Returning Oil to the Ground

[Steve Jelf]

Even new Model T's, presumably well maintained, mark their territory. You can follow the oil trails that emanate from the T barn at State and Bagley as the T's traverse their regular routes along the streets of the village.

[TXGOAT2]

When I was a kid, the downtown area had "angle parking" where cars pulled into toward the curb at an angle. High curbs kept them off the sidewalks. Every parking space had a meter, and every parking space had a built-up oil cake where oil dripped from the parked cars. Some of the high curbs remain, and unwary drivers of late model cars will smash their plastic bumbers into them if they are not careful. Angle parking remains at the courthouse and post office and some side streets off Main. The meters are gone, as is the meter maid. Angle parking has been eliminated on Main Street to make room for a left turn lane.

[Oldav8tor]

Most towns had wide streets and angle parking....the reason? You can't parallel park a horse and buggy very easily. With the advent of automobiles many towns went to parallel parking...I know my home town did.

[Norman Kling]

We used to have parallel parking, then someone got the strange idea of "meandering sidewalks" So in the areas where the sidewalk is near the curb, there is no parking and when it meanders away, there is angle parking. Just enough distance that when parking a T and I wait for traffic to clear, and then start out, I forgot to turn on the gas, so it stalls! At least, most of the shops have their own parking lots. Now in San Diego, in a small business area they have installed bike lanes on both sides of the street with NO parking. Whatever happened to the "Americans with disability" act? They have some parking lots or garages about a block away from some of the small mom & pop shops and cafe's. The next street over is residential. I don't know why they couldn't have put the bike lanes there.

[TXGOAT2]

The important thing is that officials have their way, the more nonsensical the better, and that every prole must do as she, it, they, he, him, or them are instructed.

[Charlie B in N.J.]

Most people here are old enough to remember the black stripe down the middle of every highway lane caused by the crankcase breather tube every car had.

[ironhorse]

My Grandparents lived in Bradenton Fl, the thing I remember is the brick roads and how slick they became during a light rain trying to parallel park when the bricks were wet was a challenge!

[TXGOAT2]

Pavement in cities can become worn smooth or bleed tar. In prolonged dry spells, it accumulates dust, rubber, oil, spit, and so forth. The first few minutes of a light rain shower can make it almost as slick as ice, especially approaching intersections.

[Craig Leach]

Here in Arizona you still have to parallel park to pass a drivers test. My grandkids say it's the most worrisome part of the test. In their defense they all took their driving tests in crew cab pick ups. I don't think the roads here get any slicker when it rains it just doesn't happen often enough for people to remember. It's carnage when the first rains of summer come.
Craig.

[Ned L]

Most people here are old enough to remember the black stripe down the middle of every highway lane caused by the crankcase breather tube every car had.

And on some highways you can still tell far ahead where a bump in the pavement will be, .... there is a dark spot on the pavement from the hanging drops of oil on the undersides of cars and trucks falling off onto the pavement.

[Craig Leach]

As to the original thread tittle. Does this make us both environmentalist's and animal rights activists? We not only replenish the earths fossil fuel reserves but we also return the dinosaurs to there natural habitat. Can we get carbon credits for that?
Craig.

[Norman Kling]

I still remember when visiting my cousin who had a brand new house. Brand new driveway too. I didn't realize that when I parked with the front of the car uphill, the oil ran out the back. So I left the first oil spot on her brand new driveway!
Norm

[Oldav8tor]

We have a new model T owner with a spotless driveway. He is trying really hard to keep it free of oil stains. I hate to tell him that he's wasting his time but I assume the futility will eventually sink in.

[Petrah Phyre]

Most people here are old enough to remember the black stripe down the middle of every highway lane caused by the crankcase breather tube every car had.

And on some highways you can still tell far ahead where a bump in the pavement will be, .... there is a dark spot on the pavement from the hanging drops of oil on the undersides of cars and trucks falling off onto the pavement.

This is how we knew where to start a leveling patch when I worked for the county paving crew.

[MichaelPawelek]

In my old neighborhood where I grew up many of the driveways were not concrete poured all the way across, rather two strips of concrete for the tires with a grass strip up in the middle. I have no idea whether the grass strip was to keep dripping oil off the concrete or folks were too conservative to spend extra money on the concrete….

[TXGOAT2]

About 1948, a new "addition" was built consisting of a few dozen modest homes in several floorplans with attached garages. All the homes had the two-strip driveways from the street to the garage, and dirt floors in the garages. They did have small concrete porches and a concrete sidewalk to the street curb. The houses had hardwood floors, nice wooden window units, real tile bathrooms, and sheet rock walls and ceilings. They had no eaves. I believe the lack of eaves, covered porches, and the limited use of concrete was related to lingering wartime shortages.

[ThreePedalTapDancer]

[Craig Leach]

Back in the 1970's I lived in a small town and all the allies & most of the streets where dirt ( in the desert ) most everyone used the wind & solar method of drying cloths. So if someone drove down the alley or the street fast the domestic Goddess of the house would have to rewash all the cloths.
The old mechanic I worked with took all the shop waste oil home with him & oiled the alley behind his house from one end to the other. I asked him one day why he did the whole alley ( it was a long ally ) He said if he didn't do the whole alley the neighbors at the ends complained. It was the nicest
alley in town.
I wonder if I could get a government grant to study wind & solar cloths drying as a alternative energy source?
Craig.

[MichaelPawelek]

Craig, Don’t even think about wind and solar drying outdoors. It would just give politicians another way to tax us. Don’t you know that the government owns the sunlight and wind?

[FundyTides]

Steve,
I think there would be a market for decals (putting oil back in the ground), maybe at the club booth at Hershey

[Craig Leach]

Michael,
Considering that wind & sunlight produce hot air, and politicians seem to have a unlimited supply of hot air. Your statement is correct.
Thanks for pointing that out!
Craig.

[ironhorse]

I love it when I get near enough to a Climate Change Zealot and they start talking about carbon foot prints. I ask them those look like some nice clothes you are wearing, how did you clean them. When they answer they washed them in a washing machine in the most indignant voice I can muster I say you mean you used an energy gobbling, water wasting, ground water polluting machine to clean them , I hope you at least had the good sense to dry them with a solar powered clothes dryer. They usually look dumbfounded and make a hasty remark that they don't make Solar powered clothes dryers. I smile and explain it to them, then tell them their carbon footprint is bigger than mine!

[Steve Jelf]

I hope you at least had the good sense to dry them with a solar powered clothes dryer.

[ThreePedalTapDancer]

My childhood memories are of my mother hanging the clothes up to dry in the backyard. There was nothing better than putting on a nice crisp white t-shirt fresh from the clothesline. BTW, those sure are some long black leggings you are hanging to dry Steve, I didn’t think anyone wore those anymore

[Steve Jelf]

... I didn’t think anyone wore those anymore.

I started wearing OTC sox so long ago that there was a K-Mart here where I could buy them. Now I have to get them online.

[Petrah Phyre]

My childhood memories are of my mother hanging the clothes up to dry in the backyard. There was nothing better than putting on a nice crisp white t-shirt fresh from the clothesline. BTW, those sure are some long black leggings you are hanging to dry Steve, I didn’t think anyone wore those anymore

There was an old telephone pole between ours and the neighbor's back property corner. A couple of bicycle wheels on the pole and back porch posts with a cable run between the two. Mom used that exclusively during the warm summer months.