When I first started to learn how to drive, in my parents 1962 Rambler station wagon, My Dad told me that I would have to pay the extra on the State Farm Insurance, and I would have to put gas in the tank. No problem. I babysat a LOT and made a LOT of money. I was getting 35 cents an hour until I turned 14 then I raised my fees to 50cents. I did not date in High School (slow learner) and I had nothing else to spend my money on. The cost of car insurance for 6 months was 30.00. The price of gas? .25 a Gallon!!! I could fill up the 20 gallon tank for 5.00!!
Now it seems so cheap, but back then it was really pricey! We would search through our purses and drawers for enough money to put a few gallons in the tank. I was one of the fortunate ones that was allowed to have the car to take to movies, or games. So we would all pool our money to get those precious few gallons. Digging for a dime or a quarter in the bottom of a teenagers purse in the early 60’s was not easy. We carried everything we might need for an evening of “rodding around”. Never knew when you might need a camera or film or a flash bulb. Hair spray, makeup, brush, rollers, extra nylons, and maybe even a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.
We would drive back and forth through the town, checking out the guys, and then run onto the base to see who might be hanging out there too. 1963 in Oak Harbor, was boring! There were 2 drive ins. Kow Korner, home of the 19 cent hamburger, and Dairy Queen, which was NOTHING like it is now. Even a different entity entirely. There was the main street downtown, and the side blvd and there was only one stop light in town. And stop signs only at the ends of the roads where they met the highway. So we would drive through town to Kow Korner, and turn around and go back to the other end of town, and turn around in front of the Harbor Light Tavern. Everybody who was any body was doing the same thing. Back and forth, back and forth, until we would catch the attention of a car full of guys, and then we would stop and chat. If we were lucky, we ended up with dates for the drive-in movie that weekend. If we weren’t, we would dig for money and take ourselves.
Nothing like drugs EVER entered our head. Only the really bad kids drank, and only really Bad girls had sex. We were of course Not that type!! We were innocent, and we had fun. We did not need computer games, nor did we even think of going to the drive in alone with a guy on the first date. NO WAY! Usually we would all pile into one car and go.
I hear the kids now days talking about their allowances, and they get in one week what I would MAKE in a whole Summer! We did not have malls to go to, we did not go shopping, we talked. And talked. And learned about each other, had our hearts broken, and learned.
My own very first car was a 1956 Chevy Belair and I LOVED that car. It was 2 toned green and had dark green leather upholstery. I drove it until my wedding night when We loaned it to the best man and he blew the engine out of it. Should have told me where my marriage was heading. Times were simpler then. Scrounging for a quarter to buy a gallon of gas to get home on, was brought home to me just the other day, when I was heading into Oak Harbor, but had to scrounge through my ashtray and under the seats to find 24 quarters to buy 2 gallons of gas to get home on. Man have times changed. There are now 17 stop lights in town, and the highway is all developed too. Midway Blvd is still there, and is the same length but Kow Korner is gone. Pity that. There was a lot of history associated with that drive in. Oak Harbor had a population of 4000 now it has 45000!
It no longer is a nice safe place to raise kids, and there are far more dangers out there than some sailor trying to unbutton your blouse on the 4th date! I wish we could go back to those quieter safer times. I wish that this generation of young children could see just how we were brought up. We feared authority, and would not DARE to do anything wrong for fear of punishment. We respected our elders, we respected our neighbors and our parents. We moved in to our first house with bricks and milk cases as furniture, we did not go bankrupt trying to have everything our parents had. We EARNED everything and respected it much more. Money MEANT something back then. 2 quarters would get you 40 miles if you drove carefully! Imagine gas that cheap today? WOW!!!
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