I just made the whole black Ford thing up to try and get it back on track. Everybody down there drove Fords though back then, or so my Grandpa said.
You may be right (even if it is made up) about ford’s especialy PU’s have been popular for many year’s in the south.
I just made that up too. My Grandpa never said that. He drove a Pontiac.
I knew that, my father told us when he related a story concerning calling Coke dope. He was in DC during WWII, fresh from South Carolina. In his Navy uniform, he walked up to a drink stand and ordered a glass of dope. The soda jockey said they didn’t sell dope there. My father said of course you do, I can see the sign. They got into an argument, and the next thing my father knew, he was in jail. He kept insisting that he only wanted a glass of dope, not realizing that term wasn’t used in DC. Fortunately for him, a police captain from the South intervened, and discovered that my dad wanted a Coca Cola. He was released, and learned not to use the term “dope” for a soft drink again
When I was in SC, there was a dope machine just up the hill but we were not allowed to use it. Sure looked good. First thing I did after-ward was get a nice cold dope in the bottle.
That is impossible, how can we get “back” to cars when the subject in the original post is literacy in America?
Back to cars:
Smokey Yunick called them “tars” in his biography (a highly recommended read).
He talked about how “tar” technology lagged behind the faster and faster cars in early NASCAR.
Spectators were entertained by the occasional BOOM! of “tar” failure, as well as the crashes.
He tried for years to get soft barriers, made of stacked old “tars” set up in strategic locations to catch out of control cars.
He had an emotional drive on that issue after losing some of his closest friends.
Back in the '60s and '70s, I used to look forward to reading Smokey’s monthly column in Popular Science magazine. It was always interesting and informative.
These discussions pop up from time to time. I looked at it as broadly car-related. Is it outside the ethos of the show, which is why the forum was created? I decided it was fair game. I saw it as a discussion about dialects, but for a time it was using cars and oil as examples. Over time I get the sense that you’d prefer we only have car Q&A, with no digressions. You’re welcome to write me privately and expand on what you’d like to see us doing instead.
I remember a similar thing in drag racing. The transmission in Don Garlits’ dragster exploded, blowing the drivers compartment off the car, along with part of his foot. As a result, he and his team developed the rear engine dragster used today. I can’t remember the last time I saw a front engine dragster run in major NHRA races. The other driver saw the explosion and at the end of the race, stopped his car, got out, and sat on the curb with is head in his hands.
That makes sense, Cocaine is a CII control (narcotic level) and is still used with nasal surgeries and nose bleeds.
I read that a few months ago, I would also recommend it.
I hope this country never loses the regional dialects, accents, phrases and other wonderfully unique attributes. They seem to be disappearing with each generation.
P.S. Admin I’m an idiot 
I accidentally flagged this post thinking it would mark it as a favorite. Don’t know how to unflag. Apologies.
All you do is click it again and it disappears. Just like a light switch-on off on off.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I rather enjoy these diversions, and I think Click and Clack did too when they were on the air… Y’all remember the “Cream rinse” call?
As an aside, I grew up in the Deep South but live in Michigan now, and my wife is from here. I make fun of my wife’s idioms and she makes fun of me being on the wrong side of the war. 