August 1, 2026
#550
Gentle reader,
I am in my 70th year on this planet. Therefore, I have lived in eight decades. We grew up (once our parents could afford a used black & white television, that is) watching TV when there were just THREE Networks: ABC CBS and NBC. If you were lucky, there might have been a couple of local networks on the UHF dial you could watch. The ONLY time Cartoons were on TV was Saturday morning! No sleeping in on Saturday! That was our one time to watch what WE wanted on TV!
This is a staged photograph, probably for a magazine back in the day. That's Roy Rogers on his horse during one of his TV series. What you thought Roy Rogers was just a burger joint? Oh, no! Roy was my Hero! Do a search on him to find out more.
Before television was invented, families gathered around the family RADIO to listen to their entertainment. Again, a carefully staged photograph of a wealthy family listening to the radio.
This is a photo of a 1937 Zenith Farm Radio I restored. Called such because it was powered by the farm truck's 6 volt lead-acid battery. I converted the photo to black and white to make it look similar to eighty years ago.
That being said, one had to use their imagination back then to fully enjoy what was going on because they could not see the action. Nor, could they imagine seeing "moving pictures" in their own home. A popular radio show that continued well into the 1950's was DRAGNET. Jack Webb was the creator of the Series and it's star: Detective Sergeant Joe Friday.
That's him on the left. On the radio series, he had a series of partners over the years. However, on the TV series, Harry Morgan, was his sole partner when the series was moved to television. You might recognize him from the hit TV series M*A*S*H in which he played Colonel Sherman Potter.
The DRAGNET television series was such a success that Jack Webb decided to make what is today called a "Spin-off" TV show. In that show, titled ADAM 12, it was ordinary policemen in Los Angeles, California, where Dragnet also took place. Here are some scenes from that TV series I found online...
Officers James (Jim) Reed and Martin (Marty) Malloy stepping out of their LAPD Plymouth Belvedere police car. Note the front license plate number: [E]534293.
In this scene, their Sergeant is inspecting his officers prior to their going on duty. He was at this point looking at their driver's licenses to make sure they have not expired.
An aerial scene right after their inspection was complete. Note the LACK of large numbers on the roofs of the cars. Those came later on...
Life was far simpler in "them good ol' days". No cell phones, no computers of any kind, no texting, no "face time". no Internet. "Screens" were on the TV and the house's windows.
If you wanted to go see your friend, you asked your parents for permission to use the telephone to call them up to see if they could play (below).
This is not a staged photo. It was someone's teenaged daughter talking to one of her friends on the kitchen telephone back in the 1970's or so. Yes, there were no cellular phones. No "cordless" phones at all! No one "owned" their telephone. The telephone company owned them all and you paid to use it. Most families could only afford to have ONE telephone because of this and it was usually mounted to a wall in the kitchen. Forget about private phone conversations! And IF your house did have a second phone, you could bet your bratty little brother or sister would try to listen to your call by quietly lifting the receiver on the other phone to eavesdrop.
IF you want to quickly learn about how telephones used to work, keep reading. If not, scroll down to NOW which begins after the first police car photograph.
If you are of an age in which one has ALWAYS had a cellular telephone (smart phone) and been able to access the Internet and/or any of their friends on any of your devices, then look closely at the photo above.
First note the circular piece of paper with Bell (514) on it. When the telephone company delivered your new telephone to your home, it came with your new telephone number printed on that piece of paper. The rest of that clear piece of plastic is called the DIAL. Called such because one DIALED it by inserting the tip of one of their fingers in each numbered hole, one at a time, in the order of the number you were calling: 555-2479. Your finger rotated that clear piece of plastic to the right in a "clockwise" manner. It would stop rotating at the sliver curved piece of metal. One then pulled their finger out of that hole, the dial returned to it's parked position and then you repeated that step six times more with each number.: 5,5,5,2,4,7,9. That process produced a clicking sound which the telephone company equipment listened to before the it would connect your parent's telephone to the telephone of whomever you had called. "AREA CODES" (first three numbers of YOUR cell phone, used to represent the AREA one lived in) are a thing of the past. We still have to have ten-digit telephone numbers today because they are still needed. One could call any telephone within your Area Code, 514 in this case, for free. IF one wanted to call, say Grandma, who lived three states away, after getting permission from their parents to do so, THEN they dialed HER three digit area code number first, then her seven digit LOCAL telephone number. That was ten rotations of the DIAL. Making long distance telephone calls cost people a LOT of money back then!
Next, do you see the "U" shaped silver thing at the top of the telephone body? That is called the Receiver "Cradle". One hangs the top portion of the receiver in that when "hanging up" the telephone. Doing so closed the circuit opened to the telephone company when the receiver was lifted from the cradle. In other words it was a large electrical switch. Landline telephones were TOUGHLY built back then. Almost indestrictable.
The thing to the left of the telephone body is called the Receiver. The top portion one holds to their ear, the bottom portion one speaks into. Just like the teenaged girl is doing in the photo above.
The landline wall telephone lesson is now over.
Let me give you a little of my history as a child LONG ago: I liked to build model kits. Mostly cars. When I saw that the local REXALL drug store had the new model of the ADAM 12 Plymouth police car, I flipped and grabbed it before someone else did!
NOW that I have shown you some history of the 1970's hit TV show titled ADAM 12, let me set the scene in which our jaws dropped:
Nancy and I had enjoyed our lunch at our local IHOP (once called The International House of Pancakes) and since it was a nice day, we decided to walk from the IHOP to the local grocery store on the other side of the shopping center. Yes, we actually walked!
I first spied the right black quarter panel (called that because they are not easily removed like front fenders are) of an old American sedan poking out behind another car and being a lifelong car guy, I pointed it out to Nancy. She's also a car girl and thought the same thing upon seeing it. Much to our utter delight and disbelief, we saw this:
The car is absolutely pristine!
All the details seemed to be absolutely correct!
Look at that shine!
That is the right kind of California Emergency Vehicle license plate WITH the correct NUMBER!
That's my right foot poking into the picture.
What do you think? Would you drive this thing?
So, what do you think of the Police car we came across? Did you watch ADAM 12 back in the day? Thanks to some "targeted" TV networks, such as ME TV, which show vintage television series from long ago, one can relive, and in my case, see series I watched as a kid, in COLOR! Our parents were still watching TV in Black & White when I moved out in 1978 and my first wife and I could not afford a color TV until the 1980's.
Let me know in the Comments below, or via Facebook, what you think of this excellent ADAM 12 police car. I would love to know your thoughts.
If you liked learning about landline telephones and would like to learn about "budget" Porsche automobiles of long ago, please keep reading below.
And now, I shall go off on a TANGENT. I intended to simply show you some more car side-marker lights. Starting with this photo below. But, if you know me by now, you know that is FAR too simple.
Just look a the SIZE of the side marker lights that Porsche was forced to add to their cars back in the day! That was my first and likely my last (I am almost 70!) Porsche. A 1987 model named: 924S. I paid $2225 for it around 2006, via eBay. I had never heard of that model before.
I was determined to own a Porsche once all the kids and other relatives had stopped moving in, or back in, with us. So, the search began. I wanted to get a 1976 912E. That model was made only for the United States market. There was a brown one for sale in Winchester, Virginia, for $8,000, but I did not have that much to spend. Here is what Wikipedia says about the model 912E:
"After a six-year absence, the 912 was re-introduced to North America for the 1976 model year as the 912E (internal factory designation 923) to fill the entry-level position left vacant by the discontinuation of the 914, while the new 924 – another Porsche-Volkswagen joint effort vehicle and the 914's official replacement – was being finalized and put into production. During the production run of May 1975 to July 1976, Porsche manufactured 2,099 of the 912E (E=Einspritzung), targeted only to the US market. By comparison, 10,677 (4,784 US) 911's were built for the 1976 model year. At $10,845 MSRP, the 912E was $3,000 less than the 911S."
A Porsche photograph of their 1970 Porsche 917K race car, on the left, next to their 1970 914-6 street car on the right. Both are mid-engine (the engine is behind the driver/passenger, but in front of the rear axles) but the 914-6's two-liter 911 engine is half the number of cylinders and far less powerful than it's flat-12 engine equipped racing brother.
In fact, Porsche DID race their 914-6 in 1970 24 Hours of LeMans along with their mighty 917s and the one above came in 6th overall right behind the sole surviving Ferrari 512S and far ahead of other street-based race cars which had managed to finish! Endurance races are designed to test the mettle of the cars and the drivers. It was not unusual for most of the 55 cars which started the race to NOT finish it.
Actual 1966 photograph of a crashed Ford GT race car. Note the driver leaping up to get away in case the car caught fire or was crashed into by other race cars. The man on the track is a corner marshal waving the yellow caution flag.
The 924S is essentially an updated 924 by Porsche having removed all the VW/Audi components and having replaced with all Porsche 944 components which were performance created, except the interior. That was pure 924 but with nicer fabrics.
Gone were the steel wheels with four lug-bolts on went narrower "phone-dial) 944 styled aluminum wheels.
Because the 924 body is lighter in weight and narrower in width, lacking the 944's "swollen" fenders, it was thus, more aerodynamic. The 1987 and 1988 924S models were quicker and faster* than the same model year's 944's were. See chart above from ROAD & TRACK magazine. When I had the car, I joined the PCA (Porsche Club of America) and took it to their shows. I always had the engine hood up which caused most people to stop and stare, then walk around to the back of the car to read the number emblem.
This photo was taken soon after getting it home from Pennsylvania in 2006. Gosh, that's been twenty years ago now! To save money, Porsche put stickers on the back of it instead of raised plastic emblems which their more expensive cars came fitted with.
I found the aftermarket central reflector panel which was designed for the 924 originally, on eBay. Thus mounted on the car, it was older than the car itself. I moved the license plate down to the bumper. I added the "924S" emblems to the giant reflector panel.
Left to right: 2000 Audi TT, 1987 Porsche 924S, 1990 Mercury Capri XR2 and 1996 Chevrolet Camaro Z28.
I also always wanted a wooden rim steering wheel. That's a Grant GT wheel. That Porsche "emblem" is actually a sticker which nicely hid the Grant name. The adapter to mount it to the 924S was hard to find and was made for the original 924 models. I took it off before trading the car and put the Porsche steering wheel back on and sold the wheel and adapter via eBay.
I look for a factory sales brochure for all of the cars I have owned over the 50+ years that I have been driving. They chose a black one with tan Porsche cloth for the brochure. Same as ours. The Robb Collections: A Journey through time, via Automobile Sales Brochures
Here is a fine example of a Porsche 912E. Their flagship Porsche 911 body with the lighter-weight and lower powered, air-cooled Volkswagen 2.0 liter four-cylinder boxer engine from the 1975 Porsche 914 model. The dashboard had three instead of the five gauges the 911 had. Below, is the 912E's engine in the silver one, above.
Plenty of room since the 911 engine is a longer (front to rear) flat six-cylinder unit.
NOTE: This engine is at the REAR of the car! Only Porsche 911 cars still have rear-mounted engines.
The original 924 was codeveloped by VW and Porsche (as had been the VW-Porsche 914 which preceded it) to be a sporty model for VW. It had a sleek aerodynamic body with an Audi-derived water-cooled inline four cylinder engine in the FRONT of the car. Heresy to Porschephiles at the time!
At that time, Volkswagen's sports-car-enthusiast manager had died and was replaced by a penny pincher who killed the idea of another VW sports car. Porsche bought the car and sold it as their entry-level model called the 924. The 944 and later on, the 968 models were derived from the humble and slow 924. The 924S was designated to be the entry-model for Porsche for the 1987 model year. Starting at $19,995 US.
Our 924S' Porsche engine, below, with aftermarket air cleaner installed.
Gone was the anemic 2.0 liter VW-Audi engine (below), drivetrain and suspension.
The chart below is from Road & Track Magazine in 1987 when they tested EVERY front engine Porsche model to compare their performances.
*Quicker means acceleration times. Faster means Top Speeds achieved.
You can just see the little LED which illuminated when one pressed the button on the other side of the key. It helped to find the door lock at night, especially with a black car. (above). I always saved one key from every Fun Car we bought (below).
The current and forever Fun Cars we enjoy are: 2005 Volvo V50 T5 wagon and 2013 Cadillac ATS Performance 2.0T. Both have six-speed manual transmissions.
Above is a chart I created based upon factory specifications for both cars. Top speeds are "Electronically Limited" to 149 MPH by the factories.
And, finally, the very first "fun cars" we bought (used) were the 2002 Subaru WRX wagon and 1987 Porsche 924S. A neighbor across the street has the brand new 2026 WRX, which is quite sleek. Sadly, buyers can no longer can get a manual transmission in a Subaru WRX.
Thanks for taking the time to enjoy the photos Nancy captured of the gorgeous replica of the 1968 Plymouth Belvedere ADAM 12 LAPD police car. Feel free to comment below or via Facebook.
Scott Robb
August 1 2026
#550.
