60+ year old thread.

Good morning fellow Porchatonians!!!

And welcome to the porch @seaturtle !!

 

It's getting to be that time of year when the bee's are really busy trying to store food for winter. At least those are honey bees and not those damn useless yellow jackets.

 

Yes, there is that R talk again! I love it! Congrats! September 1, I will have 27 months to go!

 

Yep, I know what you are saying. Most of the 'good ole boys' are gone here @ my work. It's a different place with the younger crowd wanting to stab each other in the back thinking they will get somewhere. It doesn't work that way in this environment, they will learn. Several of the younger people get it, coming to myself and a couple older coworkers with questions, seeking advice and union representation. Guess that makes me one of the 'good ole boys'.

 

My old shop is now a stealership. The things they are doing breaks my heart.
All about the numbers.
Hiring people from the street with no experience and paying them almost as I was making when I left.
I assured my customers it was a safe place.
Now, not anymore.
Changing of the guard for the worse.
No retired adult is safe. They will bleed you if they can.
Makes me sick..
Retiree’s now are the last of hard working ,honest era.
Will never be the same…

 

Morning all:

You notice that too!
Face it Mike, someone will always be after our money right into the grave!

 

The "up sell" effort at the stealership where I get my oil changed - mostly to automatically get the Toyota recommended consumables - has reached a new level of crazy. Any service you haven't let them do in the past is put on a list of "must be done immediately items" they present you at check out. In my case it reached $5,050.47 + $37.86 "Shop charges". They gave me a "concerned" talk at checkout, and have phoned and emailed the list to me 4 times within a week. How about $217.16 to change the rear dif fluid!!!!!! Or $54.00 for a cabin air filter.... They didn't inspect it or they would know those items - and nearly all of the list has already been done. Though they say the oil change includes lubrication - I've never found any evidence they touched the zerks on the driveline.

I think that they keep your estimated age on file and specially target those of us over 60. There needs to be a knowledgeable advocate hanging around there to save the "automotively disadvantaged".......like my wife.

 

Good Morning Porch Pals & Gal! Planted the one extra piece of sod left over yesterday - what a production for one piece! Well, it will be nicer than the scraggle that was there. Dog loves his fixed up area. Still fussing over the pool spitting zeolite back in. Monday, I changed the head on the filter back to the old one, because I have worked on the tank twice. Giving it a couple days to clean the pipes and see what happens. The heads are sealed units, so maybe there is something wrong inside I can't see. I'll know in a day or two; cleaned up the mess in the pool, and we'll see if that's it or not.
That's a real nice prize @Devious6 ! I agree with stashing that as a collector piece. Dad annually went to Greenville (our home town) for what we call the "Radio Open". Always won some kind of new radio (back when transistors were new!), and even a tiny TV Mom loved to have in the kitchen. Sadly, all gone now, even the Country Club.
Yup, Mike. What we really need is an old guy on the TV to remind us "and that's the way it is!"

 

The last time, and I do mean the last time I was at the San Marcos dealership (from whom I have purchased 11 vehicles over time), my oil change, lube, and "inspection" came with a multi-thousand dollar "warning chat" about virtually everything under the truck. It was simply "not safe to drive". Every bit of these "problems" had all actually been replaced by me (& my friends) since I got the truck. Except for the "leaking and failing" steering rack - which was dry as a bone....
My former service advisor there had retired just prior, and he knew the whole history of me and the truck. We had a list on his desk of what they could do for me coming up, that I could not do on my own. We'd tick one off at a time. Wasn't much left.

 

Sorry to hear it. Sounds like management/ownership is at the heart of it.

I thought it was all over after The Greatest Generation? I think every generation has said this, and will continue to say it. In the meantime I know young folks who work hard and play fair. I bet they'll feel the same when it's their turn.

 

Getting back to guns, Mark, that is a beauty, but in my mind, not as desirable as a piece that actually went to war. To hold one of those and be mindful of its history, even daydreaming about maybe its being the actual sidearm of Ike or Patton, that is something that can never be reproduced. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have your commemorative piece, but two different animals altogether. I've never owned a 1911, and not being an officer, was not assigned one, my weapon being a BAR.
You say you have others you do fire, I have a question for you... What is the actual difference between a 1911 and a 1911A1?
PS~ I know, Ike and Patton probably carried a Colt 1903 Hammerless?

 

Do you remember the Standard Oil gas station training centers? These were regular gas stations, only bigger, where the trainees wore spotless uniforms with bowties and were trained to upsell every customer to fan belts, wiper blades, top off the oil, rotate tires, everything. My mother bit on the tire rotation once, her wheel coming off before she got home. That trainee was never seen again. Another tried to sell her new wiper blades, just one summer week after another set had been installed. They were regularly caught short pushing the dipstick to show low oil. These "skills" were not reserved to Standard Oil, they were done everywhere, and were probably management encouraged.

 

Here is a detailed look at the differences.



I also much more enjoy having an old War Horse over a Safe Queen. I took a chance on the Folds of Honor piece to help the fundraiser - never expected to win it.

I have two (actually 3 with the Folds of Honor pistol) 1911A1s - one is an original that was never issued. The second is my favorite: a mixmaster of parts that came out of the Army's stocks where they've been stored since being replaced by the M9 Beretta. Interestingly, I was able to determine that the last unit to have this one was the 69th Public Affairs Detachment in Fairfield, California.

 

Wow! I would have thought some small insignificant internal change. You can readily see all the changes.
Re Ike and Patton, do you know what side arm they actually carried?

 

Remember them well Alan. In high school I worked at a Chevron station in Oakland (same as Standard stations but Chevron was owned by private individuals kind of like a Standard Oil franchise). I ran the station at night when the owner went home at 5 and I closed it at 10:00pm. That was a big deal for a 17 year old. Anyway it was a full service station and I got a 15% commission on everything I sold other than gas. On every car I carefully checked everything from windshield wipers, fan belts , tires , oil level and on and on. I had a pleasant personality and could talk people into all kinds of stuff. I never bull shit people, I was honest and out of 10 employees I was number 1 in commissions even though I was part time. I made the most money when I could sell a set of tires. I never sold anybody anything they didn’t need. Things have changed now a days. Brings back good memories. (Alan you would know the area, the station was on the corner of 55th and East 14th, it’s long gone now)

 

Yep, and Standard priced out all the Chevron owners so they had to sell the stations back to Standard. There were a lot of disgruntled owners over that. As for knowing that area, my stomping ground ran from the lake all the way to San Leandro. The whole of East Oakland has changed several times since I knew it. That part was predominantly Portuguese when I was there, the name later changed to International Boulevard. I drive the length of it once in a while to reminisce.

 

There was a deli across the street from the gas station owned and run by a Portuguese family. They were as sweet as could be except the old man who was a little gruff. The deli food and sandwiches were out of this world. I still know the area well and no way would I work in that area now a days.I think my chances of great bodily harm or death would be unacceptable. Sadly so many cities have slid into the toilet.

 

Oakland does get a lot of negative publicity, but like anywhere else, there are pockets of poverty and crime, and there are places you don't bother to lock your doors at night. I have the good fortune to own property in Rockridge, which has continuous upgrading of houses from single to two story Craftsman with full finished basements. Property values and rents here are in the stratosphere. I know of no other neighborhood that has benefited from BART as much as here. Then of course there is Upper Rockridge, looking down on the rest of us.

 

Morning 60+

 

Good Morning Porch Pals & Gal!