Random Thoughts - Part III The Search for Spark (No Politics)

[86-75309]

Originally Posted by humfrz

Kids in a coop -

Did they not have child labor laws in Texas?

Where I grew up, the child labor was typically either seed corn detasseling or walking beans. I was a beanwalker. Up and out into the fields early in the morning when the dew on the bushes would soak you from the waist down, hacking at weeds with a sharpened hoe. I swear some jimson weed was as big as a tree. Eventually the sun burned off the dew and you spent the rest of the day in 90 degree heat with humidity to match. Prevailing wage was a dollar an hour.

I think modern herbicides have eliminated that career path.

[ichitaka05]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

Chris Harris wrote a piece 10 years ago on why he didn't like the Miata and was torched for it. He says it drives with all the precision of a boneless limb

Haha I get what he means. 2 reasons I don’t like Miata are 1. it’s convertible & 2. everyone has it. I never cared for vert, only vert I even consider buying is MR-S… but then, still questionable. 2nd reason kinda contradict w me buying 86/BRZ lol

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by ichitaka05

Haha I get what he means. 2 reasons I don’t like Miata are 1. it’s convertible & 2. everyone has it. I never cared for vert, only vert I even consider buying is MR-S… but then, still questionable. 2nd reason kinda contradict w me buying 86/BRZ lol

Roadsters are fun, if you dress for it - just ask mrs humfrz -

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

Cotton grows on low pushes, not trees, at least the type the is useful. Mostly picked by tractor now, it used to be picked by hand. Backbreaking work.

Yep, young Dadhawk ought to have known -

[Sapphireho]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

Cotton grows on low pushes, not trees, at least the type the is useful. Mostly picked by tractor now, it used to be picked by hand. Backbreaking work.

Never picked it, but have seen a whole lot of fields of it in California, and a lot of these on the side of the highway come harvest.

[Capt Spaulding]

Originally Posted by humfrz

Kids in a coop -

Did they not have child labor laws in Texas?

Child labor laws. You’ll have to explain those to me. It’s rural Texas in the late 60s. Progressive policies never did get there. I’m sure you remember. Got manual labor that needs doing? Got kids? Problem solved.

Once dad figured out that I could hold a wrench, I became the tractor mechanic.

[ichitaka05]

Originally Posted by humfrz

Roadsters are fun, if you dress for it - just ask mrs humfrz -

Haha I’ve seen few crazy ppl driving Miata in the winter here. I, myself drove few verts (S2k, SC430, Z4 & MR-S), but all been in the summer.

Also not a fan of the soft top look. Especially Miata soft top reminds me of skinny dude’s rib cage. Then get hard top vert… then it adds weight. Replace w hard top…. Takes away the whole focus of the vert.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Capt Spaulding

Child labor laws. You’ll have to explain those to me. It’s rural Texas in the late 60s. Progressive policies never did get there. I’m sure you remember. Got manual labor that needs doing? Got kids? Problem solved.

Once dad figured out that I could hold a wrench, I became the tractor mechanic.

Yea, child labor laws, even if they existed, did not usually apply to your own children.

[NoHaveMSG]

Okay, so it's a bit bigger then I was expecting.

[Stephen W.]

Originally Posted by humfrz

Roadsters are fun, if you dress for it - just ask mrs humfrz -

Grew up with rag tops. Brother's talked our sister (She was the oldest and working full time for General Motors of Canada) into buying a 1954 Buick convertible. They said they'd teach her to drive then proceeded to chauffeur her around. It was white with red leather and a black roof. The rear window was plastic, cracked and so discoloured you could not see through it. So, it was unzipped and taken out. I have vivid memories of my brothers running around brushing off the snow and then waving me to come out and hop in to take me to public school. One of them would hand me the brush so I could wipe the snow of the rear seat before sitting down on those frozen leather seats.
My young brother (10 years older than me) started paying my sister so much a month and after a year the ownership was transferred into his name. He did all the late fifties mods, dechromed it, frenched the headlights, fancy full cover wheel disks etc...
After that he had a couple of MG Midgets, a 1961 Pontiac convertible, (blue on blue with a white roof) and a 1964 Corvette convertible, (red with black interior and a white roof).
BUT... If you want to know cold, ride in the back of an antique Touring car with no side curtains like a Mclaughlin Buick from the teens. (AKA Phaetons) You'll quickly learn why they wore heavy fur coats and hid under think wool blankets back then.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Stephen W.

Grew up with rag tops. .........

Now THAT'S a story -

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Capt Spaulding

Child labor laws. You’ll have to explain those to me. It’s rural Texas in the late 60s. Progressive policies never did get there. I’m sure you remember. Got manual labor that needs doing? Got kids? Problem solved.

Once dad figured out that I could hold a wrench, I became the tractor mechanic.

Oh, yes, as a child on a farm, I spent many hours hand hoeing weeds out of the ends of corn fields, and anywhere else the cultivators couldn't reach.

[ichitaka05]

Originally Posted by NoHaveMSG

Okay, so it's a bit bigger than I was expecting.

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by ichitaka05

I have never heard that said before.