Classic Car Tunes - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Classic Car Tunes

A college friend who grew up on a Botkins farm offered the following comment after reading recent blogs about the $1M combine and the rock & roll song written about the Olds Rocket 88:

"Enjoyed your recent Fish reports. Farm equipment, we were poor enough to share a combine, chopper and hay baler for many years. Had the first hay baler with a bale kicker in the area, eliminated need for a son to load bales. (likely since the son left for college!) We also had an Olds Rocket 88. I remember the trip my brothers and I took to my grandfather's funeral, we were late, I think we got it up to 90 MPH.” 

As promised last week, this blog is about other songs paying tribute to classic cars and the memories they bring up. Many were by the Beach Boys. A favorite was 409, about the infamous big block Chevy engine highlighted in this previous blog from 2016. 

Another Beach Boys classic was Little Deuce Coup about the original customized hot rod derived from the 1932 Ford V8. The song referred to a “big slip daddy”, which was the nickname for a limited slip differential that allowed both rear tires to be smoked simultaneously.

Another Beach Boys tune I like is Fun Fun Fun, about a cute girl who’s daddy took her T-Bird away. When I retired, we bought the retro 2004 Thunderbird pictured here.

Ronnie and the Daytona’s had this one hit classic called Little GTO with the famous refrain "Turn it on, wind it up, blow it out, GTO”

Another one hit wonder was Hey Little Cobra by the Rip Cords. I actually tried buying a Cobra a number of years ago, but unlike the driver in the photo, my head stuck up over the windshield about 6”, plus the legroom for my 6’4” frame was totally inadequate. Oh, the sound and the speed - too bad!

John Fogerty of Credence Clearwater Revival fame, far from a one hit wonder, did a nice tune called Hot Rod Heart that I had written about in this previous blog. "Let’s go riding, rolling down the open road. We can put the top down and listen to the radio”

As a Ford retiree now driving Lincolns, I’d be remiss in not including the 1955 classic Hot Rod Lincoln by Charlie Ryan.

Prince’s 1999 hit called Little Red Corvette was a late comer to the car tunes, but for me probably brought back the most memories. It was in the summer of 1968 when my ’62 Chevy needed a new set of tires. I recalled that Dad would use that “excuse” to convince Mom it was time for a new car! So I tried the same approach on Dad cause I’d need a loan from him to buy a car since I was in college.

The car I wanted was a beautiful 1967 red Corvette convertible that was being offered at $3100 as a model year closeout at Katterheinrich Chevrolet in New Knoxville. Dad took one look at the car and quickly said No! (Note: the car would now be worth ~$100k!)

He instead suggested why not buy a stripped down Chevy Nova also on the show room floor. Fortunately it has just been sold and they had no more in stock. The Katterheinrich salesperson suggested I could order a Nova that would be delivered before I headed back to school in the fall. To close the deal, they promised to put new tires on my current car immediately since they would eventually be taking it on trade. Dad said yes, so unbeknownst to him, I ordered the gold Super Sport model pictured above for $1900 after trade-in. The Nova SS came in by fall; it was fast and sporty; I loved the car.

But that meant I was in debt to Dad for ~$1900, which I fortunately didn’t have to pay off until after graduation. Then life got in the way of my loan payments! It was a diamond ring for our engagement!. By the time we were married, the debt was only down to $1700, but fortunately my fiancé had $1800 in the bank, so we had a net worth of exactly $100 the day we were married! Heading off to our honeymoon after the reception, we needed some quick cash, so my new wife opened one of the wedding cards we had received. Lo and behold, inside the first card was what appeared to be a folded $100 bill! from my uncle and aunt. For a second, we had aspirations our net worth had just doubled!

After the honeymoon, with both our incomes, we quickly paid off the loan to Dad and actually did buy my first Corvette, the first of three pictured below.

1963 Split Window Coupe

1965 Stingray Convertible

1968 Stingray T-top  

After writing this blog, a google search for top classic car songs yielded this link of 100 best car songs, of which the first few match up well with my favorites described above. Promise, I didn’t cheat and look this up before composing this post.

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