"Congress has been paralyzed," said author Neil Irwin this morning (6/11/13) on WHYY. His book, The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire, a newly published work, demonstrates the powers of the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as well as large central banks like the Bank of England. I mention it because Mr. Irwin quoted this phrase "Congress has been paralyzed" to juxtapose the quick acting banking system in the crisis we are are still in against slow moving governments like ours. Although we were better than many during this crisis thanks to things like the Troubled Asset Relief Program. I know firsthand because we got a few million dollars here in New Jersey government for energy conservation projects at aged state facilities. At least TARP helped us, and many others. In general, that's how it seemed to me.
The paralysis of Congress, which I've heard and read elsewhere, only demonstrates the flaws of the archaic two-party system in America.We have huge problems, yet the House of Representatives has voted over 30 times to repeal the Affordable Health Care for America Act (Obamacare). Wouldn't their time have been spent better by fixing the things wrong with it thru amendments? But consensus on those tweaks has been impossible to come by because of internecine strife. Thirty-nine Democrats voted against the bill, seemingly because they were in left-leaning districts. The original bill only passed in the House by five votes.
Think of thirty million needy Americans without health care access if it hadn't passed.
Of course, we don't know the real reason why, because these elected representatives don't have to vote their conscience, they can vote for any reason. Sometimes the reasons pander to specific political action groups, or even donors. Sometimes they say, "My constituents don't agree with it," and vote "Nay" without trying to correct the problem areas. And when a bill is 1,990 pages, who can agree with every word? Especially when each page is anywhere from 250 to 700 words depending on font size?
But all that is not what I'm talking about.
The paralysis in Congress is a good example of a lack of trust. Lack of cooperation. Lack of having a higher goal rather than a personal or party goal. To me it shows many of our senators and representatives with feelings of "I'm right (or my party is right), and everyone else is wrong." Isn't that what dictators like Amin, S. Hussein, and Assad believe? As 'Abdu'l-Baha once said (Pilgrim's notes), and I paraphrase, "Anyone can serve as a bad example." And that's what many in Congress are now, bad examples. But many citizens agree with their philosophies, and November votes may put them back in office, especially from gerrymandered districts. So, those of us who want real change aren't likely to get it in a big way. Only incrementally.
But for those of us with positive worldviews, change is happening, and its going in the right direction, which is, towards the unity of mankind, and not towards separation and isolation.
Look at globalization. We just bought another Honda because our daughter's car was crapping out after 142,000 miles. Yes we could have fixed it for $1,500 but we killed two birds with one stone, and gave her our 2008 CR-V, which is only five years old and not ten. The point? Our newer CR-V parts could have come from China, Canada or the United Kingdom, and could have been assembled here in Ohio. Globalization will only increase at an exponential rate.
Mankind never really goes backwards. For example, we learned that with the burning of books didn't we? We're still learning it with currently banned books like Mark Twain's the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (in a few school districts), or Lolita during my youth. Other examples of backwardness maybe intelligent design vs. evolution, or the sun revolving around the earth etc. But you get the point again, right? The point isn't that offensive things shouldn't be written or published, or even read (although I prefer all three sometimes), its that as society grows, norms change. There are even "clean" versions of the Bible.
Differing opinions is one thing. We should encourage that BUT ALWAYS IN A CIVIL MANNER, in fact, Shoghi Effendi reiterated, "The shining
spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions" Right now in Congress we have plenty of opinions, plenty of clashes, and very few actions towards resolutions or solutions. Yet, as in every age, we face the greatest problems now than we have every faced before. And when Congress acts together great programs come from it. Take the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the depression, or Social Security or Medicare. Can they be better? Absolutely. Change is constant. Continuous improvement should be constant.
So maybe, just maybe, this congressional paralysis will serve as enough bad examples for us to reexamine our political system and start correcting these long standing evils.
I certainly hope so.
After all, Dan Gottlieb, Ph.D., has been paralyzed from the chest down since an auto accident in 1979, and it hasn't stopped him from reinventing himself and fulfilling his potential after that and other losses. His show Voices in the Family has been aired since 1985, and like all shows on WHYY, is always informative, often inspiring, and always from the heart.
I'd like to see that from all our representatives, not just a few.
By Rodney Richards, NJ
Like you, I've had many ups and downs, and quite a few sideways experiences. I firmly believe everyone should write theirs and share them, whether just for themselves or their kids. Here are some from my memoirs, observations and thoughts.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Saturday, June 8, 2013
The Joys of the Age of Renewables
- Here's one of my favorite quotes, both as a person and as a writer: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
Thursday, June 6, 2013
The Joy of Budgeting
Nearly one in three
Americans prepare a detailed household budget -- a majority do not.
Americans are also more likely to use an online program than an
accountant or financial planner to manage their money. Jan and I hired a financial planner to help me make some retirement decisions in 2008. Well, help US make them. How much I chose to be paid monthly was critically important. Essentially I could have gotten the max payment, with nothing to Janet when I died or something less, with a percentage going to Jan when I did go. We chose a 75% option, so Jan would get 75% of my pension when I passed away. It decreased my monthly check, but only by some few hundred dollars, and gave her piece of mind.
Hiring the financial planner at $1,000 was a good decision. We've increased our IRAs and investments substantially for two middle-classers like us. But the point is, budgeting and financial planning go hand in hand.
There's a division of NJ state government in the Treasury Department named the Office of Management and Budget. The Feds have the same office, which you're probably more familiar with. NJ OMB is an internal organization, controlling and monitoring funds spent by state agencies for everything they buy. OMB records all income/revenue gathered by agencies like the Div. of Revenue, the states funds and fees collector, and OMB approves all expenditures at various levels, some standard, which are done perfunctorily electronically, others only with high-level director approvals, like the over $300k Supplemental Budget Transfers. OMB also works with the 350-500 state agencies (divisions and departments) to craft the initial state budget for the Governors review. Important jobs.
If you ever look at New Jersey's State Budget every year, and you should, OMB's name is on the front page as its producer. It may be the only time the public sees their name, but as an agency manager of the Statewide Contract Consolidation Unit, I was in charge of millions every year, especially buying new software for our Data Center mainframe computers, so I was very familiar with OMB. And their progenitor, the Bureau of Budget & Accounting, which is how they have organized themselves. My brother-in-law John is a supervisor on the accounting side, managing the state's NJ Comprehensive Financial System (NJCFS), and its electronic interfaces to the hundreds of state agencies.
A budget is a simple thing. Two things actually -- revenue (income) vs. expenditures (expenses). Everyone has a budget whether they know it or not. As individuals we can also use credit cards, get loans for new autos, or home mortgages etc. The state does the same, but differently. Publicly. We can't borrow $ unless we sell government bonds to raise the cash needed. That's usually call for a referendum on the November ballot, like for more Open Green Spaces.
I on the other hand, just have to reply "Yes" to one or more of the dozens of credit card offers I receive by mail every week to get a loan. NJ can't do that because we have to have a balanced budget by law. What a difference it would make if individuals had to have a balanced budget! If the wife was the breadwinner, would the husband have line-item veto power as the Governor does?
The head of OMB is the Comptroller/Director, an appointed position. For a decade it seemed as if Rich Keevey was the head. I walked to his office many times to get signatures on our purchases. Then it was Charlene Holzbaur for years, to name a few. Bottom line, it was the agency directors who would call Rich or Charlene, and go over their assigned OMB analyst's head, when they had a big purchase and beg the Director to approve it. If you go on the OMB website nnow, they don't list any names of directors or staff at all, which is not transparent at all. I would recommend all directors and managers in state government be named, and their areas of control.
A funny thing about government, everywhere. We bureaucrats exist to keep the wheels of government moving. We are inclined 1) to trust agency heads, and 2) to want to please them. Even myself, in a position of recommendation and approval, worked with agencies to make their requests for expenditures conform to our stringent requirements. We just didn't say "No" and leave them to themselves and that was it. In fact, there weren't any requests that I said "No" to outright. No matter how poorly constructed, we helped the agency conform and get their request thru the system.
This principle of helping each other guided every level of state government, in my opinion, from the lowly clerk position, all the way up to the State Treasurer. Our unit was extra lucky, because we could coerce the agencies to comply with our rules thru an OMB/DPP Circular Letter (containing regulations).
And budgets were the road map, however, they were exceeded often. Many times I worked on preparing a supplemental budget request, required if $300k or more was needed out of reserve, to go to OMB to spend money. (We tried hard to keep them under the limit so we wouldn't be hassled.) But every one that I worked on was approved. Yes, they had to be justified, but sometimes a few well-crafted sentences was enough. When it was really important and I didn't have the clout, I would go to my Director, and sometimes they would go to a deputy state treasurer or the Treasurer him or herself, to help push the procurement along. We always found money in the budget from somewhere to do what we wanted. The vast majority of other departments did also, from my knowledge.
Not always so easy as an individual, to get $, especially if the credit card was maxed out, or you had a bad credit rating, which has become so very important these days. Jan and mine is now near the 800 level because we just don't have the expenses we did when we had children, and their clothing, food, and sundries, then college and cars. In government we were okay unless we had an extraordinary expense, or the rainy day fund was depleted. That's why as individuals a rainy day fund is also encouraged to have by Suze Orman and all the other pundits.
Our division budget every year, just like all the other divisions, consisted of two line items of expenditures: salaries, and materials and supplies. Materials and supplies could mean a $3 million software package, or buying copy paper. There was absolutely no distinction - both were expenditures and we had rules and regs guiding their purchase. I got to be an expert at those rules and regs over thirty years, and at writing the language necessary for their approval. I even taught classes to all state CIO's on how to write requests for Waivers of Advertising, and to our purchasing folks on using Delegated Purchase Authority.
For example, here's typical language I used every year to get approval to spend $25-36 million: "To provide required Information Technology maintenance and software support services to agencies, and payment to sole source and technical services vendor providers, as mandated by Circular Letter 06-16-DPP/OIT. These services provide technical expertise at high levels to operate equipment and software properly. These services are needed July 1." Those three sentences got me approval to spend $33.4 million in Fiscal Year 2007. My name was on these requests as the "agency contact." I also helped craft the regulation itself. It's since been superceded by 11-16-DPP/OIT, but it's the same language.
So we had to know our rules and regs, but it was the same rules that allowed us to justify massive expenditures. Every year was a challenge to write the same justification in a slightly different way.
It should be so easy for me personally to ask for outright cash from my bank, don't you think?And, to tell the truth, it is. Another benefit of having a good job and a good personal money manager like Janet.
By Rodney Richards, NJ
Hiring the financial planner at $1,000 was a good decision. We've increased our IRAs and investments substantially for two middle-classers like us. But the point is, budgeting and financial planning go hand in hand.
There's a division of NJ state government in the Treasury Department named the Office of Management and Budget. The Feds have the same office, which you're probably more familiar with. NJ OMB is an internal organization, controlling and monitoring funds spent by state agencies for everything they buy. OMB records all income/revenue gathered by agencies like the Div. of Revenue, the states funds and fees collector, and OMB approves all expenditures at various levels, some standard, which are done perfunctorily electronically, others only with high-level director approvals, like the over $300k Supplemental Budget Transfers. OMB also works with the 350-500 state agencies (divisions and departments) to craft the initial state budget for the Governors review. Important jobs.
If you ever look at New Jersey's State Budget every year, and you should, OMB's name is on the front page as its producer. It may be the only time the public sees their name, but as an agency manager of the Statewide Contract Consolidation Unit, I was in charge of millions every year, especially buying new software for our Data Center mainframe computers, so I was very familiar with OMB. And their progenitor, the Bureau of Budget & Accounting, which is how they have organized themselves. My brother-in-law John is a supervisor on the accounting side, managing the state's NJ Comprehensive Financial System (NJCFS), and its electronic interfaces to the hundreds of state agencies.
A budget is a simple thing. Two things actually -- revenue (income) vs. expenditures (expenses). Everyone has a budget whether they know it or not. As individuals we can also use credit cards, get loans for new autos, or home mortgages etc. The state does the same, but differently. Publicly. We can't borrow $ unless we sell government bonds to raise the cash needed. That's usually call for a referendum on the November ballot, like for more Open Green Spaces.
I on the other hand, just have to reply "Yes" to one or more of the dozens of credit card offers I receive by mail every week to get a loan. NJ can't do that because we have to have a balanced budget by law. What a difference it would make if individuals had to have a balanced budget! If the wife was the breadwinner, would the husband have line-item veto power as the Governor does?
The head of OMB is the Comptroller/Director, an appointed position. For a decade it seemed as if Rich Keevey was the head. I walked to his office many times to get signatures on our purchases. Then it was Charlene Holzbaur for years, to name a few. Bottom line, it was the agency directors who would call Rich or Charlene, and go over their assigned OMB analyst's head, when they had a big purchase and beg the Director to approve it. If you go on the OMB website nnow, they don't list any names of directors or staff at all, which is not transparent at all. I would recommend all directors and managers in state government be named, and their areas of control.
A funny thing about government, everywhere. We bureaucrats exist to keep the wheels of government moving. We are inclined 1) to trust agency heads, and 2) to want to please them. Even myself, in a position of recommendation and approval, worked with agencies to make their requests for expenditures conform to our stringent requirements. We just didn't say "No" and leave them to themselves and that was it. In fact, there weren't any requests that I said "No" to outright. No matter how poorly constructed, we helped the agency conform and get their request thru the system.
This principle of helping each other guided every level of state government, in my opinion, from the lowly clerk position, all the way up to the State Treasurer. Our unit was extra lucky, because we could coerce the agencies to comply with our rules thru an OMB/DPP Circular Letter (containing regulations).
And budgets were the road map, however, they were exceeded often. Many times I worked on preparing a supplemental budget request, required if $300k or more was needed out of reserve, to go to OMB to spend money. (We tried hard to keep them under the limit so we wouldn't be hassled.) But every one that I worked on was approved. Yes, they had to be justified, but sometimes a few well-crafted sentences was enough. When it was really important and I didn't have the clout, I would go to my Director, and sometimes they would go to a deputy state treasurer or the Treasurer him or herself, to help push the procurement along. We always found money in the budget from somewhere to do what we wanted. The vast majority of other departments did also, from my knowledge.
Not always so easy as an individual, to get $, especially if the credit card was maxed out, or you had a bad credit rating, which has become so very important these days. Jan and mine is now near the 800 level because we just don't have the expenses we did when we had children, and their clothing, food, and sundries, then college and cars. In government we were okay unless we had an extraordinary expense, or the rainy day fund was depleted. That's why as individuals a rainy day fund is also encouraged to have by Suze Orman and all the other pundits.
Our division budget every year, just like all the other divisions, consisted of two line items of expenditures: salaries, and materials and supplies. Materials and supplies could mean a $3 million software package, or buying copy paper. There was absolutely no distinction - both were expenditures and we had rules and regs guiding their purchase. I got to be an expert at those rules and regs over thirty years, and at writing the language necessary for their approval. I even taught classes to all state CIO's on how to write requests for Waivers of Advertising, and to our purchasing folks on using Delegated Purchase Authority.
For example, here's typical language I used every year to get approval to spend $25-36 million: "To provide required Information Technology maintenance and software support services to agencies, and payment to sole source and technical services vendor providers, as mandated by Circular Letter 06-16-DPP/OIT. These services provide technical expertise at high levels to operate equipment and software properly. These services are needed July 1." Those three sentences got me approval to spend $33.4 million in Fiscal Year 2007. My name was on these requests as the "agency contact." I also helped craft the regulation itself. It's since been superceded by 11-16-DPP/OIT, but it's the same language.
So we had to know our rules and regs, but it was the same rules that allowed us to justify massive expenditures. Every year was a challenge to write the same justification in a slightly different way.
It should be so easy for me personally to ask for outright cash from my bank, don't you think?And, to tell the truth, it is. Another benefit of having a good job and a good personal money manager like Janet.
By Rodney Richards, NJ
Sunday, June 2, 2013
The Joy of Automobiles: Part Two
Do you remember the second, third or fourth car you've owned? I do, very well.
Janet's (third car), was a dark green VW Wagon, with stick shift on the floor, the new "automatic" for VWs. Only had to shift once or twice. We went to a used car dealer to find that, and traded in the late model Rambler Tank. The wagon lasted 4-5 years, but in year three, we had a problem with it we couldn't fix. The gear shift stuck in neutral! We couldn't get it in gear! Especially on cold winter days, Jan would start it no problem, but not be able to get it into a driveable gear. So I would go out, bang my fist on the gear shift, and eventually it worked. We had no money to buy a new shift mechanism or tranny (transmission), so we lived with it.
My VW bus, aside from barely getting up the Sourland Mountains in Hopewell Boro where our apartment was (after we married in June 1971), also had another big problem. Holes in the front floor boards in places we couldn't cover. The cold air rushing in didn't bother me so much, but Janet couldn't take it well. She's always cold anyway.
"Rod, feel my hand."
"Rod, feel my nose." Always cold. At bedtime sometimes this was a shock on my body.
Plus Jan had Renaud's Disease, where sometimes she'd lose blood flow to her tiny fingers. I think the cold was the problem that made us sell it. I traded the bus for a used faded light blue Pontiac Tempest. The dashboard had buttons you pushed to change gears, rather than a stick shift, and was an automatic. It had no power to speak of, and didn't last long. I got rid of it and bought a used 1962 white, four-door Chevy Nova. That didn't last long either. Owning that's a story in it itself, and is in my Youth of ABLiA book, coming out in the future.We got rid of that in Ohio, when the engine overheated and blew a head gasket on the Ohio Turnpike. We were vising the Baha'i Temple in Wilmette Illinois, then going to Janet's godparents in Michigan.We gave the tow truck driver the title to the Nova for the cost of the tow to the nearest Rest Stop.
After getting home by Greyhound bus, a few hundred dollars ($800?), bought me a used dream car, a gold, 1965 Chevy Impala. The year was circa 1973. I've talked about this muscle car before. I loved it. They cost over $5,000 new in 1965.
2-door hardtop, four-on-the-floor, black leather interior, mag(nesium) wheels, and 327 HP V-8 engine. It was fast! And I could lay rubber easily in first and second gears. That's where I learned my infamous jack rabbit starts, which I still do today.Janet could hardly push the clutch all the way down, so she didn't drive it often, but she did!
Then we moved to Hamilton Twp. in April 1974 to help form the first Hamilton Twp. Baha'i Spiritual Assembly, comprised of nine believers. Jan was teaching at Langtree Elementary School and this would cut down the 18-mile commute from Hopewell dramatically. I worked in center-city Trenton, so it was much closer to my work as well. We moved to a second floor apartment at 3302 Nottingham Way. Living room, bedroom, bath and eat-in kitchen with large pantry.
In 1976 Jan let me buy a motorcycle from Cooper's Ranch, just around the corner from our place. The bike had a light blue painted gas tank, 360cc engine, and was a Honda CB model. I later got the tank and side covers painted midnight metallic blue, along with my helmet. Quick, my 360 wasn't a 750 cc Kawasacki which could kill you easily. They popped wheelies in many gears - I saw it done. I only popped a wheelie once, and crashed the bike (no damage), when it came down hard on the shoulder after I crossed a full intersection in the air. And I still had the Impala. Fast was good.
By then we'd had it with the VW Wagon, and traded it in at Nitti's Subaru on Rt. 33 not far from us, for a dark green four-door 1970 Toyota Corolla. Sporty, yet family friendly too. Our son Jesse was born August 1977, and it worked well with a car seat. By then the Impala's clutch went, and after letting it sit in the driveway, I tried to replace the clutch -- but failed. I had it fixed, then we sold it. I got a ________. Oops! I forget! That happens now that I'm 63 years old.
During these years we had great mechanics from independent garages. These cars were to old to take to the dealers, had no warranties of any kind, so it was a crap shoot when they had mechanical problems. Independednt repairs will be another blog.
So tell me what cars you've had that you loved, I'd be interested to know . . . .
By Rodney Richards, NJ
Janet's (third car), was a dark green VW Wagon, with stick shift on the floor, the new "automatic" for VWs. Only had to shift once or twice. We went to a used car dealer to find that, and traded in the late model Rambler Tank. The wagon lasted 4-5 years, but in year three, we had a problem with it we couldn't fix. The gear shift stuck in neutral! We couldn't get it in gear! Especially on cold winter days, Jan would start it no problem, but not be able to get it into a driveable gear. So I would go out, bang my fist on the gear shift, and eventually it worked. We had no money to buy a new shift mechanism or tranny (transmission), so we lived with it.
My VW bus, aside from barely getting up the Sourland Mountains in Hopewell Boro where our apartment was (after we married in June 1971), also had another big problem. Holes in the front floor boards in places we couldn't cover. The cold air rushing in didn't bother me so much, but Janet couldn't take it well. She's always cold anyway.
"Rod, feel my hand."
"Rod, feel my nose." Always cold. At bedtime sometimes this was a shock on my body.
Plus Jan had Renaud's Disease, where sometimes she'd lose blood flow to her tiny fingers. I think the cold was the problem that made us sell it. I traded the bus for a used faded light blue Pontiac Tempest. The dashboard had buttons you pushed to change gears, rather than a stick shift, and was an automatic. It had no power to speak of, and didn't last long. I got rid of it and bought a used 1962 white, four-door Chevy Nova. That didn't last long either. Owning that's a story in it itself, and is in my Youth of ABLiA book, coming out in the future.We got rid of that in Ohio, when the engine overheated and blew a head gasket on the Ohio Turnpike. We were vising the Baha'i Temple in Wilmette Illinois, then going to Janet's godparents in Michigan.We gave the tow truck driver the title to the Nova for the cost of the tow to the nearest Rest Stop.
After getting home by Greyhound bus, a few hundred dollars ($800?), bought me a used dream car, a gold, 1965 Chevy Impala. The year was circa 1973. I've talked about this muscle car before. I loved it. They cost over $5,000 new in 1965.
2-door hardtop, four-on-the-floor, black leather interior, mag(nesium) wheels, and 327 HP V-8 engine. It was fast! And I could lay rubber easily in first and second gears. That's where I learned my infamous jack rabbit starts, which I still do today.Janet could hardly push the clutch all the way down, so she didn't drive it often, but she did!
Then we moved to Hamilton Twp. in April 1974 to help form the first Hamilton Twp. Baha'i Spiritual Assembly, comprised of nine believers. Jan was teaching at Langtree Elementary School and this would cut down the 18-mile commute from Hopewell dramatically. I worked in center-city Trenton, so it was much closer to my work as well. We moved to a second floor apartment at 3302 Nottingham Way. Living room, bedroom, bath and eat-in kitchen with large pantry.
In 1976 Jan let me buy a motorcycle from Cooper's Ranch, just around the corner from our place. The bike had a light blue painted gas tank, 360cc engine, and was a Honda CB model. I later got the tank and side covers painted midnight metallic blue, along with my helmet. Quick, my 360 wasn't a 750 cc Kawasacki which could kill you easily. They popped wheelies in many gears - I saw it done. I only popped a wheelie once, and crashed the bike (no damage), when it came down hard on the shoulder after I crossed a full intersection in the air. And I still had the Impala. Fast was good.
By then we'd had it with the VW Wagon, and traded it in at Nitti's Subaru on Rt. 33 not far from us, for a dark green four-door 1970 Toyota Corolla. Sporty, yet family friendly too. Our son Jesse was born August 1977, and it worked well with a car seat. By then the Impala's clutch went, and after letting it sit in the driveway, I tried to replace the clutch -- but failed. I had it fixed, then we sold it. I got a ________. Oops! I forget! That happens now that I'm 63 years old.
During these years we had great mechanics from independent garages. These cars were to old to take to the dealers, had no warranties of any kind, so it was a crap shoot when they had mechanical problems. Independednt repairs will be another blog.
So tell me what cars you've had that you loved, I'd be interested to know . . . .
By Rodney Richards, NJ
Saturday, June 1, 2013
The Joy of Automobiles: Part One
The first car I learned to drive was my Dad's '57 Chevy Bel Air, in 1966. Cherry salmon and white body, no posts, a steering wheel the size of New York, bench seats, and a 283 HP engine under the hood. Until today, I thought that old V-8 engine was more powerful than my 2008 Honda Civic's 4-cylinder. Not so! Read http://www.howstuffworks.com/5-ways-modern-car-engines-differ-from-older-car-engines.htm#page=0 to find out why.
Simply put, today's engines are smaller and more efficient, including fuel efficiency, than their older cousins. Is the combustion engine technology the same? Certainly, and even with all that efficiency, a whopping 62% of fuel is wasted in heat and friction. 62%! And I thought Ethanol was inefficient! (25-33% less performance than gasoline.) And we waste corn foods for that stuff? Granted, I agree wholeheartedly we need to cut emissions, and cars and trucks are the worst. Maybe a lot more research into cold fusion will help?
Anyway, the '57 was the cat's pajamas. Then my Dad traded it in for an import -- a brand new Subaru, the first model sold in the U.S. It cost $1,309 POE (Port of Entry). It was white, tiny (smaller than a Beetle), and it had a two stoke engine (oil mixed with gas) in the rear, like the VW bugs. And, it had another surprise.
One night late Dad had called from a bar in Orange for me to come pick him up and drive him home. He was smashed when I helped him into the car, and as we drove, he just rambled until passing out. But he was a good guy. Anyway, I'm cruisin' down the freeway trying to 60 MPH, the Subaru's max speed. The other cars were doing the speed limit, 65, and higher. We were in the slow lane, as usual. I noticed my driver's door wasn't tightly closed. Without thinking, I opened it a hair to pull it back tight.
"Whoosh! Bang!" I swerved I was so shocked, and pulled to the side. The rushing air was pouring in. Dad was still asleep. I had forgotten! The Subaru's doors opened outward and not inward as 99.9% of other car doors did. When had I opened it, the wind caught it and pushed it back into the side of the car. When I stopped, I could see the dent on the side from the door. But the door itself closed normally.
I never told Dad it was me who dented his new Subaru. Three days later when he noticed it I told him it was tapped in the parking lot at the bar by a hit and run. He didn't even yell and scream like I would've. Dad didn't have it fixed. That was my second car until I moved back to Ewing New Jersey in April '67.
During my teenage years I had no money and no job to get money to buy a car, so I walked everywhere I needed to go, hitched on the highway, or bummed rides from schoolmates and acquaintances. In May 1967 I got a part time job as a stock clerk at the Woolworth's near my high school, and just a mile walk from our house. But then I met Janet in Art class, and we connected strongly at the last school dance of the year. We even kissed for the first time that night.
And Janet, being a senior, drove her parent's car, a sporty, bright red, '66 Rambler convertible. So I didn't need a car. I survived the following year, my senior year, also without a car -- and no plans to get one. Why should I? Janet drove us everywhere, even to our favorite nightly parking spots to neck, when we weren't in her den at her home foolin' around with the door closed and her parents in the next rooms.
My parents drove me in their green Ford Fairlane to my first full time job with the State of New Jersey as a Food Service Worker at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital. After a few months I moved to my own two-room apartment in Trenton, across from the State Complex. Now I needed a car. Janet came with me, and I bought (for $800) a used '62 VW Bus, with a rolled canvas top. It fit nine comfortably, but only had the engine power to drive five at most. that didn't matter, we still loaded it up with friends and cruised. Janet even sewed curtains for its many windows.
She and I were so close by now, we had registered the Bus under Janet's name with her auto insurance company for a discount. All our cars have been under her name since for multi-car discounts.
We had a lot of fun in Rosy-Badi (the VW Bus), loading it with friends and going to Baha'i firesides thruout Mercer County every other night. My hair was past my shoulders and Jan and I wore bell bottoms, so really looked the part when in Rosy. We were confirmed hippies.
The cops only stopped us in the Bus once - for a legitimate burned-out tail light. We joked after that how we made such good candidates in the van to be stopped for no reason, since the hippie-establishment conflicts were at their height. And Rosy remained mine until months after Janet and I married ourselves in June '71, outdoors, at Washington Crossing State Park -- with all our parents blessings, of course.
But then Rosy started stalling out intermittently, and I finally diagnosed the engine alternator as the culprit. A few hours of my time to replace it myself, and we were back in business. Janet was driving her parents other car, a white, mammoth '64 Rambler we called "The Tank." It had been a wedding present. Soon we realized we needed better cars and the hunt began....
To be continued...
By Rodney Richards, NJ
Simply put, today's engines are smaller and more efficient, including fuel efficiency, than their older cousins. Is the combustion engine technology the same? Certainly, and even with all that efficiency, a whopping 62% of fuel is wasted in heat and friction. 62%! And I thought Ethanol was inefficient! (25-33% less performance than gasoline.) And we waste corn foods for that stuff? Granted, I agree wholeheartedly we need to cut emissions, and cars and trucks are the worst. Maybe a lot more research into cold fusion will help?
Anyway, the '57 was the cat's pajamas. Then my Dad traded it in for an import -- a brand new Subaru, the first model sold in the U.S. It cost $1,309 POE (Port of Entry). It was white, tiny (smaller than a Beetle), and it had a two stoke engine (oil mixed with gas) in the rear, like the VW bugs. And, it had another surprise.
One night late Dad had called from a bar in Orange for me to come pick him up and drive him home. He was smashed when I helped him into the car, and as we drove, he just rambled until passing out. But he was a good guy. Anyway, I'm cruisin' down the freeway trying to 60 MPH, the Subaru's max speed. The other cars were doing the speed limit, 65, and higher. We were in the slow lane, as usual. I noticed my driver's door wasn't tightly closed. Without thinking, I opened it a hair to pull it back tight.
"Whoosh! Bang!" I swerved I was so shocked, and pulled to the side. The rushing air was pouring in. Dad was still asleep. I had forgotten! The Subaru's doors opened outward and not inward as 99.9% of other car doors did. When had I opened it, the wind caught it and pushed it back into the side of the car. When I stopped, I could see the dent on the side from the door. But the door itself closed normally.
I never told Dad it was me who dented his new Subaru. Three days later when he noticed it I told him it was tapped in the parking lot at the bar by a hit and run. He didn't even yell and scream like I would've. Dad didn't have it fixed. That was my second car until I moved back to Ewing New Jersey in April '67.
During my teenage years I had no money and no job to get money to buy a car, so I walked everywhere I needed to go, hitched on the highway, or bummed rides from schoolmates and acquaintances. In May 1967 I got a part time job as a stock clerk at the Woolworth's near my high school, and just a mile walk from our house. But then I met Janet in Art class, and we connected strongly at the last school dance of the year. We even kissed for the first time that night.
And Janet, being a senior, drove her parent's car, a sporty, bright red, '66 Rambler convertible. So I didn't need a car. I survived the following year, my senior year, also without a car -- and no plans to get one. Why should I? Janet drove us everywhere, even to our favorite nightly parking spots to neck, when we weren't in her den at her home foolin' around with the door closed and her parents in the next rooms.
My parents drove me in their green Ford Fairlane to my first full time job with the State of New Jersey as a Food Service Worker at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital. After a few months I moved to my own two-room apartment in Trenton, across from the State Complex. Now I needed a car. Janet came with me, and I bought (for $800) a used '62 VW Bus, with a rolled canvas top. It fit nine comfortably, but only had the engine power to drive five at most. that didn't matter, we still loaded it up with friends and cruised. Janet even sewed curtains for its many windows.
She and I were so close by now, we had registered the Bus under Janet's name with her auto insurance company for a discount. All our cars have been under her name since for multi-car discounts.
We had a lot of fun in Rosy-Badi (the VW Bus), loading it with friends and going to Baha'i firesides thruout Mercer County every other night. My hair was past my shoulders and Jan and I wore bell bottoms, so really looked the part when in Rosy. We were confirmed hippies.
The cops only stopped us in the Bus once - for a legitimate burned-out tail light. We joked after that how we made such good candidates in the van to be stopped for no reason, since the hippie-establishment conflicts were at their height. And Rosy remained mine until months after Janet and I married ourselves in June '71, outdoors, at Washington Crossing State Park -- with all our parents blessings, of course.
But then Rosy started stalling out intermittently, and I finally diagnosed the engine alternator as the culprit. A few hours of my time to replace it myself, and we were back in business. Janet was driving her parents other car, a white, mammoth '64 Rambler we called "The Tank." It had been a wedding present. Soon we realized we needed better cars and the hunt began....
To be continued...
By Rodney Richards, NJ
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