couple of years ago, I drove my late grandfather’s ’72 Cheyenne daily (I passed it on to my cousin, who’s restoring it). 3-on-the-tree, no power steering (although Granddaddy did order power brakes). Thought I was going to have to pull it into the bay myself once, when I took it to get tires. The kid barely managed it; when finished, they got a dude about my age (I’m 53) to back it out.
I figured it was its own anti-theft system.
Wolfman, glad to know you’re out there! Some of my younger riding buddies barely even know what a manual petcock is, and think my centerstands are an added accessory. Yes, I ride old, disreputable UJMs.
TB- LOL, I’m sure the no power steering REALLY had them freaked out! 🙂
Wolfman is one of the few.
As a millennial and business owner, I’ve given up. We’ve got one truck with a stick, and it gets the least miles since no one wants to jam gears. Fine with me, it’s a nice truck and I don’t have drivers trashing the cab regularly.
Got a screaming deal on it though. Texas truck, 60K 2012. Dealer couldn’t move it because manual.
That said, I’d consider myself a super young GenX-er, but my parents are in their early 50’s and don’t and to be called Boomers.
Submitted without comment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxfHMtgg2d8
I learned to drive with the farm trucks so I am familiar with all sorts of stick shifts
I went a short time ago into the ATT store to get a new phone, the young man was very helpful and informed me it was real easy to transfer all my info to the new phone, I ask him if he would and he looked at me like a had 3 eyes, he then started explaining to me how to transfer data and I looked at him and explained to him how to time a small block chevy without a timing light, he laughed and said “Well played old man” took the phone from me and transfered the data.