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Are You a Geezer or a Whippersnapper?
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 4:27 pm
by MikeCam
Post your info...
Geezer 1 here. I remember the day Sputnik launched.
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 5:24 pm
by dnorrell
Hmmm...
I think I am somewhere between whippersnapper and whippersneezer.
I don't remember the day Elvis died, but I do recall the fall of the Berlin wall (wow, how's that for internal rhyme).
Where exactly does whippersnapper stop and geezer begin?
adam
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 6:26 pm
by Boxer
I think you're probably a whippersnapper if you've never driven a column shift, standard transmission car.
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 6:42 pm
by dnorrell
I thought all cars were automatic, no? Nope...no experience with 3-on-the-tree. I suppose there are worse things to be than a whippersnapper.
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 8:47 pm
by DSKYZD
I don't remember the sputnik lauch, but I remember when the band "Sigue Sigue Sputnik" hit MTV. They're the result of Billy Idol leaving Generation X.
http://www.sputnikworld.com/history/history_frame.asp
Whippersnapper I may be, but I'm also a Geezer in training.
DSKYZD
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 9:40 pm
by yjleesvrr
Uh, somewhere in between I think. I don't remember the moon landing, although I was alive in '69. I was a year old then. Sputnik? I read about it in history books.
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 9:51 pm
by domekrome
I'm a geezerwhipper...oops, that probably doesn't sound so good. I'm 36, so what does that mean?
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 9:55 pm
by R4R&R
Boxer wrote:I think you're probably a whippersnapper if you've never driven a column shift, standard transmission car.
Ha! I used to have an old Ford Bronco that had "3 in the tree". I thought it was cool, and kind of miss driving it. Loved going from first to second, like putting an automatic in park! Such a long throw for shifting. Eventually the column wore out and I converted it to a floor shift. Eventually the whole vehicle wore out (I think they purposefully used metal that rusted extra quick in building those older vehicles).
As for the classification, I'll sum myself up as a "geezing-whippersnapper".
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 10:04 pm
by wncbmw
"Beep beep, beep beep - here comes a satellite. Beep beep and now it's out of sight" The Sputnik song! We sang it in school. I remember the stir the launch caused!
I guess that make me a geezer!
And I have driven a 3-speed on the column too!
Uhhhh!
Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 1:08 am
by MikeCam
"metal that rusted extra quick"
Actually, young John, that was the best we had.
Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 1:09 am
by bimrluvr
Guess I'm really straddling the line on this one...I have driven a car with the stick on the wheel but I was born right around the time JFK bit it....Since I'm a little out of shape, I'd say I'm a wheezer-grab-her.
Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 2:10 am
by sjbmw
used to feel whipper. now I am geezing slowly.
I belong to the blank generation.
(and I can take it or leave it each time)
Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 9:56 am
by rph802
R4R&R wrote:Boxer wrote:I think you're probably a whippersnapper if you've never driven a column shift, standard transmission car.
Ha! I used to have an old Ford Bronco that had "3 in the tree". I thought it was cool, and kind of miss driving it. Loved going from first to second, like putting an automatic in park! Such a long throw for shifting. Eventually the column wore out and I converted it to a floor shift. Eventually the whole vehicle wore out (I think they purposefully used metal that rusted extra quick in building those older vehicles).
As for the classification, I'll sum myself up as a "geezing-whippersnapper".
Not an Elvis fan so I dont know exactly the year he died but I dont think I was very old. Born in 1972 here.
My dad also had a mid 70's bronco with the 3sp tranny. When I was about 14 it had been relegated to snow plow duty because of that rust issue. About the only thing that rusted faster in VT winters were some of the early to mid 80's Subarus!!! I so wanted to put it back together and get that bad ass back on the road. I think the coolest thing was the pneumatic wiper blades, made that swoosh swoosh sound when they went back and forth
Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 8:44 pm
by R4R&R
rph802 wrote:I think the coolest thing was the pneumatic wiper blades, made that swoosh swoosh sound when they went back and forth
Until you had a long hill to go up, in the rain. They ran off engine vaccuum, and engine vaccuum diminishes while going uphill. Mine was a 1973 Bronco, which came with electric wipers. Although the roof was rusted right over them, so it would rain inside too which made the wipers useless.
Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2006 9:16 am
by machew01
Oprah, I cannot tell a lie. I'm a Geezer Guy. I'm not proud of it, but that is what I am.
I can remember when Vietnam still sounded like an adventure. I can remember cars with fenders - and vacuum powered wipers. I can remember that November night in 1963 when, for the first time, television was broadcast throughout the night. I can remember our family's first color television that arrived just in time for the "... giant leap for mankind" speech from the surface of the moon. I can remember the arrival of that miracle called air conditioning. And I can remember my first sight more than 30 years ago of that revolutionary new naked bike called the Gold Wing.
mac
Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2006 2:20 pm
by Biff's R
Whippersnapper.
Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2006 4:05 pm
by wncbmw
revolutionary new naked bike called the Gold Wing
mac - my own memories seem be similar to yours! I was in 4th grade I think when a kid convertly listening to a small transitor radio in the back of class late in the afternoon stood up and shouted "President Kennedys been shot!"
Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2006 4:28 pm
by machew01
Yea, Vann, you're no Whippersnapper.
When I went back to college in 1989, it was very interesting when I mentioned to the 18 year old kids fresh out of high school that television didn't used to be on 24 hours a day. It was downright scary to think that they were toddlers when we left Vietnam seemingly defeated. (Is that comment going to start a Playhouse variety thread?)
mac
Vietnam
Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2006 4:42 pm
by MikeCam
"It was a draw!"
Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2006 2:19 am
by single650
Vacuum powered wipers - wern't they somethig
I guess I'm a geezer.
Collected the space cards in zoom lollies (ice pops) remember sputnik, Glenn, gagarin. Always have stick shift. (on cars)
Nigel