I am the person in the room that changes the channel.

I basically had no choice. I could have walked home, as it was only 1.5 miles, but the roads are busy, have no sidewalks, and the drivers are aggressive. I figured I didn't want to get run over. There's no one nearby to pick me up.

@Organist1 I get that. The place I go has a shuttle service, but I was fortunate to have my own ride.

@MyTVC15 The place I went to is basically a dump, but it's cheap!

PA still requires an annual inspection, and emissions inspection. It used to be every 6 months! It feels unnecessary to me.

@Organist1 Who controls the inspections? Gas station personnel used to take bribes or even get stickers for friends. Things may have changed but when people and money are involved watch out.

@jackjr The mechanics at "official inspection stations."

@Organist1 You mean people! When I lived in Germany there was a mandatory inspection every two years. It was done mostly by machines (to get the brakes tested the car was put on 4 rollers and when the brakes were applied each wheel had to register the same). I had just bought a used Opel (with American specs) and there was a problem with the tail lights (in Europe there is a separate amber section for the turn signals and mine were all red so I flunked. What ensued was funny and I got to be the goofy Ami (but did get it fixed). When one wanted to sell a car getting the TUV (technisches ueberwachung verein) seal was a major part of any sale.

I was visiting a friend in New Mexico. At one point there was a car parked next to mine that looked like a reject from a junk yard. It was really falling apart. I said " How in the world did that car pass inspection?" and my friend replied, "We don't have car inspections in NM."

@MyTVC15 That is often the case. Here there are cars (mostly little Daihatsu's) that cannot be driven in an urban setting. They are allowed here but cannot go on the ferries. Often, it is the police that can determined if a vehicle is unsafe and should be allowed to get their registration renewed.
While stationed in Mass a friend bought an old Rambler. When it was time for an inspection no one would do that as they were afraid, because of all the under body rust, it would fall off their lifts and damage their equipment. The owner simply dumped it somewhere before moving to the next duty station (he originally traded a 6 pack of beer for it.

@jackjr Were you stationed at Ft. Devens? I grew up near Devens. My best friend's mother had a Rambler.

@MyTVC15 I was for 13 long and very cold months. I even remember a local Ayer, car dealership offering specials on it's supply. Problem was, all the cars were buried in snow and the only thing visible were the antenna. Each one had a number which corresponded to a photo of the car. Some cars were sold but they had to be picked up after the snow melted. Was the Ramble like the one in my picture? The engine was a flathead type. The car ran but was a rust bucket. That car was sitting in an area near a wooden warehouse. The car owners were asked to remove their cars as the building was to be torn down. The original owner was gone and when he returned his car was buried. He offered in exchange for a 6 pack of beer but you had to take possession of the car yourself. Luckily there was no body damage (aside from the rust).
Oh, I was ASA.

@jackjr OMG! Small world the internet is. I grew up in Harvard, but my family did and still does own a house in Ayer. Were you by any chance there in '77 or '78? We had a lot of snow both those years. In '77 we got so much our barn fell down under the weight of it. My friend's Rambler was a later model, I think it was a '62. It was sort of salmon colored.

@jackjr Did you buy the six pack at the Jack O'Latern, by any chance? It was one of the many Deven's supported liquor stores near the rotary. I don't think it is there any more, but there is a marijuana dispensary down the road a bit. These days you can even buy a beer in Harvard.

@MyTVC15 LOL, I was there in 67-68 a little before your time. It was not my car but one of my team members. He traded it for a six pack of Carling Black Label beer and don't know where he bought it. I remember driving in Mass. was horrible and Storrow drive was the worst. My family had a Rambler like yours but in green and a station wagon. I found a picture of it taken at a later date (and in poor condition). I drove that car a lot and we made several trips from Texas to both California and later Washington state. While I was at Devens I had a monster of a car, an Olds. super 88. After evening classes I would drive that car from Devens to Frederick Maryland once or twice a month to visit an uncle. Going through some pictures I found an old transmitting bldg. In Fitzberg. Also, on the base was the first launch site for the rocket Scientist Goddard.

@jackjr My husband was in the Air Force in '68-69, stationed in Thialand. Later he joined the Army and spent at lot of time in Texas at FT. Hood. I love the pics of the old cars, it really takes me back.

@MyTVC15 How about British cars? My very first car was a Triumph (Herald). The next one was a Austin Healy Sprite. Both fun cars but pieces of junk.
Do you have any memorable car photos?

@jackjr We should start a group for antique cars, lol. I wish I had some pics of my first car, which was a '69 Pontiac Lemans. I acquired it in '78 and I was never really certain if it was green or blue. I get nostalgic for it. The senior center in my town has an annual car show and I went to it a few years ago and took a lot of pics. I probably have over 100.

@MyTVC15 At one time we did start showing car pictures from our past. What did you do with the pictures? When moving here I bought a scanner and downloaded most of my pictures. They are on a couple of USB's so I have instant access. Most of my cars have been foreign, several VW's, a couple of Opels, 2 Capri's, 3 Honda's and a Hyundai and now a Toyota.

@jackjr Speaking of VWs what do you think of this bad boy (as seen at a local antique store)? I have the picures of the car shows on my hard drive but there are a lot of them and they are sort of random. I do think it would be appropriate to post them on this thread. But if we have a car group I would post some there.

@jackjr Oh, I found the pics of the uninspected car in New Mexico. We were at the Albuquergue Balloon Festiva and this was park right next to me.

@MyTVC15 People will drive anything. Nowadays many cars are not for driving but for living in. A car group would be nice but I suspect there would be a lot of males and few females as members. Guys seem to go for trains and cars (I prefer old sailing ships) and women seem to favor horses. I know, a general observation.

Bingo! They just don't get biology.

@Flyingsaucesir Jay bus will come before they die.

He is complaining about the cost to maintain a heated damned pool when there are people in the world who walk miles every day for enough clean water to sustain life.

@BufftonBeotch You got that right!

You did the right thing.

And they all live around me

@ADKSparky Yeah, they're everywhere. Just turn over any rock...

Funny you should mention that. The guy only had one ear. Really!

@Organist1 You have to intercept crazy with better crazy.

@Organist1 that could explain the brain damage!

@Barnie2years It's possible. He said he lost an ear to cancer! Those chemo drugs are powerful, but I don't know how they could cause that. Maybe a stroke?

@Organist1 Interesting. I thought prosthetic ears were pretty common.

@BufftonBeotch I wouldn't have known until he told me. He had long hair.

@Organist1 a stroke, or very often when people get cancer they turn whole hog to religion, often the worse Evangelical Bible thumpers, and are pulled into the whole crazy cult. If whatever treatment they are given works, they fall even deeper into the belief, because, you know decades of dedicated scientists working on cures count for little once you’ve found Jesus.

@Barnie2years That happened to my closest friend after a traumatic brain injury. She could.no longer tell truth from fiction, and became a Faux News devotee. I miss her!

@Organist1 Maybe he lost his ear the same way Stewart Rhodes lost his eye.

Hope so!

@MyTVC15 Or around Mike Tyson.

My mechanics office and nail salon keeps the waiting room TV set to neutral things like animal videos and cooking shows. Smart move. You don't want to have to call emergency services for brawls in the waiting room twice a day.

Oh. Perfect.

Haha...you probably gave him nightmares!

@Organist1 I hope.

A masterful stroke!

@Beowulfsfriend I'm so old I remember when the NRA was a respectable organization. But then so were most republicans.

@BufftonBeotch Yes, at one point it was and did a lot of gun safety. I read, and I don't remember when, but at some point management met and said they needed to decide which direction to go: either stay the same, safety and such; or evil and corporate to make tons of money. They didn't say it how I said it, but my interpretation is close enough.

Yep...that's how he got into his spiel -by saying how messed up the government is. I often wonder how there could be so many crazy people in the country. America clearly learned nothing from 1930s Germany.

@Organist1 I tell people believing that the the right winger support for Isreal is something altruist and compassionate, is actually only because they believe if a certain temple is built on a certain spot that Jesus will come back and start Armageddon by slaying all the Jews in a matter of hours with a sword.
I grew up with these crazy people. I understand their dark motivations.

@BufftonBeotch That's not too far off what some of the crazies do believe. There is an organization of evangelicals from Texas working with a "science" group in Israel trying to breed the perfect red bull that in Revelation will portend the world's end. I heard (herd) about them long ago - so long now, that with genetic advances, I would have thought they succeeded.

If abortion is wrong why does it happen spontaneously so often?

Defenseless? Please. Sell that a couple doors down. I am all stocked up on sarcasm here.