Fuzzy dice

[John Mulders]

So I got them for X-mas

And as it is a real nice day, no rain and dry roads, I started the Wabi P15 (and it started real nice after months of doing nothing).

Then drove with my son around.

The aquisition of the other company went through (got a yes yesterday) so better enjoy the Wabi moments while I can.....

Again merry X-mas for all of the forum members

John

[BobT-47P15]

Look right a home there, John. The dice are like lots of things.....some folks

think they're neat.....some don't. I've used some before, have several

colors. Not using them right now however. You can always change the

accessory items used on the car when the mood hits you.

[bob westphal]

Love those dice!! I've had booties or dice hanging from my mirrors since I was 16. Oh Man!! That's over half a century!! White dice in the P-15, blue in mom's Buick, and booties in my LeBaron rag top.

[Don Coatney]

This is the only kind of booties I like to see hanging.

[John Mulders]

probably won't have the dice hanging while driving.

Personally think nothing should be hanging from the mirror as it blocks your view and you may not see (might miss something is not the correct phrase) something on the road coming from the right.

Think they are cute though

John

[Guest rockabillybassman]

I like dice, but wont ever have them in my car because every yokel driving a riceburner has got them.

[BobT-47P15]

Yeah.....ain't it amazing. I guess those young folks think THEY discovered

fuzzy dice.

[eric wissing]

It was said the Julius Ceasar had a pair of Dicious fuzzious when he crossed the Rubicon on his chariot. Eric

[BobT-47P15]

I put a pair in the trunk for the car show in October.....to go along with my

50s theme "junk in the trunk" display.

John----if you can make door panels, you can use heavy cardboard

material to line your trunk as well. Just cut to fit, then cover with

whatever you like. I used maroon vinyl like the doors. The trunk is carpeted with same stuff as the car.

[John Mulders]

Thanks Bob,

quite a collection !

Nicely positioned flashlight.

John

[62rebelP23]

i have an old cashbox to mount under the package shelf for my "insurance policy"..... lockable and almost undetectable from behind with trunk lid up. it's heavy steel and insulated.

[BobT-47P15]

John.....that flashlight has a magnet on the side..... so I just leave it there

like it might have been back when. That stuff in the trunk is just a small

group of what-nots. Have all sorts of things to use, but mostly it sits

around the garage so I can look at it.

[47heaven]

This will probably ruffle some feathers on here, but fuzzy dice are just another part of the overstereotyped way the 50's are perceived these days. Just like the examples below:

The typical pink poodle skirt and matching scarf.

They try, but still can't get it right.

Oh, no! Not another Elvis!

Whoever designed this 50's malt shop didn't do his homework

I see this at car shows and laugh. Usually, they are on 1955-57 Chevys.

People think that this is a 50's jukebox...when actually it's from 1946. Also, they think that putting metal signs on the wall of Elvis, James Dean and '57 Chevys is real 50's, too.

[DutchEdwin]

47heaven, I wonder, do u hate poodles?

[DutchEdwin]

Hi John,

I like the dice. Looks neat in a car.

I will have this dog sitting on the dash of mine.

P.S. All goods for 2008.

Groeten uit het koude Nederland, hou je haaks. (thats dutch)

[Dennis Hemingway]

This guy rides in the backseat of our 48 Plymouth.

Dennis:D

Dennis the Menace

[Don Coatney]

This guy rides in the backseat of our 48 Plymouth.

Dennis:D

Dennis the Menace

Looks just like the driver:D

[Guest rockabillybassman]

47heaven....... you're so right man!

Admitedly I was pretty young in the 50s, but I dont recollect ever seeing poodle skirts, fuzzy dice, or all those pastel colours. I do remember seeing drape coats and creepers, but only very rarely. The standard dress for young males in the 50s was a white T shirt(with shortened or folded up sleeves if you were really tough) with either jeans (maybe with a small turnup) or slacks, and a pair of loafers. The only colour that males usually wore was when the flourescent sock craze hit. Burnt orange, lime green, shocking pink......

The so-called "rockabillies" and rocknrollers of today have watched "Grease" to many times.

[Norm's Coupe]

47heaven....... you're so right man!

Admitedly I was pretty young in the 50s, but I dont recollect ever seeing poodle skirts, fuzzy dice, or all those pastel colours. I do remember seeing drape coats and creepers, but only very rarely. The standard dress for young males in the 50s was a white T shirt(with shortened or folded up sleeves if you were really tough) with either jeans (maybe with a small turnup) or slacks, and a pair of loafers. The only colour that males usually wore was when the flourescent sock craze hit. Burnt orange, lime green, shocking pink......

The so-called "rockabillies" and rocknrollers of today have watched "Grease" to many times.

Well...........evidently you guys were maybe just a wee bit too young in the 50's or not in with the cool crowd.

Yes, the guys mainly wore jeans and white T-shirts, with white socks and black shoes. Hair was usually combed back in duck tails and held there by a good strong hair grease. Hence the term axle grease was used to hold the hair in place. If a sport shirt was worn, the cool guys would wear it with the top two or three buttons open, and the collar up in the back. If a jacket was worn it was either a leather jacket worn with it just zipped up an inch or two at the bottom and the collar was up also. The other favorite jacket of the day was the school letter jacket with the school letter for playing some sport, or the marching bands. Those jackets usually didn't have a collar and were usually what was then called the "California Jacket". Some of the guys also wore saddle shoes that were either black and white or brown and white when they were dressing up.

For the girls. Poodle skirts were the "In-thing" to have for every girl. To boot, the girls liked the pinks and you did see a lot of pink poodle skirts, with the poodle on them. My wife graduated from high school in 1962. She tells the story of one of her favorite Christmas gifts from her parents was a Pink Poodle skirt during her high school days. It was the only thing she ask for that year. Usually, the girls wore either black and white, or brown and white saddle shoes with their Poodle Skirts.

Fuzzy Dice. These were normally not purchased in a store. The guys girl friend would make those using fuzzy type cloth or knitting thread. The steady girl friend would usually wear the guys high school ring. Of course, it was usually too big for her finger. So...........she would wrap that same fuzzy knitting thread around the ring to take up the space so it would stay on her finger. So........the Fuzzy dice were very popular back then because the girl made them to show her love for her steady guy. If she did not make a pair of fuzzy dice, she would many times give him one or two of her thin see through silk scarfs to hang on the mirror of the guys car.

As for the dinners, they were usually pretty drab except for the neon lights. The modern ones are just trying to show the different things that went on with the signs, etc. in them today.

So...........Now you guys that didn't live them be educated on the 50's/early 60's teenage life.

Now, as for New Zealand, they may not have been with the program at all. Don't know what went on there.

[BobT-47P15]

What Norm said about clothing styles in the 1950s is pretty much correct.

I had both black and white saddle oxfords and white bucks with the red rubber soles. Graduated high school in 1961. Along with jeans, which were

often pressed with a nice crease, there was the narrow belt....if one was worn. I also wore what are still known as "casual pants" to school. The khaki's were referred to as "chino's". The dress pants and jackets, suits, etc, were reserved for church on Sunday and other special occasions.

Yes, there were poodle skirts, black & white saddles plus red & white for

girls, and they also wore those little light weight Keds tennis shoes. Had

not yet invented the jogging shoes of today. The cordovan penny loafers

would have a penny in the slot on the tongue. Guys usually kept their

shoes shined. Tennis shoes were worn for gym class and other sports.

Speaking of gym, in our small town--guys were required to wear a white

T-shirt, white shorts, white wool athletic socks and tennis shoes. Girls

wore medium blue colored one piece "gym suits".

I thought I was pretty darn cool if I could get a ride after school to the drugstore downtown where

everyone went for a soda.....in a certain fellow's 1940 white Ford coupe. One of the sharpest old

cars in school was Joe's 1939 Chevy two door sedan......medium blue, lowered, glasspacks, lakes pipes,

black & white naugahide interior, red rims etc.

Granted, they promote the 50s stuff pretty hard today......but some of it is not too far off.

They also had those little juke box selector things at each booth.....so you could sit there and

play your favorite tunes by Elvis, Chuck Berry, Dion, Bill Hailey, etc.

That pair of fuzzy "dice" posted by Don Coatney likely would have gotten the owner in trouble.

[Norm's Coupe]

Bob, you left out the dress clothes. Skinny ties and sport or suit coats with the skinny lapels and 3 buttons. Now, those have to sound familiar to many younger guys today. It's like their new modern style of the last year or two. Guess what goes around, comes around. As for the white socks, ours were made out of cotton. Bob's mention of Chinos is also correct. I did not own a pair of jeans until I was 38 years old. I use to wear what my mother called wash pants. That being the same as Dockers today. Of course the price went up when they started calling them Chinos and Dockers instead of wash pants. Now, they have a hip name. Same pants though. I no longer own a pair of jeans now either. Went back to the old wash pants (or whatever you want to call them) because they are more comfortable.

As for the gym clothes, I think the colors of the gym suits depended on the school and what the school colors were. They wore red and white gym suits at my high school and green and gold at my Jr. High School because those were the school colors. The gym shoes had to be the white high top canvas type tennis shoe. Back then they only made them in two colors. Either Black or white. Also, the gym teacher would not allow you to wear gym shoes that had been worn everyday. The gym shoes had to be left in your locker and only used in the gym. That was to protect the hardwood floors.

Still have my high school letter for playing in the school marching band. The letter was on the California style jacket I mentioned (Red wool jacket with white leather arms). The little round patch was also for the marching band but meant to be put on a white cardigan sweater. Never wore sweaters, so never used it. It's an iron on patch.

[Don Coatney]

Guys usually kept their

shoes shined.

You old goats are probably the only ones who know the difference between $hit and shinola.

Doesn't know $hit from Shinola

Meaning

Possessing poor judgment or knowledge.

Origin

Shinola was a brand of shoe polish previously manufactured in the USA. The alliteration and the fact that the two commodities in the phrase could possibly be confused is the derivation. The distinction is well made; only one of them would be good to apply to your shoes and only particularly dim people could be expected to muddle them up. Of course, outside America, most people don't know Shinola from anything at all, as they've never heard of it. Even in America it would probably not be widely remembered but for this phrase.

The 'ola' suffix is popular in the USA as part of trade names, e.g. Crayola, Granola etc. This leads to the pronunciation of Shinola as shine + ola. That spoils the alliteration a little as it would work better as shin + ola.

This phrase is typical of the barrack room vulgarity of WWII, which is where it originated. Other "doesn't know" phrases, also mostly from the military are, "doesn't know his arse from a hole in the ground" (or elbow, or a hot rock, or third base), "doesn't know enough to pee downwind", "doesn't know whether to scratch his watch or wind his ass". The tone is lifted a little by the English conductor Sir Henry Wood who expressed a similar opinion with "he doesn't know his brass from his woodwind".

[Norm's Coupe]

Here's a real good book for those who didn't live the 50's/early 60's, or were not quite of age yet to do so. It will confirm some of the things BobT and I mentioned. Also goes into a lot of other details of how life was back then. Great book, fun to read for those who lived it and those who didn't. Also has a lot of old ads that were run in magazines and the newspapers of the era. Great Book.

As for the movie "Grease", the story line and dress was pretty much on target. All that wasn't on target was we didn't jump into song and dance all the time.

[james curl]

Finished high school in 55,standard dress in Texas hill country was Levis red tag jeans with the belt loops cut off, white tee shirt, blue suede loafers or pointed toe cowboy boots, preferably hand made with 14" stovepipe tops.

[Guest rockabillybassman]

I guess the 50s were considerably different here in New Zealand. I gotta say though, as a Hamber I've spent a LOT of time looking at old pics of Bonneville and drag racing, also general scenes from the 50s. It STILL seems to me, after looking at literally hundreds of photos, that the clothes and hair of the time were a lot more mundane than the "Grease" image portrays. Maybe there were isolated pockets of greaser style, but the average joe in late teens and early twenties was still pretty conservative. If you dont believe me, go to the Hamb and search through the thousands of photos there from the 50s.