Did you used to hang out at a full service gas station back in the day?

HA! Dave that pic is priceless! Even I can appreciate a beautiful vintage Mustang. Yeah, the gigantic Jewish cemetery I remember it well. I was actually back down there last October. Anyway, a short story, I was driving my GS one day, my wife (then girlfriend) was with me. I was cruising out of Westwood on 3rd Ave. All the sudden I look in the rear view and I see this black 5.0 bearing down on me big time. I was like, here we go. Then I recognized it was my friend Al who just bought a GT 5 speed. I believe it was either an 85 or 86. I still had the very tired 400 that I absolutely mercilessly beat on. So I slow down to like 30, slap it into low and hammer it. Chrissyholds onto the door and puts her feet on the dash in utter fear. I look out my rear view and I am slowly gapping him more and more. Then, I come to this section of 3rd Ave where it transitions to 4th Ave, up over a hump and around a turn. (circled in red)
All the sudden, the rear end breaks loose and I am sideways screeching and squealing. The Lord mercifully helped me get my dumba$$ straightened out and once my sphincter was back under control, Chrissy and I looked at each other like, that was hairy! That is the closest I ever came to wrecking.

 

My older brother Frank spent 1950-51 in Korea. They didn't have a name for PTSD then, they called it "shell shock"; he came home a different person then he was when he went over. For the rest of his life he couldn't stand the sight of blood. He felt that it was important to donate blood, but he couldn't donate in a mass setting; he would go to the red cross building and donate alone without looking at the bottle (now they use bags) or the line from his arm to the bottle. Your last line is so true.

 

I'am sorry to hear about your brother.
One of my best friends suffered from PTSD. We became best friends when we were in the CIA.
One day we asked me if he could stay with me awhile so he could find a place to live. He had a breakup with his wife.
I noticed something wasn't right about his mental actions but couldn't put my finger on it.
Found out he was going to be fired. I couldn't believe it and when to his Division Chief (young non-military type). I told him he needed to have a medical evaluation done on my friend. He said ok.
Turns out my buddy was exposed to agent Orange and his brain was being eaten away.
What a sad ending to a great person, excellent CIA officer and a great Vietnam Special Forces soldier.
I miss him very much.
War causes serious health issues that are not always visible. Most people never notice these issues.
Support our Veterans.

 

I had a fellow worker who had been in Viet Nam; one of his jobs was to load Agent Orange on to airplanes' They were given Hazmat suits but they were young and indestructible, and virtually none of them wore the suits and masks because of the heat. My buddy Ron was one of the very few who knew how bad the stuff really was, and always wore the full suit and mask. He kept in touch with many of the members of his unit, and virtually every one of them who handled the seriously nasty stuff unsuited had major health problems, and a couple had died. The ones that always wore the suits had no health problems at all.

 

AGENT ORANAGE/BAD STUFF.
We still don't know all the harm it causes.

Lost MANY to this bad stuff.
They ALL LIED to us.

Tom T.

 

My buddy was on a Long Range ReCon Mission deep in North Vietnam when his entire unit was dumped on with Agent Orange. Unfortunately his Mission was Secrrct

 

Top Secret, so no one on the aircraft knew his location.

 

My uncle ran the napa for years. Id hang out there alot.

 

Yep - just past the school! I don't remember that hump being that big :-D but there was definitely a curve. I used to like the Iron Horse restaurant at the other end of 3rd Ave.
We must have passed each other countless times... I had a '83 Mustang GT back in the late 80's along with the occasional access to my parent's (and now my) GS.
I still have a bunch of friends in the area, and the last time I was there was in 2021. Need to get back up there.

 

Yep. My dad worked part-time (weekends) at a Marathon station and I always tagged along when I was 13-15.

 

My grandpa, and then my dad, owned a Buick-GMC dealership when they still had them in small towns. It had a coal fired boiler for heat and I'd go with dad when I was 4-5 years old as he got the boiler fired up and the heat back up to a human level. Then, we'd go next door to the restaurant and get some breakfast.

I remember taking trips, sleeping in the back window of the boat tail Riviera and going on wrecker runs with him at midnight.

I was coming home with grease on under my fingernails when I was 5 years old. I'd crawl around in the tires and get black all over me. From that early age, the mechanics would give me broken stuff and a few tools to take stuff apart.

The summer I got my license, 1978, my dad gave me an old 1968 Coupe de'Ville to tear apart. It had no value with gas over $1/gallon other than scrap. Anything I could sell, I got to keep. Me and a buddy spent a whole summer stripping it down, pulling the engine, transmission and all the interior out of it. Lots of copper in those old Caddies.

 

My friend Craig had an 83 GT 5 speed as well. It had the single exhaust. Don't remember if it was a split pipe. I bought my 69 GS off a Hillsdale cop named Paul Harder (nick name Whitey) back in 85. Some guy owned its twin and lived on Old Hook Rd on the other side of Schraalenburgh. Was your parent's GS dark green by any chance? Someone in Dumont or Demarest had a nice green I believe stage 1 - It was a 70 and may have had a black vinyl roof.
Always loved the Iron Horse. Remember Lou's Tavern on Broadway in Hillsdale? I think it is still there. What a disgusting dive, but it was great. Beers, pretzels, and one of them cheesy hockey games under the plastic bubble. And a urinal that smelled worse than a mexican restaurant outhouse on a 100 degree day on cinco de mayo.

 

Dave it wasn't so much a "hump" on 3rd ave but you can see as it comes toward you in this pic, as I was traveling, it does raise up. And I guess at like 60 or 70 it was enough for my rear end to unload going around that turn.

 

Can't say I ever made it into Lou's, not sure I want to now! lol
Yep, the 83's had the split pipe out of the driver's side. I had done quite a bit to mine... true duals, 3.73s, intake and headers, etc. I'd post a pic but think I did enough Ford damage for one thread
This is what our '73 looked like back then - it was still my Mom's daily driver, up until the mid-90's.
Bringing this around to the beginning, after my gas station gig... I spent time at Mother's Speed Shop in Lodi, and then at AutoSport in Upper Saddle River when my friend from Mother's bought it. He and the store are still there.

 

I remember Auto Sport! I think I used to see Vettes there all the time. I love your 73. What town did you live in? Did you say Oradell?

 

Sal at AutoSport is a good friend... and thanks Yep, Oradell. Lived right across the street from River Dell High School. Was a great time and place to grow up.

 

Worked as Lubritorium attendant (grease monkey), in the early 70 ‘s at a Total , Shell and a BP , learned a lot ,fixing all makes , hated pulling autos on the hoist , but the action was at the pumps in summer , helping the young ladies , fill’n tanks ,clean’n screens check’n oil and check’n them , got in trouble for spending too long with the girls while the queue got longer and, smoking while pumping petrol .
We had a Chev big block drag car , towed with an asthmatic v4 van ,would pick a busy servo and park the van between the pump and the shop ,put $2 in hang up the nozzle and repeat until the driveway attendant worked his way to us and give him our $2 , hung out at the Big Chief drive in on Whatsthematta (Parramatta)road Clyde , lots of 50’ s and 60’s American cars Australian cars with US and Aust souped up engines , running every traffic light sometimes as many as 3 abreast and 3 deep , anxious moments up front waiting for the green , loved every minute , best years of my life, lots of fond memories . We still get together every year but the ranks are thinning alarmingly

 

Yes that area of Bergen County was the perfect place to grow up. Still some dirt roads in Washington Twsp where I grew up at that time. It was quiet, and tons of farms still up on Chestnut Ridge Rd. We used to grab a bottle of Boones Farm and head up to the orchards behind Demarest Farms. Could see Empire State Bldg at night way in the distance from Blueberry Drive. My sister in law and her husband are now part owners of Demarest Farms lol. They are pretty much the last one in operation in that area. Van Ripers, Tice's up on Chestnut Ridge Rd all gone. DePiero's in Montvale on life support. Anyway, I digress. Restaurants next. I think you had a Charlie Browns in Oradell like I did in Wash Twsp.

 

For some reason Tice's was our go-to. It had been there since the super early 1800's if I remember correctly and was the first real inclination that the area was changing... and not for the better. Glad to hear Demarest Farms is still there!
I used to stop at that DQ in Woodcliff Lake when they had cruise nights. And yes, Charlie Browns - was just over the hill from where I lived, maybe a 1/4 mile away.
Used to go to PJ Finnegan's in Westwood... but of all the places I miss, is a good ol' diner every two miles

 

Cool thread, LOVE the stories!