A teenager going to the beach, surfing, and driving around looking - TopicsExpress



          

A teenager going to the beach, surfing, and driving around looking for girls sounds more like living in California than it does being Jewish and living through the cold snowy winters in Paterson. Maybe that’s why growing up, I didnt relate to the Beach Boys songs as much as I did to the Beatles songs. Some of the Beatles songs expressed aspirations to be a paperback writer or to complain about paying taxes or to lament the passing of yesterdays(you can almost hear several oy veys in that one.) But as it turns out, there is actually a Jewish connection to the Beach Boys’ songs instead of just California style idle sun worshipping at the beach. As almost everyone knows, the Beach Boys were primarily a family group, comprised of the Wilson brothers(Brian, Dennis and Carl), their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. But as hardly anyone knows, there was a Jewish component to the original Beach Boys group too. One of the original founding members of the group was David Marks. He was a nice Jewish boy who lived across the street from the Wilsons and whose guitar playing on the Beach Boys’ first three albums of surf rock hits helped shape their distinctive sound. David Marks contributions as a founding member of the band have been largely forgotten because he left the group after only a couple of years with them. The hit song Little GTO was originally recorded by Ronny and the Daytonas. But it was later rerecorded by the Beach Boys on one of their albums. The lyrics of the song were so simple and also understandable(as most songs of our generation were(and not like the rap - I always thought there should be a c in front of the word rap - and the hip hop stuff of today.) The Little GTO song lyrics went something like this: Little GTO, youre really lookin fine Three deuces and a four speed and a 389 Listen to her tachin up now, listen to her why-ee-eye-ine Cmon and turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO Wa-wa wa, wa, wa, wa, wa, wa Yeah, yeah, little GTO Gonna save all my money turnin it on, blowin it out and buy a GTO turnin it on, blowin it out, Get a helmet and a roll bar turnin it on, blowin it out and Ill be ready to go turnin it on, blowin it out take it out to Pomona turnin it on, blowin it out, and let em know, turnin it on, blowin it out, yeah,yeah That Im the coolest thing around Little buddy, gonna shut you down, When I turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO Wa-wa, wa, wa, wa, wa, wa, wa Yeah, yeah, little GTO And here is an actual picture of me in my very own Little GTO(it was canary yellow with a black vinyl top - remember when vinyl tops were the big rage in cars? - as you can see I even had one of those dumb personalized front license plates ugh!) To this day that Pontiac GTO is my favorite car of all time. I know youre thinking boys and their toys. But more about my GTO later. By the time I was a teenager, we were already living in the Paterson burbs. Of course as soon as I turned 16, I started to count the days until I could get my drivers permit(in those days you could get your drivers license in NJ at age 17.) As soon as I was old enough to drive, my parents bought me my own car - Jewish parents spoil their kids and love doing it and their kids are just as happy to be spoiled too. My very first car was a white Rambler American. I remember being with my parents watching them negotiate the deal. My father played the good guy and my mother played the bad guy(just like in the good cop - bad cop scenes in the movies.) Finally after the salesman had enough(you know how they keep going to their sales manager in the back and theres no way hell ever go that far(but in reality theyre really talking only about last nights baseball game each time he goes back there.) Finally as they were turning off the lights and starting to sing last dance, a deal was finally struck! Hallelujahs all around! I got a brand new left over model from the previous year so the numbers could work for everybody. The salesman announced you absolutely stole that car -you paid less than our cost no one gets a deal like you got and please dont tell anyone what you paid. So please dont any of you now tell anyone but we stole the car(yeah sure) for $1500. Then he said what they always said back then you do want us to undercoat the car so it doesnt rust right? - but that will be extra of course. But it was one of the happiest days of my young life when the salesman handed over the 2 different keys for my car(yes thats right - Im sure youll remember when there was one silver metal key with a square top for the ignition plus a separate key with a silver metal round top for the trunk - thats how you always knew which key was for which(keyless entry you say? how about remote start?) Yeah OK I guess we forgot to ask about those features back then. Now it was time to learn all about my brand new left over Rambler American car. It was a manual transmission(a stick shift as they called it.) My mother reminded me right away that I couldnt go above 50 miles an hour during the first 1000 miles(they called it the break in period.) I was actually worried that if by accident I broke 60, the car would disintegrate. Plus they put in light oil(whatever that was) that had to be changed after the first 500 miles.) In fact in those days it seemed like we had to constantly change the oil all the time. We were obsessed with the oil, water and antifreeze in our cars. Every time we stopped for gas, they would ask us hows your water and oil(such personal questions right?) They would usually check it all anyway just to be sure. Then they would say well just top it off(like they were putting more coffee in your cup or something.) Im convinced cars needed more oil back then because they wasted so much of it using that dipstick(perfectly named for what it was) and then wiping it off in front of us(see the line?) I never saw any line but I said OK do what you have to do. My mother had warned me the car would explode if I was one quart low on oil(time for another oy vey.) Now it was finally time to learn how to drive my new car. My mother volunteered to teach me(my father was busy working during the day and my learners permit didnt allow me to drive at night.) My father said maybe we should hire a driving instructor to teach David - my mother said what do they know? Ill teach him the right way(translation why waste money with a stranger when I can teach him.) So I got into the car with my mother and then the real fun started. BE CAREFUL! I SAID USE THE BRAKE NOT THE GAS! YOURE GOING TO GET US BOTH KILLED! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU ANYWAY! Of course it was very easy learning to drive with such a supportive instructor. But driving a stick shift wasnt easy at all either! You needed at least 3 feet(one for the clutch, one for the gas, and one for the brake - and dont dare step on the wrong one at any time by mistake). And while youre tap dancing with your feet, your hands are busy working the gear shift on the column(it was called a column - Up 1, Down 2, Up 3, Down 4 Reverse- it like learning your first dance - remember the box dance?) At the same time of course you still needed your hands to work the radio, roll up the windows(no automatic windows back then) and turn on the wipers if it started to rain. My mother always told me to use my hand signals when I was turning(right arm out the window straight means youre turning left- right arm up in a 90 degree angle means youre making a right turn.) My mother warned me to not use the automatic regular turn signals because they always break, and I should not roll the windows up and down either because they break too, and also not to turn on the headlights unless I absolutely have to because those headlight bulbs burn out fast and theyre very expensive to replace -that is, if they can even find the right replacement bulbs. She also reminded me if that if I ever park on a hill, I should put bricks behind the front tires so the car wont roll down the hill and kill someone(I thought to myself its a good thing I dont live in San Francisco or I would be lifting bricks up and down all day long.) Her ultimate driving test for me was to find the biggest hill which had a traffic light. Then I had to take off up the hill from a stop(unfortunately we rolled about halfway down the hill while she was screaming hit the brake, hit the gas, hit the clutch! What a joy driving with my mother was with her constant Youre driving too fast! Slow Down! Her foot would constantly be pushing down on this imaginary brake on her side of the car. Later in life she accused me of causing her to have early menopause because of all the bucking back and forth the car was doing while she was teaching me how to drive(dont ever under estimate the power of Jewish guilt even years later when you least expect it.) It was my junior year in high school so fortunately for me mother, I was finally able to take Drivers Ed. The instructor for Drivers Ed was always a Coach or someone who worked in the Phys Ed Dept(it was always just Phys Ed like they were afraid to let people know Drivers Ed and Phys Ed stood for education and they were actually teaching you something.) I dont know why it was always someone from the Phys Ed department teaching kids how to drive - I thought it should have been the Geometry teacher since she knew all the different geometric angles(Angle Side Angle, Side Angle Side) that would really be helpful in learning how to park a car. I must say I did like Drivers Ed because it was a chance to get out of school. My other favorite subjects were Study Hall(remember Study Hall where no one ever studied) and Gym(I called it gym instead of Phys Ed.) Study Hall was fun - it should have been called Fooling Around Hall. We used to shoot paper air planes(remember them?) at each other. And my buddy Jay Goldberg taught me how to fold a dollar bill into a bow tie(I still know how to do it today - it was very important stuff to know for life - heres a picture so you can see how I do it even today.) I liked gym(all the boys and girls wore dark blue shorts with the name phys ed and our high school name on them.) One thing I hated in high school gym was climbing up that rope with the knots on it that was hung down from the ceiling. I would just get stuck about 3 feet up the rope and couldnt move. Finally the phys ed teacher would mercilessly say to me when I was turning blue OK you can drop down. I think I would still be hanging on that rope for dear life if he didnt let me come down(what was that about anyway? How many of you have ever needed to climb a rope like that in your entire life?) Although I have been at my ropes end many times so maybe falling off that rope was actually a good training moment for life. OK back to my Little GTO. I worked for several summers through college driving an ice cream truck(I can still see all those little kids running up to my truck while dropping their change on the ground as they were dodging cars Here Mr Ice Cream Man how much can I get for this much? - as they handed me 2 cents.) I would give them a 10 cent twin ice pop (remember them in orange, cherry or sky blue) or a 10 cent dixie cup anyway. Finally after a few summers, I was able to buy my dream Pontiac GTO(in those days young guys wanted muscle cars like the Olds 442, the Chevy Corvette, and the Pontiac GTO) I was Mr Cool with my GTO and my foam dice hanging from my rear view mirror. My mother would always warn me dont you dare drag race that fast car of yours with the other idiots(was she calling me an idiot?) I said dont worry mom I wont go over 40 miles an hour EVER! And then as she was walking away, I roared the engine as loudly as I could and sang my favorite new song to her. Little GTO, youre really lookin fine Three deuces and a four-speed and a 389 Listen to her tachin up now, listen to her why-ee-eye-ine Cmon and turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO Wa-wa wa, wa, wa, wa, wa, wa Yeah, yeah, little GTO
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 20:19:41 +0000

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