{"id":8290,"date":"1986-05-15T00:00:33","date_gmt":"1986-05-15T04:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/?p=8290"},"modified":"2014-02-04T15:37:44","modified_gmt":"2014-02-04T20:37:44","slug":"chapter-5-american-graffiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/1986\/05\/chapter-5-american-graffiti\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 5 – American Graffiti"},"content":{"rendered":"

So we brought the Jag home on a Tuesday night in early May of 1986.<\/p>\n

Our house was in your basic suburban development – NOT the kind of place you worked on cars like this…\u00a0 The house was built on a hill, so that in the front it was a basic 2-story colonial, but in the back, it was 3 stories, with the rear wall of the basement fully exposed, and there was about a 12-foot square of concrete back there with a sliding glass door into the basement – which was as big as the whole house, so it was pretty big.\u00a0 We pulled both pans out of the sliding glass door, and rolled the Jag in – it took up less than 1\/4 of the basement.<\/p>\n

About half of the basement was already taken up by “the shop” – which Bab always had in the basement of every house we ever lived in.\u00a0 It was where he built furniture, fixed lawnmowers, boat parts, attempted to restore the Model T – and basically just hung out all the time.\u00a0 Bab was a MAJOR insomniac – he was down there in the middle of the night working ALL THE TIME when I was growing up.\u00a0 I guess it runs in the family – I’m out in the shop now writing this at 5:41 AM – I have been awake since 3:00…<\/p>\n

So the Jag was home and it was time to start working on it – which we jumped right into immediately.\u00a0 But before I start getting into the details of that, I think I should get this other concept out of the way first…<\/p>\n

The day we brought the Jag home was toward the end of my Freshman year in high school.\u00a0 I think you could make a good case that, for the most part, I never went back to “school” after that – EVER.\u00a0 I was in all of these highly advanced classes with Seniors already as a Freshman, and I think that looking back on it, I just kind of skated through the rest of high school with the knowledge I already had…\u00a0 Once I got the Jag – I COMPLETELY “checked out” – of school, the world around me, and even the 1980’s altogether…\u00a0 My brain went from May 1986, to – Oh let’s say September, 1962 (when the jag was built…)<\/p>\n

I IMMEDIATELY started listening to “Oldies” – which Bab was already doing pretty regularly by then.\u00a0 In about 1982, when we were still living in Lansdale, PA, he had bought a TON of 45 records from the 60’s in a nearby resale shop – “Al’s Bargain Store”\u00a0 (I could write a book about the things my parents bought there…)<\/p>\n

He played the records excessively at the time, and recorded alot of his favorites on a cassette tape labelled “Bab’s Antique Sounds” – which was an old Insurance training tape he had taped over.\u00a0 Well, I dug these tapes out and started listening to them, as well as the records themselves, and especially The Beach Boys.<\/p>\n

In the 70’s, we lived in Delaware, and Bab was really into Surf Fishing.\u00a0 In Delaware, you can drive 4-wheel drive trucks right out onto the beach if you are fishing, and he had a 1970 Jeep Commando he had repainted baby blue, and I remember loving the Surf fishing.\u00a0 He had the metal pole from a street sign (with all the holes in it…) bolted along the top of the windshield, and up there he had a stereo, CB, Casette player, and 8-track – in true 70’s fashion!\u00a0 It was probably about ’77 or ’78, so it makes sense that he often was listening to The Beach Boys album “Endless Summer” which was a greatest hits compilation that came out in ’76…\u00a0 I had had this entire album DRILLED into my brain when I was about 7 years old – and I liked it – always listening to it on sunny days – literally ON THE BEACH – helped, I’m sure…<\/p>\n

So now I’m 14, I’m looking for a new life, and the Jag has come onto the scene.\u00a0 I’m not sure I put alot of conscious thought into it at the time, but I just decided to change everything all at once – and the music was a big part of it.<\/p>\n

So in the early days of the Jag, there was alot of Beach Boys and Oldies coming out of the shop stereo (Bab’s shop was always well-outfitted with vintage stereo equipment from garage sales, etc…)\u00a0 I didn’t really know what I was going for – I just thought it made sense to listen to oldies while I worked on the old car I guess…<\/p>\n

Then I saw American Graffiti.<\/p>\n

I had a good friend in Boy Scouts named Eric Lind – he was a year younger than me, but his parents were about 5-8 years older than mine I guess.\u00a0 Eric’s dad seemed to be one of these “lost in the Fifties” guys – which was also getting big at the time – I guess because all of the people who graduated in the 50’s were all hitting their mid-life crisis together.\u00a0 Anyway, Eric’s dad was into old cars and stuff (although he didn’t have one at the time…), and he was always talking about ’55-’57 Chevys.\u00a0 It’s weird to realize now, but I’m SURE I didn’t have a clue what they were at the time – although my overall car knowledge was ramping up – REAL QUICK!\u00a0 Now, about once every 2 or three years, I see a car at Hershey I can’t identify – you’ll usually see them in the blog, because I always go over and check them out and take photos…<\/p>\n

So anyway, one night not too long after I got the Jag – maybe within 4-6 weeks, I spent the night over Eric’s and we watched “American Graffiti” – which I had never heard of before.\u00a0 Well, I had kind of this hazy concept of Bab’s high school days, and the oldies thing and all, but seeing American Graffiti is what finally made everything click – THIS is what I was after!<\/p>\n

American Graffiti had EVERYTHING I wanted out of life at the time – even though I didn’t quite know what that was yet.\u00a0 But within about 90 minutes, it was all laid out right there in full color on the TV screen in front of me:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I need to build and have the fastest car around – period.<\/li>\n
  2. I need a good group of friends who are also into cars and having a good time.<\/li>\n
  3. I need to drive around and pick up girls and then drive to secret locations and “Park”…<\/li>\n
  4. I need a steady girlfriend.<\/li>\n
  5. Once I turn 16, I need my nights to be like THIS!<\/li>\n
  6. And – I need to do WHATEVER it takes to get there…<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Jag seemed like the “ticket” to this new life – it just seemed so simple!\u00a0 In my 14-year-old mind, it was an absolute CERTAINTY that if I finished the Jag, everything else in my imaginary, ideal life would just magically “materialize” around it.<\/p>\n

    The CRAZY thing is – that’s EXACTLY what happened…<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>

    Upon seeing American Graffiti for the first time not long after getting the Jag, I would have gladly stepped right into this movie and never come back. But despite the fact that "Back to the Future" had just come out the summer before, I knew I couldn't go back in time to the 60's... So instead, I decided to bring the world of the 60's to me, and I was convinced that rebuilding the Jag would do it...<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    So we brought the Jag home on a Tuesday night in early May of 1986. Our house was in your basic suburban development – NOT the kind of place you worked on cars like this…\u00a0 The house was built on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-teenage-e-type-adventures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8290"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8309,"href":"https:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8290\/revisions\/8309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}