[pedonbio]

...you think about things like this and smile:

[gOOber]

......you know what this silver thing on the floorboard would do.

Mod edit: I know what it's for of course, but I don't need that to tell me I'm no longer a whippersnapper. -Pal

[solvegas]

......you know what this silver thing on the floorboard would do.

Mod edit: I know what it's for of course, but I don't need that to tell me I'm no longer a whippersnapper. -Pal

For those who may not have a clue that is the high beam headlights actuator which was on the firewall / floorboard and you used your left foot to actuate. Mostly found on American cars and trucks up to the mid 1980's. I wish cars still had them. Of course, since the japanese and europeans used the signal stalk to actuate the high beams they disappeared from US cars in order to globalize them. 

[pedonbio]

For those who may not have a clue that is the high beam headlights actuator which was on the firewall / floorboard and you used your left foot to actuate. Mostly found on American cars and trucks up to the mid 1980's. I wish cars still had them. Of course, since the japanese and europeans used the signal stalk to actuate the high beams they disappeared from US cars in order to globalize them.  

Indeed. And before that, there was one on the right-foot side that was the starter. Originally American cars were started by closing a switch on the dash, then cranking the engine in front. Then came self-starters, from about 1925 to 1955, in which a key was inserted into the dash to close the switch, then one stepped on the starter switch. Then in the mid-50s cars were equipped with a starter switch actuated by turning the key, and that lasted until these blasted electronic gizzmoes.

[tdotter]

For those who may not have a clue that is the high beam headlights actuator which was on the firewall / floorboard and you used your left foot to actuate. Mostly found on American cars and trucks up to the mid 1980's. I wish cars still had them. Of course, since the japanese and europeans used the signal stalk to actuate the high beams they disappeared from US cars in order to globalize them. 

Thanks for the explanation,Solvegas!
I had no clue what that was for.

[solvegas]

Thanks for the explanation,Solvegas!
I had no clue what that was for.

My first car was 1968 Chevrolet Impala which had that feature. I bought it in 1974 and traded it in 1984 for a S - 10 Pick up truck and I remembered asking the salesman where was the floorboard high beam actuator and he politely showed where it was on the signal stalk and showed me how to do it. I was 28 years old but that guy managed to make me feel older. 

[Palomine]

My first car was 1968 Chevrolet Impala which had that feature. I bought it in 1974 and traded it in 1984 for a S - 10 Pick up truck and I remembered asking the salesman where was the floorboard high beam actuator and he politely showed where it was on the signal stalk and showed me how to do it. I was 28 years old but that guy managed to make me feel older.  

Without googling, I can't be sure whether my memory is correct or not, but I seem to recall that my late 60's Vette had the high-beam switch on the dead pedal too. And I'm sure my dad's '65 Vista Cruiser had it (as Red Foreman said: "you can cruise the vista!') Ah, the whiff of nostalgia. Far more than that switch, I miss the smell of old American cars: there was something about the glues and other chemicals used to process the upholstery and carpets that had a very particular aroma that I miss. I'm sure it caused cancer or something, but on the rare occasion that I sit in an unrestored pre-early-70s American car these days, that smell automatically unleashes a torrent of chi1dhood memories.

PS: the attached pic is like the one I had, though it's in much better shape.

PPS: (with old man hat on) I liked it better (and think it was safer) when cars had more/different physical switches in a variety of locations: once you got used to your particular car, muscle memory kicked in and tactile feedback helped too (I remember the firm 'click' of the floor-mounted high-beam switches). Nowadays, a ton of different functions are crammed onto the steering column stalks: lights/brights, wipers/intervals, cruise controls, etc... and it's even worse on newer cars where tons of controls are accessed via a single touch-screen, some of which are a tangle of bad GUI and menu layers, to say nothing of the lack of tactile feedback and worst of all: you generally have to take your eyes off the road to use them... even to do something simple like change a radio station. What a mess.

[gOOber]

^
I bought a new car last July. I still don`t know what a third of the controls do.

[gOOber]

I still remember driving my grandfather`s 1950 Chevy which he bought brand new for $975.00. Starting procedure: 1. Pull out choke.  2. Push in clutch.  3. Press starter button. 4. Turn key. If the car wouldn`t start, pump gas pedal and repeat. Btw, 3/4 of the space under the hood was air.

[solvegas]

PPS: (with old man hat on) I liked it better (and think it was safer) when cars had more/different physical switches in a variety of locations: once you got used to your particular car, muscle memory kicked in and tactile feedback helped too (I remember the firm 'click' of the floor-mounted high-beam switches). Nowadays, a ton of different functions are crammed onto the steering column stalks: lights/brights, wipers/intervals, cruise controls, etc... and it's even worse on newer cars where tons of controls are accessed via a single touch-screen, some of which are a tangle of bad GUI and menu layers, to say nothing of the lack of tactile feedback. What a mess. [/i]

Agreed. Perhaps I'm just an ol' stick in the mud but I liked the knobs on the dashboard. I also like the tactile feel from a honest to God knob. It took me a while to feel comfortable having the lights on the left hand side stalk and the wipers on the right side stalk and so forth and so on. Of course, that ol' 68 Impala did not have cruise control, intermittent windshield wipers, CD player ( I did install an 8 track though ), reliable fuel injection ( when I worked in the garage in the early 70's only expensive cars had fuel injection. We used to call them garage queens because they were in the shop all the time since their fuel injection systems were, what's the fancy word I'm looking for ... uhh ... oh yeah, shit ! ) and many other features to enumerate. But then try to stand on the hood of a car today without bending the shit out of it which you could do on cars then.  Or stuff a bunch of people in the trunk to sneak them into the drive in movie. But then the past we can romantisize too much. 

[Tugboatcap]

I really should take a picture and post it of my '49 Ford F-1 Pickup dash.  It has a pull out headlight switch on the left side of the steering drop and a key, choke pull and starter button right of it.  On top of the dash to the right of center of the steering wheel is the vacuum control knob for the single windshield wiper.  High/Low beam button on the floor.  That's the whole set of controls.  And yes, you can damn near stand on the ground on either side of the original V-8 Flathead in the engine compartment.

[Robin_K2]

I've felt pretty old the last three days. Y^hoo is my homepage, and I have it set to show headlines from E (plus an exclamation point; trying to be careful about avoiding links here).

I have been absolutelty disgusted by almost every pop-figure story, just the last few days. To me, it is a sudden change; I don't know if they've changed editors or what. I do not want to hear the news they share. I do not want it on my computer.

This is not the world I grew up in.

[pedonbio]

This is not the world I grew up in.

Yeah, I know the feeling. The world I grew up in died with Bobby Kennedy.

[gOOber]

.....your skin loses that youthful glow.

[pedonbio]

^--Not a selfie.