Thinking of '57.....It was a very good year. My best friends all lived within a couple of blocks of me, and all our families had '57 vehicles. We had a '57 DeSoto......My next door neighbor, Ricky......they had a '57 Chevy...my up the street buddy Gary.....they had a '57 Ford...my around the corner pal Jerry...they had a '57 Studebaker Golden Hawk (None of us were allowed to get closer than 10 feet to the Hawk)...and his Dad was meaner than hell.
The DeSoto was a hemi powered push button automatic and was one of the fastest cars in town in when I first got to drive it in '59. Got my license at 15 and drove that car as fast as I could when I could. Jerry Russel snuck out the Hawk once and we didn't get to race, but we didn't see Jerry again for the entire summer.....it was rumored his Dad had killed him and buried him in their back yard. About a year later he snuck out his Dad's classic Jag, came by and picked me up for a late night joy ride.....he was grounded for another six months.
Gary tore the transmission out of their '57 Ford, and his Dad had his license revoked. I was the only lucky one.....I bent a torsion bar when I was trying to prove to Ricky that I could hit 120mph on a short stretch of country road....and did......but couldn't stop in time to keep from running into a ditch at the end of the road. My Dad thought my Mom did it......and I let her take the blame......Rupert types......can't trust them for crap.
Those were good years for cars and young guys too. They passed so fast.You live forever, never die, never get old...that's for old people to do. We knew everything.....except how stupid we really were!
Regards!